addition

Hello everyone, I hope all is well with you. I’m back today with another Slice of Life Post. I have finished my book. I’ve made all the changes my Beta Reader recommended, and I’m happy with the result. Now I’m going back and double checking punctuation. It’s tedious, but must be done.

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I’m always looking to improve my story. Sigh. A writer’s work is never done. I’m also overwhelmed because I have so many ideas I want to pursue, I don’t know which one to work on next. I’ll be working on one story and another idea will pop into my head.

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I’m sure this happens to you, too. What I usually do is write down the idea and then continue working on my current WIP, but sometimes it’s hard. Especially when the characters are screaming to be written. They’re not very patient are they?

This is the Writer’s Life. Writing between family obligations and work. I get irritable when I can’t write. I think I may have an addiction. 🙂

Well. The first step is admitting it, isn’t it?

But this addiction is a good thing. I believe that with all my heart. If I didn’t write I wouldn’t be able to express all the creativity inside me. There’s a lot in there, trust me. 🙂

My writing inspires kids. That is the most awesome feeling in the world and probably the root of my addiction. When I go to a school for an author visit, the enthusiasm these kids show radiates off them in waves. They inspire me. They make me want to keep writing, so they’ll keep reading. I can’t write fast enough.

Did you know that twenty one percent of the adults in the United States read below the fifth grade level? Does anyone else find this alarming? Check out this article from Huffington Post for more information.

Huffington Post Article

How does this happen? How did they slip through the cracks?

I don’t know about you, but this bothers me. I want the world to be a better place for my kids when they grow up. How can we change this?

I know one way is to donate to libraries. I didn’t realize this until recently, but many libraries are not included in school budgets. So they’re limited in how they get new books. Donations are one of the few ways libraries can obtain new books.

Studies show that improving libraries raises literacy levels in the surrounding communities. I wrote a post on this very subject three years ago. Here’s the link if you’d like to check it out.

Improving our Libraries will improve our Literacy Levels

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This is so important for our young people today because the pace of life is just going to continue to get faster and faster. They need to be critical thinkers to discern between what is real and what is bogus. Reading helps develop that critical thinking process, I’m sure of it.

So there you have it. My burning desire to write stems from inspiring kids to read. That’s why I do it. Recently, a parent of a reluctant reader gave my first Super Spies book to her daughter. She hoped it would inspire her to read, nothing else had worked so far. My book did. She loved it. She went on to read the next two in the series. She wants to read more. I’m writing. I’m writing as fast as I can.

Thanks for reading my Slice of Life Post today. If you’d like to read other Slice of Life Posts, click the link below.

More Slice of Life Posts

Oh, I have one more announcement! My first book in the Super Spies series has a new cover! I loved my old cover, but this one is good, too. The cover and blurb are below. Check it out!

In a small town in Michigan, fifteen-year-old Sarah Cole is stuck spending the summer at her Aunt and Uncle’s with her sister, Lacey. She’s not happy with the situation until she befriends a girl named Jackie. The three girls stumble upon the ruthless murder of a reclusive neighborhood woman and what’s worse? One of the officers investigating the crime believes the girls are responsible for her death.

Fearing that this officer will frame them for the murder, the girls organize their own detective squad. They become the Super Spies and start their own investigation. The Super Spies can’t understand why anyone would want to murder the “Cat Lady” until they start digging into her past and discover a horrible crime that happened thirty years ago. They uncover a connection between the two crimes and attempt to bring this information to the police, only to be reprimanded for meddling in the investigation. Not only are the girls upset by the admonition, but they also struggle with the fact that their exuberant investigating could provide a legal loophole allowing the killer to go free. Frustrated by this turn of events, the Super Spies realize it’s up to them to snare the Cat Lady killer. Or die trying…

If you have any hints or comments about the writing life or how to improve Literacy Levels, leave a comment. I’d love to hear from you!

Hello everyone, I hope all is well with you. I’m back today and I want to discuss the price of fame. It seems to me, in the last couple of years there have been a number of accidental deaths due to overdoses. I blame fame for the deaths of Philip Seymour Hoffman, Heath Ledger, and Michael Jackson.

This photo courtesy of Justin Hoch
http://www.flickr.com/help/photos/#2265887
Link to license: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0/legalcode

The reason I blame fame is simple. When you become famous, your privacy’s gone. To me, an outsider looking in, everyone wants a piece of a celebrity. Reporters hound them. They take pictures of their families when they’re having some down time. Just going to the market becomes newsworthy and photographers follow them for the one shot that’s going to make millions. How would you feel if you were running to the market in your sweats, to get your kid some cough medicine, and a mob of photographers were chasing you?

All of this because they’re a great actors or musicians. Don’t get me wrong, I’d love to meet George Clooney or Brad Pitt. I’d also love to sit down with Steven King and the members of Rush just to get to know them and pick their brains. However, I would never dream of camping outside their homes just hoping for a picture.

That’s where fame turns ugly, when reporters and photographers make money off a famous face, boundaries get blurred and violated. I understand how some celebrities get so angry; they get into physical altercations with the reporters and photographers who follow them.

Not only do celebrities have to deal with paparazzi following them, they also have to deal with the pressure from the industry. Pressure to look good all the time. Pressure to be better than their last stellar role or album.

It seems like, when you’re a celebrity there’s no time to relax. They work ungodly hours to get a scene right or adhere to a tour schedule. That’s when the need for medication rears its ugly head.

They need it to keep them awake and then they need it to help them sleep. It turns into a vicious cycle. After a while, they’re hooked and in some instances, they need to take more of it to get the same effect.

Their dependency spirals out of control and they’re taking stronger and stronger drugs. In my opinion, this behavior leads to addiction to drugs such as meth and heroin.

So, instead of attaching labels to these people and assigning blame, why don’t we solve the problems that create the addictions in the first place? Why don’t managers create a schedule that allows our celebrities to maintain their health? Why don’t we pass laws that keep the paparazzi away? I know it sounds like a simplistic solution to a complex problem, but it would be a start.

Of course, then there would be the reporters screaming about free press and the public’s right to know, but what about the celebrities’ rights? Don’t they have a right to privacy as well?

Thanks for reading my post today. If you would like to share your ideas regarding this post, leave a comment. I’d love to hear from you!