Julia Mozingo Author

No.  I never had any idea I would be a writer.  I thought writers were a special breed.  I didn’t know ordinary people like myself could be a writer.  

Like many young girls, I had a locking diary — that small book with two pages per week; I think it was.  The narrow-lined paper had at most three to five lines per daily entry.  I’d write entries as soon as I received the diary — usually at Christmas — writing as small as I could to get as many words as possible in the minute space.  But by the end of January, or before, the diary would be long forgotten and misplaced.

Then when I was in sixth grade, everyday after lunch, while we worked on writing our spelling words ten times each and copying the definitions from the dictionary, my teacher would read us a chapter from a Nancy Drew mystery.  That’s when I fell in love with books.  I simply couldn’t get enough of Nancy Drew and her adventures.  I found myself so engrossed in the stories that I’d forget to do my spelling assignment.  Thank you, Mr. Engler, for introducing me to the wonderful world of books!

That summer my Mom took us to the library nearly every week.  I remember checking out nearly a dozen books each time.  I spent that summer reading and reading and reading.  By the time seventh grade started, I had an inkling to write a novel, as did my friend Karyn Cross.  I remember writing the whole first chapter, by hand, of course, and in my best handwriting.  Sometime that same year that, too, fell to the wayside.

In ninth-grade English, the teacher assigned the class to write a report about an “important” invention.  I don’t know why, but for some reason I decided to write from the viewpoint of a safety pin.  After I read my report aloud, the boy sitting across the aisle from me smirked and commented that the topic was supposed to be an “important” invention.  I remember the teacher championing me, telling the boy that for a girl, the safety pin was an “important” invention.  That teacher was the first to comment on my writing.  I believe her name was Mrs. Chastain.

I never thought about writing again for at least five years, or reading.  Then one day I decided to go to the library and check out an armload of books and began reading voraciously.  But it was another fifteen years before I ever thought about writing again.

The inner urgings grew stronger and stronger until one day I decided to put words to paper.  But by then, I’d committed to my college education.  So I assuaged the writing bug by reading about writing until I finished my Master’s degree. 

During those last few months, I heard of a local writing group.   It took a while for me to summon enough courage to attend that very first meeting, but I did.  The month following college graduation, I began writing, and within a year attended my very first writers’ conference where I met more real writers.  I joined distant groups and networked with them in monthly meetings.  Then I gathered my courage again, stepped out of my comfort zone, and entered the Internet community.

Wow!  The writing life was not so lonely anymore.  There were lots of others just like me on the writing path.  We shared common hopes, common dreams, and common disappointments, but we were also there to support each other along the way.

So that’s how I came to the writing life and began walking the writing path.  It wasn’t because I’d always known I’d be a writer.  I was led here by a Higher Creative Power filling me with irresistible inner urgings to take action.  So if I can be a writer, you can be a writer, too.  Follow your heart.

Writers are all always constantly busy.  We’re always short on time.  We’re always struggling for writing time and lamenting that we don’t get enough.  The key is to TAKE or MAKE writing time.  Make writing a priority.  Then let life flow around writing, rather than the writing flowing around everything else in life.  Try it.  You might like it.

Granted, it’s much easier said than done.  Been there, done that.  But … what might happen if you wrote for only fifteen minutes?  How long does it take you to be absorbed into the creatuve zone?  Might you become absorbed in your story, forget about not having time, and continue longer than the originally planned fifteen minutes?  Consider giving it a try.

I sometimes use a writing prompt to get started.  Do you use writing prompts?  How do you use writing prompts?  

Can you imagine your character in a situation and wonder how the character will react to get out of that situation, or a difficult situation?  Do you explore character emotions and wonder what happened for the character to feel the emotion?  Do you wonder what might happen if your character made this decision rather than that other decision? 

What is your favorite writing prompt?  Write about your thoughts on writing prompts or about what type of writing prompt you might use to jumpstart your daily writing stint.

Take time to write today … if only for a short while.

Welcome to my new Internet home.  The current economy has prompted me to step out of my comfort zone.  To stretch my confidence and risk failure.  I’ve jumped into the World Wide Web with my first website.

Tada!  This is it.

So far I’m paddling in the deep waters with more knowledgeable and more experienced persons.  Yet I’m managing to keep my head above water.  Even if sputtering at times.  By trying and trying, again and again, I’ve finally succeeded in setting up my own hosting account and WordPress on Windows with GoDaddy.  I’m not saying it was easy, but I did it!

I think positive and tell myself I can do this.  I will succeed.

Affirmations can and will help.  I have the intelligence to decipher the oceans of help documents — one sentence, one paragraph, one page at a time.

It’s all in the babysteps.  Babysteps will take me where I want to go.

I can do anything for fifteen minutes. 

Skills I’ve acquired in novel writing, I apply to other areas in life — positive thinking, affirmations, perseverance, persistence, determination.  They serve me well.

Thank you for stopping by.  Drop back whenever you can.  Observe my wanderings and wonderings, successes and failures, along the writing path — all learning experiences in life and fuel for writing.

Wow! There are so many good books out there to read that I find many books I want to read, but feel I have so little time to read them all. However, when I look back at what I’ve read this summer–read the past six weeks–I see that I’ve made a dent in my TBR (To Be Read) stack, rather stacks. Yes, plural. And the stacks continue to grow as I find more books I want to read. But if I don’t start, I’ll never finish. So this is where I started this summer.

I read Linda Howard’s Dream Man, Susan Andersen’s Obsessed, Heather Graham’s Ghost Walk, all adult books.

Then I signed up for the Oklahoma Fall Arts Institutes to study writing with Sharon Darrow in a workshop called “Becoming the Author: Writing for Children and Young Adults.” So I ordered and read her books–Old Thunder and Miss Raney, Through the Tempests Dark and Wild, Trash, and The Painters of Lexieville. Wow! Talk about voice! The last two, the young adult books, showed me life as I’d never really thought about it. I found the books very interesting and powerful. I’ll never think of the name Patricia the same as I did before without remembering Pert’s mother calling her Pertricia. Wonderful!

After reading those, I delved into action adventure novels and read Meredith Fletcher’s work — Double-Cross, Look-Alike, and her contributions to two anthologies Upgrade in Smokescreen and The Get-Away Girl in Femme Fatale. Really fast reads with strong characters.

Following those, I read Xxx, a novelization by Mel Odom and decided to read more of his work. So currently, I’m reading Mel Odom’s Paid in Blood. See picture above. I’m halfway through the book. It, too, is a fast read. I’m amazed at the skillful weaving of the multiple viewpoints and the individual story lines. There’s never a boring part. I love the “little” bullets of narrative info. Quick in and quick out keeps the pacing moving. And each scene’s end is a grabber. Talk about not being able to put the book down. Mel sure makes it tough on a reader … hard to put the book down to go to bed at night, but even tougher to get up the next morning if the reader stays up late reading. Reads like this sure make me want to retire from the work force so I can read all day and night.

Next on my TBR stack will be two more Mel Odom books, Angel “Image” and Snowday, a young adult novel.

For now, ready or not, I’ve got to get back to the day job of being an elementary teacher. Duty calls!

Yikes! Life’s busy. I’ve been so busy that it’s been nearly five weeks since I posted to the blog.

During that time I’ve — rewritten parts of my novel and developed a new story for a novel, created a soothing getaway for my writing muse on my back patio – complete with fountain, swing, plants – flowering and non-flowering, bird feeder, miniature bird bath, and inanimate yard critters. In the front yard, I’ve hung pots of petunias, a bird feeder, and set up a birdbath I can view from the bench on my front porch.

I’ve also vacationed in San Antonio, Texas, at Sea World and the River Walk, where I took loads of pictures.

I’ve hosted a weekend Plotting Party for one of my RWA chapters, which was fabulous. Here we are after dinner Friday evening.

Yesterday I drove to a nearby metro area where I bought a brand new notebook computer for my birthday. I didn’t want to order off the Internet and wait nearly two weeks for it.

Now, I’m charging into my writing to add a layer that will round out my flat characters and strengthen the romantic relationship between the hero and heroine.

Have a great day! And think of your intention to write today. Focus on that intention. Then take action. Write on!

This week has started in a whirl.  I’m spinning, meeting myself coming and going, not to mention dog paddling with all the new experiences life brings as a writer — like blogging. 

Monday one of my best friends — Di — and I went to lunch and then spent the afternoon planning an upcoming Plotting Party for one of our writing groups.  You know who you are.  I’m excited!

Tuesday we went to lunch again — wow! lunch with a friend two days in a row — Iife doesn’t get any better than this!  Afterward we visited some of the local nurseries — garden type, planning little getaways of our own as close as our own backyard patios to pamper our writing muses.

Oh, yes!  Life does get better.  Tuesday evening my other best friend — Burna — popped to town, so we talked writing business for a while then twirled off for dinner.  From there I barely had time enough to turn around and head straight to writing critique meeting.

Today, Wednesday, starts with a couple of spins and a twirl to the local day spa for a massage.  Thursday I’ll go teach a writing friend a couple of new tricks on her computer and what I’ve learned about how to blog. Whew!  Life’s a whirl.

Life is good!  Life as a writer is also tough, I tell you.  You may not believe me, but I still have to “make” time to sit down and type or handwrite words on the page one word at a time.  Yeah, I haven’t yet learned/mastered how to type or handwrite words concurrently.  To be a writer, one must write.  So I’ll keep spinning and twirling.  Life is all about balance even if life is a whirl!  (-:

Since all my writing friends are raving about blogs, and blogs are the “thing” to do, I guess I’ll jump in. I just hope the water’s not too deep, that I’m not in over my head, and that I don’t drown. Here’s to sink or swim time! Here I go! Splash!!!