GUTGAA Meet and Greet

I can not explain how excited I am to write this post!  GUTGAA (Gearing Up To Get An Agent) has begun!  Not only are the writing opportunities fantastic with this blogfest, but it's so fun to get to meet up with new people and form new connections.

So, welcome to Motivation for Creation and it's nice to meet you!

If you have not signed up yet, or have no idea what GUTGAA is, go here to read more.  You can sign up anytime this month, but must do so on the "master linky list" here.

Today is the Meet and Greet Blogfest, and so I get to answer some fun, introductory questions about myself. 

Bio:

Lara Schiffbauer is a writer, licensed clinical social worker, mother of two, wife of one, and a stubborn optimist.  She love Star Wars, Lego people, science, everyday magic and to laugh.  After achieving some publishing success with short stories, she turned her efforts to writing her first novel, which she finished this spring. Her current work in progress is challenging her on many levels, including becoming comfortable writing in third person point-of-view again, after spending a year in First Person World.

Where do you write?

Here's a picture of my humble writing space.  

I'll often write with the curtains open, so I can see outside.  The only downfall is the sun is really bright and I'm exponentially increasing the depth of the wrinkle on my forehead by squinting.  I can't help it, though, because I love looking outside and seeing the prairie, the meadowlarks and the kittens on the front deck.

Quick. Go to your writing space, sit down and look to your left. What is the first thing you see?

One of our many sets of bookshelves.  The shelf I'm looking at holds astronomy, cosmology and quantum mechanics books, plus a gold horse statue that was my great-grandfather's and sister's before it came into my possession.  When my sister was ten-ish she named the statue "Goldie."

Favorite time to write?

It depends on if I go to work or not.  On the days I go to work, early morning is good because I'm not exhausted from the day.  On days I don't go to work, I seem to gravitate to afternoon hours.

Drink of choice while writing?

Diet soda (either Coke or Pepsi is fine) or coffee.  I'm trying to drink more water, too.

When writing , do you listen to music or do you need complete silence?

I rarely have complete silence since the television is on the other side of the room.  If I have my choice as to what is coming out of the speakers on the TV, I'll choose the new age music channel.  The only caveat to listening to music while I write is the music can't have words.  One of my favorite bands to listen to while writing is Albannach, a Scottish Tribal drumming band.

What was your inspiration for your latest manuscript and where did you find it?

I found my inspiration for Finding Meara at work.  I will often see the ramifications of abuse on children, but never have control to see justice done for these kids.  I wanted to write a story about the need for children to be protected, and have the abusive father get his comeuppance, too.

What's your most valuable writing tip?

The only one I have is to try to write every day, at least for ten minutes.  In ten minutes you can have a page written and if you do that every day, you can have the first draft of a novel in a year.  Write for twenty minutes, and you can have a first draft done in six months.  Plus, if I sit down with the intent to write for ten minutes, I often will keep writing for much longer.

Now I get to go meet everyone else!  Have a great Monday and a great GUTGAA!

Funny Friday Photos

Here it is, the weekend already!  I don't know about you, but the week flew by for me!

Today (Thursday) I stayed home with my sick little boy and worked on my pitch for two contests.  The first is a Twitter pitch at Operation Awesome's Mystery Agent Contest, and then refined my longer pitch for GUTGAA (Gearing Up to Get an Agent) at Deanna Barnhart's fine blog.

Operation Awesome's contest is on Saturday, and GUTGAA, as you can see in the sidebar, runs for all of September.  If you want to participate in even just one of the many amazing opportunities there, you need to get over and sign up now!

I also started editing the first 150 words of Finding Meara for GUTGAA and I have to tell everyone who gave me feedback "thank you" one more time. I can't tell you how awesome you are and how helpful your fantastic advice was.   I wish I could have you all look over my entire manuscript, but at the very least I now know what to look for that I missed in previous drafts!

The winner of last weeks photos is:

It won by a very narrow margin.  The zebra lion ran a very close second.

Let's see the new pictures! Are you ready?

I had a Canadian friend when I was in my early 20's.  Oh the memories.

 

 

 

That sounds about right.

 

 

 

 

I feel the same way.  My kids like them though, so what do I watch?

 

 

 

 

 

I totally don't get it, but it was so cute I had to include it!

 

 

 

 

Hee, hee!  He looks so nervous!

 

 

 

 

What do you suppose the male lion is thinking, because the look in his eyes...

I think my favorite is the nervous shark.  I love his worried expression.

 

Did you pick a favorite? What fun do you have planned for the holiday? 

 

Have a happy weekend!