Lisa Writing Wild

We have an alarm system that I'm still getting used to. I've never lived in a house with one before, though I've set off a few cleaning houses. Last night around 2:00am the monitor in our room beeped telling me the outside door had been opened. I jumped up in bed and reached for my husband. "Did you hear that?" I asked, my heart racing.  He wasn't there. It was him letting our dog, Speedy, out. It took me a while, but I fell back to sleep. A few hours later I had a dream that my husband, Mike, went downstairs to check out a noise. I suddenly heard him screaming and fighting someone off. He yelled for me to hit the POLICE button on the alarm. In my dream I didn't know which one it was and it was too dark. Again, I woke up with my heart pounding, sure there was someone downstairs. Mike slept next to me, not a care. I kept glancing over my shoulder to make sure the red light on the alarm box was on. Suddenly I heard a noise, like someone walked into

I've read tons of books on writing. Tons. I have shelves filled with them. Some of which I haven't even read yet. I think the best writing advice I've gotten has been BIC (butt in chair). I'm one of those writers who will procrastinate so long, I'll use all of my writing time up and I'll have to quit before I even did any writing. My biggest distraction, besides dishes, vacuuming, and cleaning out the lint trap, is the internet. I sat down last night, for my first time, in my new writing room. My husband was taking care of our son, and I planned on working on my Script Frenzy project. I ended up answering a bunch of emails I've let pile up (which I can't do since we own a cleaning business), and checking out Facebook. About an hour later I came downstairs and my husband asked how my writing time went. I said it was great, even though I didn't get any actual writing done. But I did have a great time being alone in my writing room and getting a feel

Ok, so I mentioned in my previous post how I'd like to participate in April's Script Frenzy but didn't know what to write about. I am notorious for having a million ideas (all wonderful, of course) and not following on  most  any of them. I have screenplays with over 100 pages but the story is all out of whack. I have an adult novel (not porn, just not YA) with over 75K words but that, too, is out of whack. I have two screenplays that have a ton of notes and most of an outline on. One is a female adventure-type story and the other is a contained horror. I left those in the dust when I had this YA novel idea that wouldn't go away. I don't have to explain to you how characters sometimes park themselves in your head and refuse to move until you write about them. That's what happened with these three girls. I have a big outline, lots of dialogue and little details for the story. But I DON'T want it to be a screenplay. So, I'm thinking of just using Apri

I love Facebook. I check it during the day, usually on my iPhone, and update my status almost every day. Like most people, I have gotten back in touch with people I never thought I'd see again. I"m lucky that I haven't had any unwanted people find or bother me. I keep everything private so they can't even see my profile picture. At one point I had over 300 friends. When I scrolled through them I realized I didn't talk to almost half of them. I ended up cutting about 150. I didn't like the idea of people not talking to me but looking through my photos. I love being in close contact with family members now. I have cousins that I had no idea what was going on in their lives. Now we connect on FB and even talk on the phone, which I love. The downside, for me, is that it's a time-sucker. I check my email and next thing I know, I've been on FB for a half-hour and haven't accomplished anything productive. Especially having it on my iPhone since it

I think I want to participate in Script Frenzy this year. It's like NaNoWriMo but with a screenplay instead of a novel. The reason I'm nuts is because not only did I just move and still have a lot to unpack, but I don't even have a script idea in mind. The whole YA world is still new to me, although I've read some YA books and have an entire shelf in my writing office with brand new YA books to be read. I still haven't written anything YA. Before we moved I had quite the outline going for a YA novel, which I still want to work on. Last summer I wrote two short scripts (not young adult) that were turned into films. After they were done I sort of got out of writing screenplays (though not for lack of ideas---YA was just calling my name loud and clear). I feel like if I do Script Frenzy, I definitely want to work on a YA script. But I am WAY behind by not even having an idea. I still have a few days to think it over, so hopefully I'll come up with something

I was doing so good blogging every day, then we moved and I don't have the time anymore. But I will eventually, once we're settled. I can't wait for that time! In the last two weeks since we've moved in we've done quite a few projects. Our basement had linoleum floors and white walls, and now it has dark red walls and we had carpet installed. My dad added the cedar trim and door. I'm going to paint that bench (for our flat screen to go on) and add the little lamp shades (like above right) to the rest of the lights.  We also knocked down our kitchen /dining room wall (and by WE I mean my dad and his wife).  (Don't look at my dead roses). My brother will be remodeling our kitchen some time this summer. For now it's a great open space for us. Such a difference. Every day and night we literally have had thing after thing to do. Yesterday we cleaned two houses, then went back to our apartment and cleaned stuff out for three hours. I felt so bad

What a crazy few weeks we've had! Today is my 40th birthday, which I've been looking forward to for a while. Here are a few pictures from the birthday party my husband threw for me today. My husband, Mike, and I. I snuck outside while he was grilling and we took a self-portrait. My "little" brother and I. The cake my dad got for me:) My son, Joey, helping me blow out 40 candles. We did it all in one breath! My boy, Batman.

The way we did this move was crazy. Instead of packing up like normal people and just moving in one day, we did it over about two weeks. On one hand it's good because every time my husband brings more stuff from our townhouse, I already have the previous load unpacked. But it also means just when I have the house looking great, my husband shows up with a ton more crap for me to put away. I've been so busy getting the main floor (and basement) taken care of, that I've pretty much ignored the third floor where my writing office (!) will be. There are two rooms up on the third floor and my dad is going to help me fix the walls and repaint. But before then he's been painting the basement, taking out old trim and putting in new cedar trim, hanging curtains...and this week he wants to knock down the wall between the kitchen and dining room where my brother and him are going to put an island. So, the writing office is far down on the list. But I miss everyone on here! I wa

When I was about 15 I got turned on to reading Sidney Sheldon. I worked one summer as a Teen on Patrol for the local police department. Growing up I wanted to be a cop more than anything. I took two buses to get there and my job consisted of working at a local high school (in a bad area), and keeping order while kids swam in the indoor pool. Yeah, right. Even the littlest kid weighed more than I did.  I was forever 90 pounds and on a diet that summer to gain weight. I ate a hot dog and chocolate milkshake every day for lunch that summer, and didn't gain a pound. So the idea of me protecting anybody and stopping fights was a joke. But the joke was on them because I got paid for it. My boss was a police officer and one day he came by the high school to hand out Teen on Patrol baseball caps. He asked if I wanted to ride around with him to the other teen centers to hand them out. I jumped at the chance to ride in his car all afternoon. It was in his car that I found a Sidney Shel

Last Wednesday we closed on our house. We started moving in that night and had company over right away. Every day and night since then my husband had made trip after trip with stuff from our old place. He brings it in and I unpack it all. We've had company every day and we hate when we have to leave here to go back to our townhouse to sleep. I feel like I'm living two different lives. Yesterday my dad and his wife were here from first thing in the morning until about eight at night. We painted our basement (which we're turning into a family/media room). My dad ripped out the baseboards and is putting in cedar ones today. My brother and his family came last night, and he's going to be remodeling our kitchen since he builds custom kitchens for a living. I am so excited to have the kitchen done. It's the yuckiest room in the house: all mismatched cupboards, paneling (!), tile, awful floor...you get the idea. We're knocking the kitchen/dining room wall down and

My husband was nice enough to get me a gift certificate for a spa for Valentine's Day. I went for a massage and eyebrow wax last night. Since we are in the middle of moving (we closed Wednesday and have been moving boxes over), I needed the massage. And since I have crazy thick eyebrows, the wax was much needed, too. The massage rooms are very relaxing. They're dark, smell good and have soft music playing. I'm fine right up until the girl walks in and starts-a-rubbin. Then my mind turns on me. Should I say something? Does she think I'm ignoring her? Am I boring her if I keep quiet? Who do I think I am having this poor girl rub me down? She must hate me! So then I speak. And I can't shut up. Suddenly my massage isn't so relaxing anymore. Now if I go back to the same girl (and there's only one there) I have to talk. She expects it from me. On a positive note, I had a $100 gift  certificate and since another massage therapist canceled on me last week

Pens, notebooks and books. Just looking at the words gives me shivers. I look at all three things in any Target, Barnes and Noble or grocery store. Right now I'm obsessed with: Pilot Easy Touch pens Moleskine Cashiers notebooks YA books (I've been buying so many I've lost count.) I feel like I've finally found my niche with YA (and I hope that doesn't change!) It's a whole new world for me and I love it. I was obsessed with Judy Blume and Beverly Cleary books when I was little. I always thought I'd be good at writing funny-type books for 11-13 year olds. Right now I'm working on an edgy YA for later teens, and I've never had a story fall into place like this has. Did you have to go through different genres before you found your niche?

What are some of your favorite novels? I only recently got into reading YA novels (except for when I was young). I'm having so much fun finding ones to read. So far I've read two of Ellen Hopkins' (I had to take a break from those because they get depressing). Now I'm reading a Lauren Myracle one and have a few others lined up. What are your favorites?

I'm a mom to one four year old son. I'm also a foster parent but we're not fostering at the moment, (we will be as soon), and we own a small cleaning business. I have a very hard time finding time to write. This past weekend my son was sick with a fever and cough. And while I hate it that he was sick, I got a ton of writing done because we laid around the house all weekend. What is your writing schedule like? Do you even have one? For now, mine isn't anything set in stone. I just write whenever I have a few minutes to spare, and sometimes that's none at all. How do you do it?