Sunday Snippits LOVE BY DESIGN Insomnia & Pool #sundaysnippits #excerpt

I'm going to try to remember to join in and start sharing again via Sunday Snippits and fellow author Ginger Simpson's Linky List. I hope you enjoy the 6 paragraphs I share here today from my upcoming contemporary romance release, LOVE BY DESIGN, and please stop by Ginger's Blog- "Dishin' It Out" by clicking on the Sunday Snippits image above to go read MORE excerpts from other authors & find out how you, too, can hop on this wagon train each Sunday if you are a pre-published or published author as well!

A party's not a party, till the gang's all here!

Derrek tossed and turned on the futon. He couldn’t get comfortable, not after having slept well the night before beside Jasmine.

He had her running scared though. She darted out of there like a timid mouse chased by a big hungry cat and he couldn’t deny he felt like one. He wanted to play cat and mouse, but just like a cat, he wanted to catch her, play with her, and then make a meal of her. Her kisses reduced him to putty in her hands. She didn’t realize just how deep he was falling or how quickly she could have him wrapped around her little finger, if she only wanted it that way.

It couldn’t be love, but the woman had him twisted. His thoughts continued to come back to dwell on how soft her curves were and how delicious her lips tasted.

Her scent still clung to his pillow and that didn’t help him get any rest either. He wondered if Jasmine could sleep.

He tossed back the cover and racked the pool table. At almost eleven p.m., the phone rang.

“Hey man. You’re up.” Fisher’s voice rumbled across the line. “You mind if I come out for a while? Or are you busy?”

Lil' T Stepped Outta Her Box- 1st #Writers Meeting #TuesdayswithTaryn #birdsofafeather

Hallee Bridgeman & Heather Sunseri

Yep, my world is expanding. And YES, I called myself Lil' T.

Taryn stepped outside her box on February 15th and attended her very 1st writers meeting. I belong to the Kentucky Independent Writers. I once belonged to the RWA Kentucky Romance Writers Chapter (KYRW), but I never attended any meetings because I live 2 1/2-3 hours drive from there and even though the meetings were every OTHER month, I didn't drive or have my own transportation at the time, and I didn't want to feel I was putting my spouse out to drive me up there, so far out of the way. Plus I was certainly scared spitless (yes, I'm minding my mouth, but not sure how long that will last. Haha!)

Donna McDonald & J.M. Madden

I missed out on a LOT and I'm aware of it in a way that's almost physically painful now when I look back on all the years I spent hunkered down in my self-inflicted isolation.

I  missed out on a lot of craft lessons, networking, and interaction that is so important to an author. This may be a solitary career choice, but when you have a group of like-minded authors, striving toward similar goals and dreams, it makes this journey that much easier. I hate to say it, but I regret all that wasted time, keeping to myself except via the internet. I could seriously kick my own ass for being so foolish as to think I could still get the same strengths out of it, just by being in touch.

Me and Kallypso Masters (and her assistant Charlotte)

And now that's going to change. When I started writing in 2006- or I should say, when I picked my writing back up in 2006 and began writing prolifically and in earnest because I HAD to get the stories out, I thought I was stepping outside that box and becoming bolder in who I am.

It wasn't until this past year though, that I feel I've really begun to find my courage, my bravery, to be who I am, to write what I want and to start thinking about ME for a change. Sure I was writing, but I was still hiding myself away and sure, there are authors who do not socialize or interact out there and there are stereotypes of authors like that, but I enjoy the company of my kind. We are birds of a feather and I find myself now flocking toward them, needing this more than I ever thought possible.

Katherine L Logan

Getting my driver's license has helped me in more ways than I can begin to fathom and now that I've attended my first meeting, I see that I need more than the isolation that I have subjected myself to for all these years.

I need the energy that comes from being in a group, talking, brainstorming, discussing all the things that are pertinent to us authors who, though we're taking "independent" routes to fulfill our dreams, still gain so much from the friendships and interactions with others who are also taking this same road.

Debi Warford, Laurel McKinley Keller,
Sharon Ray, Jesse V Coffey
Seraphina Donavan & Bruce McDonald II

I came away from the first meeting feeling rejuvenated, excited, proud of my small accomplishment of shaking off the fears that have held me back, stunted my growth and found myself inspired to move forward that much more.

I've been working on Love By Design. Edits are done, yet again. I need Beta Readers, but need to find those who are unbiased but trustworthy.

I'm also trying to throw myself back into the world of the living. That means blogging, sharing posts through Triberr, and I'm trying out using Google+ more often than I have been, especially as hard as Facebook makes it to share from my author page. What you can't find on Facebook, I'm hoping to making easily available to view (free) on Google+.

So.... in the meantime... I really need to get to work reading through and editing on Love By Change (Book 2 in the Love By Series and I still need to finish writing Heart of the Surf- the 4th and final book in the Pryce of Love Series. You can find out more about each of the books I'm currently working on via my Works In Progress page on my website and if you go exploring on my website, you can also find out how to sign up for my Newsletter of Love, which I will send out when I have new and exciting things to tell you about my upcoming releases.

Me & my Scrabble Buddy & fellow writer Robyn Peterman

A quiet retrospect on this #TuesdayswithTaryn

Been thinking lately about how quiet I've been. I've been more crafty than writerly in my mood. Making homemade gifts for my loved ones feeds my soul and blesses me with a form of joy I can only get from doing those kinds of things (even when some people look at me like I've lost my ever-loving crafty mind), but tonight I keep thinking about my stories and the joy they used to bring me- those written, those not yet finished, and even those not yet begun & I feel melancholy.

I miss writing- I mean I miss it so much it hurts. It feels like I have a deep black hole in my heart because it's missing and yet, I don't know how to get back to it. Certain revelations about myself as a writer, about my stories, my characters, what's lacking in the stories I've written has bogged down my creative juices for months, and the process just doesn't want to come to me. I feel alone in this journey and have at times wondered what I'm even doing and why.

I know WHY- it's because my heart does not stop desiring to put words to page, even when I'm feeling creatively blocked, emotionally disconnected, and frozen in place by fear and self-loathing of myself as a writer. Self-doubts and misgivings press in on me from all sides and make me question whether the stories I have written and want to tell are even worth it. I keep thinking that there are so many other more talented authors out there and that what I have to offer would fall short of the readers' expectations, and mine.

I know I have a lot of work ahead of me and there are changes I need to make to my characters- in their personalities, their strengths and their flaws, the very essence of their stories and who they are. I feel so overwhelmed by it that I can't even begin... Every time I think of opening a file and working on it, I feel panicky and scared- and I'm not sure what scares me more....the fact that what I might find could be trash by my own standards, or might be trash in the eyes of others----

And worse yet, what if it only serves to reveal to me that I'm a sub-par author with little to offer in the way of a heartfelt story that touches a reader and proves that I'm nothing more than a fraud--- that silly dancing chicken on a hotplate. (I seem to recall that being something George Strait talked about in Pure Country when he was tired of all the razzle-dazzle of the business and how he felt like that dancing chicken- which seemed like a neat trick at a county fair or something, but in truth, it was just on a hotplate, burning it's feet and just dancing as fast as it could to get away.)

I do think a lot of it has to do with the fact that it's not just one book, but many, that I know I need to take a good hard look at and decide their fate through editing, rewrites,(and it might mean massive rewrites) before I can move forward with my plans to self-pub. Some days I wonder if I should even continue, but its nights like this when the ache to get back to work on it burns so brightly it hurts my chest and brings tears to my eyes.

I will sleep on it tonight- hopefully.... and maybe this is just a sign that my time to come back to it is drawing closer....that I need writing to quench a thirst I can't quite seem to vanquish...

Dreadfully Absent in Mind, Body & Spirit #TuesdayswithTaryn #burnout #tiredauthor

I've been dreadfully absent around here I know. I can't even remember the last Saturday recipe I shared or Sunday Snippits, but I had to step away for a while and I might still be spotty when it comes to posting.

Last month I took a huge step for a "woman my age" and finally took the road test to get my driver's license. I failed MISERABLY the first time, so I had to wait, practice and go back the following week to re-test. I passed with only 1 thing marked off the 2nd time, so I'm now a licensed driver- look out world! Some have already been warned, but I'll share here, just to warn everyone else.

I'm still getting used to the knowledge that I can come and go, pick up things from the store, do the grocery shopping- ALONE!- I can do birthday shopping now for family in my household without them being with me or finding out what I got them before I get to wrap it.

It's definitely given me a new sense of self and a sense of freedom, but there are days that I find myself wanting to go driving, or take off to go visit family and friends while the hubby and kids are at school, but it would be a 2 1/2-3 hour drive to do so, which is frustrating and makes me melancholy during a season that usually rejuvenates me. This year I'm torn between the joy of this newfound freedom and the fact that I can't just go visit my close friends and family at the drop of a hat.

Another reason I have been absent around here has a lot to do with my writing- or the lack thereof. Even with editing and getting help from fresh eyes to see where my faults lie in my writing, I feel like a car stuck in the mud, spinning my tires and getting no where fast~ except exhausted and burned out. And unhappy. Discouraged. Disappointed in myself and I'm mentally exhausted and even though I KNOW I don't want to give up writing, I just feel tapped out....I still have stories to write, begging me from the inside out to bring them to life, but I have no zest, no zeal, no desire to write, right now.

I found myself cycling through edits until all I wanted to do is cry because I'm so overwhelmed by the work I know needs to be done, not just on the one I've been editing, but the ones that come after, which are "1st-Draft finished". Talk about that sense that you are drowning. I found myself promo'ing for fellow authors and myself (for the one book that is pubbed) more than working on my own stuff that I intend to pub. When I did look at my own stuff, it just made me sick to my stomach and well, when you no longer "love" what you do, sometimes you have to step back and refocus and reassess where you are and what path you are going down. For me, I feel like a snowball, rolling rolling rolling, picking up speed, but headed for disaster. I've even backed away a lot from my real life social networking as well. I check in ever so often but not like I was before.

Now Mercury is in Retrograde and has been for about a week and will be till mid-November (the 10th actually), so I'm too superstitious (or silly) (or crazy) to pick up and start ANY new project at this time. I'm concentrating more on things I need to do around my house, making lists for holiday treats I plan to make before Thanksgiving to take to family and friends, playing seamstress to take up my daughter's oversized costume for Halloween (She wants to be Sabrina the Teenage Witch, though no one will get that unless she explains it. She got hooked on the show this past summer on Netflix/Hulu and just LOVES it). Normally I would dress up too, but I'm just not feeling it this year.

Now, even in my absence/quiet- I still have a book available- Castaway Hearts, which I'd LOVE LOVE LOVE it if you'd check it out and let me know what you think of it, but for right now, I think I'm going to step back from writing all together, at least until after the New Year. I've tried before to step away but I don't think I ever truly gave myself time to clear my head.

I'm so tired. My mind, body and spirit need time to rest and adjust and find the heart of my writing again. I think somewhere along the way, it's gotten buried deep beneath everything else in my life. It's the "autumn of my discontent" and on a personal/emotional level, I'm trying to figure out what's best for me and eliminating stress and unhappiness is a big big part of that.

Besides getting my license, I have two very busy kids~ stepson's on the Academic Team and has meets, daughter's in Jr. Beta, chorus & joined a run club. I visited family & friends during Fall Break earlier this month and with the upcoming holidays and knowing I'm not feeling up to NaNoWriMo next month at all, I think I'm going to step back into my life and try to figure out how to find true balance again. I know I don't have it.

I'm not sure I'll post anymore of the recipes I had slated for the rest of the year, but will try when I think of it. Same goes for the Sunday Snippits. And I will post from time to time, if the mood strikes me. If anyone is interested in taking a Tuesday or Thursday spot for some promo, please feel free to email me and let me know.

To close out today, here's an inspirational blogpost I JUST happened upon today that brought me tears and reminded me that I am NOT alone in being a TIRED writer. I just hope I find my way out of Tired, as well- very soon!

I'M TIRED

at ROMANCE MAGICIANS

from @LouisaCornell