THOUGHTS FROM THE INTERIOR

My life and my creations all evolved from that place inside where we all think, feel, and reflect.

My explorations, reflections, and even my meditations played a role in this journey toward writing and blogging.  They are my Thoughts from the Interior.

Here you will find snippets of these thoughts…..

I hope you’ll stop by and share yours.

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2/5/13:

Again I’ve been lax about stopping in here to chat.  This past weekend was a Mini-Bloggiesta, which felt like a little precursor to the main one coming in March.  I was able to do a few new things around here, like cleaning up the sidebars and adding little social networking icons.

I also created a new blog button.

Even though I often play around and change my blogs, from the headers to the themes, and even occasionally the name or the tagline, I do enjoy the extra boost that comes with the Bloggiesta events.  The support from others participating.  Interaction.  That’s what the blogosphere is all about.

What do you love most about blogging?

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4/15/12:

It has been awhile since I updated this page.  Since the beginning, I changed the name of this page to reflect “thoughts from the interior.”  I hope this change encourages some of you to stop by and chat.

Today I’m making the rounds of other blogs and incorporating my thoughts into theirs via comments.  Yes, our form of communication in Blog World.

This month is Child Abuse Prevention Month, and in honor of that, my Sunday Salon Post  shares links to a very important book on that topic.

I hope you’ll stop in soon to chat…..

1-21-11: Bloggiesta Improvements

It’s that time again, when we all celebrate as we do our ritual blog improvements.  This event takes place a couple times a year, and the focus is on cleaning up the blog; adding special pages; changing the blog look; and making sure the sidebars, pages, links, etc., are in good working order.

This is my third one!  Because I have so many blogs (fourteen), I get to work on a different one each time:  however, I sometimes work on aspects of the other blogs, too.  Like when I changed the title of this blog, I needed to correct the links on the “other blogs” pages, making sure the link title is changed to reflect the new blog name.

Then I had to make the appropriate changes at Facebook and on my website.

I also created a new blog button to reflect the change.

So…what exciting changes are you all making?  I’m going to be hopping around the blogosphere to find out!

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12-26-10: Reflecting on the New Year:

As we face the New Year, we sign up for challenges, plan our reading, and get ready for Bloggiesta (later in January) when we do blog makeovers.

One of my challenges is a Writing Challenge that you can find out about over at Creative Moments (now included in this site). I’ve posted my reading challenges at Curl up and Read.  In the writing challenge, we set our own goals and work on any aspect of writing…even editing.  So I will continue to work on the manuscript begun during NaNoWriMo. With 52,000 + words, I’m on my way.  I have ideas about where the story should go; then in one of the other rounds (yes, the challenge is divided up into “rounds”), I can begin the editing process.

So far, I’ve signed up for four reading challenges, and I’m thinking that I should stop.  But we’ll see how it goes.

I got a new Kindle for Christmas, so now I can begin to overcome the “overflowing bookshelves” issue!

What are you contemplating for the New Year?

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12-6-10:

NaNoWriMo is over, I entered the Winners’ Circle, and while my manuscript isn’t completed, I’d say that I’m closing in on a finish (of the first draft).

But I’m putting that aside for the month of December, with Christmas and all.

Yesterday found me out in the shops searching for bookshelves, as mine are overflowing and after I finish each book from my TBR piles, I find that they have no home!  I’ve been stacking them on a cart behind the TBR piles.  Totally unacceptable!

But alas, no bookshelves to find.  The ones I did see were too expensive.  I used to find great shelves in this one consignment shop; they were used, but had that “shabby chic” thing going for them.  But this shop apparently does not stock furniture much anymore.

As I was leaving, a woman who had heard me lamenting about the shelves made a couple of suggestions, but then went on to talk about how she had donated some of her books to a charity.

Which made me think.  I had been noticing that several of the books on my shelves are ones that I don’t even remember, and won’t read again.  So I started putting them in a box.  Soon I had a giant box full and had freed up four shelves!  Which I then proceeded to fill with my “stacked books.”  Now that shelf on the cart holds current magazines and looks so much better, plus the hallway shelves where the books now live look so much spiffier with “newer” books.  And there’s still room for more.

Isn’t it amazing what one can find when shopping? It wasn’t what I expected, but it cost less.  And I can write off a donation, too.

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11-4-10:

Today is my fourth day participating in National Novel Writing Month. The goal is to write 50,000 words by November 30.  Like most goals, I have managed to visualize it in chunks.  Bits and pieces.  For example, 1667 words per day.

So far, I have exceeded the daily goal each day.

Not that I will necessarily continue at this pace.  But I’m off to a good start.  I also plan to work longer and produce more on the weekend.  So that if I have a day when I want to slack off, I can do it.

I’m trying to keep up with other things, too, like some blogging and reading.  I’m currently reading a book called Bitter in the Mouth, which is intriguing.  Some parts of it are slow, but right now, I’m at a fascinating place in the story called Revelations.  I always enjoy the revelations in a story.  The secrets, if you will.

In the story I’m writing, I am expanding on a minor character in one of my previous books (Embrace the Whirlwind), and I’m enjoying deconstructing this rather unlikeable character to find out what makes her tick (and behave badly!).

Are you curious about why the people you meet behave the way they do? Do you wonder if some part of their history has contributed to this behavior?  Do you care?

These are things I’m reflecting about….

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REFLECTIONS