It takes remarkable courage not to give up on your dreams; don’t let anyone ever tell you that it doesn’t.

Take my writing career for example. I’ve read stories, blog posts and seen interviews with various writers who have had their first novel bought by a major publishing house after one submission, writers whose manuscripts editors thought were perfect and required no rewrite and writers who have signed multi-deal contracts for seven-figure sums. Of course, none of those things happened to me—I just don’t have that kind of luck, karma, whatever you want to call it and that’s okay because what I do have is resolve, perseverance and belief in myself and my work.

From the time I started writing seriously years ago with the goal of publication by Harlequin Romance; I knew in my heart that it wasn’t going to be a fast, easy journey. People told me I was being unrealistic to set my goals so high. They said I’d never receive a contract from Harlequin—the biggest publisher of romantic fiction. I simply smiled at them and said, “We’ll see.” Now my friends weren’t deliberately trying to be cruel; they just didn’t want me to set myself up for what they thought would be imminent failure. However, I believe in dreaming big or not dreaming at all and I’m not afraid of hard, exhausting work, so giving up wasn’t an option for me.

The first question I asked myself was did I really want to pursue a writing career; was it something I just had to do? The answer was yes; writing was in my blood and I could no more stop writing than I could stop breathing. Therefore, I kept reading, writing and submitting even when the rejections continued to roll in because I was steadily working towards my goal being a published Harlequin author—I visualized myself as a Harlequin author and I continued believing in myself and in my stories. I promised that no matter how difficult it was or how long it took, I was going to reach my objective and on November 10, 2010, my hard work paid off when opportunity finally knocked on my weather-beaten door in the form of Harlequin Kimani—yes, Harlequin and they offered me a two-book contract! I had finally achieved my objective and it felt wonderful!

As you pursue your ambitions, there will be days when you want to throw up your hands in defeat, days when you think to yourself, “What’s the use?” Believe me I’ve lived through plenty of those trying times, but I refused to let them break me and honestly, where would I be if I had given up? I wouldn’t be here blogging with you; I wouldn’t be proudly staring at the copy of my debut novel that’s sitting in a place of honor on my desk; I wouldn’t be a few short days away from the publication of said novel and I wouldn’t be putting the finishing touches on my second novel for Harlequin, while outlining a third.

It’s my contention that much too frequently in life we give up far too easily on our goals and dreams because the path is not as quick as we had anticipated or would have liked, but I’m here to tell you that determination does pay off. Whatever your aspiration, I hope you endure and overcome any obstacles thrown in your path and that one day soon you experience your moment of triumph. However, one thing I know for certain is it won’t happen for you if you give up—so don’t, not ever!

CONTEST:  For a chance to win an autographed copy of my book (2 copies will be given away), hurry and enter today only (January 25, 2012). I will pick the winner in a random drawing tomorrow (January 26, 2012) at 12:00 noon central time and list winners on my Facebook Author page.

How to enter:

1. Leave a comment on my post for this blog OR
2. Go to my Facebook author page and like it or leave me a message OR
3. Follow me on Twitter

If you do all three, your chances of winning will increase as you’ll be entered into the drawing three times!

Good luck everyone!

About Judy

Judy L. Hubbard is a native of Dallas, Texas, and a graduate of Southern Methodist University with a degree in Psychology. She acquired her love of romance novels at the age of 14 when her sister gave her a Harlequin Romance book to read and from that point on, she has been an avid romance reader because they always tell the emotional type of stories that she likes to read and write.

Her first book, These Arms of Mine, is scheduled to be released in February 2012. Her second Harlequin Kimani novel, Our First Dance is scheduled for release in July 2012. She is, of course, already working on her third and fourth endeavors.

Judy is a member of Romance Writers of America (RWA) and Dallas Area Romance Authors (DARA). Judy’s promise to her readers is to always do her best to create wonderful characters and compelling, sensual stories that take you away, place a smile on your face and fill your heart with joy.

And here are three reasons why.

1. Research!

So I’m writing along and after a workout, my heroine, Miranda Steele, is getting dressed a locker room with two other IITs (Investigators in Training at The Parker Agency). I’m not that up on the latest fashion, so I zip over to Yahoo (sorry Google, it’s my fav), and look up “women’s clothing.” In minutes, I have descriptions of the color, fabric, and lines of all of their outfits as they tug on sweaters and pull up slacks and slip into heels. Works for guns and blood spatter, too.

And if that’s not enough, there’s always…

2. Connection!

Facebook, Twitter, blogs, websites, email. How did we ever get along without these things? I wish someone would pay me for reading blog posts and websites. If they did, I’d be rich (but not as rich as Tami Brothers would be.)

The lonely writer is lonely no more. At any hour of the day, all I have to do is shuffle over to my computer, and I can be chatting with hundreds of people in seconds. Isn’t that amazing?

If you’re a member of Romance Writers of America, you also have access to online chapters, like the fabulous Kiss of Death, where people pose and answer fascinating crime questions all the time. If you’re a member of Georgia Romance Writers, you have access to their portal on their website.

Last but not least, there’s…

3. eBooks!

Amazon.com, Smashwords.com, BarnesandNoble.com. Not only can you read some terrific new (and old) writers, download their latest books to your ereader in seconds, but you can… (you knew I was getting to this) SELF-publish.

And now for the commercial (you knew that was coming, too. Right?)…

Last month I made the “big announcement” that I had taken the plunge, and released my first full-length novel Someone Else’s Daughter on Smashwords. Today, I’m announcing that Someone Else’s Daughter, along with its sequel, Delicious Torment, are both available on Amazon as well. (Someone Else’s Daughter is also now on B&N.)

So what do you like about the internet? Are you as addicted as I am to it?

Photo credit: The Opte Project

Follow an Angel

By Marilyn Baron

http://www.twbpress.com/followanangel.html

Publisher: TWB Press (July 15, 2011)

Marilyn Baron has done it again with her latest supernatural romance, Follow An Angel. With its sympathetic characters, mesmerizing plot, and highly satisfying ending, this book is a real page-turner.

Thirty years old, always-a-bridesmaid-never-a-bride Eden Eastman is resigned to being single. Jaded from years of online dating and on the heels of being stood up by one man too many, she considers checking herself into Belleview or jumping off a bridge. But since she’s actually neither crazy nor suicidal, she decides instead to flee New York City and retreat to her parents’ beachfront property in an attempt to heal her broken heart.

All bets are off when hunky, winged Gabriel appears hovering over the balcony of the fifth floor condo, explaining that he is a celestial being on a mission. Like Clarence from It’s A Wonderful Life, Gabe is an angel in training; unlike Clarence, he is no old fogey – after all, he has a Facebook page! And using his social media savvy, he devises a plan to help Eden meet her soul mate, but they have just until sunset to carry it out.

At first, Eden is completely consumed by the quest for true love, but as she develops genuine affection for Gabe, she begins to care even more about helping him succeed in his mission. Do they make their deadline? Does Eden meet the man of her dreams? You’ll have to read the book to find out. But I will tell you that the beautiful twist at the end will bring joy to your heart and a tear to your eye.

As a single woman often disillusioned with the dating scene myself, I could relate to Eden on so many levels. Ms. Baron’s portrayal of her heroine’s thoughts, feelings and actions was spot-on. Five stars! Highly recommended!

Reevaluation of Time

By Tami Brothers

Time. 

We either have too much of it or too little.  I tend to fall into the too little side of the equation.  Like all of you, I have multiple things going on.  Work, family, kids, writing, blogging, reading, photography, scrapbooking, running, classes, pets, cooking, cleaning, chauffeuring the kid, doctor appointments, sports, clubs, friends…  I could go on and on.

I could also complain every minute of every day.  Dwell on the fact that I don’t have enough hours to do everything I want to do.  I could.  But that only results in wasting some of that precious time.  Instead, I need to learn how to better manage what time I do have amongst everything I want to do.

Reevaluating 

I started the 2011 year Reevaluating every part of my life.  My family graciously (ROFL) came along for the ride.    So far we’ve tackled:

1) The too big house (see post about the beginning of our reevaluation process)

2) The nonexistent budget

3) The clutter that has invaded our lives and home

4) Our diet habits and exercise routines (or lack of)

5) Our attempts to reconnect as a family

6) My Career and Job Choices

With July being the midpoint of my Year of Reevaluation, I looked back at everything I’ve done to this point and saw a pattern with my time management; or lack thereof.  I realized that if I want to stay on this new path I’ve taken, then I needed to find a way to fit everything I want to do into the limited amount of time I actually have to do it.

Sounds like an easy task, doesn’t it?  Not so much.

Things to cut

Over the years I’ve gotten into a rut of sorts, doing a lot of different tasks that take up quite a bit of time.

When money became tight, I found ways to continue my love of reading. One of those was by doing book reviews.  You’d be surprised at how many different sites or opportunities there are to do reviews for free books. This can really get out of hand fast.  I knew I had to cut out 75% of the reviews I do.

I also cut some of the volunteer time I put in for The Kid’s various activities.  For this one, I feel a lot of guilt.  I was the go-to person and people liked that because then they didn’t have to do as much.  But, I started saying no and found I had a LOT more extra trime.  Another good thing that came from this is that I found it works in other areas of my life, too.

TV.  I can’t begin to tell you how much time I’ve gained by cutting out most of my TV time.  I still watch a few programs with my family.  It’s cheap entertainment, so it’s hard to give it up completely when it does bring us together.  Still, I honestly haven’t missed out as much as I thought I would.

Things I need to work on

Although there are a few other things I’ve cut, I have to admit there are so many more I need to work on.

Blogs are a biggie.  I’ve subscribed to more than 350 blogs via my tamibrothers Google Reader acct.  That’s a lot of reading every day.  Although there are reasons I want to read each one of these, life tends to get in the way.  I’ve actually had to open another account so I could follow my friends and specific industry blogs without getting distracted by some that aren’t as important to me.  I still need to find a way to manage my time here.

Twitter/Facebook/MySpace or what some might call Social Networking.  I’ve found a few time savers, such as TweetDeck, but I’m still working on finding a balance with this.

Writing.  I have ideas crammed inside my head, but I also have a habit of sitting down at the computer and opening my Google Reader acct, my e-mail accounts, or any number of other things that seem much easier to deal with than putting those words on paper.

Prioritizing.  I tend to pick the easiest things to do first.  This is definitely not a good plan because my writing often gets stuck at the very bottom of the list.

Sticking to a timeline.  This is a biggie.  I used to pride myself on being on time and even early for everything.  Over the past few years I’ve taken on so many tasks that there simply is not enough time to do everything I need to do.  AND as you can see, it happened to be at the very bottom of the list…<g>…  Obviously, I’m still working on that prioritizing thing.

How about you?

I’ll be the first to admit I have a long way to go before I can get this time management thing under control.  I’ve been told this is a lifelong problem many people face, but I’m bound and determined that I will have more time by the end of this year.  I know, very big task ahead of me…

How about you?  Do you have anything in your life that sucks up your time?  Have you found a way to manage it?

Leave a comment and be eligible to win a $10 Amazon Gift Card.  And stop back by Friday, August 12^th to find out The Kid’s opinion of my new calming techniques.  Ooommmm….

Do any of you subscribe to The Smithsonian magazine?  In the April 2011 issue, on the last page, (page 100), there is an interesting and humorous article entitled, Turn On, Log In, Wise Up, written by Donald Morrison.

Mr. Morrison said that a friend of his told him about some research “…that shows the Internet is making us all stupid.”  His article went on to say that we stay informed by Twitter, Facebook, …well, the Internet in general.  Is this true?  No one watches the news or reads a newspaper or reads anything other than fiction books?  Well, if this is true, I venture to say that the world is in trouble…since what is written…even in magazines or on the news probably contains a lot of fiction…or at least speculation.  (In my opinion, of course)

He then continued by saying that he tried to check out his friend’s assertion …by searching the subject on Google, of course, and guess what?  He found that it’s true…or at least he said he found it stated in blogs, newspaper articles and a new book entitled, The Shallows:  What the Internet Is Doing to Our Brains.

The assertion is that we’re bombarded by the Internet stimuli and it’s having a negative affect on our brains.  It said that we’re losing the ability to read books and even retain information in our saturated brains…and here I thought it was only my advanced years playing tricks on my mind.  (g)

Consider also that we no longer have to go see people in order to communicate…or even to “see” them.  Web cams have taken care of that, but it’s making Americans spend countless hours in front of the screen.  Being social no longer means taking a cake across town to a friend…it means sending a text message or putting a comment on their Wall.  (Did I say that right?)

Now, in counter-balance to this, I suggest the following.  If someone asks you a question that you don’t know the answer to, all you have to do is ask the computer and voila!  You have the answer in record time….much easier than when I used to have to look up something in one of the many volumes of our World Book Encyclopedia or Britannica’s.  I also suggest that there isn’t a library in the world…that I know of…that could hold all the World Books that would be necessary to house all the information at our fingertips on the Web…AND those books don’t get updated with additional facts every second like the Internet does.

Now, I’ll grant that I don’t always retain every bit of trivia that I read on the tube, but why should I?  All I have to do is key in my question again…if I should ever need to know that answer again…and like a dog bringing the ball back for another toss, the information will fall at my feet.

Now, I could go out and Google a lot of trivia information, facts and figures about how much information is available on the Web, or how many questions are asked a day, or….well, the list is endless, but then I’d be falling into their assertion that I’m “stupid” and have to ask the all-knowing computer…which, in this case, would be the truth.  But don’t forget that someone once asked Einstein a question that he didn’t readily have the answer to.  He told the person that he didn’t have to know everything, he just needed to know where to go get the answer.  I’ll never pretend to know as much as Einstein, but like him, I know where to go to get the answer.

So, instead, I’ll ask you all what you think about the computer and doing research on it AND staying in touch with everyone.  Do you feel smarter since you have so much knowledge at your fingertips?

So, let’s talk about…fads. They do tangentially tie-in to the writing remorse, but I’ll save that for last since the fads themselves are infinitely more diverting. And, to give a nod to the theme of the week, I’m thankful that I’ve never deeply engaged in any of the following fads (except I do wear flip-flops to the pool).

10 Random Fads – please post more of your own

10. Beanie Babies: Middle-aged women go berserk over bean bags. BEAN BAGS! In one way, it’s a sweet return to youth. In every other way, it’s disturbing.

9. Decoupage: You take a plaque, glue on a picture of Holly Hobby, and smother it in more glue. For a super-artsy effect, sprinkle it with glittery crystals. Warning — Even Goodwill won’t take these anymore.

8. Atkins Diet: Let’s eat even more of what makes us fat.

7. Feather King/Queen Hair: Think Charlie’s Angels vintage Farrah Faucett. Since I have curly/fuzzy hair, this style was my holy grail in middle school.

6. Mork and Mindy Suspenders: Now only worn by clowns and elementary school assistant principals who are going for friendly but creepy look that scares kids to death.

5. Rubik’s Cube: In a moment of Alexander the Great greatness, I sliced the Gordian knot by peeling off all the stickers and sticking them back on. They are super hard to peel off and look like crapola when you put them back on. I guess there’s a lesson about cheating in that, but I’m sticking with the Gordian knot brilliance because it’s all I have. I never solved the cube the legitimate way.

4. Tongue piercing: How does that work with Popsicles?

3. Flip Flops: These are especially odious when worn by men with fungus-infested hobbit feet. Invariably, I get behind Fungi Frodo in the airport security line.

2. Twitter: Go ahead and defend it in 150 characters or less.

1. High Concept: Transformers = machines turn into different machines = crapola.

The reason I was thinking about fads is that when you fall out of love, your head turns at every dude passing by. Especially at those two feather kings in the photo. Admit it, you were checking them out. You hope one of the feather kings is your next big-haired love. You’re down in the dumps and you just want someone to reaffirm that you’re worthwhile. There’s even a technical name for it – rebound dating. He’s a fad. A diversion. His hair is a diversion in its own right.

When you hit a rough patch with your writing, it’s tempting to look at whatever is hot in the market and chase it. You think you’ll have a better chance at getting a contract. Surely everyone will love you if you write what everyone wants to read. But you have to be careful. The hot trend of today is tomorrow’s decoupage. By the time you finish the manuscript, everyone’s on to the next big thing. Yesterday’s big thing looks as dated as a leisure suit with white piping trim.

I know the standard advice is to write what you love, but with an eye to the marketplace.

But what if you don’t know what you love anymore?