Token??

Captain Kaiden turns Model...

So for years now its always been our daughter who wanted to be the actor/model. Our son Kaiden wants to be the future Captain of the Colorado Avalanche! This last year it was no surprise when Cloudya finally decided she was going to put away her ballet shoes for a hockey stick. Kaiden deciding he wanted to model like sissy now that was a big surprise. However don't expect he'll be turning in his hockey stick anytime soon:)

Our Little Film Maker

My daughter Cloudya does her film thing!!! She loves to shoot videos and has many planned for the summer!

Silence in the Big O...

We all have those moments that are deeply etched in our memories. Whenever you think about them you can see your surroundings, hear the words spoken and even smell the smells that might have been drifting in the air. Unfortunately, these events are most often laced with tragedy. During my freshmen year of college, I was taking my comp final when the school shooting in Paducah, Kentucky happened. The sounds of my mom's voice over the running shower water on September 11 are forever ingrained into me. Today my city of Omaha had such an event.

The difference in all of these is distance. I knew people affected by 9-11 and my heart went out to the students in Kentucky, but overall I remained untouched. Today was different as the incident occurred not more than half a mile from the school where my own children attend. Their very school was affected by the lock down.

I watched on TV as frantic moms went to retrieve their children. Suffered through my husband's jokes about how they would have to haul me to jail. Finally, I thanked my lucky stars that Cloudya and Kaiden were in Kansas City with grandma and that my high school hockey sons were tucked safely in their hometowns. Most of all I was thankful that they didn't have to experience it.

Tonight every place we visited in the Big O seemed to be filled with one common factor...silence. The shock sets in as something so horrible strikes so close to home. But as the amazing type of people we all are we will bond together as a community and rise above this crisis. Our hearts go out to the families of the victims and we pray that their recovery is speedy...our thoughts are with the students and other faculty as they try to deal with the events. We send peace to the family of the suspect, who in the midst of everything are dealing with something I would never want to imagine.

Parents, as you say good night to your children this evening, remind them that you love them. Remind them how amazing they are!

The People Behind My Characters!

The current project that I am working on involves two characters whose "back story" is based very closely on some close friends of mine. In fact, so close that their pictures hang above my workstation. As each of the character's arcs have been created and researched they have transitioned into their very own person.

However, the last several weeks I have found it difficult to write. Quite frankly, it hasn't been all that enjoyable. A couple days ago as I lay in bed, attempting to work out my own frustrations I realized what my hang up had been.

The female character is based off of my best friend since childhood. The male is a former boyfriend of hers who remains closely knit with our family. I realized subconsciously that I was trying to protect them. I was having issues going on, because some of the dark things from my characters past have nothing to do with my friends. With that I was trying to protect them from people putting two and two together and realizing who the story is based on.

WHAT A ROOKIE MISTAKE!

Other than a couple close friends and family, no one will have any idea. As it stands the story is most diffently loosely based on their lives. The characters stand on their own and have made desicions leading them down a completely different path than those of my friends. They were simply the base as they were meant to be, so I could build a whole different story. As writers each of us could take the same beginning and build multiple stories from it. It's what we do! We create!

Why bear it all today? First, so I can move on and second, so new writers know that even those of us who have been writing a while still make rookie mistakes!

People Watching

People watching is one of my favorite activities! There is so much that an author can create from people they don't even know. There stories flow through us and liven our projects. Do you like to people watch? If so what kind of things have you learned from it? This week take the time to sit back and watch human behavior!

Sunday Sayings Series

Life isn't about sitting out the storm; its about dancing in the rain!

For those of us who need the motivation this week!