author | Jennette Marie Powell

by Jennette, July 21, 2013

My latest book cover design!

I don’t feel like I did a lot this week, but when I look back, I actually did. I knocked out my book cover goal quickly–on Sunday, in fact–to make sure it didn’t slip this week. My friend Jim Winter loved it, approved it, and is now in the process of updating his retail listings!

But what really doesn’t feel like I did much was the rest of the week. The plan was to continue working on my outline. I did get some more done on this, but my ideas seemed to stall out midway through the week. I guess this is what happens to non-plotting writers (aka “pantsers”) when they are writing the draft and hit the sagging middle. But I couldn’t figure out why it was happening to me, and why now. Then I read this blog post by Kristen Lamb on Friday, and it hit me. The post was appropriately called “The Single Largest Cause of Writer’s Block–Might Not Be What You Believe.”

So true! And it was exactly what she said: I hadn’t figured out my story’s antagonist. Oh, I had minions – secondary bad guys left over from the previous books in the series, but who was (to use Kristen’s term) the “Big Boss Troublemaker?” I had no idea. So I had to figure out who he or she is, what s/he is doing, and perhaps most importantly, why.

I’ve done a lot of sitting and thinking these past couple of days, and have figured out a lot. But I still have more work to do in that area, so on to the goals.

Last week’s goals went well:

Continue brainstorming/outlining for SS Book 3 – Not as much as I wanted, but I’ll count this as a yes!
Initial cover art for friend who’s going to beta read – yes!

For this week, I want to:

Do the Character Pre-plan Exercise from Holly Lisle’s How to Think Sideways workshop. This walks the writer through some basic questions and helps us to figure out who the character is, his/her goals, motivations, background, etc., and can be used for any major characters.
Work on outline–create 25 cards to add to my virtual bulletin board. It sounds easy, but I have a feeling it won’t be–or maybe I’ll be pleasantly surprised!

So, let’s talk about antagonists, books, TV, movies, whatever. Probably the best bad guy I’ve read is the Del-a-Shar from Sheri McGathy’s epic fantasy Elfen Gold. He destroyed his entire race, yet when we find out why, he’s chillingly relateable and understandable! Antagonists need not be villains, but this one certainly is. Who are some of your favorites, villainous or not? Please share – I’d love to hear from you!

Jennette Marie Powell writes stories about ordinary people in ordinary places, who do extraordinary things and learn that those ordinary places are anything but. In her Saturn Society novels, unwilling time travelers do what they must to make things right... and change more than they expect. You can find her books at Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Smashwords, Kobo, iTunes, and more.

by Jennette, July 14, 2013

A few weeks ago, WANA friend Jansen Schmidt honored me with the Sunshine Award, so it’s time I picked it up! This one made the rounds about a year ago, but most of the questions have changed, so I’m game! Jansen gave it to me “because she rides a Harley and she’s really cool.” Ironically, my husband’s out on his Harley on a day trip, but I declined going, as I’m still recovering from the Crud and didn’t think I could hack spending 5 hours on my bike. I’m feeling OK, just tired, and riding does wear one out, believe it or not.

Anyway, the Sunshine Award comes with a set of written rules and is best enjoyed when sharing with others. If you choose to play along, and I encourage you to do so, the rules of the Sunshine Award are:

Include the award’s logo (and rules) in a post on your blog. Simply cut and paste the photo to the right into your own blog post.
Link to the person who nominated you.
Answer the 10 questions below with your answers instead of mine.
Pass the award on to a bunch of “Sunshine Inspiring” bloggers. The rules say 10 people, but choose however many you’d like.

Here are the questions:

Favorite Color: Red – of course! It’s the best color for Camaros. 😀

Our turtle Sanddollar on her basking platform

Favorite Animal: Last time I said gerbils, though I had a hard time choosing because I love animals. So this time, I’ll say turtles, especially ours when she swims up to me acting all excited. 🙂 They have been around for such a long time, and they’re so impervious to many threats. Yet they’re also sweet and cute – at least ours is!

Favorite Number: 9 – that was on the list last time, and like last time, I don’t know why. But it always has been.

Favorite Non Alcoholic Drink: Mountain Dew! I know it’s awful for you – full of sugar! – so I limit myself to one a day. But if I don’t get that one, I get cranky, so my family knows not to drink the last can!

Favorite Alcoholic Drink: lately, I’ve been partial to Leinenkugel Summer Shandy.

Facebook or Twitter: Like Jansen, I’m not fond of social media and consider it a necessary evil. But if I have to choose… well, brevity is not my strong point, and I have yet to figure out how to make friends in 140-character snippets, so let’s go with Facebook.

Passions: Reading, writing, local history, Camaros, web programming (my day job).

Dayton Ohio skyline (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Prefer Getting or Giving Gifts: It depends. If I know of something that someone will really enjoy, especially if it’s something they wouldn’t get for themselves, I love to give that gift. OTOH, if I can think of something I really want, but can’t quite justify buying (or doing) for myself, I love it when someone gets it (or does it) for me.

Favorite City: Dayton, Ohio. I’m a hometown girl! I was reading up on some history of another nearby city yesterday, and couldn’t believe how uninteresting it was in comparison. There were no famous inventors from that city, which seemed odd to me.

Favorite TV Show: This was tough, because I don’t watch much TV, but when there are new episodes on, I love Duck Dynasty! Those guys make me LOL every time. Can’t wait ’til the beards are back on August 14!

Here’s a video from my favorite episode, “Redneck Roadtrip,” aka “Vietnam Special”: (about 3 minutes)

And now, I’m going to weasel out on nominating others for the award. For starters, Jansen named several that I would also pick! But really, I’d have a hard time choosing from those who comment here and encourage me, because each of those comments means a lot to me, so I’d hate to pick some, but not others! So if you’d like to play along, go ahead and consider yourself nominated, and spread the sunshine around!

And now for my ROW80 update: last week, I kept the goals simple. I ended up exceeding on one of them, and totally crapping out on the other. Here’s the scoop:

Continue brainstorming/outlining for SS Book 3 – I got a lot done here, and even started writing a bit!
Initial cover art for friend who’s going to beta read – um, no (sorry, Jim!)

I still need to do a good bit more planning on the book, and since I didn’t get the cover done, the goals will remain the same for this week. Basically the problem with the second was that I got so involved with the first, I forgot about the rest!

What about you – have you ever been so wrapped up with one priority that you’ve forgotten everything else? How about that Sunshine Award – if you don’t want to take it up, maybe you’d like to answer one of those questions in the comments? Inquiring minds want to know, and I’d love to hear from you – please share!

by Jennette, June 16, 2013

Last week, I had one primary goal: figure out my next project. This wasn’t a matter of coming up with a new project, but rather a choice between which of several I’d already planned, would I work on next.

I had several to choose from:

“Time’s Tempest,” the Saturn Society short I just turned in, is a complete story in itself, but left a lot of threads open. I intended it to be part one of a serial. So “Time’s Tempest, part two” was one possibility.

I also have two other projects that have been bouncing around for quite a while. One is a standalone novel, and has a rough outline completed.

The other novel is about half written, during NaNoWriMo 2009. Yep, it’s been sitting around that long. The part that’s written needs extensive rework, but I do eventually want to complete this one. It’s intended to be the first in a series of three or four.

And then there’s the third Saturn Society full length novel, the follow-on to Time’s Fugitive. This one’s still somewhat murky in my mind, but I have some cool ideas bouncing around for this one, and have started pulling them together using a new resource: The Busy Writer’s One-Hour Plot. This book is mostly marketed to writers who don’t like/want to plot, but I found it’s very useful for those of us who have the opposite problem: I plot too much (and spend too much time at it). I will admit I didn’t finish the whole hour, as I was interrupted, but it’s broken down into several sections, so it can still work that way. Best of all? I’ve just started working on this, and I’m already having fun (and that’s what it’s all about, isn’t it?)

And considering that I’ve already had readers asking about a third Saturn Society novel, so I’ve decided that’s the project I’m going to work on next. This will take a while, so no promises as far as a time frame! But I am at least working on it now. 🙂 I’m also thinking of fun things I can do with the serial novel that will tie in to this third full novel.

So that brings me around to this week’s goals:

Review Holly Lisle’s How to Write a Series
Re-read Time’s Enemy and make notes of loose plot threads this third book should address
Finalize friend’s book cover if I hear back from the client
Fitness 4x (got this one last week too!)

This week brings us to the end of Round 2 for ROW80. I didn’t end up meeting my overall goals of writing 30,000 new words, but goals change. I still accomplished a lot by getting that short story written, and IIRC, that wasn’t part of the original quarterly goals. But those word goals? Next time for sure!

What about you? Whether or not you’re doing ROW80, have your goals changed recently? Have you made any decisions, big or small, that changed them–and did others, like readers or perhaps family, influence your choice? I’d love to hear from you – please share!

by Jennette, June 9, 2013

I’ve missed a few ROW80 check-ins this round, and while I don’t believe in excuses, I do have a couple of reasons.

One is “Life: the Good Stuff.” This includes my daughter’s graduation, various end-of -year programs leading up to that (and after), and a subsequent graduation party which went very well. Yesterday and the day before, we had college orientation.

In the middle of that, I managed to get my short story revised, so my other reason was “hiding out in the revision cave.” Sometimes, writing a blog post is just one thing too many. It’s like during the holidays, when we have too many things to do, and we need to evaluate what we can drop from the list, and avoid getting stressed out.

The revisions wouldn’t have been a big deal–after all, it’s just a short story–but they turned out to be somewhat extensive. You see, after writing the first draft, I realized I’d set my story in the wrong place. And after beginning revisions, I realized I’d also set it in the wrong time.

I knew I had to make these changes, but at the same time, I asked myself, “Why do I do this to myself?”

I’d initially set the story at a fictitious beach resort in order to be able to just get something written. This is a Saturn Society story, and so far, those have all taken place primarily in real locales (barring Hollowville, Tennessee in Time’s Fugitive, which is fictitious). It was missing something, that little dose of real history that is one of the things in my books my readers have told me they love. And therein was the answer to my question: I do it for my readers. It’s also for me: once I’d made the decision to change time and place, I was a lot more excited about the story, and found some way fun history to work in, which I will share here when the story is released.

And that makes it all worthwhile.

As for this week’s ROW80 goals stated on Wednesday, I did complete the three book cover designs. One of the authors is out of town, so I haven’t heard back on that one, and another is for the anthology that “Time’s Tempest” will appear in. I haven’t sent it to anyone yet, but I’m publishing it, and I’m happy with it. 😀 I sent out, got approval, and finalized one for my friend Jim Winter, and he and I are both very happy with it! I’ll be giving all three some cover lovin’ here soon. So a successful week to be sure!

This week, I need to figure out what my next project will be, and if my other friend gets back to me on her cover, I’ll finalize that as well.

What about you–knocked out any goals lately? Have you had any change, and needed to ask yourself why? And if so, did you find the answers? 🙂 Please share–I’d love to hear from you!

by Jennette, June 5, 2013

Life: the Good Stuff has continued to defeat my best intentions of keeping up with the blog this past month, but I’ve still noticed a bunch of fine new releases! Here are several that came out during the month of May:

First, we have a debut release by Nigel Blackwell: Paris Love Match is a caper in the style of the accidental tourist. The action occurs in just a single day in Paris.

The hero is Piers Chapman, an engineering geek whose jeans are too short, whose mother phones him too often, and who is in Paris to update the software in one of his company’s cranes.

The heroine is Sidney Roux, a worldly-wise, drop-dead beauty who is tired of falling for good-looking men who treat her badly. Mind you, she carries a little bit of an attitude and something of a secret, but she’s lived in a world that never gave her anything, and she’s learned to look after herself first.

When the sale of a painting between a ruthless dictator and a murderous mobster turns into a raging gun battle with the police in tow, Piers and Sidney get caught up and wanted by all sides.

If they’re going to stay alive, they’re going to have to put aside their fears and prejudices, and work together. It’s not an easy thing for either of them to do.

But if they can, they might just find more than stolen goods …

More info is on Nigel’s site, along with buy links and info on his Goodreads contest, where you can win a signed copy (entries open until June 7th).

Next up is another debut release, from Jennifer McGowan, one of my Ohio Valley RWA buddies: Maid of Secrets, a YA historical.

Seventeen-year-old Meg Fellowes is a wry, resourceful thief forced to join an elite group of female spies in Queen Elizabeth’s Court. There she must solve a murder, save the Crown, and resist the one thing that will become her greatest freedom–and her deadliest peril.

For Meg and her fellow spies are not alone in their pursuit of the murderer who stalks Windsor Castle.

A young, mysterious Spanish courtier, Count Rafe de Martine, appears at every turn in the dark and scandal-filled corridors of the Queen’s summer palace. And though secrets and danger are Meg’s stock-in-trade, she’s never bargained on falling in love…

More info and buy links are on Jennifer’s site.

Jennifer L. Oliver‘s first novel-length work came out last month: Hayden’s Choice, a dark urban fantasy/horror novel.

The demon Azazel knows an opportunity when he sees one. That’s why he took the Unnamed abomination, Haedyn, under his wing and honed her skills. Now she’s a predator, like him, but far more dangerous because she holds the potential to wield great power. The kind that humans and supernatural creatures alike will bow down to worship. The kind that will let him create his army of evil-born souls without challenge. And when the full moon rises and a human’s rare blood is spilled, Haedyn will be the key to unlocking hell on earth.

Former investigative reporter Lexington Carter saw his brother murdered by vampires, but no one would believe him. Now it’s his mission to learn everything there is about monsters, how to kill them, and what happens to their victims. But when he’s kidnapped by a super-human albino chick who claims she’s protecting him, he realizes that not all supernatural creatures are monsters and there might be one that’s worth saving.

Haedyn is the last Unnamed and Azazel’s personal assassin – his most prized servant. It’s not a title she wants, but it keeps her alive and that’s all that matters. But when she is tricked into protecting Lex, the same human her master is hunting, she learns of Azazel’s terrifying plan to create an army of evil souls – and that Lex isn’t the only one slated for sacrifice.

More info and buy links can be found on Jennifer’s website.

Finally, we have new romance from Kristy K. James: In Laying Low in Paradise, Laura Keane and her son have been spending summers at their chalet on Bois Blanc Island since her husband was killed in the war. She never let anyone else in after the chaplain delivered the sad news four years ago, so it’s just the two of them, and she wouldn’t change that for the world.

Cameron Rafferty and his friends were keeping secrets. Dangerous secrets, and they’d hoped the little island paradise would be a safe place to hide out. The plan to keep a low profile quickly unravels when an accident changes everything. Cameron soon finds himself becoming more involved with the Keane family than he’d intended -and wishing for things he shouldn’t. More info and buy links can be found on Kristy’s website.

Time for a quick ROW80 update, especially since I’ve skipped the past two weeks of check-ins! As mentioned at the beginning of this post, most of that’s been due to “Life: the Good Stuff” which in this case is my daughter’s high school graduation, subsequent party (which was great!), and preparations and recovery thereof. But it was also due to me hiding out in my revision cave the rest of the time, getting my next short story finished, and turned in for the anthology within about a half hour of the deadline (I know, I know!). So I will have something new for readers of my Saturn Society series soon! My ROW80 goal for the rest of this week is to complete three book cover designs that have been pushed to the back burner while I survive the end of my daughter’s high school career, and revisions on my story (thank you for your patience, friends who I owe these to!).

What about you – do you have your summer reading lined up? Perhaps one of the books above will fit your bill! Ever had to step away from something you are normally consistent with due to good life happening? How did you get back into it? Please share – I’d love to hear from you!

by Jennette, May 12, 2013

MC900444732 It’s what we learn, as writers, that we should be putting into our stories: all the battles, the falling-in-love, the sexytimes, the tension; none of the teeth-brushing. In my case, it’s Life: the Good Stuff that’s keeping me from meeting my ROW80 goals, or in the case of next week, demanding that I once again set the bar low.

I’m talking things like end-of-year school programs, concerts, senior recognition programs, and planning a graduation party. We had each of those last week, and more this week. In addition, this week is Birthday Week: me, my husband, and my sister-in-law all have birthdays this week, plus today is Mothers’ Day. So a lot of life-interference, as far as the writing goes, but no complaints here, as it’s all good.

Despite the busyness, last week didn’t turn out too bad:

Writing: partial – complete research for short story & and do initial read-through – I researched, and got about 1/3 of the way through the read-through.
Fitness: partial – 5 workouts – got 3 in.

The giveaway has ended. Thanks for your interest!

I also got graduation announcements out, and got the brochure for my new-business-owner relative completed and off to the printer. So not a bad week at all, despite the lack of green above.

We have a family get-together today, and another one evening later this week. There’s a band concert another evening this week. We also need to have a family meeting to pin down the rest of the details for the grad party, so I’m setting the bar even lower this week:

Writing: complete initial read-through and mark-up for revision
Fitness: 3 workouts

What about you? How do you manage to keep going on your normal activities when life’s crazy all around you? Even when it’s a good-crazy? I’d love to hear from you (and could use the tips)!

by Jennette, May 5, 2013

I’m coming up on making another one of my major goals for ROW80, and it’s time to ask myself a basic question that I think is important to ask every now and then: What have I learned?

The first draft of my short story is done. The story itself isn’t; it still needs revision, but close enough. So what have I learned?

I don’t need to outline a short story. I did last summer when I wrote “Time’s Holiday.” Not only did the outlining seem to take forever, but the story took much longer to write than it should have. So this time, I got an idea and started writing. I worried that the ending wouldn’t come to me and that I’d wind up with a hundred pages of drivel with none in sight. (I have tried to write a novel without an outline, and that’s exactly what happened – only I had six hundred pages of drivel with no ending in sight. I did have fun, though.) But this time, the process worked, and the story’s ending came to me right before I needed it.
1500 words/week (or 300/day, five days a week), won’t get anything done very quickly, but it will keep things moving forward. I can up this pace – the 2500/week is not unreasonable, and from NaNoWriMo, I know I can do 12,000 words/week. Need to keep working on this after I get the story revisions taken care of.
It doesn’t take long to write 300 or 500 words. Even without an outline, I can get 300 words out in 10-20 minutes.
We don’t need big chunks of time to write – a bunch of little ones will get the job done – see above.
It’s helpful to do some basic research and make some basic decisions up front. I’ve decided to change the setting of my story, so I don’t have to deal with getting the main character from one place to another (which would mess with other things). But the new setting requires research, and that’s going to be the bulk of my revisions. Getting this right up front would have been helpful, and greatly reduced the time needed in revision, but oh well. OTOH, I know better than to do more than minimal research up front. That may work for some people, but for me, it ends up being an excuse to procrastinate getting started writing. I prefer to do most of it after the first draft is written, so I have specific things I can look up.

So a lot of learning, and overall, a good week. Here are the details:

Design flyer for relative’s small business – Done!
Writing: finish short story – Done!
Fitness: 5 workouts – partial – got four in

This week, I’m going to keep it simple. I have some boring business stuff on my Weekly Status Report to do, but don’t really want to list that here. I also have stuff going on this coming weekend. So we’ll just stick with:

Writing: complete research for short story & and do initial read-through
Fitness: 5 workouts

What about you? Whether or not you’re doing ROW80, or whether or not you write, how are you doing with your spring goals? What have they taught you lately? I’d love to hear from you!

by Jennette, May 1, 2013

First, a couple of WANA Wednesday new releases this week I’m excited about!

thenunandthenarc Last week, Catherine Castle, one of my Ohio Valley RWA friends, released her debut novel, an inspirational romantic suspense. The Nun and the Narc is the story of novice Sister Margaret Mary, and where she goes, trouble follows. When she barges into a drug deal the local Mexican drug lord captures her. To escape she must depend on undercover DEA agent Jed Bond. Jed’s attitude toward her is exasperating, but when she finds herself inexplicable attracted to him he becomes more dangerous than the men who have captured them, because he is making her doubt her decision to take her final vows. Escape back to the nunnery is imperative, but life at the convent, if she can still take her final vows, will never be the same.

Nuns shouldn’t look, talk, act, or kiss like Sister Margaret Mary O’Connor—at least that’s what Jed Bond thinks. She hampers his escape plans with her compulsiveness and compassion and in the process makes Jed question his own beliefs. After years of walling up his emotions in an attempt to become the best agent possible, Sister Margaret is crumbling Jed’s defenses and opening his heart. To lure her away from the church would be unforgivable—to lose her unbearable.

I’m reading this book right now, and really enjoying it! For more info, see Catherine’s website/blog.

IronLocket

Samantha Warren has a new romantic fantasy out, too. The Iron Locket is the story of Aiofe Callaghan, who comes from a long line of faery hunters. Hired by one of the faery queens, they protect the human world from chaos and destruction. But when Aiofe stumbles through an open door into the land of Faery, she discovers the job isn’t as simple as it seems, and neither is she.

Arthur Pendragon spent centuries in blissful nothingness, until the day the four queens banded together to raise him from the dead. Along with his twelve most talented knights, he leads the warring armies of Faery against the greatest enemy they have ever known: one of their own. Can they overcome their differences to confront the greatest challenges either of them have ever faced? More info and buy links on Samantha’s website/blog.

The Book Sale of the Summer!

And now, the big news – there’s a fantastic sale on right now for three days only. The Booklovers’ Buffet Bouquet of Books Sale includes over 150 books in a variety of genres, all for just 99 cents each. These are not short stories, or books that are normally only 99 cents – these discount prices are only in effect for the sale, and after the 3rd, they’ll go back up. So if you’ve thought about reading my books Time’s Enemy or my newest, Hangar 18: Legacy, this is a great opportunity to pick them up for a special discount, so head over to the Fantasy/Horror/Science Fiction page. Not only that, there are contests, where we’re giving away several gift certificates for the online retailer of the winner’s choice – up to $100!

Quick ROW80 update: ROW80 is going well so far! I’ve finished my short story, although of course I had to think of a good change to make 3/4 of the way through that will involve more work. But the draft is finished! I also got two activity sessions in, if washing the car counts – I think it should, don’t you? Finally, I got half of the brochure design done, and my relative really likes it! So a good start this week.

by Jennette, April 21, 2013

dress front The prom dress is FINISHED, along with the petticoat!

This is a huge accomplishment. My daughter picked out the pattern, and we bought the fabric in January. We started cutting in February (some fabric had to be ordered online), and I’ve done a bit each week since, although I had a couple of slow weeks when I was sick in March. Her boyfriend’s prom is next weekend, and hers is the week following (they go to different schools), so the timing is perfect.

Making this dress took a lot of time, and took me away from my other work (writing)–and it was totally worth it. Even though she arrived home for a school function pretty late last night, and was ready to go to bed, my daughter couldn’t wait to try the dress on. Seeing her face when she wore it for the first time with everything complete was what made it totally worthwhile to put my own dream work on speed: slow while helping her achieve her dream.

My relative with the startup business was really excited with his website, too. They’d had a setback earlier that week, that really bummed him out, and he told me seeing the website gave him and his partners renewed motivation. Another totally-worth-it!

So here’s the recap:

Dress: make the petticoat, hem and finish the dress – DONE.
Writing: 2,500 more words on short story – Partial – got about 1700 words written.
Fitness: 4 short workouts – DONE.

So the dress is done. I’ll let my daughter do the celebrating next weekend!

On the writing front, I didn’t quite reach my goal, and truth be known, that was because I spent too much time goofing off playing computer games on the weeknights. I also have a feeling this short story is going to turn into a novella, but not sure yet so we’ll see. Anyway, here’s my plan for the week:

Design flyer for relative’s small business
Writing: 2,500 words
Fitness: 4 workouts

How about you? Have you knocked out any major goals so far this year? Have you put your goals on hold or on speed-slow to help others reach their goals? And was it worth it? 🙂 I’d love to hear from you!

by Jennette, April 17, 2013

I read an interesting post yesterday by Kristen Lamb about Twitter, and how auto-scheduled tweets bit Kim Kardashian in the tush on Monday afternoon. My blog automatically tweets when a new post goes up, and this just revealed another landmine in social media.

And the more I thought about it, the more I realized I really, really, don’t like Twitter.

For those not in the know (yes, I have some blog readers who might have heard of Twitter, but don’t know much about it), Twitter is a way to say something online in 140-character-or less bits to whoever’s chosen to follow you, or has a search on a word in your tweet. It’s supposed to be a great way to meet people online, but the fact is, it just hasn’t worked that way for me. I mean, anyone who’s read my books – or even this blog – knows that brevity is not my strong point.

When I do get on Twitter, I tend to hang out with people I already know from other places, just like I do in real life. That is, if anyone’s online by the time I get there. Twitter seems to be a busier place earlier in the day, while I’m at work. While I can access Twitter to some extent at the office, I’m supposed to be, you know, doing work.

And the other thing is Twitter is sort of like a cocktail party – not one of my favorite activities, either. You just jump in and talk to someone – something I am also really not good at.

That’s what’s funny about social media. Facebook, Twitter, et al are supposed to be a big boon for introverted people in that we don’t have to be face-to-face in a big, energy-draining sea of people. And some introverts really shine on social media. But I’ve found that I’m the same person online as I am in real life, and I tend to stay on the sidelines. I prefer to listen (or lurk) rather than talk.

Because of this, I do schedule tweets – or I used to. I write most of my blog posts when I have time, usually the night before they post, but sometimes a few days before. My blog is set up to automatically tweet when I have a new post up. This might have been OK when I was trying to use Twitter more and chat with people, but I just haven’t been doing that lately. So now that there’s one more reason not to be on it at all, it’s too tempting to just ditch it altogether. I probably won’t, but I’m really not sure how much use Twitter is to me in any case.

ROW80 is going better, fortunately. I’ve gone back and forth on whether I need to hem the prom dress first, or make the petticoat first. My daughter decided for me: hem first. That is DONE, and it was no small task, as big around as that skirt is–and it’s in two layers! All that remains is the petticoat. And yes, there will be pictures. 😀 I also wrote 700 words on my short story – not much out of 2500, but I tend to do the bulk of my writing in the later half of the week. Got one workout in too.

What about you – do you feel you’re the same online as in real life? If you use Twitter, are you having second thoughts about it? Do you ever schedule tweets, and now feel kind of iffy about it? Have trouble finding something worth saying that will fit into 140 characters? Please tell me I’m not alone – or tell me why I’m wrong (respectfully, please!) and how to get over my growing aversion to Twitter! And if you’re doing ROW80 (or even if you’re not), how are you doing with your goals so far this week? I’d love to hear from you!

Life and Love in Four Dimensions

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The Book Sale of the Summer!