Monday, July 28, 2014

Getting Back To Writing

  This week I’m getting back on track. At least I hope. I’ve let my writing go to the wayside, and I’m not liking myself very much because of it. Have you ever had so much going on that you let something you enjoy get abandoned?

  Over the past few months I’ve been extremely busy. I’ve had to put my writing to the side for a paying job! When I get to finally sit down at night I can’t concentrate on putting coherent words on paper. This week I aim to change that. I’ve had enough. To me writing is like a drug. If I don’t get my fix, my pages, I start to shake. I get grumpy. I feel for those who have to be around me. Well, you get what I’m saying.

  I'm writing a New Adult Contemporary Romance. I saw a couple of publisher that look for stories of 40,000 words, so I thought what the heck. Now, I’ve never read a NACR that was that few words, but I thought I’d give it a chance. The odd thing is that I didn’t have references to people, no pictures, no storyboard. I was almost winging the story as I wrote it.

  Fortunately for me I haven’t got too far into the novel yet. My thought process is almost complete though. I believe my beginning is good. I just may have to tweak a couple areas. Finally I also have some pictures to go along with these characters in my head.

  For a little info about this title-less book…
Meet Raven and Nate.

  Raven Alexander is America’s sweetheart. She sang and danced her way into their lives at the age of 17. Now, 4 years later, it appears to everyone she is at the top of her career. Unfortunately for Raven she can’t escape the memories of an accident that took her best friends life, and injured her sister, a few months earlier. Suffering from exhaustion and depression Raven escapes to her sister Jessica’s house, leaving her career up in the air. Jessica is the one who can help Raven become whole again. She’s done it her whole life, and Raven is counting on her for it now.
Raven has a new habit.

  Everything changes when Raven she sees her sister talking with a gorgeous man every morning on the beach. When she finally meets this man, Nate, they are drawn together in ways Raven has never experienced. Between her own struggles and trying to figure out the secrets why Nate keeps her at arm’s length, the person of Raven’s nightmares reappears. When everyone’s lives are at risk can Raven and Nate pull out of their own despair to save each other?  

Can they heal each other?

  I know it’s a little rough. Well, really, really, rough, but you will forgive me, right? ;) I have started a board for this book on Pinterest titled New Book. You can follow along as I add to their story here,http://pinterest.com/kellyryanwatson .

  Do you put things you love to the side when life gets too hectic? Does the synopsis sound okay so far? With that short bit can you come up with a title? I’m open for suggestions peeps! :)


  
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Thursday, July 24, 2014

Summer Athletes

      We have made it to the heat of the summer, or most of us have anyways. In a phone conversation with my mother today I wonder if Western NY has hit summer at all. I got the chills just listening to what the projected temperatures were going to be. Brrr. Then I stepped outside here and forgot all about being cold. :)

       It got me thinking... I used to love all sorts of summertime sports. Of course growing up where the summers are cooler aided with that, because it never seemed to be too hot to play. Now though, sigh, now I never even contemplate going outside in the summertime to play... anything! 

       Being the good, kind, giving person that I am though, I have gone above and beyond to bring you all some who do enjoy the summer sports. I tried to cover as many as I could. Let's see, shall we start out with baseball? Why not. Here we have CJ Wilson, who also served as the face of my hero in my second book, Autumn's Whisper.

      Of course baseball is a gimme. Let's dive a little deeper into the sports world, shall we? Oh, what a pun on words. Next I bring you beach volleyball. 

      Well, he technically isn't on the beach in that pic, but normally he is. Trust me! Let's see, what other sport can I bring you? Oh yes, the World Cup just finished up, didn't it? It was hard to not watch when you had guys like this to watch...

      I took more interest in soccer than I ever had before. ;) Oh yes, one more overlooked summer sport... Swimming. 

      How could I overlook swimming? Well, just because I almost forgot that one I, in my big heart, will give you one more.

      Okay, so he may not be a real life professional athlete, but does it really matter?

      Has your summer been hot or a little chilly? Did I succeed in making it a little hotter? What summertime sports do you participate in?
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Monday, July 21, 2014

Shopping Specialty Stores


            And let me tell you one of the reasons I hate getting a new computer…

Where is this program? How do I find that? What happened to the files I just transferred? UGH. But that isn’t what this rant is about. Nope. I’m not going to whine and complain about my new computer. I want to talk to you about something else. Like maybe a place where I bought said computer, or something even more specific. 

            Specialty stores.

            Since moving to the SAV we’ve had many visitors. And it seems that with each visitor we must stop at each and every specialty store there is here. You know, one of those so special that you only see them when you’re not looking? Yea. One of those. First let’s start out with…

            The Salt Table. I’m not a huge salt person, but something about that place called to me. Plus I had read a friends book that involved a little girl infatuated with a particular salt in a store. A Himalayan pink salt. Of course the Salt Table has his salt, plus many, many more. One friend that visited even bought the Himalayan pink salt slab, a piece of thick salt that you can cook on. What I like in this store is not the salt, but the teas and seasonings they carry. The last trip in I bought a Savannah blend black tea that is phenomenal when chilled. J

            The last visitors did some major shopping the last day they were here. First we hit the salt store, then we hit another one of Savannah’s specialty stores, The Savannah Bee Company. This store specializes in all things honey, from raw, to Meade, to lip balm. There are many samples to be had, from wildflower to tupelo to blueberry. Needless to say I didn’t buy anything at that store. Why? They sell the honey in about a 50 lb. bottle. Okay, so maybe I’m a wee bit melodramatic, but honestly, how much honey could one use? It would go bad before I could use 12-16 oz. of honey?

            Don’t get me wrong, I love specialty stores. They are interesting, and I love a persons drive and desire to make something so unique work. But did you ever notice that you really don’t need anything from that specialty store until you go into it? Or do you? I wasn’t really thinking about cupcakes until I wrote those last sentences. J

            Do you have any specialty stores near you? Are you into the many varieties of salt? What is one store you won’t visit?

           
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Thursday, July 17, 2014

Hot And Cold


The door opened and her foot landed on the hard grey concrete. The rest of her body stepped out from the house. Within an instant she felt a slap across her face. Beads of perspiration instantly formed on her lightly tanned skin. The slap had her reeling. She immediately stepped back into the comforts of her home, closed and locked the door, and tried to gulp in a deep breath. She raised her shaky hand to wipe her forehead and muttered the words, “Thank the good Lord for air conditioning!”

  The slap across her face, also known as the humid heat, had her shaking her head in disbelief. She kicked off her sneakers, walked back into the living room, and tried to ignore the looks her dogs were giving her. “What? It’s too damned hot!” She gave each of them a kiss, and set out to start her work for the day. The errands she planned on running could wait until later, although she knew it would not be cooler later. This would be the best she could get for the day. Heck, this would be the best she would get for a couple of months.

  Her “Inspiration Room,” as she called it was waiting for her to start her day. It was a small sunroom. Two out of three walls were windows overlooking the large back yard. She closed the French doors and took in her surroundings. There was a futon, for the few times more than a couple of people visited, a small television that was never turned on, a glass table that she couldn’t part with during the last move, and her small wooden desk. Of course there were bookshelves lined with all sorts of books. Her escape. She stepped to the desk. Her palms rested against the wood surface. Outside, what was normally a sea of green, her yard, was now brown due to a lackluster amount of rainfall over the past couple of months. Out further the plants around the potting shed had a little life to them thanks to the rain barrel they had put back there when they fixed it up. Even now that was almost bone dry. 

  She looked down onto her desk and frowned at the landscape design she had started a while back. Every day she moved it to put her laptop there. At the end of every day she would put it back, thinking tomorrow would be the day she would finish it. “I can’t plant it now anyways, it’s too damn HOT,” she whispered.

  Her fingers refused to move against the keys. Her mind wandered back in time to her childhood and early adult years. It was a different time, and completely different place. It wasn’t the hot she worried about there. It was the long, frigid, snow filled winters. When she was a child she never worried about those winters. As an adult, however, the season grew longer and longer by the year. It almost became a depression for her. Finally, she packed her bags and headed south. A slow smile came to her face. “It was just too damn cold...for way too long!” Her words made her laugh. She took in her surroundings once more, inhaled the cool, refreshing air, and started typing.

Does your area stifle you with heat or chill you with cold? Are you a hot or cold weather person? Have you ever moved to get away from certain weather, or weather conditions? What’s your preference, the beach or the mountains? Winter or summer?  
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Monday, July 14, 2014

Please to Forgive?

      My computer is on its last leg, so I'm hoping to get a short, short blog in. To prove how short I'm talking take a look at this. 

      Okay, okay. So maybe that was a little lame. Well, to prove myself even more I give you this as a peace offering...


      Yes, I did just give you the one and only David Gandy. Good golly I love that man. 

      And I do have to go now, because I don't trust this computer to last much longer. I did buy a new one today, Sunday, but Blogger is never easy to get along with, and I can't access everything I need with them. Hopefully Thursday's blog will be brought to you by the new touch screen laptop. And maybe it will involve a story about how technologically inept I am. :)

      When did you last buy a computer? Do you panic at deadlines? If Mr. Gandy doesn't do it for you, who does?
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Thursday, July 10, 2014

Meet the Griswold's

            My second family left Wednesday after visiting for a few days. This is the family that told us to visit Rockport when we were in Maine. So we did, but the Maine Rockport was not what we were looking for, or what they were talking about. Then it comes out they were talking about Rockport, Massachusetts. Close, but not quite. I don’t know how that got cornfused, but it did. It all worked out though.

            This is the family that we commonly refer to as the Griswold’s. If you’ve ever seen any of the National Lampoon movies then you know the luck the Griswold family. My second family has that sort of luck. They’re one of those-if some funky stuff can happen to us it will- sorts of families. For example, the morning of their flight out they woke up to a text stating their flight had been cancelled. Thank you, Jet Blue. What a lovely way to wake someone up. Wednesday they left to fly back home. Shortly thereafter I received a text from them stating their flight was delayed. Griswold’s.

            While visiting we went to Tybee Island. Who doesn’t want to spend time on a beach? Half of the Griswold clan, apparently. One of them doesn’t like sand. She’s the only person I know that can take her shoes off, let the water hit her toes, and then she tastes sand in her mouth. Go figure. Three of us had a blast in the water while the other two decided to shop. All of us lathered up in sun block. All of us missed spots, like whole backs, shoulders, feet. Are you starting to get the idea here?

            We took a vacation with them a couple of years ago to the Smoky Mountains. We rented one of those beautiful log cabins. Upon entering we realized we didn’t have running water. That lasted for six hours.

            There are other instances of how bad luck follows this family around, but I don’t want to overwhelm you, or make you think I’m making this all up. Trust me, even the best of imaginations couldn’t make this up! J

            If it weren’t for bad luck would you have any luck? Do you or your family have Griswold incidences? Do you like beaches and sand?

You can also find me at:
http://pinterest.com/kellyryanwatson
http://facebook.com/kellyryanwatson
or
http://instagram.com/saltlifekelly

               
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Monday, July 7, 2014

Absorbing Nature

  Sometimes it is so easy to get caught up in the hustle and bustle of the day. We all have our routines and schedules that keep us on the move. Throw a kid or two into the mix and it seems one scrambles to find just a minute of peace and quiet. In that minute what do you do? What is it that you crave for just a minute or two of?

  For the last week here in North Carolina it has been extremely humid. That translates into afternoon thunderstorms. My once empty rain barrel is now overflowing with nature’s juice, and my plants are happy once again. But that rain does something to my mojo. It throws off my day and leaves me scrambling for the next item on the list of things to do. That to-do list seems to get longer and longer. The end is nowhere in sight.

  The last few weeks have been very hectic in Kelly’s world. Many times I’m still working on that said to-do at nine at night. I cannot tell you the last time I sat down and had a good long writing session. Most nights I’m lucky to come up with a paragraph or two before my brain shuts down.

 Today was different. The skies turned gray and thunder rumbled off in the distance. It was only a matter of time before the afternoon storm rolled through. But today I changed my routine. I made myself sit and not do. The Charmed One and I sat out on our front porch. We just sat. We relaxed and watched the rain fall. The tall pines swayed with the wind. Leaves of plants drooped from the initial heaviness of the raindrops only to perk back up again as the droplet fell and disappeared into the ground below. It was nice to just sit, to absorb.

  Four feet away from my chair is a hummingbird feeder. Yesterday it was nearly empty, so I replenished their sweet concoction. I thought it strange because I had just cleaned and changed their sugar water a few days before. As we sat out there today I realized why it was empty the day before. Even though the rain poured down those pesky hummingbirds kept up their ritual of trying to be the owner of that one feeder. I thought that we had only one or two hummingbirds until then. As we sat and watched battle after battle, heard scolding upon scolding, and crashing of wing upon wing we realized there are way more than one or two little guys and gals. That particular feeder has three perches, and at one time all fighting stopped. All three perches were occupied and three more tiny hummers hovered and waited. It was purely a sight to see.
When I went to replenish their food this girl visited!

  I think that was my reward for finally slowing down. I loved sitting there, absorbing. My minute of peace and quiet turned into a half hour. After watching the birds I came away with two thoughts. One-I wish I had a tenth of their energy. Two-All that fluttering and fighting exhausted me! ;)

  As a side note we have five feeders set out, but this seems to be the one they all want. I can’t really blame them, it is situated under a covered porch! And they did all this with the dogs right beside us.


  What do you do when you get a minute or two to relax? Is there one set thing you do, like read or watch birds? What is the weather like in your neck of the woods? Does life’s hustle and bustle wear you down? 
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Thursday, July 3, 2014

Pests

      Recently I realized that one of my biggest nuisances isn't around. I mean these things are a real pain in my rear, and so many plants hate them too. I would too if they ate my skin and left me looking transparent. 

       I work with plants nearly every day. This time of the year I usually see one type of bug eating its way through nearly every plant possible. But... I haven't. And it is WONDERFUL. Apparently the majority of their population hasn't considered Savannah as a home yet. For this I say "Thank you!"
      Even when I lived in New York these pests wreaked havoc on beautiful plant life, leaving landscapes looking lacking and barren. Pests that are just as disgusting, to me, as a cockroach. 

       Which horrid creature am I talking about? 

       The nasty Japanese Beetle.


      Lately I've heard my friends in NC talking about the beetles on their plants. It made me realize that I haven't seen one at all here. So i enquired about it. Low and behold it seems that Japanese beetles may have been seen here, but they have not yet been consistently spotted, or truly live here. For this I dance.

       I wonder how long it will be before they cross the river and decide this is a happy nesting ground as well. Hopefully it will be many, many years from now. :)

       Do you garden? What garden pest constantly bothers your garden? If Japanese Beetles are a problem for you what do you do to control them?

       
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