personal | Jude Sierra

Oh my god, I just wrote a huge post and it got eaten. Fucking hell does that annoy me.

I doubt it would have been thrilling for you all, unless you have a hankering to hear about my real life, so we could do a little getting to know you thing. Speaking of which, should you have a burning desire to get to know me, you’ll learn that I quote movies and shows all the time. A *lot* of that might be quotes from Friends, which is like…the best thing ever. Hence, why I’m going to link you to this video. The quality is weird, but listen, old school musicals are just fantastic and if you haven’t seen this movie, do so. Yes, now. I once was in a production of The King and I, when I was ten. I even had a line: “And I do not believe Siam is this big”. I should have been an actress, I nailed the tone perfectly.

Winning.

I thought I’d use this space today to warn of of things you *might* be seeing on this blog that aren’t book related. Me talking about pop culture things, particularly TV shows I watch or songs I am obsessed with. I’ll talk about the *crazy* of my life, including the adventure of life with a threeteen year old (Yes, three. It’s a crazy age) and pantsing squirrel adventures (more on that later!). Also, books I am reading. I read like crazy, especially when I’m not in school. You can always scroll down to see what I’ve recently reviewed on Goodreads, but I’ll always link in the blog post when I talk about what I’m reading.

Right now I’m enjoying Tea Rose, by Jennifer Donnelley. The prose style is fantastic, and I’m really interested to see what happens. I’ve only just started. The print is TINY though, fuck I’m so old (33) I can’t read it easily. I’m also re-reading Forever Man by A.J. DeWall. I love that story so much, I’ve read it several times. If you haven’t read it, I’m going to light a fire under you because fuck it’s great. (I won’t literally light a fire, I’m such a pacifist).

Today I have to see if the hubs is willing to watch the kids alone before going to work so I can buckle down on two projects I have looming deadlines for. I have a badass case of The Sunday Mornings though. Tonight is a party, and I’ll be making Sangria, so that’ll be lovely to look forward to as a reward.

I’ve been a complete remiss blogger of late. I have no excuses.

Oh that’s a lie I have plenty: recovery from vacation. Recovery from the final slog to turn in my manuscript. Family emergency. Exhaustion from all of that (I can count that double, yes?). Going back to school. Getting my kids back into school and managing how we’re all working out times and schedules.

Also, somehow finishing the manuscript set some other writing portion of my brain free and I had a two or three week whirlwind of insanity in which I wrote several short stories in my fannish world.

Now it’s nose back to the grindstone as I’ve gotten my first round of edit notes back! This is such an exiting and daunting process for me. It’s been a challenge, to say the least, to try to trust myself when writing; am working hard to work myself out of the need for hand holding. There might or might not be a constant mantra (this is my story. Only I can tell it) circling in this cavernous jumble of a brain with the hopeful intent that it will actually sink in.

But it’s all happening — all of this beautiful insanity of life with passions and family and goals converging into these moments in time. Rather than let myself feel swept up and away, I think I’ll leave my editing portion of the day with a high five before girding my loins and tackling some school work.