The lovelies Jaime Morrow and Erin Funk came up with the WHAT’S UP WEDNESDAY meme.

Here’s Jaime’s explanation about it: “It’s similar in some respects to the Currently… post, but it’s been whittled down to only four headings to make it quicker and more manageable on a weekly basis. You’re invited to join us if you’re looking for something to blog about, a way to let your blog friends know what’s been going on with you.”

On with my update:

WHAT I’M READING

I finished Between Us by Jen McLaughlin, then I read the 3rd one of this novella trilogy: Beyond Me by Jennifer Probst. I  also read Girl with Guitar by Caise Quinn, and now I’m reading the sequel Girl On Tour.

WHAT I’M WRITING

Last week, I wrote 17558 words on Breaking Fences. This Monday, I wrote 3104 words and on Tuesday (yesterday) I wrote 1555 words – I had to stop and rework my outline. It was running away from me and usually I let it wander a little, but the way it was going, things were a mess … I’m gonna be working on my outline this afternoon, but I hope to get a bit of writing done this evening.

Even with that set back, I hope to hit above the 15k words mark this week again, especially since I have an extra day of writing this week – going to meet my girls for our monthly write-in this coming Sunday! :)

WHAT INSPIRES ME RIGHT NOW

Nothing in specific. Life? Love? Family? Writing? The many stories swirling in my head and making me crazy? All of it.

WHAT ELSE I’VE BEEN UP TO

The blog tour of Playing Pretend is on. Here’s the schedule with the stops (mostly reviews) and a giveaway!

Don’t forget that the cover reveal of Breaking Fences is set for March 2oth. If you want to help me out with it, you can sign up here!

I mentioned the write-in the next Sunday, right? I’m very excited about that! I love meeting with my girls :)

Oh, and I scheduled an appointment to get my next tattoo! But the tattoo shop I want to go to is very popular here (the owner is the head judge of a reality show about tattoos, so …), I was only able to scheduled my appointment for the end of May! Alas, I’m been saying I’m gonna get this tattoo for over 2 years. Two more months of wait won’t be that bad ;)

Now tell me, WHAT’S UP WITH YOU?

Don’t forget to stop by Jaime’s or Erin’s blog and check out the linky list of the awesome writers who are participating of this meme!

Cheers,

The lovelies Jaime Morrow and Erin Funk came up with the WHAT’S UP WEDNESDAY meme. Here’s Jaime’s explanation about it: “It’s similar in some respects to the Currently… post, but it’s been whittled down to only four headings to make it quicker and more manageable on a weekly basis. You’re invited to join us if you’re looking for something to blog about, a way to let your blog friends know what’s been going on with you.”

WHAT I’M READING

I’ve read The Hazards of a One Night Stand by Alyssa Rose Ivy. Once more, I started two novels, but dropped them after the first chapter. Jeez, that’s frustrating. Finally, I picked up Before You by Jenna Bennett and read all through it. Now I’m halfway through Between Us by Jen McLaughlin.

WHAT I’M WRITING

Last week, I wrote 16936 words on Breaking Fences. This Monday, I wrote 2647 words and on Tuesday (yesterday) I wrote 4558 words. I hope to hit above the 15k words mark this week again. I need to finish this draft within 2 or 3 weeks so I have time to revise it by myself at least once before sending it to my editor for a content editing …

WHAT INSPIRES ME RIGHT NOW

My new release!

And I woke this morning and found this:

Squeeeee! I think the rank moved up already, though.

WHAT ELSE I’VE BEEN UP TO

My husband is always looking ahead … he always says “when we have the greencard …” or “when we move …” and I always tell him that we gotta enjoy the NOW. We gotta be happy and thankful for TODAY and make the most of it, so when I saw author Jessa Russo posting about a challenge called A 100 Happy Days on Instagram, I went after it and joined it! For 100 days, I have to post a daily pic of something that makes me happy. It can be small stuff, like a yummy cake, or huge stuff, like winning the lottery (wouldn’t that be nice?!). I want to prove to my husband that we gotta plenty to be happy about EVERYDAY!

Don’t forget that the cover reveal of Breaking Fences is set for March 2oth. If you want to help me out with it, you can sign up here!

Now tell me, WHAT’S UP WITH YOU?

Don’t forget to stop by Jaime’s or Erin’s blog and check out the linky list of the awesome writers who are participating of this meme!

Cheers,

The lovelies Jaime Morrow and Erin Funk came up with the WHAT’S UP WEDNESDAY meme. Here’s Jaime’s explanation about it: “It’s similar in some respects to the Currently… post, but it’s been whittled down to only four headings to make it quicker and more manageable on a weekly basis. You’re invited to join us if you’re looking for something to blog about, a way to let your blog friends know what’s been going on with you.”

WHAT I’M WRITING

Well, I didn’t post a WUW last week because I had not written a word during that entire week … the kid didn’t go to school from March 13th to 18th. That Thu and Fri were snow days, and then Winter Break Mon and Tue. The husband took the kid to the movies so I could be a couple hours alone to write, but I had just gotten Playing Pretend back from the editor and I just needed to finalize it, so that’s what I did. Playing Pretend is now ready! I just need to hit “publish” …

I’ve been trying to catch up this past week. I wrote 10902 words on Breaking Fences since last Wednesday. I hope to write at least 3000 more today.

WHAT I’M READING

During these two weeks, I read Racing Savannah by Miranda Kenneally, and Save The Cat! Strikes Back by Blake Snyder – not as great as the first one, but good too. I also read Jet by Jay Crownover, and two novellas: The Start of Us by Lauren Blakely, and Objection (legal Affairs #1) by Sawyer Bennett.

After those, I started two other novels but didn’t get past the first chapter. Then I started a third and read it to 26% before putting aside. Ugh. This frustrates me. Tonight, I’m starting another novel. Let’s hope it’s not as bad as the previous three, so I can finish it. I hate not finishing reading, but I couldn’t take anymore.

WHAT INSPIRES ME RIGHT NOW

Well, if you guys don’t know, I’m kinda obsessed with k-pop. Yeah, I’m not ashamed of it. I even learn the dances and I read the romanized version of the lyrics so I can *try* to sing along =P

I’m learning this dance right now:

And this one:

Note: My husband entered the room while I was exercising (aka dancing), cock an eyebrow at me, and said, “I think your dream job isn’t writing. I think your dream job is to a dancer for those k-pop groups.” HAHAHA

WHAT ELSE I’VE BEEN UP TO

Nothing much.

Playing Pretend has been ready for almost two weeks now, and I should hit “publish” today, since a few vendors can take a few days to have the book available on their websites (the official release date is March 3rd).

Oh, the cover reveal of Breaking Fences is set for March 2oth. If you want to help me out with it, you can sign up here!

Now tell me, WHAT’S UP WITH YOU?

Don’t forget to stop by Jaime’s blog and check out the linky list of the awesome writers who are participating of this meme!

Cheers,

The lovelies Jaime Morrow and Erin Funk came up with the WHAT’S UP WEDNESDAY meme. Here’s Jaime’s explanation about it: “It’s similar in some respects to the Currently… post, but it’s been whittled down to only four headings to make it quicker and more manageable on a weekly basis. You’re invited to join us if you’re looking for something to blog about, a way to let your blog friends know what’s been going on with you.”

WHAT I’M READING

I’ve read Rule by Jay Crownover, and I also read Mounted (Bittersweet Farm, #1) by Barbara Morgenroth.

Going to pick up book #16 of 2014 tonight. Not sure which one yet, though …

WHAT I’M WRITING

So … we had 2 snow days last week. TWO! Which means kid was home and I didn’t get any writing done on those days. Then I was down on Friday. I looked at my manuscript and felt it was off. I couldn’t place what was wrong, but it was off … so I spent the day trying to fix the plot and got nowhere. My goal was to write at least 15k words last week, but I got 11k words. Not bad, but not what I wanted.

On Sunday, I met with my girls for our monthly write-in, but instead of writing, I fixed my plot. I wrote 2000 words of plot points and I think it’s fixed! So, that’s that.

I was 17k words into Breaking Fences but now I cut 14k words of that and practically started over. I wrote 3502 words yesterday and I’m hoping to get around 4k words today because it seems tomorrow will be another snow day, and then there’s Winter Break next Mon and Tue, which means no writing.

My goal to finish this draft by the end of the month is looking very unachievable right now :( BUT, even if I don’t get to finish this manuscript this month, progress is progress – and I go have until the end of March to finish it before it’s due to my editor. I just wanted to be ahead of schedule :)

WHAT INSPIRES ME RIGHT NOW

Ugh, again, not the cold and the snow …

Serious now. The cover of Breaking Fences. Oh, yeah. My designer sent a mockup to me on Monday and I’m soooo in love with it. Now I’m fixing the blurb so she can add that and finalize it, and then I’ll schedule a cover reveal. Can’t wait!

WHAT ELSE I’VE BEEN UP TO

Had my monthly write-in with Cris, Ghenet and Ginger. Besides writing, we talked a lot about plots and writing. It was awesome!

Ah, I also bought a new sofa! It’s going to take 3 weeks for because we asked a different fabric from what they had in store, so it takes more time. But it’s okay. We have lots the guest bedroom mattress on the floor with lots of pillows around. The daughter is loving it lol I bet she’ll be sad when the sofa arrives lol

And I’m freaking out that the ARC of Playing Pretend is in the hands of book bloggers … and that it’s only 2 more weeks until it’s out to the world! *flails*

Don’t forget to stop by Jaime’s or Erin’s blog and check out the linky list of the awesome writers who are participating of this meme!

Cheers,

The lovelies Jaime Morrow and Erin Funk came up with the WHAT’S UP WEDNESDAY meme. Here’s Jaime’s explanation about it: “It’s similar in some respects to the Currently… post, but it’s been whittled down to only four headings to make it quicker and more manageable on a weekly basis. You’re invited to join us if you’re looking for something to blog about, a way to let your blog friends know what’s been going on with you.”

WHAT I’M READING

I finished The Plot Whisperer by Martha Alderson. I also read the novella The Short Game by J.L. Fynn, and the novels The Fault in Our Stars by John Green, and Indelible by Bethany Lopez, and another novella: First by Alyssa Rose Ivy.

Though I’ve been reading a few novellas, as I said I would, I started book #14 of 2014 last night – hopefully I’ll be able to keep up with it and end the year with over 80 books read :)

WHAT I’M WRITING

I planned on writing about 8k words between Thursday and Friday last week, but my editor sent me Playing Pretend Wednesday night, so I worked on edits on Thu and Fri. Then, I formatted eARCs and sent to 60 bloggers who asked to review it. I’m soooo nervous!

Monday was a snow day, which means the kid stayed at home and wanted my attention. No writing there. Thankfully, on Tuesday I wrote 4300 words of Breaking Fences. Today is a snow day again, and this time the kid and the husband are home. The husband is holed up in my office, doing meetings through skype. Even so, I’ll try to write at least 1000 words this afternoon, even if I have to sit in front of the TV with the laptop and pretend I’m watching a movie with the kid lol

Update: it’s noon and I already wrote 2000 words (he husband played video games with the daughter). I’ll try to get another 1 hour of writing this afternoon!

WHAT INSPIRES ME RIGHT NOW

Nothing in particular. Life? My family? My writing? My writer friends? Everything, I guess. We all have our ups and downs, but life is good. Very good :)

WHAT ELSE I’VE BEEN UP TO

Let’s see. I joined a group on facebook and we’re doing sort of a NaNo in Feb. We have a hashtag for it for twitter: #FebNo. So far it’s been cool, though I’m already behind because of the snow days.

Besides Zumba, I’ve been “playing” XBox One Fitness programs. It’s nice. On Saturday, I burned 400 calories in 30 minutes! Loved it!

Oh, and I revealed the 2nd pic teaser of Playing Pretend:

Don’t forget to stop by Jaime’s or Erin’s blog and check out the linky list of the awesome writers who are participating of this meme!

Cheers,

The lovelies Jaime Morrow and Erin Funk came up with the WHAT’S UP WEDNESDAY meme. Here’s Jaime’s explanation about it: “It’s similar in some respects to the Currently… post, but it’s been whittled down to only four headings to make it quicker and more manageable on a weekly basis. You’re invited to join us if you’re looking for something to blog about, a way to let your blog friends know what’s been going on with you.”

WHAT I’M READING

I’ve started a certain book last week, on Thursday I think, but I didn’t get too far. Just went to 18% and, well, it’s not that I gave up, it’s just that it wasn’t compelling enough to make me want to go back to it, so I didn’t.  While I thought about maybe reading this book, I could have been reading something else. Ugh. Hate when I feel like I wasted precious reading time. Anyway …

I’m almost done with The Plot Whisperer by Martha Alderson. Great, great book so far. It’s not that I’m learning anything new, but it’s always good to see how others do the same thing in different ways, and that helps our own creation and process. Plus, she keeps saying over and over that we should just sit down and write. Finish the first draft. Worry if it’s good or not, about revising it, about changing the entire first quarter later, adding subplot, or cutting one one, later. First, finish it! And it’s sooooo true. I wish I could tattoo that in my brain so I don’t ever forget about this simple advice again.

WHAT I’M WRITING

Playing Pretend is still with my editor, going through the second pass of edits. I should have it back later this week, and then I’ll do my thing and send it back to my editor for another pass of edits. Oi!

I finally stopped plotting Breaking Fences  and started writing it! Yesterday I wrote 4031 words! My writing time is reduced today, but even so I hope to write at least 2000 words, and then another 4k tomorrow and Friday!

Meanwhile, my brain is always trying to skip ahead, right, trying to plot out the next thing I’ll write. It has been like that forever and it’ll always be like that … So, on the side, I’ve been plotting The Everlasting Circle (The Everlast Trilogy #3).  Well, actually, it’s more like a taking-notes-of-whatever-comes-to-mind phase, and then later I’ll transform these ideas into a plot.

WHAT INSPIRES ME RIGHT NOW

My own writing. Not because I think my writing is good—believe me, I think most of what I write is crap, most of the time lol I always need someone else telling me it’s not crap like 500 times before I start believing it—but because the words are flowing and nothing feels better than actually getting the words down and being productive. I love seeing the word count go up!

Oh, and I just saw this ad this morning, while I was on the elliptical, and well, it’s a ad for Jaguar but it’s so awesome. Go watch it:

WHAT ELSE I’VE BEEN UP TO

Not much. Let’s see …

Ginger and I had our write-in last week here at my house. It was good – and too quiet lol I think I’m used to our write-ins being in places like Panera or Starbucks, where it’s always loud!

The lawyers finally sent our Greencard petition to the government (only about 6 months late, but I won’t bore you with the details about it now) – if all goes well, we should have Greencards by the end of the year!

Oh, our sofa broke right in the middle! We bought a cheap one from Ikea when we moved back to the US in March 2012, because we thought, well one day we’ll buy a house and then we’ll want to choose a different sofa to go with the pretty new house. We bought the pretty new house in April 2013 and we didn’t buy a new sofa. But I think the cheap sofa was so tired of us and wanted us to keep our promise, it just gave up and died LOL So now we’re sofa hunting, though I don’t want to buy it in a rush. I want to look for something good, durable, but not too expensive. Any recs of good furniture stores? :)

In book related news, I’m organizing a Release Day Event for Playing Pretend with Grapevine Book Tours for March 3rd to 5th.

And I created a goodreads giveaway for 2 signed paperbacks of Playing Pretend:

Goodreads Book Giveaway

Playing Pretend

by Juliana Haygert

Giveaway ends March 27, 2014.

See the giveaway details
at Goodreads.

Enter to win

Now tell me, WHAT’S UP WITH YOU?

Don’t forget to stop by Erin’s blog and check out the linky list of the awesome writers who are participating of this meme!

Cheers,

The lovelies Jaime Morrow and Erin Funk came up with the WHAT’S UP WEDNESDAY meme. Here’s Jaime’s explanation about it: “It’s similar in some respects to the Currently… post, but it’s been whittled down to only four headings to make it quicker and more manageable on a weekly basis. You’re invited to join us if you’re looking for something to blog about, a way to let your blog friends know what’s been going on with you.”

WHAT I’M READING

I finished The Last Single Girl by Caitie Quinn, then read One Wild Night by Magan Vernon and Run for the Roses by Rachel Schieffelbein. I also read a short story called If Wishes Were Horses by Barbara Morgenroth, and a short book on horses for research – and unfortunately, there wasn’t anything knew there.

WHAT I’M WRITING

Playing Pretend is with my dear editor, and I’m know plotting Breaking Fences  AND The Everlasting Circle (The Everlast Trilogy #3) – but it has been difficult, because when my kid is home, I can’t focus on my writing. It’s not that she wants attention all the time. I think I just can’t let go and enter my own worlds knowing she’s right here and might need me at any moment. Does that make senses? Anyway, Monday was Dr. Martin Luther King’s day and she had no school. Then yesterday, it was snow day and she had an early dismissal. And today it was supposed to be a no school day, but now it’s a 90 minute delay day … this messes with my schedule. I was hoping to finish plotting by tomorrow so I could start writing, but I’m guessing I’ll need a few more days for that.

WHAT INSPIRES ME RIGHT NOW

I’ll skip this one this week … I’ve been feeling very uninspired lately :(

WHAT ELSE I’VE BEEN UP TO

Not much. I had my write-in last weekend – it was great. We talked and laughed a lot and I even stood up and did I happy dance when I finished revising my manuscript, making the girls laugh even more ;)

Monday was the official release day of my novella, Cup of Life. It is book 2.5 of my fantasy trilogy and told from a guy’s POV – so far, the readers love it!

I’m running a promo on Soul Oath, book 2 of my fantasy trilogy – it’s down to $0.99 from it’s regular $2.99 just for this week.

Monday night, this happened:

And last night this happened:

So, I’m pretty happy with that! :D

Now tell me, WHAT’S UP WITH YOU?

Don’t forget to stop by Jaime’s blog and check out the linky list of the awesome writers who are participating of this meme!

Cheers,