Writing with Amy

Happy late New Year!  I took a few weeks off from blogging with all the holiday craziness that was happening.  Now I'm back, and I've got some updates for you all as well!  So, first thing, I hope everybody had an amazing holiday season.  It's finally time to get back to work!  For me, that means back to the job hunt and back to writing like my life depends on it.  Which brings me to one of my updates.  I officially have Fins and Fangs all edited.  So, now all that's left for me to do is get it published!  I should have it up on Amazon by the end of the month at the latest.  It really depends on how quickly I can get the cover taken care of while also dealing with the other things going on in my life right now.  The other big update in my life right now is that I'm moving!  Lowell ended up accepting a great job, so we're moving away.  That's always a big deal when it comes to time to write and whatnot, but it's a fantastic opportunity.  So, we'

Merry early Christmas!  Can you believe it's almost Christmas?  That it's almost the end of the year already?  I sure can't.  I'm super struggling with it.  But, hey, that means it's time for some fun holiday and Christmas writing prompts! I could use some writing prompts myself.  I've been focusing my attention on editing my NaNoWriMo novel this month, so I haven't done all that much writing.  Plus, the holidays are always such a busy time! But, writing always helps everything! Christmas/Holiday Writing Prompts 1. This is your first year ever spending the holidays not at home.  Where are you instead?   2. The snowman you and your younger siblings built in your yard has come to life! 3. You've come home for the holidays, and at your family's Christmas party, you find yourself standing under the mistletoe with your old high school nemesis.   4. A freak snowstorm over the holiday break trapped you and several of your co-workers at work f

Time for another edition of Two Truths and a Lie: Hallmark Movie Edition!  I had a lot of fun writing this the first time, so I thought it would be a great time to do it again.  You know the drill: below will be three movie synopses, two of which are real Hallmark movies, and one is a fake one that I wrote (Fake synopses are taken directly from Hallmark's website, please don't sue me).  I also definitely suggest trying this out for yourself and seeing if you can trick anyone with your synopsis.  It's very amusing, and super fun!  So, without further ado, here we go!  The answer will be at the bottom! A Bride for Christmas After Jessie Patterson calls off her third engagement - at the altar! - she swears off serious relationships until she finds "the one." That is, until charming but chronically single Aiden MacTiernan comes along. Unbeknownst to Jessie, Aiden has bet his friends that he can convince a woman to marry him by Christmas - which is only four

I don't have any idea where 2018 went.  It simultaneously felt like it went by so fast, but also like it dragged on and on for a while.  But, it's almost over already, and I find that with all my writing projects (and hopefully real employment again) that I'm really, really busy these days.  Not too busy to write here on my blog, but maybe not as often.  So, at least for a while, I'm going from 2 posts a week down to 1.  I'm not sure what day I'll make my regular posting day yet, but it will probably be either Monday or Thursday.  I'm leaning towards Thursday, but we'll see!   To make up for me not posting as often, I thought I'd share a story I wrote a few Christmases ago.  And, if I find more old Christmas stories, I'll share them here not as part of a normal post (but as like a fun bonus post).  Alright, so without further ado, here's a story called Bro Code that I wrote a few years ago.      Bro Code Love.   At th

NaNoWriMo is over!  I needed a few days to recover after finishing my novel (yes, I finished it!  It clocked in at about 79,000 words total, and it is complete!) and I still don't feel like I'm totally ready to get back into writing something else or editing the story itself.  But, with the holidays now upon us, I did spend a relaxing night catching up with my best friend Caitlin and watching cheesy Netflix and Hallmark Christmas movies. While we were watching, she was telling me about this thing she heard where a guy had two Hallmark movie synopses, and then he wrote a third.  Then, he'd read all three to people and have them guess which one was fake.  Well, I thought that sounded hilarious and also like a great flex for my writing muscles. Thus, Two Truths and a Lie: Hallmark Movie Edition was born. So, I did it.  I sat there on the couch while we watched  The Princess Switch, and I found two Hallmark movies and wrote one of my own.  And, when I had Caitlin guess

NaNoWriMo Word Count: 71,423 Hi!  Amy here.  Trying not to panic as I only have today and tomorrow to finish writing this novel that's essentially been ten years in the making.  I hit the word count requirement several days ago, but that doesn't mean anything to me if I don't actually finish the book. So, I'm trying not to freak out, but I'm totally freaking out. Today's post is not going to be much of anything exciting.  Sorry!  I just am too panicked about finishing Fins and Fangs !  Panicked and excited.  This should be the last time I ever have to gut edit this book.  I'll have to do at least one round of story edits, a round or two of grammar and format edits, and get it into some beta readers' hands after it's finished.  But, to not have to edit the original monstrosity again is amazing. I was reading through the original version of the story again the other day - back when it was called Forever Nineteen .  Oh my god.  I mean, I like to

NaNoWriMo Word Count: 57,818 We're in the last leg of our NaNoWriMo journey!  There are already only a few days left of November, so the time is getting close to the end.  Over the Thanksgiving holiday, my story really started to come together, so I ended up beasting out about 15,000 words in two days.  I actually crossed 50,000 words on the 23rd, but my story is nowhere near done.  So, I completed the 50,000 word part. But my story is still kind of a mess. I'm at the point of my story where things are starting to come together, and there are about to be a lot of action scenes - which are the most difficult scenes for me to write.  And I keep finding that I've been writing myself into corners I don't know how to get out of.  That's pretty typical of me.  I've done it ever since I started writing book length stories.  I don't know why, but I know it always turns out decent. It's just so frustrating getting back out of the corner. For instance

NaNoWriMo Word Count: 36,303 Happy Thanksgiving!  I hope everyone is going to have an awesome day full of family and delicious foods.  I'll be stuffing my face a little later, but first, I thought it would be fun to take a break from NaNoWriMo and write out some Thanksgiving writing prompts!  I had a lot of fun with the Halloween ones, so I figured, why not? So, if you feel like taking a crack at one of these, or writing some of your own, go for it! 1. You wake up on Thanksgiving morning to discover you time-traveled in your sleep to the very first Thanksgiving.    2. "Christy, I see you didn't bring a young man with you today," Aunt Debbie asked me from across the Thanksgiving table.  "Are you still single?"   3. Last year, the turkeys fought back against becoming Thanksgiving food.  They won.  A year has passed, and now it's time for their Thanksgiving meal.  What's on the menu?  Us.   4. It's the night before Thanksgiving, and

NaNoWriMo Word Count: 31,106 I should be writing, yet I find myself reading!  Actually, that's a great trick for writers who're maybe stuck in their own writing.  Go read a book by someone you like.  That almost always helps me! Anyway, I started off my Christmas season a little early by buying Pride and Prejudice and Mistleto e by Melissa de la Cruz at Books-A-Million in the bargain section.  Seriously, someone needs to stop me from going there.  It's dangerous that I can buy brand new hardcovers for $5.  I don't even have a bookshelf to put these books on yet since I moved.  They just live in the basement in old milk crates my mom took from the elementary school she works at. Eh.  I don't think I'll stop checking BAM's bargain section ever.  Even though they only seem to change it like twice a year, I still seem to find something there every single time I go.  It's kind of crazy.  But, anyway, back to the book! Melissa de la Cruz has been wri