JUST A BOOK ABOUT A TEENAGE GIRL LIKE ANY OTHER . . .

I spent the day visiting all the awesome bloggers who featured SWEET TEA and shared an excerpt and a little about me on their sites. Thank you http://goddessfishparty.blogspot.com for getting this together. Also, thank you Aimee Brown, publicist at Vox Dei Publishing for arranging this.

Though Vox Dei Publishing is a Christian Publisher and their mission is to provide books for a primarily Christian audience that edify and entertain, encourage and inspire, audiences in a messy world, SWEET TEA is written for any reader. The protagonist, Olivia, happens to be a young adult raised in the Christian faith, and because of this, she battles with issues that pertain to her heart and her beliefs. However, this story crosses genres. It is a story about a girl dealing with issues that any teen of any faith or none at all could face, in addition, to struggling with a parent with mental illness, and mental illness is non-discriminatory.

Time is Only a Moment Amongst Friends

Isn’t it great when you get together with old friends and reconnect as if no time has gone by at all? It is certainly fun to reminisce, but it is also great to hear new stories told from more wiser perspectives. Life passes us by so quickly. I can remember being the same age as the children my friends now share stories about. However, we all smile and laugh just as much as ever, probably more. We now know how precious time is and how important the wisdom we can glean from one another can benefit us all.

THE PERFECT WRITING SPACE

 

I really envy the writer who has a dedicated space for writing that they don't have to share with anyone or anything. Fortunately for me, once I discovered the laptop, I could write anywhere, though I do prefer a quiet space. This awesome picture is my dear friend's special work room. She writes, she reads, she paints and sketches, all while viewing the ocean from her window. If I could have the ultimate writing space, this would be it! She needs to put my book on the shelf, though. I see a perfect spot for it.

http://www.amazon.com/Sweet-Tea-Wendy-Lynn-Decker/dp/061597998X/ref=sr_1_2?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1423019585&sr=1-2&keywords=sweet+tea

I'm Going Postal!

There is a new postman/woman who took over the previous post-person’s route, and they have not brought my mail to me in over a week!

Why? You many wonder. The only thing I can think of is that my address has a ½ in it.  Also my house does not sit on the street that my address is listed on. However, it’s not a half a house, but it shares the property of another, the house on which street it does sit on. But right now, it doesn’t appear to be a house at all, because I have not gotten any mail delivered to it, and the postmaster cannot give me an answer as to where my mail may be. To top it off, my mail doesn’t even get delivered to the post office in the town of which I live in!

How can this be? I am waiting for my schoolbooks for my MA program. If they do not get here soon, I will be going postal. (Not the kind of postal listed in the urban dictionary) I feel I need to make that clear.  I’m not a violent person, but I am just very irritated, and I will be making a visit to the post office tomorrow ... ya know ... going postal!

The Seven Wonders of My Writing World

1. I wonder if the comma and me will ever become intimate friends?

2. I wonder if I will ever be able to explain to a middle-school student why it's okay for me to write fragmented sentences, but it's not okay for her?

3. I wonder if I will ever be able to figure out how to point my domain name to a different web site?  

4. I wonder how many times could a woodchuck wood if a woodchuck could chuck wood? (Oops not writing-related)

5. I wonder if anyone besides my handful of writing friends reads my blog?

6. I wonder if I will ever be able to read directions once instead of seven times before I can wrap my mind around them?

7. I wonder if it's possible for me to win a free trip out of New Jersey to a tropical island for just one week? I’d bring my writing with me.
http://www.wendylynndeckerauthor.com

I'ts a Snow Day, and I Get to Work!

I don't think it matters how old you are to enjoy a good snow day. For me, I have an excuse not to leave the house. The hours pass by so quickly when I'm working on writing and promoting and learning new songs and cleaning and cooking (sorry that's a lie, not cooking) ... well, you know what I'm saying. My work is in the home. I can write anywhere, but I prefer to write in my own little corner in my own little chair. :-) 

This is one of the reasons I have a love/hate relationship with winter. I live by the ocean, and I love, love, love to be outside in the sea air, ride my bike, wiggle my toes in the sand and splash among the waves. However, in the winter, I can still smell that sweet salt air and see the ocean waves crashing from my bedroom window, but it's too cold to physically enjoy it; so I get my work done in this season. In the summer, I get work done too. I read on the beach. 

Reading is work too when you are a writer. It's just extra fun when you can do it on the beach. So for now, bring on the snow. I've got work to do!

Four-eyed Selfie

Okay... when you need to put on "readers" to take a "selfie" it's time to stop taking selfies! I'm not a big selfie picture-taker in the first place. I'm just no good at it. However, now that I am hard at work attempting to utilize the social media outlets to its utmost potential, I find myself taking the "selfie."

I've only needed glasses to see close, but lately, I'm squinting to read the subtitles on those foreign films from Netflix. It's time... time to decide to bi-focalize or go the route of the contacts! I'm a baby when it comes to inserting things where only exits occur. That's right, I'm a "big, baby Maven." I'm so afraid of inserting those little plastic cups onto my eyeballs, I'm getting anxiety just thinking about it. I know, I know, millions of people do it and have done it for years. But not me. This is all new for me.

Wish me well, 'cause I'm going to Lens Crafters this week to experiment. My next selfie may be of a blue-eyed maven. If I can manage to become the contact-wearer I'm hoping to be, I might as well go for a new color! (I'm a green-eyed girl) Then again, you might just find me wearing a thick-rimmed frame with a line in the middle of the glass because I'm just a ... you know... big, baby Maven. (Maven - replacement for Middle-aged woman).