Jenyfer Matthews

I had high hopes for yesterday. The youngest had a play date after school which meant that I had from 8am-3pm for to myself – no chores, no errands, just me-time. Yes, I normally have my mornings free but there are usually other things competing for my time and ordinarily youngest comes home at 1pm. Yesterday’s schedule was blessedly open.

I had big plans. I was going to be incredibly productive and get all sorts of writing, sewing and cooking done. And I was going to glide through my day doing it all in a lovely serene, unhurried way.

Everything started out well enough. I came in and had my breakfast and tea while I checked email and looked at a few blogs that I visit regularly. Took my time exploring Romance Divas – now there’s a place you can really lose yourself in. Found and read some educational writer’s workshop posts. (I know I said I wasn’t going to read about writing anymore – what can I say? I’m weak) Before I knew it, it was lunchtime.

I completely treated myself by ordering out for lunch. You can get just about anything delivered in Egypt, including McD’s if you want it. It’s an ever present temptation.

I couldn’t eat and write at the same time so I turned on the TV. Mistake. I ran across the last part of “A Lot Like Love”. I’m a sucker for a love story – go figure. I had to watch the end. Now I want to watch the whole thing from the beginning.

By then it was nearly 1pm. I hadn’t done any writing or sewing – or cooking.

I finally did get a bit of writing done – Aurora is begrudgingly talking to me again. I did some rewriting and I met my word count goal. But I got no more done than usual. No sewing and a hurry-and-catch-up-to-cook-dinner scenario.

I was kind of bummed out by the end of the day, though perhaps my expectations were just a little too high. At the pace that I write did I really think that I was going to make *that* much progress yesterday, just because I had a few more hours available to me? I’m normally a very organized and productive person. It just goes to show you won’t necessarily get more done if you have more time – you’ll just take longer to do it.

Since no one here has done anything crazy (or at least nothing they’d like to share), let’s move on.

Aurora, the heroine of one of my current projects has gone quiet on me. She was just chattering away before my vacation and even during to some degree but I guess she got fed up with my lack of attention and went off on a vacation of her own.

So I decided that in the meantime I’d do a little research on just “how to” write in the first person and do it well since it’s not something I’ve done much of before (except for here on my blog, but that’s another matter).

I found lots of articles on what to do and what not to do as well as many many opinions on how unpopular first person narratives are and how readers just hate them. Hmmm….what? While I’m sure that readers have their likes and dislikes in the narrative voice they read and will admit that the first person voice is probably not to everyone’s liking, I think that in fact there are lots and lots of people out there who like first person narrators just fine. I have stacks of books on my shelves by successful authors to prove it – Adele Parks, Sophia Kinsella (Shopaholic), Jane Green, and Debra Kent to name just a few.

Though I am still confident in Aurora’s / my story and plan to continue in the first person in spite of what would seem to be strong opposition, this exercise has just proven to me that I should spend less time reading about how to write and more time doing it. The only further research on the topic I intend to do now will be reading books by the authors I admire and studying their style and technique. Yes, that’s right – reading for pleasure can be educational as well.

If no one wants to read it at the end of the day, that will be an education in itself.

So for now, back to BICHOK. I’m sure that at some point Aurora will decide I’m not getting it right and come back out and tell me all about it.

I read an article while on vacation this summer that struck a chord with me. It was about how to stop letting feelings of self consciousness stop you from trying new things. How when you look back at events in your life it’s not the things that you did badly and perhaps feel embarrassed about that you regret most, it’s the things that you were too scared to try at all that stick in your mind.

That resonated with me because I’ve come to that conclusion on my own over the years. I took three semesters of Spanish when I was in college, just because I wanted to. After three semesters, a student was eligible to go to Spain for a semester and live with a Spanish family and attend school at a Spanish university. By the time I qualified for that program I was just about to graduate myself. I decided to go ahead and graduate – not because I was so motivated to get started on life, but because I was too scared to go to Spain. What if I couldn’t handle it? What if I did badly in school? It’s been more than a few years since I made that decision but I’ve always regretted that missed opportunity.

When my husband told me that he had a job offer in another country I wasn’t exactly thrilled, but in the end I decided that I didn’t want to let fear of the unknown hold me back. While I could always come home if it turned out that I didn’t like our new location, I probably wouldn’t be able to recapture that missed opportunity. There have been times that living abroad has been challenging and even trying but I can say that I’ve never regretted the decision to go.

Of course trying new things can be easier to do when you are on vacation – in a new place amongst people you might never see again and confronted with opportunities that might not come along again every day. These sorts of circumstances and thinking processes have gotten me to try a variety of things: boogie boarding in (the very cold) Atlantic Ocean, jumping off a platform into (a very cold) natural spring, riding a camel, partaking in a “happy herb” pizza in Cambodia, and taking a train into Amsterdam with two small children and no map on a long airport layover. Some things have turned out better than others (I’ll tell you about that pizza another time), but the older I get the more I’m all about seizing the day.

That’s sort of the motto of Summer Donahue in my new book ONE CRAZY SUMMER. She’s not happy when she finds out that her accountant has embezzled money from her jewelry store and run off to Mexico, but she doesn’t let it distract her from enjoying herself while she’s on his trail in Cozumel. Or from Ben Martinez, her new hunky accountant , who has come along to help her sort her business troubles out.

I wrote ONE CRAZY SUMMER before I had consciously embraced my new credo and before I had ever traveled anywhere to speak of. When I created Summer, I was living through her, doing some of the things that I wished I had the courage to do myself. I’d like to think that in exploring her character and her story that I learned a thing or two about joie de vivre and how to enjoy myself in my own life. I’m still not as carefree as Summer, but these days I’m less likely to let worrying about what others think of me hold me back.

So go on – live a little. In the comments, tell me what crazy thing you’ve done lately. And if you need a some ideas to get started, take a peek at ONE CRAZY SUMMER when it comes out on September 6^th and let Summer give you an example or two!!

Cerridwen Press

Congratulations to Estella Kissell, winner of my Celebrate Summer contest with Romance Junkies! Estella will recieve a copy of my new book ONE CRAZY SUMMER as well as a selection of Egyptian souvenirs.

If you entered and didn’t win, don’t despair. ONE CRAZY SUMMER goes on sale TOMORROW!!!

Actually I went trail riding while I was on vacation and a saddle isn’t all that comfortable a place to be. At least when you aren’t used to trotting – ouch!

I bought a laptop while I was away and I used it – to take some story notes and download vacation pictures to share with my sister. But mostly it stayed packed up. During the day I was too busy running around visiting or entertaining the kids and in the evenings I was just flat out too tired to do anything. I guess I should have known that vacation wasn’t the time that I’d become super productive when I hardly manage to stay on track when I’m home alone in the mornings the rest of the year.

So I sat myself down to practice some BICHOK today (butt-in-chair-hands-on-keyboard for those who don’t know) I figured anything I wrote was better than nothing and would serve to get my ideas and juices flowing again. As a wise writer once said – you can’t edit a blank page.

Ain’t that the truth.

So I did a little of this and a little of that and it seems to be working. I met my writing goal today between the two stories I worked on so I guess I can consider it a good day. And the ideas are indeed flowing. This morning I got a late start because I had to go to a mom’s getting-to-know- you coffee for my son’s class. Tomorrow is my only other free morning this week so I have no excuses.

I’m telling you so you can keep me honest.

I’m pretty excited – there are only four days left until ONE CRAZY SUMMER is released!

And I’m a featured author at The Romance Studio for September too – Come check out my interview and learn more than you wanted to know about my writing methods and warped personality