VS Grenier ~ Award-Winning Author, Speaker & Podcaster

Today I went for a mile walk around my neighborhood with my son and dog, Taz. We were doing well until Taz decided he could not walk anymore and started chewing at his leash. At first I did what any dog owner would do . . . I chocked up the leash and started encouraging Taz to keep walking. At about the half way point, Taz sat down and refused to take another step. Now, I could have done what most dog trainers tell you to do . . . pull the dog along and make him walk. But I didn’t. I went right into mother hen mode. I picked up my dog and began to carry him the remaining half mile to our house. After I got home, I sat down at my computer and posted about our walk on Facebook. Then I turned to my WIPs. The ones I have been working on for a little over a year now. Then it hit me. I am treating my WIPs like my dog! Okay, so you are wondering how in the world are my WIPs like my dog. Well, they both give me comfort, but that’s not what I’m talking about. No, what I am talking about is ho

Often times just getting started is the hardest part of any project due to a lack of motivation. This frustrating mental barrier is a very real obstacle that confronts each and every one of us from time to time. Developing certain habits to restore and maintain your motivation in order to start and complete any given task is the basis of today's article. Here are 5 tips to that will help you get motivated and maintain your drive regardless of what your goals may be. Plan Your Work It is important that you organize your efforts in a way that makes sense and proves most effective towards reaching your goals. Set up a schedule of when you intend to work on a particular project and how much time you intend to devote to it. Be realistic with your goals, the amount of time you'll need and when that time will be available to you. If the project is important, enough you'll want to consider scheduling the best time of day when you are at your best and most productive. Fo

Have you ever had one of those days, weeks, and/or months where the phone keeps ringing, the kids want you to play Candyland a million times, family and/or friends keep popping over, and you have a bunch of emails to read? Do you ever feel like you should just give up? Put your WIP aside and your goals and just say, “Forget about writing”? This has been my life since summer started at the end of May. I guess because it is summer everyone thinks I have nothing to do. Or maybe because I stay home as a mom and writer, they think it means I have all the time in the world to get the things done. I wish it were like that. I wish I could just do what I want when I want. The problem is when I want to write . . . the kids need me. When I want to update my websites . . . I have earns to run and they always seem to take longer to do when a deadline is staring me in the face, too. I wish I could say I have my nights to get all my writing done, but with a husband, who works the swing shift (3pm

Fairy tales have happy endings. All of us know what happened in that mushy fairy tale, Cinderella. Yeah, it is romantic, the prince actually finding Cinderella. They lived happily ever after. But happy endings can sometimes be, well . . . boring. No zing. So predictable. So …happy. What if the shoe fit one of the sisters? What happens then? Play with your imagination here. Be funny if you like. Or serious if you feel like it. Or be an Alfred Hitchcock. Whatever you are into, write your ending to the Cinderella story – but this time, make it so that the shoe fits one of the icky sisters or some other twist. What does Prince Charming do? How does Cinderella cope with it? And what about the Fairy Godmother? Start your story here . . . (Post no more than 800 words) (this comes from CreativeWritingPrompts.com )

Oh No! I gained a pound back this last week instead of losing. It happens. Don’t let gaining a bit here and there back get you down. I put on a pound this last week, but that does not mean the end of the world. This last week I had a lot of family get togethers and of course, I wasn’t the best about what I ate, however, it just means I need to be better this week. Actual weight on June 7, 2010 189 Goal weight by December 31, 2010 130 Went up 1 pound from last week. Instead of me listing everything I have done throughout the week to help lose weight, I am going to post a link to a site I have been using to log my activity level and food each day. The site is totally FREE! You can join me on FitDay.com. Having a log helps you stay on track and really lets you see where you need to make improvements or adjustments to help shed those unwanted pounds. Here’s the link to my overview http://www.fitday.com/fitness/PublicJournals.html?_a_User=VSGren

Lakisha Spletzer is a single parent of two highly creative children. She has been writing stories since the tender age of eight. It was always for school or her own amusement; never for others. Lakisha has written fan fics (mostly during high school) and the stories tended to favor such shows as Star Trek, SeaQuest, and Highlander, just to name a few. She did a lot of poetry writing too during high school year; mainly to release all her angst, woes and emotions buried deep inside. After high school, Lakisha went to college and received two degrees: an AAS from Mountain Empire Community College (Big Stone Gap, Virginia) and a BA in Communications from the University of Virginia-Wise. It was not until after the birth of her first child she considered writing a novel. Once Lakisha moved from Virginia to Florida in 2004, her goal solidified and she began working on a novel called "Moonbeams and Moonlight." Lakisha met a local writer's workshop group at the pu

Have you ever had one of those days where you just want to lay in bed doing nothing? I found myself feeling exactly like this today. But as much as I wanted to just lay there in my warm cozy bed . . . I could not. Nope, there was just so much time and so little to do! Strike that . . . reverse it, as the wise Willy Wonka once said. I have always loved that line from the 1971 version of Willy Wonka. I find I say it a lot, because it seems my life is always full of things to do. Wouldn’t it be nice to really have so much time and very little to do once in awhile? I would love to say today was one of those days, but it wasn’t. Instead of relaxing, I start planning next week’s workload. I also look at the things on my To-Do list and see which ones might have to be moved out to the following week. I am glad to say … not too many things need to be moved out, however, website updates will be. All authors know having a website is very important to building your marketing platform. After

By: Mayra Calvani “Nothing has a stronger influence psychologically on their environment and especially on their children than the unlived life of the parent.” --C. G. Jung After a bad night of hardly any sleep, you’re sitting at the computer staring at the blank screen. You wonder if you’ll be able to do it—finish that article, short story or novel which you started months ago. The urge to write is overwhelming, yet you freeze. Not only are you exhausted, but the baby, who you put to sleep less than half hour ago, is whimpering in the crib. Your four-year old has just barged into the office and is tugging at your elbow begging for a snack, even though he had lunch an hour ago. This is hopeless, I may as well quit, you say to yourself while trying to suppress a scream. To your horror, you suddenly find yourself sympathizing with those animals that eat their young… Don’t despair. Calm down. I’ve been there and know perfectly well what you’re going through. The truth is, y

I was thinking about some great blog posts last night I could do, but then I thought wait a minute . . . I'm a guest blogger today on Karen Cioffi's blog today. So instead of sharing some of my thought here today, I'm going to link you over to my guest blog, Does Marketing Really Matter with VS Grenier at Writing for Children . In this guest blog you'll learn about my trials of marketing my picture book, Babysitting SugarPaw while being pregnant. There are lots of tips and inspiration. Okay, at least I think there is. LOL. I hope you enjoy it and please leave a comment. I'm going to be popping in throughout the day to answer any questions, too. And please be sure to stop by tomorrow for Article Wed. I have a great blog post to share with you. It's one you're not going to want to miss.

The dictionary atop your shelf has more than 200,000 words defined. Why don’t you blow off some of the dust on its cover and randomly pick out 10 words? Don’t look at the meanings; just concentrate on the words. Write down your chosen words on a blank sheet of paper. Now, you’re going to have fun creating meanings for those words. What do the words make you think of? What do you think should they mean? (Get other writing prompts at http://www.creativewritingprompts.com/# ) Craven – The leader of the Raven race. A magical being half bird, half man. Fixation – A mental state in which you can posses someone’s mind. Hummock – An herb used in potions. Paradise – An altered reality. Clean. Pure. Diversely – A deep underwater world. Brassiere – Leader of the human race. Astrakhan – Magical kingdom. Place where wizards live. Postal – Crazy person. Lack of mind. Superstition – Magically enhanced physical strength. Unitar