Adventures of the Accidental Author

I've always loved music. It was a huge part of my life growing up. My mom was a country music fan who raised me on Conway, Loretta, Patsy, and George. All the greats of the time. I of course had my own taste in music as I grew older but classic country never left my soul. Country music gets a bad rep at times from being so "redneck" (I.E. She stole my dog and my truck and left me for my brother jokes) but country music tells a story. Makes you feel something. Some are a little wonky, yes. But most of them tell wonderful stories. I have to listen to music while I write and it's usually country if I need to be inspired. Sometimes it changes depending on the scene I'm working on. Feeling a little stumped and blocked on visualizing this novel I'm working on, I listened to some Miranda Lambert on the way home and sang along at the top of my lungs. Doing these little car karaoke performances always makes me feel better. Right away, I started picturing my story and ...

  I used to have this ridiculous fear that I would share my thoughts to brainstorm with another author and they would in turn steal my idea and I'd be left in the dark with my mouth hanging open. Thank you anxiety - I swear it's like this little person constantly giving me worst-case scenario thoughts for every daily thing. It's exhausting.  With that said, I saw in one of my favorite groups on Facebook - Moms Who Write - and there was a lady offering brainstorming to fight through some blocks. Being 2022, I decided to leave my crazy fears in 2021. I messaged her and we began to brainstorm about my current work in progress "Chasing Fireflies" . I was having some issues with a certain plot point and was not sure it was solid enough to hold the entire story. After a few minutes of her asking questions and giving suggestions, I began to add more to the plot that I always wanted to but didn't think it was "wow enough". But then I realized, it's not a...

 *Day two of being consistent*         So here we are on day two where I nearly lost my faith in this whole daily blog thing. HAH! I said nearly. Then Alexa said "Lauren, have you done something for your business today? You won't get to the next level by watching TV." Now, full disclosure I told her to tell me this but the amount of shade in her little robotic voice as I am watching Dexter just . . . yeah.       I feel accomplished though. I cleaned my house - moms you know the day after holidays is just . . . ugh why?!? Worked for my regular paying job (deadlines for payroll since I'm off tomorrow)while listening to It Ends With Us by Colleen Hoover on audible, and then took a minute to watch an episode before I hopped online to do my author stuff.       The reason I nearly lost faith was because . . . I thought, oh my God, what the heck am I going to write about?  <insert panic gif here>   ...

Hello, 2022!  I bet you're already rolling your eyes at all the "New Year, New Me" posts. I've decided to be honest with myself - and with my readers. My motto is - and I've come accept - "New Year . . . same hot mess" I know me - I'm going to have days of writers block. I'm going to overschedule myself and run myself into the ground with a full plate until I burn out and retreat into myself like a turtle. I'm going to have unfinished projects. I'm going to have regrets and be mad I didn't stick to my goals.  Well, at least that was 2021 me. I plan to go into 2022 with a new outlook. A complete revamped perspective. I will give myself grace on the days I fall short of meeting less than my goal or nothing at all. I'm going to document this journey each day. Of course, there will be days where I have absolutely zero time to write, but my goal is to still write something or do one thing for my business. Give my readers a ...

Growing up as a child, I often dreamt of being an actress, a singer, a lawyer, a doctor, or maybe even an FBI agent turned beauty queen. I always devoured movies where the underdog prospered through the obstacles and came out on top prosperous. I truly believed based on these fictional stories that maybe one day I’d be living my own Cinderella story. A simple girl with dreams too big for a small town, I resolved that I’d be all of those things only in my daydreams. I could often be found daydreaming about living life like in the movies I’d grown to love. Sometimes, even escaping my own reality by diving into a new Meg Cabot or Stephenie Meyer novel. I grew up sheltered and saw the world through childlike eyes, even as an adult. I gave everyone the benefit of the doubt, I carried my heart on my sleeve, and I often felt empathy so deeply it shook my core when someone I loved was in pain. And unfortunately, I watched someone who meant everything to me endure pain daily. My mom fought he...