Category Archives: Misc.

Nomination for Liebster Award

Posted in Inspiration, Misc. by

J.A. Ward Writes has been Nominated by April Books for the Liebster Award! I want to say thank you to my nominator and congratulations to all of my nominees, you all have wonderful blogs.

The rules of the Liebster Award are as follows:

liebster-award1. Thank your Liebster Blog Award presenter on your blog and link back to the blogger who presented this award to you.

2. Answer the 11 questions from the nominator, list 11 random facts about yourself and create 11 questions for your nominees;

3. Present the Liebster Blog Award to 11 blogs of 200 followers or less who you feel deserve to be noticed and leave a comment on their blog letting them know they have been chosen. (No tag backs)

4. Copy and Paste the blog award on your blog.

Continue reading →

Celebrate the Small Things Hop

Posted in Inspiration, Misc. by

vik - small things 2Week 3 here at Celebrate the Small Things! If you are new to this blog hop, all you have to do is sign up on the linky below if you want to join! If you already have, then go around to each blog that signed up and congratulate or just say YAY to everyone and their accomplishments for this week! (Full instructions at our host Vikki’s post here!)

Writing related: I made it to 40K big ones this past week! I feel like I am closing in on my story and it will be the most loveliest day of all days when I complete that first draft and have a whole flowing manuscript! It will still need to be hacked up with my red machete (also known as the evil editing pen) but at least it will be a finished piece. My first rough draft of a real novel! I get so excited to just thinking about it!

I also decided to put myself out there even MORE and plan to attend the Midwest Writer’s Conference in Muncie, Indiana this July. I am super nervous just thinking about sitting in front of an agent and pitching my story, but worrying about that is for another time and day. I even think my wonderful friend Vicki Orians will be joining me at the conference, so at least there will be some friends to hang out with too!

As far as non-related accomplishments go, I got some cleaning done around the house and did somewhere around five loads of laundry. Our furnace started acting up and my wonderful hubby was able to fix it, so no extra bills! The furnace lives to breathe out hot air for another day! Oh, and I joined the smartphone world with a Samsung Galaxy S 3 – as if I needed another device to distract me from writing!

What did you celebrate this week? Let me know in the comments or join the hop and I will find out on your blog!

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Celebrate the Small Things Hop

Posted in Inspiration, Misc. by

vik - small things 2So here we are again, week 2, to Celebrate the Small Things this week! If you are new to this whole blog hop thing, all you have to do is sign up on the linky below if you want to join! If you already have, then go around to each blog that signed up and congratulate or just say YAY to everyone and their accomplishments for this week! (Full instructions at our host Vikki’s post here!)

Unfortunately my writing hasn’t gotten very far since last week so I can’t really say anything particular about my that. I DID go to my first local writing group meeting though and I was very proud of myself! I am a very introverted person and although I have no problem conversing with people over the evasive internets, I sometimes have trouble with the whole meeting-strangers-face-to-face. But I am glad I did it because I think it can only do good things for me and my writing journey! (If you really want to read more about this experience it is right here!)

Anyways, that is my big accomplishment from this week – putting myself out there face-to-face with other writers and admitting that I have the writing disease and have no intention of being cured. 🙂

What did you celebrate this week? Let me know in the comments or join the hop and I will find out on your blog!

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Next Big Thing: The Beholder

Posted in First Novel Attempt, Inspiration, Misc. by

So I have seen this “Next Big Thing” post going around for awhile now and have been patiently waiting to get picked. However, when I saw my friend Tabitha post hers I pretty much begged her to pick me as someone to tag. She is a super nice girl so she obliged willingly. Thanks Tabitha!! 🙂

Now on to the questions! Continue reading →

My First Local Writing Group Experience

Posted in Inspiration, Misc. by

writing-groupContinuing on with my theme of community, I attended my first local writing group this past Monday which is hosted by professional writer Nancy Christie. I would probably have no idea about the group still if my dad hadn’t showed me the announcement in the local paper (people still read the paper??). I had done countless searches online for local groups and was never able to find anything – I guess some people still spread the word the old-school way. Continue reading →

Pop the Champagne! We’re LIVE

Posted in Inspiration, Misc., The Writer Diaries by

Hello all my fantastic, adorable, wonderful readers. I am in an amazing mood because my group writer blog THE WRITER DIARIES has gone live today!

Yep yep – so go on over the The Writer Diaries and say hi!! We have a lot planned for this year and some exciting surprises. Look around, check out the contributors’ bios, and see the first Song for a Scene post! Our schedule for the future is going to look something like this: Continue reading →

Celebrate The Small Things Hop

Posted in Inspiration, Misc. by

So I have joined up with my friend Vikki over at VikLit where she has started an awesome blog hop! Every Friday, we hop around to everyone’s blog. They should have posted an accomplishment for the week and our job is to go around and congratulate / celebrate with them!

vik - small things 2Positive energy creates only more positive energy so let’s blow up the blogosphere with it!

For my positive accomplishment this week: I reached 35,000 words in my first draft of THE BEHOLDER. I am 5,000 away from 40K! I still feel like I am so far from the end, but I just keep putting more and more words down and, eventually, I will look at the screen and realize I am done! Right??? I mean that has to eventually happen at some point.

So YAY me! Now hop around to the other blogs and tell them congrats! See the link below to view the other blogs or sign up yourself!

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Surviving as a Writer: Community is Key

Posted in Inspiration, Misc., The Writer Diaries by

I have learned a very important lesson this past week while I was pursuing an idea that had been floating around in my head for awhile. I had this idea where I asked the few writers that I have met through Twitter, forums, CP exchanges, etc. if they wanted to start a group writing blog with me. I know that I already pretty much document my every move of this writing journey on my own blog here but I had this itch to share it with others, to work alongside my fellow aspiring writers and learn more about it than I could from just pondering things over by myself.

To my surprise, the idea spread like wildfire and I got 11 other writers involved on this project with me. Continue reading →

When Someone Else Publishes Your Idea

Posted in First Novel Attempt, Misc., On Ideas/Planning by

No, I don’t mean literally YOUR manuscript. I mean when you are steadily working along on that WIP that is going to be your ticket into the publishing world, the idea that your new-found agent is going to swoon over for years. The “THIS IS THE ONE” one!

And then…you see a new book come out and you start to read the description and you think, hey wait a minute, that sounds awfully familiar! Continue reading →

2013 Debut Author Challenge

Posted in Inspiration, Misc., Resolutions by

2012-debut-author-challengeI have a dream. I dream that one day people will be making their Debut Author to-read lists and MY book will be on them! Until then, I must support my fellow writers who have finally made it to the brink of their dreams and cannot wait for release dates to arrive this year.

Over at The Hobbitsies Book Blog, they are doing a 2013 Debut Writers Challenge, asking people to support and read at least 12 debut author books this year. I went through the list and there were so many goodies to choose from! Alas, I picked my 12 and have displayed them below for your viewing pleasure (because awesome book covers are one of my favorite things!) **Hint, click on the book cover to read the summary on Goodreads! Continue reading →