O is for...Obstacle

O is for... Obstacle

I watch my 7 year old overcome obstacles everyday and am amazed at his creativity in overcoming them. He'll say "I want to have a drink in the living room." I don't want him to have another drink so I simply say, "You can't, no drinks allowed in the living room." He asks, "Why?" And I answer, "Because if you spill it will be hard to clean up." He walks away and returns a few minutes later with a cup with a lid and straw, and a plate to set it upon. I quickly ask, "What's going on?" To which he answers, "Just getting a drink in a cup that won't spill. And don't worry, I'll set it on the plate."

The little bugger has found a way to work around my excuse for not letting him have a drink. He does not hear the word "No", instead he hears, "find another way". 

And what a great lesson can be learned from that...find another way. 

My husband is the smartest man I know (to be honest it was one of the things that attracted me to him). One New Year's Eve, while we were dating, we went to a party in a hotel room in downtown Chicago. The party hosts were friends of ours and worked hard to get everything set up. Unfortunately, they brought the stereo but left the speaker wire at home. Well, it's hard to have a party without music. My husband (boyfriend at the time) ran off to the bedroom and returned with a wire coat hanger. He then proceeded to fashion speaker wire out of the metal coat hanger and the party was saved. Obstacle overcome.

So bringing this to a personal level...I currently face an obstacle. I need to write a 10,000 word thriller story for an anthology and it's due by mid-May. The obstacle is that I have never written a thriller. My story is half way done but I am struggling with creating twists and turns or a surprise ending.

How am I overcoming it? Well, I'm in the thick of it now and am reading short thriller stories and taking note of what works so well in them. Few characters, simple plot that can be summed up in 2-3 sentences. I'll keep you posted on whether or not I make it past the obstacle.

Any other tips for writing thrillers?

Any obstacles you have boldly overcome?

N is for Nostalgic

N is for...Nostaglic

There is one place that, upon hearing it's name, brings back good feelings and happy memories...

Long before Six Flags bought Great America, in Gurnee, IL, it was known as Marriott's Great America. It was the amusement park that my family frequented almost every year.  To this day, I can close my eyes and see the Zenith sign as we neared the park. I can hear Baker's Street playing on the car radio. And I can picture the roller coasters that peaked high above the park that were visible shortly before the entrance to the amusement park. As a kid, I'd stare at those coasters as we drove by, watching as the car halted at the top of the biggest hill before slowly lurching forward, picking up speed with the passengers screaming for their lives. I swore I'd never ride that ride.

In fifth grade, thanks to some peers that were braver than me, I went on my first BIG rollercoaster...and it was the ride I swore I'd never go on. The American Eagle was a very tall and fast wooden coaster. You begin by climbing a very big hill, a very big hill that many cars have been stuck atop. Once you reach the top you slowly inch over the peak and let gravity pull you toward the Earth. The scary part was at one point the track seemed to disappear beneath us. I know that on my first ride I began screaming before the car even began it's descent, but my volume steadily increased as we plummeted to the ground below.

But I survived it! So what was next? Why the Demon of course! The Demon had a big hill, 2 loops, and a few corkscrews as well. Great America was also where my friends and I visited the day after our senior prom. There are many, many happy memories of feeling alive, being young and free, and being in love tied to this place and that is why I feel nostalgic at the mere mention of it.

 What makes you feel nostalgic?

M is for...Madi (I guess!)

M is for...Madi! 

Hello everyone! My name is Madelynn Wilde and I'm D.A. Roach's PA! She was gracious enough to hand me the reigns today since my name starts with an M! I just wanted to use this time to tell you a little about myself since I will hopefully become an active contributor to this blog in the next month or so!

So my full name is Madelynn, but I also go by Madi, Maddie, Cat, or about anything else you'd like to call me. If I had my choice of any name in the world, I'd probably choose Anastasia with Ana for short, just because it's so pretty and I rarely meet anyone with that name. What really bugs me is when I have a class where there are 5 other different "Maddie's" and everyone gets confused because there are so many people with the same name. It was more of a problem for me in high school because the classes were smaller back then. Which brings me to my next topic!

I am just finishing up my freshman year of college at the University of Colorado-Denver! I came in with a ton of AP credits from high school (because who needs a life outside of academics??!) so I decided to commit myself to a triple major with one minor and graduate in the honors program. My three majors are currently psychology, sociology, and french, but whenever someone asks what I'm majoring in and I don't feel like going into the reasons why I'm triple majoring, I usually just say psychology since that was my original one. However, I also LOVE french, and I'm very proud of myself for making it this far with a language! Est-ce que vous parlez français ou une autre langue? (Kudos for you if you understand what I just said! If not, put it into Google Translate, and it's easy enough to get an answer!) 

I live at home with my parents and my younger brother in Parker, CO. I did not want to pay for on-campus housing, so I was happy when my family decided they didn't want to see me leave either! We have two cats, Tedsy and Kiki. Ted was our first cat, and boy is he lazy. His favorite pastimes are eating salmon and sleeping on a fuzzy blanket in the sun. He also enjoys going outside when he's allowed to-- one of my favorite things to do last summer was read in the hammock in our backyard with Ted! And yes, his original name was Teddy, but everyone calls him Tedsy now. Not sure when or why we made that change, but it's how it is now! Here's a picture! 

Kiki also goes by Kik, Kia, Ki, and every other word that starts with a K and an I. She's very feisty and is notorious for biting people. However, she can also be sweet when she really wants to. She just jumped up on my lap while I was typing this. I think she's mad because she thinks the chair I'm using is hers. She also loves playing with her laser shark. That's a shark that shoots a red laser dot out of its mouth. My dad brought it home from work one day and it's been hers ever since. Here's another picture for you since I love animal photos! 

Before I end my post for today, I'd like to mention that my picture for my Google account is not up to date. I'm not sure if you're able to see it, but my hair is not black anymore. I decided it was too expensive and difficult to keep it dyed so I went back to my natural color which is a sort of dirty blonde. It's not the prettiest, but at least I don't have to go back to the hair salon. I hate the mirrors in those places. I think they make everyone look bad. Anyways, feel free to leave me questions or comments! I will be back later to answer them all! I will leave you all with one of my favorite memes! I don't know why I love this one so much, but it always makes me crack up! 

L is for...Limitless Publishing

L is for...

June 2015 I published a book with Limitless Publishing and this past March I published my second book with them. It was my jump from self-publishing to an indie publisher. The biggest perks of joining Limitless are the amazing covers, fantastic editors, and the family I've gained by publishing with them. I've learned so much since joining them and have become an even better writer from the tips I have picked up from fellow authors and editors.

Anyone else take the leap and enjoy their publishers?

K is for... Kugelis

K is for... Kugelis!

Today my post is about Kugelis because...an author has to eat and this is a yummy treat. Probably everyone reading this post just said, "What the heck is Kugelis?" Kugelis is basically a potato cake (though savory, not sweet) that Lithuanians eat, especially at celebrations.

Making Kugelis is a bit labor intensive, which is probably why I only get to enjoy it when I head to Chicago for a holiday and visit with my Lithuanian relatives.

This is the potato grater my mom owns. It weighs a million pounds but does the job. It's literally a wood box with a motor inside that runs a spinning grating wheel. We often joke that some guy made it in his garage and probably made a fortune off of them because they make save so much time and effort.

Simple machine...plug it in, plop the potato chunks in the top, flip the switch on, and push the potatoes down with the press (wooden stick part). To clean, open the latch on the clear window in front, remove parts and wash well, then spray with Pam to keep lubricated.

Here is a picture of what a baked Kugelis looks like. You can freeze the cooked pieces and fry them up when you are ready to eat them. It's best with a brown gravy and a dollop of sour cream.

Kugelis:

10lbs Yukon Gold Potatoes

8 or more eggs

12oz Carnation Milk

1 tsp salt

1/2 teaspoon black pepper

8oz Sour Cream

1/2c. Cooking Oil (heat the oil)

1/2 soft French Bread (or 4 pieces of white bread) crumbled

1 Medium Yellow Onion Chopped fine & sauted 

1 package of Center Cut Bacon chopped real small & fried

2 Sticks of Butter

Directions:

Use Crisco to grease 2 large casserole pans (13x11) then wrap the bottom of each pan (outside of pan) with foil to prevent burning. 

Preheat oven to 425F

Crumble bread into large bowl

Cut your onion and bacon

Fry bacon and onion (fry onion in the bacon grease)

Melt butter

Add onion, butter, bacon, & bacon grease to the bowl of bread.

Have a large bowl of water ready to put peeled potatoes in. This next part needs to go fast or the potatoes will turn colors...and not a pretty color. The Yukon Gold potatoes buy you a little time on the color issue though. Peel the potatoes and cut into quarters and plop them in the water till ready to grate. When finished peeling, grate them in the machine (should be the consistency of applesauce). 

Combine potatoes with all other ingredients then pour into the 2 greased pans and bake at 425F for 15-20 minutes.

Reduce heat and bake at 350F for 2 hours

Serve with Sour Cream and Brown Gravy.

Here is the nutritional value (roughly):

Give it a try...Kugelis is the Breakfast of Champions! (At least in Lithuania!)

J is for...Jobs!

J is for...jobs

How many people end up in a job in the field you studied in College?

According to a study in November 2013 on CareerBuilder, 1/3rd of college grads will never work in the field they studied in school. I personally graduated with a degree in pharmacy, took the boards, got a job at a  retail pharmacy in Michigan, but found that it was not for me.

I'll leave the details of why pharmacists deserve more respect for another blog post.

After my year in pharmacy, we moved to Austin, TX and I began taking classes in Engineering Design Graphics.  The classes taught me how to use AutoCAD to draw up architect and engineer plans. Then it was a matter of the right place, right time. I was offered a job at the college to manage the continuing education classes and later asked to teach a semester long class for the community college. I truly loved my job and the people I worked with. But soon it was time to start a family and so we moved back to the midwest to be closer to family. And unfortunately, the midwest is less liberal with offering jobs to quality people without a pedigree of job experience. But that was alright because I soon found myself pregnant and well on my way to mommyhood.

Three kids and 14 years later, they are all now  in school for 9 months out of the year, giving me time to write books. The first book I wrote was to pay homage to a family that came to our aid during a difficult time. It was a very short story that I self-published. I did not intend on making millions off the book, rather, I wrote it to honor the folks who were so helpful to my family during that time. But I loved it...the writing and creating, and will continue writing as long as life allows it.

What will yo be when you grow up?

I is for...Ideas!

I is for...Ideas

When I speak to students about being an author, one of their questions is, "Where do you get ideas for your stories?"

While writing my first book, I came across an article that said first time writers often write an autobiography or biography. Indeed, this was true for me as well. as my first book was based on real life events. It was a story I knew well, with characters I did not need to create. I just had to find my way to putting the story on the page.

But let's face it, I am no Ben Franklin. I have not invented many important things or saved many people. And while my mom and I may think my life is interesting, I know the rest of the world could probably care less. So one short book was enough to give me some confidence in the book writing process.

Non-fiction is real, but fiction is fun. So how do I come up with the ideas for my works of fiction?

Stories do not come to me all at once, instead I get inspiration for scenes from music, tv shows, feelings, quotes, etc. I write down something that moves me and see if I can work that into my story. In Between the Bleeding Willows (my latest YA Paranormal book), I really wanted a scene where a girl woke up in a strange place after being unconscious. I wanted a strong man, standing with arms folded in the room when she woke up. He would be annoyed with her, for entering and complicating his life. And while she did not choose to enter his life, she now is very much a part of it and trying to understand her role.

Later in the story I have the girl attend a martial arts class and meet a young and charismatic guy. I intended on him just being a friend and only in the story for a brief time. But as the dialog unfolded between him and my main character, I fell in love with him and couldn't let him go. In fact, he has a big role in book 2 of my Demon Hunters series.

My ideas come from many different places but are usually just snippets that I piece together to build the story.

When the well runs dry, here are my go to tips and tricks:

- Ask someone else for an idea (my daughter suggested I write about demons, and so I did, Between the Bleeding Willows is a story of demons and demon hunters)

- Take a walk (walking has been proven to spark creativity)

- Turn off the tv

- Go some place new (new restaurant, new town, new outing) I went to a quiet restaurant with a journal in hand and told the waitress I'd be awhile and to keep the Diet Cokes coming. I managed to frame out all of my 2nd book and she was grateful for the generous tip. It was nice to be away from the distractions of home.

- Get into someone else's mind. Think about how the CEO of your company or your child might view and react to a situation.

- Brainstorm and write anything and everything that comes to mind - no filter. I catch myself wanting to write something and stopping myself and saying "you might lose the YA genre if you add that scene or say that". And it distracts me from my train of thought. Now I know better...I just add it in and will think on it later when I re-read it or when my editor mentions it. First ideas need to be free of judgement or inhibitions. Julia Cameron has a great book called The Artist's Way and in it is valuable advice on sparking creativity. One of the main exercises she encourages is Morning Pages.

"There is no wrong way to do Morning Pages– they are not high art. They aren’t even “writing.” They are about anything and everything that crosses your mind– and they are for your eyes only. Morning Pages provoke, clarify, comfort, cajole, prioritize and synchronize the day at hand. Do not over-think Morning Pages: just put three pages of anything on the page…and then do three more pages tomorrow." - Chris Winfield, Entrepreneur and Morning Pages believer (for more insight on how Morning Pages helped Chris visit: http://www.chriswinfield.com/morning-pages/ )

Anyone interested in trying Morning Pages with me for 1 month??? We can share our experience once it's done :>