Welcome Back

"Welcome back. Your dreams were your ticket out." - "Welcome Back" by John Sebastian

After seven months of silence, I think it's time to revive this blog! Life has thrown me some curveballs since I last posted, and I am discovering that change can be a very good thing and life's little surprises can be exactly what you needed but didn't even know you wanted. Mysterious? Yes, but all will be revealed in good time. Some things never change though. I am still a writer with the dream of making a career out of doing what I love, I am still working as a nanny for two crazy kids, and I am still obsessed with The Gaslight Anthem, Christmas, and Barrow, Alaska of all places.

In the past, the Willow Writer blog has been a hodgepodge of posts, mirroring the random thoughts that course through my brain at any given moment. But starting now I am going to focus mainly on the subject of writing, with some pop culture stuff thrown in because I just can't help it. And every once in a while, I may toss up a story or two about my life that I find too exciting not to share.

As some of you who have been reading my blog for a while may remember, I used to have my first two "Willow Ryan" novels available as ebooks through Barnes & Noble and Amazon. I took them down while I pursued other publishing avenues, but they are now available once again and I am very excited at the opportunity to share my writing with the world. Here are the descriptions of my first two Willow books, and if you are interested in previewing or downloading them, simply click the book covers in the sidebar to the right.

Secrets

It is the summer of 1986, and recent high school graduate Willow Ryan is going to have a baby, something she never imagined would happen to her. Unable to disclose her secret and unwilling to give up her baby, Willow leaves her Midwestern home for a new life in charming Santa Elena, California, where she lands a job working for a quirky Southern belle named Peggy, who has a knack for finding trouble in the most unlikely places. Willow's new neighbor, a friendly surfer dude named Denny, quickly becomes someone she can count on for anything, but could there be more to their relationship than Willow sees?

"Secrets" will take you on a journey with this independent, determined young woman as she grows up quickly, becomes a mother, and deals with a catastrophic event that makes all of her secrets come to light.

Promises

It's now 1987 in the small coastal town of Santa Elena, California. Willow Ryan has a beautiful baby, a good job at a children's boutique, great friends, and Denny, her neighbor and boyfriend who she is growing closer to by the day. After more than a year's worth of secrets and lies, Willow's relationship with her parents is on the mend as well, leading her to believe that all of the pieces of her life are finally falling into place. To top it off, Willow's sassy Southern boss and fairy godmother in disguise, Peggy, proposes an exciting new business venture that could mean big things for both of them. Working at Two Peas in a Pod is always fun, and now it could possibly get even better!

But just when Willow thinks that things are picture perfect, her world is turned upside down when Denny drops a bombshell that could change everything. Will their relationship survive this latest challenge, or will Willow lose the one person that has been there for her through every step of her rocky journey?

Follow Willow as she continues to grow, learn, and navigate through her wonderful, crazy, difficult, blessed life in "Promises".

Thank you so much for reading and welcome back to us all. :)

The Name Game

"The name game/ Shirley!/ Shirley, Shirley bo Birley Bonana fanna fo Firley/ Fee fy mo Mirley, Shirley!" - "The Name Game" by Shirley Ellis

After reading my Tuesday's Top Ten post about names a few days ago, Mary Ellen Quigley wrote a great post on her blog, Mary Ellen's Musings (see link on the right hand side of the page), about how she names the characters in her books. Her blog inspired me to share my thought process on naming my characters as well.

When I first got the idea for the "Willow Ryan Series", I instantly knew what her name was going to be. I knew that the series would take place in the 80s, with Willow having been born to hippie parents in 1968. The name needed to have a hippie-dippy flare, but still be "normal" enough where it wouldn't distract readers from the story. So Willow Brook Ryan was created, as was her sister, Summer Star Ryan. Nothing too out there, but the names fit the characters' personalities, their history, and their time of birth. Those are the three main things I think of when choosing names for my characters, which is one of my favorite parts of beginning a new book.

For my current work in progress, Who We Thought We Were, I picked names that were fairly common or typical for people of my generation since these characters are around my age. This novel is set in Virginia, so I stuck with fairly average sounding names, nothing too wild or inventive, which is not the norm in this part of the country, especially during the early 80s when these characters would have been born. The next factor was personality. Now I know this can be up for debate because everyone has their own opinions on what kind of person a name sounds like, but I paired up the following names with what I thought would be their character traits:

Shawna Sharp - The Poet - intelligent, quick-witted, sarcastic, and independent

Ryder Harrison - The Musician - a practical yet creative dreamer with a powerful presence

Christen Romano - The Girl Next Door - kind, outgoing, smart, and patient

Jared Jenkins - The All-American Boy - high school football player, devoted family man, popular, and easy going

Megan Delaney - The Cheerleader - bubbly, perfectionistic, always smiling - even if it's forced

Matt Harper - The Jock - high school baseball star turned major league pitcher, charismatic, cocky, loved by millions

Nicole (Nikki) Castille - The Rebel - unconventional, driven, always reinventing herself, not afraid to speak up about anything and everything

Evan Schultz - The Brain - average looking, extremely gifted, had a very magnetic personality in high school, over thinks everything

So that is how I begin a story. I use my three guidelines and come up with the characters, and somehow the rest just falls into place, like magic. And sometimes that's what writing is. Yes, it's hard work and can be quite challenging and exhausting at times, but the act of creating a story that (hopefully) a lot of people will read and enjoy, is a very magical thing. And it all begins with a name.

I'm a Dreamer

"You may say I'm a dreamer/ But I'm not the only one." - "Imagine" by John Lennon

I love "Imagine". It's my favorite Lennon solo song and I'm in awe every time I hear it, even though I have heard it a thousand times before. It's really a pretty simple song, but so powerful and thought-provoking at the same time. The work of a true genius...

So, I just finished watching the Meryl Streep/Amy Adams movie "Julie and Julia", which just gets better each time I see it. In fact, it was my inspiration for starting this blog almost a year ago.

Whenever I watch that movie, I have to throw my hands up in the air and shake my head in amazement and wonder (and, I'll admit, a little bit of jealousy) when Julie's blog takes off and she ends up getting calls from agents, editors, and even publishers who want to represent her and her writing. What an impossible dream that would be! But still, I'm a dreamer and I do fantisize about how incredible it would be to have someone pursue my writing instead of me sending off my hopes and dreams and waiting with my fingers crossed for a positive response. I know it's stupid to even think like that, and believe me, I know it would never happen in a million years because I do live in the real world (most of the time...), but hey, that did actually happen to Julie Powell. I also take solice knowing that I am not the only hopeful writer out there who shares these dreams, as well as these realities. That being said, I didn't start my blog to get noticed and become rich and famous. I started blogging because I always have something to say and don't always have someone around to listen. Plus, I figured it wouldn't hurt to get the word out about my writing just in case... It's always good to have a platform, right?

Okay. Since I know I have to make this dream of becoming a novelist a reality, I am in the process of compiling my next list of agents to query. I have some time off of work in a few weeks and I am going to use it to write, submit to agents, research, and write some more. What? You think that sounds like work? Well, not to me. To me it sounds like the possibility of getting one step closer to my goal, which is music to my ears.

I Hope You're Having Fun!

"And the first one said to the second one there/ "I hope you're having fun!" - "Band on the Run" by Paul McCartney and Wings

This is my 100th blog post! I hope all of you out there have been enjoying what I have had to say all these months about my writing aspirations and my adventures in nannying, and I'll keep the posts coming as long as people will read them.

I read somewhere that when Paul McCartney started the band Wings, they played for gas money. I realized yesterday that if I'm lucky enough to sell a book a day, that will basically buy me a tank of gas and a couple of drinks at Starbucks. That's not much, so it's a good thing I'm having fun! I love to write and even if I never make any money at it, I'll never stop and I'll never give up trying to make a career out of this. Being a writer is not something I do, but something that I am, as I'm sure most writers can relate to.

So here's to the 100 posts I've written, the heartfelt poems that I may decide to share with the world one day, the articles taken from my years of experience working with children, and my three completed Willow Ryan novels. I hope there are many more to come!

Working on a Dream

"I'm working on a dream/ Though sometimes it feels so far away/ I'm working on a dream/ And how it will be mine someday." - "Working on a Dream" by Bruce Springsteen

Bruce is just plain cool, don't you think?

I'm working on my dream of becoming a professional, full-time writer, and you may have noticed that I retooled my blog a bit. I added links to my books on their Amazon pages, and hopefully that will help spread the word a little about the Willow Ryan series. I would love some feedback, so anyone who has a moment to comment about the new look of my blog, please let me know what you think. I appreciate it!