Share the Journey

G is for Goals (or Don’t Talk About It Be About It)

April 8, 2013 by ReeseRyan

At the end of 2011 I posted my goals for 2012…on my blog. Right there in the open for everyone to see. It was one of the most terrifying and exhilarating things I’d done, in terms of being open and putting myself completely out there. Later in the year I revisited those goals to see where I was.

Surprise, surprise! I accomplished, or began making headway, on many of the goals I established for myself and then shared with others. It worked so well, why not do it again? At least, that was the plan. But by the end of the year I was hard at work on many of those goals so I kept putting off setting my goals for 2013. While I am still busy working on many of the projects I set in motion in 2012, there are several other personal and career goals I want to achieve this year, but have yet to make any real progress. So, it seems it is time to stop tarrying and bring back the goal list. Below is a broad overview of my goals for 2013.

2013 Goals

Adopt a healthier lifestyle – Joined WeightWatchers today.
Make more time for family & friends
Complete two manuscripts
Edit two manuscripts
Search for agent representation
Publish two books – Already in motion w/ Carina Press
Join or start a group blog – Already in motion. Contemporary Romance Cafe launches May 1st.
Continue progress w/ education – Making excellent progress
Self-publish 1-2 pieces
Submit to at least four contests this year
Pursue freelance magazine writing opportunities
Make time to travel

It sounds like a lot (okay, it is a lot), but I believe it is doable. What about you? What are your goals for the rest of 2013?

D is for Determination #AtoZChallenge #BasketballTrickShotKid

April 4, 2013 by ReeseRyan

The video of this amazing little basketball prodigy, Titus, completely blew my mind. First I wondered if this was a series of camera tricks. When I realized it wasn’t, I wanted to scout this kid for my hometown Cleveland Cavaliers.

Titus is adorable, but he also reminds me of four important ingredients to success. Determination. Passion. Fun. The Right Team.

Determination

Merriam-Webster’s Collegiate Dictionary defines determination as, “Firm of fixed intention to achieve a desired end.” There’s no doubt that Titus is determined to reach his goal. This determination drives him forward. There’s no way the kid makes these crazy good shots without the hours of practice–which we don’t see— where the ball just won’t go in the basket. It’s on those days our determination to achieve our goals carries us through.

Passion

It’s not hard to spot the difference between an athlete that’s just dialing it in or working for a paycheck versus one who is fired up, completely consumed by her passion for her sport. We see this same difference in people we meet throughout our day–from the barista that made our double tall latte this morning to our doctor or child’s teacher. Having that same passion in our work and allowing it to fuel us on both good days and bad results in an end product that we can be proud of, and that end users–like readers–will truly enjoy.

Fun

It’s pretty obvious that little Titus is getting a kick of shooting the basket. We don’t see stage parents dragging the kid somewhere he doesn’t want to go, or threatening him if he doesn’t try one more time. Rather, we see the pure fun he’s having. He loves what he’s doing and he’s having a ball.

If we’re not careful, even our dream job can become a chore (ask any writer). So making it fun, and keeping it fun contributes to a better overall experience, and again has an impact on our final output.

The Right Team

Little Titus loves playing basketball, and his parents and siblings cheer him on fervently, and happily assist in doing what they can to help him get better. We don’t see his parents complaining because he wants to throw the ball one more time, or his siblings sulking in the corner because Titus is in the spotlight…yet again. Instead, they are there supporting him time and again, and show genuine elation each time he makes another basket.

Having the right people around us makes all the difference as we forge toward our goals. There will be some people in our lives who will always point out the negative or respond to good news with a telling “Hmm…” Distancing ourselves from those people physically isn’t always an option, however we can learn to minimize the impact we allow them to have in our lives and on our psyche. More importantly, we must find people who are supportive of our dreams and gravitate toward them.

Sometimes the right team is built piece by piece. The right coach here. The right trainer there. Then sometimes we’re lucky enough to find an entire group of supportive people–like the right critique group or writers’ association. When we find supportive people who are a joy to be around, and who want to see us achieve our goals as much as we want to see them achieve theirs things don’t get much better than that.

What goals are you determined to reach? What are you most passionate about? How have you built the right team?

Photo above captured from video below.

B is for Blogging #AtoZChallenge

April 2, 2013 by ReeseRyan

Despite my tendency to blog with great irregularity, the medium definitely appeals to me. However, I needed to rethink how and why I was blogging. This led to a few changes regarding where I was blogging.

So I forced myself to let go of a blog I’d long-held, but that didn’t necessarily serve my purpose anymore. Next, I committed to building my author blog here. The final piece–participating in other blogs–was a bit more complicated.

Guest blogging is a wonderful way to connect with readers, and fellow writers, especially for a debut author, so I’ve been making plans to do that and am truly excited about the invitations I’ve received to be a guest on some wonderful blogs. But I also wanted to be part of a group author blog.

There are lots of excellent group author blogs out there. But I couldn’t find anything that seemed quite the right fit. So it occurred to me that perhaps I should start one. I posed the idea of starting a group contemporary romance blog on the Carina Press author loop and discovered that many of my fellow authors were extremely interested and ready to become founding members.

The Contemporary Romance Café will be serving up contemporary romance from sweet to sizzling. The Café launches on May 1st, and I’m thrilled to be joining my fellow authors in the venture, and to invite some of my favorite contemporary romance authors as guests of the Café.

Are you a blogger? If so, how have your blogging goals changed or been refined? Please share your thoughts in the comments.

Contemporary Romance Cafe logo created by Amber Lin of Book Beautiful.

Video of the Week: Hot Soldiers Sing Call Me Maybe

February 22, 2013 by ReeseRyan

A super hot troop of soldiers in Afghanistan does their own rendition of “Call Me Maybe” by Carly Rae Jepson (a song I love unabashedly). Be warned: Belly laughs and fanning oneself will likely ensue.

Been having a rough week? Things will be looking up for the next three minutes, at a bare minimum.

You’re welcome.

Phenomenal Woman – That’s Me

February 21, 2013 by ReeseRyan

The beauty of a woman is not in the clothes she wears, the figure that she carries, or the way she combs her hair. The beauty of a woman must be seen from in her eyes, because that is the doorway to her heart, the place where love resides.

~ Sam Levenson

I’ll admit with a bowed head that I haven’t given as much attention to poetry, as a genre, as I should. Yet there are a few poems that were so inspiring that they’ve stayed with me and I often draw strength from them. One such poem is the powerful ode to women written by Maya Angelou, “Phenomenal Woman.” It is a gorgeous, lyrical poem that celebrates what makes a woman truly beautiful. When I heard about the Beauty of a Woman Blogfest, via writer Misty Dietz, I knew I had to be part of it.

The Beauty of a Woman Blogfest, hosted by August McLaughlin, is designed to celebrate our vastly diverse definitions of what makes a woman beautiful. The blogfest is inspired by a poem by Sam Levenson of the same name, with which I wasn’t familiar, but is now among my favorites. My focus for this post is Levenson’s words above.

We can all appreciate the outer beauty of a woman who is pleasing to the eye because she meets the “traditional” standard of beauty. However, while people are drawn to a pretty face, it isn’t enough to make them hang around. Rather, it is a beauty that resides much deeper within that draws us to people and makes us want to stick to them, love them, and support them. A beauty of spirit.

I’ve been fortunate to know many amazing women in my life who are truly, and deeply beautiful. Women who offer to hop a plane and support me through an emotional crisis, even when doing so creates a hardship for her. Women who don’t except my dutiful responses to tough questions, and support me even when they don’t like my honest answer. Women who see what is truly amazing about me, even when I’ve lost sight of it myself.

That is what makes a woman–a girlfriend, a sister, a mother, a fellow writer–truly beautiful.

Having such beautiful women in my life makes me a better person, one who wants to support other women in the same way. So thank you to all of the phenomenal women in my life, and to those who support women everywhere.

As for Maya Angelou’s poem, “Phenomenal Woman,” no-one could render her words quite like the woman herself. Enjoy!

For the Love of Chocolate

February 7, 2013 by ReeseRyan

Recently I dropped by a wonderful little chocolatiers in Cary, North Carolina–Chocolate Smiles. The chocolate is scrumptious and the folks who run it are delightful. On this trip I snagged the amaretto chocolate swirl fudge, GQ’s (the hubs) favorite. I also picked up milk chocolate-covered cashews, and peppermint bark (theirs is amazing). Every morsel was rich, melt-in-your-mouth, where-you-been-all-my-life, otherworldly deliciousness. But as much as I love their orgasmically-good chocolates, there is something I look forward to even more when I visit–browsing the gift shop.

I love their sense of humor, and the following finds from this week, illustrate why.

Is there a locally-owned shop in your town that always makes you smile?

Starting to Feel Real

September 18, 2012 by ReeseRyan

I’ve been walking around suspended somewhere between joy and disbelief, as if waiting to be awakened from my dream. It’s a bad habit that simply refuses to die.

So whenever someone says, “You must be thrilled about getting published,” I nod and force a smile while holding my breath. But recently, I finally released that breath and grinned. It suddenly became very real. A member of one of my online writing groups forwarded me a copy of the acquisition announcement from Publishers Lunch:

[Reese Ryan’s] TOO GOOD TO BE TRUE, in which a woman’s new job means she must return to her Cleveland hometown, where she finds herself torn between the philanthropist whose secret past she may not be able to overcome, and the ex-bad boy from her hometown, who’s newly single and may be her only chance at saving her career, to Angela James of Carina Press, in a two-book deal, for publication in 2013 (world). September 17, 2012.

Then I saw this awesome tweet by Angela James:

[blackbirdpie url=”https://mobile.twitter.com/angelajames/statuses/248151606242197504″]

(RaleighRoxStar is my old Twitter handle.)

Yep, things are starting to feel pretty real. Feels good.

Photo courtesy of Cyberslayer. Some rights reserved.

The One I Want

September 7, 2012 by ReeseRyan

The past month has been one filled with activity and excitement. One submission of my manuscript led to another, and another. I still had a few queries out to agents for my manuscript. However, I spent the past month focused on submissions to digital-first publishers.

I haven’t given up on finding an agent, and subsequently, a traditional publisher. And I know I have only submitted queries to a handful of agents thus far. But in light of the rapid changes in the publishing world and the encouraging success of many self-published authors (including a few in my local RWA chapter), I wanted to explore digital-first publishing. It’s a choice I’m glad I made.

Over the past month I submitted to five e-publishers: Entangled, Entranced, Carina Press, Crimson, and Red Sage. The results? Two rejections, one request to turn up the heat level and resubmit, and two offers. Not bad, methinks.

I thought long and hard about my two choices. I obsessively researched both options. I talked to amazingly generous authors about their digital publishing experience. All of which confirmed the choice my gut had already made. So I’m thrilled to announce that I’ve accepted a two-book deal from Carina Press–Harlequin’s digital-first imprint.

One of the most enticing prospects about working with Carina Press is the prospect of working with Executive Editor, Angela James, (who made “the call” herself). She’s passionate, knowledgeable, no nonsense, and high-energy. I took her amazing “Before You Hit Send” a year or so ago and it helped me improve my manuscript and become a better writer. I’m thrilled to have her team behind this project.

I’m nervous, but excited about my journey to publication. In fact, I don’t think I’ve really taken the time to breathe and savor this first step yet. Maybe I’ll do that next.