J. L. is a landlocked beach bum, living in a small, rural town near Nashville, Tennessee; where she was born and raised. She loves taking road trips just as long as that road winds up taking her to the beach. As a lefty, her earliest memories are of trying art in some form or other. She settled on writing and was hooked from an early age. Yet, it doesn’t come easy. As a child, J.L. spoke, as well as wrote backwards. Her mind is like a mirror, writing from right to left. Turning letters backwards as well. She’s been told it’s some form of dyslexia, but she takes it as just another aspect of who she is. She’s a voracious reader of most fiction with murder, mystery, and suspense among her favorites. She also loves literary works like, Victorian literature; Rebecca by Daphne du Maurier and The Moonstone by Wilkie Collins. J.L. prefers noir films, like the Thin Man series, Maltese Falcon, and Casablanca; and her all-time favorite; Alfred Hitchcock’s 1940 version of Rebecca. J. L. can be found most days writing, editing, and writing book reviews. When she’s not working she’s spending time with her family.
I’m working on the last chapter of book two in my Diamond Series. (Happy Dance). But, I can’t stop thinking about my husband’s comment that I’m procrastinating about finishing the book.
If you’re a Mike & Molly fan, then you saw the last episode where Molly hurried down the stair, waving her manuscript in the air, yelling “yeah, I finished.” And Mike, her mother, and step-dad just grunted. As the scene continues we find that she just finished her manuscript for the 4th time.
Her mother gets the champagne out, and her step-dad makes a smart-alec remark about adding an erotic scene, and Molly gets a new idea, rushes back upstairs and begins writing again. Just a few scenes later, she’s finished once more, but hesitates to send it in. Mike takes matters into his own hands and emails the fifth finished product to her publisher.
While I’m not that bad, I do take more time writing a book than I’d like. It’s been almost a year since I began writing book two. Now in my defense, I do have a day job, and am a freelance editor. I write book reviews, take care of my guy. (Hey, you don’t know just how much I have to do to keep him happy Not talking about in the bedroom either). Not to mention the weekends where our son is home (bachelor) and help my widower dad with Sunday dinner. Weekends are mostly family time so writing is limited.
A pattern is emerging. I have no problem setting aside time to grade college essays or edit manuscripts, or write book reviews, or even keep up with my blogs. But, I have a hard time blocking out time each day to write.
Now that I see the pattern I’m setting up for myself, I’m working on changing it. I plan to write every day, I mean week day, and get in some time on most Saturday mornings as well, since my guy works half a day. I made myself just relax yesterday. I kind of panicked, but, I figure that I didn’t really have to begin editing a manuscript that just came in or do a second read on a manuscript that I sent back to an author.
I already had ideas written on paper to add to book two, and instead of spreading myself too thin, working seven days a week, I took a break. I may not do that every week, but this morning I’m on track with working on book two. I have been writing this morning, and though it feels strange, I normally grade papers on Mondays, but classes just began so no grading until next week.
Yes, I took a break to during lunch to get this out, and I’ll do a little advertising as well. But then, I’m back to writing for the day.
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