The ones that got me writing!

Book 4- Johanna Lindsey

                This one isn’t so much one book but many by the same author. Johanna Lindsey is a Romance Author and many of her books have been on the New York Times Bestsellers List, but that’s not why I like her.

                Hers was maybe one of the first ‘adult’ fiction books I ever read. A friend was scandalized by the content of the book and gave it to me with a lot of giggles. The first one that I read was Savage Thunder, and at age 11, in grade 5, yeah it was a little scandalous but that’s not why I loved it so. Immediately and forever afterwards, I have loved her characters.

                I did spend some time exploring other romance authors but none of them ever captivated my attention quite like she did with the simple complexity of her wonderful characters. When I read her books, I cried, laughed, raged, and loved. Until one day, in grade 7, I decided that I could write.

                At the tender age of thirteen, I started writing romance novels complete with detailed and rather nice sex scenes. I have more than a dozen half-finished ideas and two almost complete novels that I haven’t looked at since high school.

                The reason I put her and her books in my list of books that changed my life is because they did, they opened my mind to the stories that were inside and convinced me that I could write them out almost as well as she did (ok I got a little ego trip, I was 13!)

                I am not actually a big fan of romance anymore and she is the only romance author that I still purchase and follow. I have every single one of her books and although I’ve thought of selling them a few times, I just can never seem to let them go. It would be like letting go of a lot of close friends.

                To this day I can still call upon any number of her characters and have them walk around in my head and they still make me smile and laugh and love. The stories weren’t always the most original, but they didn’t have to be, the force of her characters was all I needed. I didn’t care much about what was happening in the background, as long as I knew what they were doing and feeling and thinking.

                I would recommend her if anyone is interested in reading romance, or if only for a challenge to pick up a book from a genre that you might have preconceived notions about and be pleasantly surprised. If nothing else reading her books has taught me the importance of having and creating characters that the reader will love with all their hearts.

                If you make me care about the people I’m reading about then I will carry them with me always. Is this not the truth of many great novels out there and more than a few humanitarian efforts as well!

Find her here!

Is there an author or book that really influenced your start as a writer?

My First Blog Award!

Thanks to Marianne who passed on the One Lovely Blogger Award, it's my first award ever and I'm so excited. More so since this is only my sixth post on my 'newish' blog.

Now I have to tell you seven things about me, which I know you've been dying to know! They aren't in any order of importance.

One I like pens, like crazy like pens, the smaller the writting the better, so far I've found 0.3mm but there's got to be smaller out there right, I'll just keep looking. Some one could fill my stockings full of pens for Christmas and I would be crazy happy.

Two I'm very creative,  I write novels, short stories, poetry, I paint, I craft, I like to redecorate my house, but I have horrible confidence when it comes to showing my work and one bad word can stop my creativity cold for a long time. I try not to dwell on it and know that I shouldn't but it hurts, especially when it's family that tells you these things.

Three I love being outside, anyday, anytime, any weather. I sometimes get up in the middle of the night and go walk around my pitch black acreage. It is totally freaky - especially with the Moose out there, but it rejuvenates me and makes me feel so much better. I dream of designing a house that truly brings the outside in and makes it possible for me to 'live' outdoors.

Four I'm an insomniac and a Lucid dreamer. One is caused by the other actually. Because I never get more then three hours of consecutive sleep, I've learned to push myself into REM sleep very quickly. Since I have such vivid dreams they can sometimes be very disturbing, but in my self-preservation of wanting to sleep, I've learned to 'walk'  in my dreams and make conscious changes to them while sleeping. On the plus side, I get a lot of good story ideas from my crazy dreams.

Five The two things that I always wanted to be when I grew up, was someone who can help people get healthy (holistically) and create homes for the way we live. I have countless architectural designs of homes and health articles clippings and pages. One day, maybe I'll grow up! lol!

Six I have one sister and two brothers. The brother that I was closest to died when I was fifteen. My other brother lives far away and sometimes I forget he's there and vice versa. My sister lives close but we are like night and day. Somedays I really miss my siblings.

Seven I don't think I'm very good at blogging. I tend to talk myself into circles when trying to make a point and always feel that I never really get the right message across. But I keep at it, hoping that practice will fix the problems.


And now to the nominees.

Avangeline - who doesn't post often but I always enjoyed her posts.

Angela - Because her posts always make me think, which is always a good thing.

Books can change more than just your mind!

Book 3 – 28 Days to a New You. – Christine Green

                I don’t ever pick up let alone buy ‘diet’ books because I tend to think that they are full of lies and garbage meant to keep us ‘fat’ so as to perpetuate the ‘diet’ industry. This book was on the bargain table at Chapters one day and since I was interested in learning more about ‘detoxifying the body’, I picked it up.

                The first thing I noticed and what convinced me to buy it, was that it wasn’t full of fad gimmicks, disgusting drink mixes, crazy lifestyle changes, or anything else outrageous. I also liked that the Detox diet that she talks about happens over the course of 28 days, actually all the plans in this book take 28 days based on the fact that it takes that long for our bodies to develop habits.

                I didn’t ever think that a three day or one week detox diet was ever a good idea – I liken this idea to taking an ice cold shower on a hot day, sure it gets you cold really fast, but it shocks your body into recovery mode so that your body will start to heat itself up making you hotter not colder. If you started with warm water and then gradually cooled it down, then your body cools down slowly and safely as well. This idea works with detox and any diet in my opinion.

                So when I opened this book and looked at the detox plan, it made sense to me, and I did the diet the following February. I didn’t do it to lose weight and I didn’t lose a lot, just a few pounds, but what I did loose was inches, about three of them off my waist, hips, and thighs. But that wasn’t the best thing that happened.

                The best thing was the way I felt, I had more energy, less mood swings, was happier, had better relations with family, worked better, thought faster, felt smarter, etc.

                The Detox plan also taught me something very important about how my entire being reacts to the food I eat. Not just my body but my emotions, my brain, my skin, all of it. During the diet I had one day of temptation – Shrove Tuesday I had pancakes and sausages – within an hour of eating the pancakes I literally fell asleep in my chair at work.

                I did manage to develop some habits from this plan and continued to use them in my life for about a year and a half afterwards. Until I got a whole lot of stress in my life and fell back into the easy old ways of eating poorly and feeling worse. It’s a lot easier to eat unhealthy then it is to eat healthy but hopefully as I take on another of the Diet plans in this book, I will develop and stick with some good habits.

Click here for the Book.