This blog is about random things in my life, I like to talk and I like to share my opinion (whether asked for or not) and this seems like the best place for those quirky random fleeting thoughts!
Now that my daughter visits the school library with her class I have little say in what she brings home, all I can hope for is that she is happy with her choice. Sometimes I wonder how she ends up with the books she brings home... was it purely based on the cover picture... did the mom helping out that day ask her about her interests... are they only allowed to choose from a limited selection? (Keep in mind she is 5yrs old.)
She's allowed to bring home 3 books every week, and with enthusiasm we read one per night, then revert back to our home collection for the other 4 night time stories a week. Unfortunately, often, the books don't send the message I hoped. I'm not looking for profound child philosophy, but more so a nice simple way to explain life to my child. I noticed this last year at her Dutch school, and thought maybe the problem was my Dutch language skills, that I was picking the wrong books. But I'm seeing the same problem at her new English speaking school.
Let me give you an example. (I only chose these because she recently checked them out.)
The Trouble with Dogs - the book starts out great, the family has a naughty dog and they want to do something about it. They hire someone to come in and teach the dog standard commands, and he is fairly successful. The family then thinks these rules have sucked the fun out of the dog and decide to quit with the lessons. Now what exactly is this teaching my child? To give up? That animals don't need to be trained? That's not how things work in our house.
Eat Your Peas - ah, finally book to help my daughter realize how important it is to eat her vegetables. Oh, not quite. After multiple tantrums and endless unneeded promises/rewards from the parent the child turns the table and suggests that the mom eats her brussels sprouts. How did it end? Neither one ate their vegetables! What is this teaching my child? Bribes are an option? Back talk is o.k.? That if you flip out long enough mom will give up?
I'm not putting down the authors, I find writing children's book to be quite difficult. It has to be simple, light hearted, and yet still send a good message, and hopefully a laugh along the way. I'm more so just wondering why they ended the way they did. I feel in life, if you don't like it, don't subject yourself to it. (This goes way beyond books.) But see, like I said, I don't have a choice in the books she happily brings home. At least they opened up a good conversation, about how things work different in every home, and how things work in our home.
It wasn't just these books.... last year I remember checking out a book to help her get through nightmares. What happens? The tough kid gets scared, the book is full of scary drawings, and inevitably just upset her more. There was also the book about feeling left out and making friends, in the end it offered no real solution a child could relate to. I checked out a book about bullying, and again there was no real message by the end of the book. It makes me wish I could write my own children's books, but like I mentioned, it's harder than you think.
Maybe I'm wishing she brought home fables... maybe I should pre-screen the books better... or maybe authors should think about the end result. Again, I'm not bashing anyone, just raising awareness. Any of you run into these issues?
Recently I was contacted by Anne, from over at Nearly Irish, wondering if I would be interested in participating in the #mywritingprocess blog tour.
First off, who's Anne? She is an expat like myself, but instead of being an American living in The Netherlands, she's French and living in Ireland. And she does a brilliant job of blogging in English even though it's not her native language (big pat on the back, I wouldn't dare blog in Dutch, ha-ha)! Also like myself, her blog isn't just about being an expat, it's about being integrated into a foreign country due to the extent of time abroad. Be sure to pop over and give her blog a read.
Second, what is the #mywritingprocess blog tour? It's a way for bloggers to explain just how they come up with the great material they pump out on a weekly basis. And it can even go beyond blogging, because I'm sure a lot of bloggers are just writers in general, so there are possible manuscripts, poems, articles, etc. going on in the background. And of course it's a way to spread the word about your blog as well as learning about other interesting blogs.
So here goes, 4 simple questions :
1) What am I working on?
I write nearly every day, sometimes it's blog posts and sometimes it's a story. When it comes to blogging I write about events/topics as they happen or refer to the drafts I generally I keep on the back burner for the weeks when I have little content. When it comes to my stories (manuscripts - yet most of them are short and not finished) I have weeks when I am working on the same one and then times when I skip around between drafts, depends mostly on my creative flow.
2) How does my work differ from others of its genre?
The best part of my blog is that you (and I) never know what I'll blog about next. I feel this is what makes my blog different. One day I could be posting about clothing and the next crime. And I also have a love for photography, so I like to incorporate my own photos into the blog. As far as my stories, well, I'm not sure what makes me different because I've never dared try to publish any of my work. All I know is that the stories keep coming to my head and it's been like this my entire life. Somewhere inside I have a natural gift of creating characters and story lines, I now just need to find a way to hone in on that and turn it into something I can share with others. (But to be honest, I'm also happy just writing for myself.)
3) Why do I write what I do?
Blogging helps me get out all of the the nagging thoughts that I want to share with people. Sometimes I want people to understand you can live a normal life abroad, that it's possible to be integrated and a foreigner at the same time. I also blog because I love spreading the word (good or bad), so if there is a product, company, movie, store, etc I (dis)like, I want to let everyone know. I'm always looking for tips, so why not share my knowledge. My stories (books) are different, I tend to write action romance. I'm a sucker for a good romance, but not the boring ones. (Think of Die Hard mixing with The Notebook, ha-ha, I wish!) And in order to keep my creative side interested I hop all over the place time period wise, from medieval times to the future.
4) How does my writing process work?
Unfortunately the process is my downfall. My blog explains it all, random, random, random. I wish I could tell you I sit down and write out a good outline before I get started. If I could just get myself to do this I might actually be a published author by now. Whether it's my blog or my stories, I write what comes to mind at that moment. Sure I make notes here and there, but that's mostly because I don't have the time to write just then or maybe I have a goal and don't want to forget it. (When you write like I do, you get side tracked easily... in general I get side tracked easily, it's a personality thing.) The problem with being creative is you never know when it will hit you; being a stay-at-home mom I don't have the time to write whenever, so generally I stick to mornings when my kid is at school for my blog, and evenings for my stories (keeping in mind my husband also deserves some of my time. Oh yeah, and the dog & house, ha-ha!) The time I allot also varies, blog posts can take 15-30 minutes, and my stories, well, before my daughter came along I was writing roughly 20-40 hrs a week, and now in 30 min spurts here and there!
As mentioned, it's a tour, so of course the torch has to be passed on. I follow lots of different blogs, so I figured I would pick two completely different bloggers to keep this tour alive on July 21st.
- When looking for a fun blog with lots of blog parties, one blogger stuck out, Paula from Sincerely Paula. She maintains a lifestyle blog, but to be honest I love visiting for the blog hops. It's a guaranteed place to meet other bloggers as well as exposing my own material. She's also known for her Pinterest addiction, ha-ha (we've all been there, right?)
- When looking for posts that will get my brain churning, another blogger stood out, Karen from My Own Mind. She often talks about homeschooling and/or being Atheist, and now her blog has shifted a little since her return to The States from Australia. I enjoy the way she can get people riled up and talking, it never hurts to challenge someones point of view and open a discussion.
Please do yourself a favor and check all of the mentioned blogs, and if you're interested in the #mywritingprocess blog tour but haven't been asked to participate, send me an email!
Yes, I am actually writing about something other than our vacation!
I've probably mentioned it a gazillion times but I write stories as a hobby. I never really thought much of it until I dared let someone read a few of the books I was working on at the time. To my surprise they found them interesting and said I should do something with my manuscripts. Here it is at least 4 yrs later, and I am still talking about getting published one day but haven't dared to actually take the step. Every once in a while I take a good chunk out of my schedule to research my options and find answers to my looking concerns.
Is it better to go straight to the publisher or via an agent?
Which agents actually want what material?
Do I need an editor? And if so, which type?
These are pretty tough questions (and costly) when you're dealing with a piece of amateur work, that means something to you. A book that you don't want someone to steal by sending it to the wrong person. A book that you're not sure is good enough to handle true market feedback.
In the past I barely read books, besides being a time thing, I didn't want someone else's work to influence mine (movies do enough of that). But then I decided I needed to understand what I was up against and if my work was even comparable. And I must say there is just a lot on the market, all types of books, and I think I might have a chance somewhere on the rung of published authors.
I recently contacted quite a few agencies and authors, curious about their take on editors. Only 3 out of the 13 literary agencies I contacted actually responded. 2 couldn't really help and referred me to Google and 1 offered in-house editing at $225 p/h. (I'm an amateur author, I don't have that kind of money!) 3 out of the 8 authors I contacted replied (it's nice to know we're all willing to help each other out). So far the feedback has varied, and so far only 1 out of the 3 actually used an editor.
Do any of you have any experience with editors? Or manuscript publishing? Have any advice for a newbie?
The other day while watching The X Factor I made an interesting discovery. There I sat thoroughly enjoying a ballad (great job Danie, even if they did vote you off) when it hit me which song the girl was singing... Wrecking Ball by Miley Cyrus. It was too late I had already opened my mouth and announced to my husband that I liked the song, and we both burst out laughing when we realized it was a Miley Cyrus song! But I must admit, even though she's having a Britney-Spears-lost-her-mind moment, the song is good. The song only, not the video, or all the other antics she's up to! Sometimes it takes someone else covering a number to open your eyes and ears to a decent song. To be honest, I probably never would have given the song a chance... and it's easily avoidable considering I rarely listen to the radio or watch music videos. So I guess, thank you X Factor, because I've listened to the song over and over again.
Besides Miley Cyrus' new number there's also another decent ballad in the charts right now, a nice surprise... Rihanna's Stay with Mikky Ekko. Rihanna seems to be able to do it all, dance numbers and touching ballads, did you know she already has 12 #1 hits!
So what's on my playlist these days besides Wrecking Ball & Stay... other numbers I can't get enough of right now and you should definitely give a chance... Bruno Mars : When I Was Your Man and Pink & Nate Ruess : Just Give Me A Reason and some older ones... Plain White T's : Hey There Delilah and Radiohead : Creep My playlists are generally highly influenced by one of two things, exercising or writing, and right now I'm working on a romance novel so my playlist is full of emotional ballads at the moment. What's on your playlist these days?
If you're interested in what other music inspires me in my day to day life or hobbies, check out old Music Moment posts!
Wow, it's been 2 years since I let you all into the quirky world of Danica's Thoughts!! Like any blog there have been ups and downs... times when I managed to pop out 20 posts in a month (October 2012) and even times when I considered ending the blog. You have seen my huge collection of Wordless Wednesdays (75 and counting) and you have read my endless comparisons of The States versus The Netherlands. Who knows what comes next, but as of now, I am still happy sharing my journey through life with you and showing you how normal & abnormal living abroad can be. That's just it, my blog is random, I don't focus on being an expat, a woman, or a mom, I talk about many aspects of a life. I appreciate you peaking into my world, and letting me into yours. No matter the walk of life, we all have something to share!
Here's a look back at some of my favorite posts :)
These are just a handful of posts from 2011 & 2012, so far there have been 302 posts since I started this blog!!!
Thank you for all of your support & comments, whether you're one of the 66 Google Friend Connect followers, one of the 34 Bloglovin' followers, or even just someone stopping by, it's the readers that make this blog possible!
Music can influence peoples lives, and activities. We use music to inspire us, to make us happy, to make us remember, to make us dance, the list goes on and on. In previous Music Moments posts, I was sure to let you know what was playing around our house at that time, or even what I was using to motivate myself during exercise. This post is similar, but I'm not going to delve into the tunes filling our heads at this moment. This post is about a small phase I went through a couple months back, I wouldn't say I'm embarrassed just saying it was unusual for me. Here goes, I went through a short country music phase, there I said it. For those who know me, well, they know country music isn't really my thing, as a teen I would cringe when I heard it. But now as an adult I am a lot more open and occasionally I actually hear songs I like when I give them a chance. Now, in most of my Music Moments posts I'll mention what I am listening to while writing, whether writing a blog post or a fictional story you can basically say I write most days of the week. This is actually how I stumbled into this country music phase. I was working on a love story (all of my stories are love stories, but not your typical mushy romance novels) and one of the main characters happened to be southern. So to put myself in the right mood, I decided to get my hands on some country music. Obviously since I don't listen to country I have no idea what is considered good these days, but I do know what was considered good years ago. Don't laugh, because I ended up with the strangest combination... Johnny Cash, Reba McEntire, Tim McGraw, & Garth Brooks. But it worked, it helped me to put myself creatively and imaginatively in a southern town with thick accents all around, helping the story feel more realistic. Then I ended up planning a trip, back in March, to visit my grandmother in Tennessee, so this sort-of continued the country phase. Luckily, because there are limited radio stations an hour outside of Nashville. Turns out country music is different these days, it almost leans more towards pop than drawn out sad ballads. There were even a few songs I could bounce my head to, but I must say I have no idea who the artist was and I probably never will. For now, the country phase is finished, I'm on to the next story (I have a lot of unfinished stories) and this one needs dubstep and not country.
(For those of you who do thoroughly enjoy country music, like my grandmother, I'm not putting it down, so please don't misunderstand me. Whether I enjoy it or not doesn't mean I do not appreciate the talent.)
