yet again...

Sorry to say I have to go on another hiatus.  Not sure how long this one will be.  I'm hoping to be back to it by the end of summer, but I have to get caught up on some personal stuff.

I'll keep reading your blogs.  Write well.

Megan.

Behind

Time to make myself accountable for the things I've fallen behind on during this busy, crazy, frustrating summer.  Of course, these are only my writing goals for the near future, the life stuff will have to fit in there between the cracks.

Three book reviews

Writing on the dystopian, Finding Nirvana, and another edit of Cheesy

Catching up in my critique group

Reading a couple more books for review

Filming a new author video

Sad to say that after I finish these last few book, I will only be doing reviews on a limited basis.  I've just been too busy as of late to keep up.  You can always still ask, just know, you may receive a "no". sigh.

Ciao,

Megan

Muses

A lot of friends have mentioned their muses the last couple days, so I thought I would really sit and ponder where my motivation comes from.

I've always said that my craft mostly reflects life.  Sometimes I get story ideas from my own experiences, or base characters on people I know, myself included, but I need more than that.

The weather.  I know, it's crazy, but the weather has an effect on my mood.  I've always said I write better when I'm my most angsty, but thinking on it, that's not necessarily true.  I also write well when the sun is shining, it's just different.  I don't use as much emotion, I use more energy.  So this kind of yin yang weather thing is definitely a muse for me.

Music.  I cannot listen to music when I write.  I have to have things perfectly quiet and still.  However, music does pop into my head during certain scenes, and in my novel Mending Fences, and now in my WIP Finding Nirvana, music plays a major role.  When I was writing, the second novel I ever wrote, Dena Powers: The Trouble with Boys, there was one scene in which Snow Patrol's Chasing Cars kept popping into my head, urging me along.  Most the time the music is alternative or Indie because those songs just seem to speak to me.

My emotions.  As I said before, the weather directly effects my moods, and my different emotions help me to write in a variety of different ways.  I actually prefer to write when I'm miserable.  I just think I write better when I'm brooding, but there's something to be said for happiness too.

I suppose if my muse took form, this is what she'd look like (and do not make fun of my drawing).

So tell me, how does your muse take form?

How Facebook Ruins Relationships

Okay, I never do this, because I mostly think he's an idiot, but I watched Dr. Phil yesterday because it was all about how social networking distracts relationships.

This has been an issue with my husband and I for a couple years now, and while I admit, during the first ABNA contest I got a little too caught up in the forum, now I mostly (yes mostly, but not entirely) use social networking for just that, networking.

And yes, perhaps I was caught up with Facebook when I first joined, but you could ask any of my Facebook friends now and they will say, Megan is hardly ever on their anymore.

There was a woman and her husband on the show, and she spent more time with Facebook than she did with them.  They were like strangers living under the same roof.  That said, it's obvious that there were problems before the Facebook, and this is the reason why she turned to social networking in the first place.  Something lacking at home, making her turn to others.

The show wasn't just about that, it was also about how men will use Facebook to "hook up".  One guy, who wasn't really all that, said he finds women to hook up about three times a week and his goal is to sleep with 13,000 women.  Ew. Why?  So anyway, protect your daughters people.  They are some strange people in the social networking world.

I also read a book about Facebook addiction, which I will be reviewing some time in the near future.  It gave people's stories about how their addiction ruined their life.  While the stories were all fiction, I do believe the social networking can cause problems for people in their relationships and their work if taken too far.

What do you think?  Do you think social networking has the capability of destroying relationships?

Ciao, 

Megan

In honor of the Spanish National Team.

I totally forgot to blog Friday.  Man, life has been busy lately which I'll discuss another time.

In honor of the Spanish National Team's win over the Netherlands yesterday, I was going to list some interesting facts about Spain, but I got bored looking, so I'll just say, congrats, your team is smoking hot, in more ways than one, I'll miss the World Cup, I will not miss the vuvuzela.

I'll also just tell you some things I know about Spain off the top of my head. 

The World Cup soccer team is hot except for that defender with the long stringy hair.

When I was in high school we had an exchange student from Barcelona who was in love with me, which was awkward because I was dating one of his exchange student friends.

Spain is in Europe.

The rain in Spain stays mainly in the plain.

Salvador Dali is one of my favorite artists and it was amazing to see his originals up close and personal at the Vatican Museum.

Selma Hayek vs Penelope Cruz = Hayek wins every time.

Yep, that's about the sum of it meaning, I really know nothing about Spain.  Maybe next time US or Italy can win it.

Ciao,

Megan