Asking for YOUR help!

In 2008 my friends took their then 6-year-old daughter, Macy, to the hospital because she had became very ill. Three days later, a parents' worse nightmare came to life: Macy had been diagnosed with Acute Lymphoblastic Leukemia (ALL Leukemia).

Over the past two years, Macy has been in and out of hospitals, and doing many rounds of chemotherapy. Both her parents, Brad and Holly, work, but unfortunately their insurance cannot cover all costs of the medical bills. No parent should ever have to go through so much financial stress just to keep their child alive.

Earlier this month, Macy's aunt, Michelle, put together a donation site. Today is the day friends and family have come together to spread the word. We're asking anyone, even if it is just a few dollars, to please donate to help out with Macy's medical bills. (Link to site is that the bottom of the page.)

Macy is now 8-years-old and is in school. She is still undergoing rounds of chemotherapy. She loves to sing and dance! And is full of attitude and love. This girl has been put through the ringer, but she's such a fighter!

Click here for the Donation Site. 

All donations will be to help pay for medical cost.

If you cannot donate any money, I ask you to post this message on your own blog, tweet about it, facebook - anything and everything you can do to get this message out there to help Holly and Brad out. And most of all, I hope you keep Macy and her family in your prayers.

Me and NaNoWriMo just broke up.

I cannot write this story.

My NaNoWriMo was my adult fiction that just wasn't working turned into a young adult novel that apparently just isn't working. I think I've beaten Gus, her family, Memphis, Conner, RaeAnne, Lizzy, and the whole town of Yellow Falls to the ground. I probably should have just left it alone when I broke up with it back in September...or was it October?

Either way, we're definitely splitting up for a while. Maybe one day when we can see eye to eye, we'll get back together, but it's time for this imagination station to move on.  

Since I was dedicated to writing this month, I'm still doing that with an idea that has seriously been on my mind for five days straight. It's insane. I've never tried to write anything like it before - it involves fairy tales and a whole other world. So for the last 10 days and 2 and a half hours of NaNoWriMo, I'm vowing to write 25K so in all I will have written 50K in the month of November....just on two separate stories.

So how is everyone else doing with their novel? Love it? Hate it? Want to burn it yet?

Finding inspiration.

There's this place in my novel called the Cliff. It's where my main character and her friends spend a lot of time at. I based it on a mixture of places I used to hang out at when I was a teen. I was about the only one of my friends who hated swimming in a creek so I spent a lot of times just sitting on top of the cliffs or at the bottom banks. Once in a while I would get brave, wade through the water, pretend there was nothing swimming around my ankles, and climb on a rock.

Each time I place a scene at the Cliff, I keep thinking I should go back to one of those places so I can remember more details about it. One of the places is called Baptist Camp.

Baptist Camp is just right off the same highway I go down twice a week for school. Today I was near the area, and thought why not stop? It was so pretty outside. I was going to try to climb up one of the hills to see if I could get on a cliff, but I wasn't really dressed for it with flats and all. Plus it's deer season and going through the woods doesn't scream safe.

I really wish I had a laptop because I could have done some serious writing out there. Luckily I had my bag in my car so I grabbed my notebook, sat down at one of the tables, and jotted stuff down. I've known my character for years, but now that I'm writing her as a teen, I'm getting to see a whole new side of her. And being out there today, I heard her loud and clear.

What about you? Do you base places in your novel from places you know well? 

Ever went there to find inspiration?

Supernatural Sunday

Every week (well, when I remember) I do a post on JYTBB giving my thoughts on the best show ever: Supernatural. I thought why not bring it here as well because if you're a Supernatural fan, that means we are instant friends and we need to discuss this show.

Usually a bit more detailed about my thoughts, but really this week I didn't have tons to say. Besides:

Crowley's a dick.

Sammy needs his soul back.

Bring on the faeries!!

What about you? What did you think of Friday's episode or what do you think of the season so far? I'm liking it way better than last season.

I just broke 20k.

It's time to break out the happy dance for 20K!!

Have I mentioned I completely love my story? Switching it to the young adult genre was quite possibly the best idea I have ever had. I get my main character. I've been with this chick for two and a half years and I finally get her. All I had to do was kill her best friend.

If you hear me say I hate my novel, and I hate writing in the next 20 days, please remind me of this post.

Tip: Bribe yourself. The other day I told myself for every 10 pages I wrote, I could watch an episode of Grey's Anatomy. Tonight I told myself if I could write 3K in the next two hours I could eat dinner instead of a health shake. I wrote that 3K EXACTLY with 10 minutes to spare!

Other Tip: If you have a friend named Sab who is trying to help you with your weight loss, do not announce on Twitter that you're eating ice cream for dinner as your reward. Because when you do, that's about the time she'll be on Twitter and she will nail your butt for it! And she will do it rightfully so.

So what about you? How are you doing so far in NaNoWriMo?

Day 7 in NaNoWriMo

Seeing how pumped up I was it's a bit surprising that this is my first post talking about NaNoWriMo. I have many reasons.

1. My Monday went to hell super fast about an hour or so into work. It pretty much set the mood for the entire week and killed my writing high.

2. I've been sick. Did you know it's quite possible to take antibiotics for twenty days straight and your ear will still hurt?

3. Work. Sick. Work.

4. Season Six of Grey's Anatomy showed up at my house. Damn you, Netflix, I'm supposed to be writing here!

5. Sick. I hate my ears.

6. Work. School. Work.

Just so we're clear this is not a picture of me.

I finally went back to the doctor (makes a total of $462 that I've spent on my ears - they should be made of gold by now) and found out I no longer had a sinus infection or fluid in my ears but I HAD BUMPS! Think of poison ivy inflamed in your ear because that's what it feels like. She gave me cream, I plopped some on a q-tip, shove it my ears, and suddenly my muse popped out!

True story.

And now on Day 7 as I grumbled at my keyboard this morning then finished off Grey's (did anyone else cry just about every episode leading up to the finale? Does anyone else find McSteamy more attractive now that he's a dad and grandpa? Wait, is that gross to say?) something clicked.  My brain went crazy and I'm now up to a....

wait for it....

14,897 word count!!!!!

I know what you're thinking.  Why not just push yourself those 103 more words to reach 15K? Well, I tried, but I just killed off a character and I can no longer write for the night.  So I get to go watch another episode of Grey's from this season (if anyone can point me in the direction where I can find episodes 1 and 2 because they're not on ABC.com or hulu.com I would be forever grateful) as my reward then I'm going to bed.

So how about you? How you are doing with NaNo so far? Ready to pull out your hair? Ready to throw a character off a cliff? Or are you doing pretty freaking awesome and pounding away?