Have you seen Authors Anonymous? I’ve never heard about it until I saw it at a Red Box.

When a dysfunctional group of unpublished writers accept Hannah into their fold, the last thing they expect is her overnight success. Can these lovable misfits achieve their artistic dreams and avoid killing one another in the process?

It looked cute and–come on–it’s about writers, so I rented it  despite my husband raising an eyebrow in his you’re really going to make me watch that kind of way. (For the record, I didn’t make him watch it. He’s not a big fan of mockumentary type movies, especially those with no car chases, explosions, or fight scenes.)

While this movie has been slammed by critics and was a tad slow at times, I still really enjoyed it! Chris Klein is adorable as John, the earnest Fitzgerald devotee who’s in love with Hannah, played by Kelly Cuoco. But mostly, I liked it because as an author, there was so much I could relate to!

• The jealousy you feel when a friend is more successful.
• The guilt you feel from being jealous of said friend.
• How easy it is to allow personal issues to stifle your creative energy.
• The pain of rejection.
• The anxiety of success.
• The humiliation of sitting through a book signing where absolutely no one has any interest in your book. (For me, this happened at 2007′s ALA, where Judy Bloom’s table was in the row beside me and her long, long line hooked all the way down my row with folks doing everything they can to avoid eye contact with me. Most. Uncomfortable. Hour. Ever.)

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Yesterday, I barely worked, barely wrote, barely did anything productive at all.

And I wore a tiara all day.

Not that I’ve been slacking lately, lounging around in faux diamonds. I’m keeping up with my training for the Baltimore Marathon, and I’m doing July’s Camp NaNoWriMo, where you write an entire novel in a month. (Unlike November’s NaNoWriMo, you can pick your own word count but I’m still going for 50,000.) So far, I’m at 15,964 words on my mid-grade, roughly about 25%. I love seeing the arrow move on my dartboard!

But about yesterday. Why was I a tiara-wearing slacker?

Because it was early registration day for the Disney Princess Half Marathon Weekend for DVC owners and annual passholders, woo-HOO! Since I pretty much wrap my entire year around this event by keeping journals and making goals like I did for PHM 2013, PHM 2014, and PHM 2015, needless to say, I was pretty excited. [click to continue…]

Over at As The Eraser Burns, we recently posted a fabulous guest article by Katharine Manning about what running has taught her about writing. Since running and writing are two of my favorite topics, I just had to post it here as well! So much of this had me nodding my head in agreement, especially the part about running your own race seeing as how it’s so hard not comparing your writing journey to others. Enjoy!

What Running Has Taught Me About Writing

By Katharine Manning

A few years ago, after a long break, I took up running again. Not long afterward, I began writing my first novel. I have been surprised by how the two endeavors dovetail and inform each other. Here are seven things I learned about writing from my running. [click to continue…]

I’ve discovered a few things while participating in the Annapolis ZOOMA 10k on May 31st:

1. Running skirts are awesome.
2. Failing to study the race map beforehand is NOT awesome.
3. And I don’t like running a race solely for a personal record. Not one tiny bit.

First, some back-story. See, because a few of my running pals talked me into signing up for Disney’s Wine & Dine Half Marathon, (oh, like that was hard, woman please,) I registered for only two local runs this year–the Baltimore Women’s Classic 5k (this weekend, can’t wait,) and the Baltimore Marathon. I still need a new proof of time for the Glass Slipper Challenge registration in July, though, so I signed up for the Annapolis ZOOMA in hopes of a killer PR. And bonus! The main setting for my current manuscript takes place in downtown Annapolis. Awesome research opportunity! I’ve heard that it’s a hilly race, but eh, my road is full of hills so that didn’t worry me much. (I’ve even named my hills. The biggest is Bertha. Bertha is a bugger.) [click to continue…]

I’m so excited about finally finishing up with a much-needed website makeover with a new theme, new header, new colors, new everything! I have to admit. I’m kind of loving the new look. It was also fun and rather bittersweet going through archives of old blog posts dating back to 2006 and finding a few “Happiness Is…” entries like this one and this one. Oh, how I loved those books and anything by Charles Schulz! The few that I managed to save from my childhood hold prime position in my secretary. [click to continue…]