thankful

our little huff-revelette family

yesterday, i turned 28. i'm a little weird about birthdays, since it's just a day on the calendar. i'm way more into the idea of an anniversary of something (i.e. my first wedding anniversary was a month from yesterday, anniversary of beating a disease, etc.) it shows a commitment, it shows work. it shows progress.

i know my thoughts will not ring true with everyone as i know plenty of friends who absolutely love birthdays. they are so much more fun than i am :) what's new right?'

anyway, on my birthday, i was reminded of all the people i do have in my life, some for all 28 years, some for just a few (but hopefully for my next 28). my parents, my brother and sister, my in-laws, my friends...and of course, my husband. just being there and giving me hugs and love and...sushi (obviously).

and i know this might be one more weird thing to add to the hat...but my dog, sweet charlie, has been acting strange. we are not sure what it is, but the vet gave him some medicine to hopefully get him back up and running. on my birthday, i took charlie to the vet, and seeing him feel a little bit better last night (post medicine) was one of the best things i could have ever gotten for a birthday.

charlie all day yesterday (pity mode)

he's not going to live forever, as much as it kills me. and i am sort of living in denial at how old he is already. but i will call him making it august 28, 2013 a victory. i am happy he's still with me after all these years. all the ups and downs, the wedding, me moving to college, back from college, to la, back from la. he's seen it all. and he was with me, literally in my lap or in his bag all day long yesterday.

i do not value my dog over anyone else in my life, please know that. but i love him dearly, and he was a symbol of what/who really makes a birthday fun--if you're not the birthday party type. it's about having a few people show up and just hang out for a couple hours.

and it was wonderful.

i hope you have a magically wonderfully fantastic birthday when yours comes too.    - love, ashlyne

my mommy and daddy after sushi

10 things you should know if you want to be a writer

if you want to be a writer, be prepared for a couple things: 

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1. you have to want to write all the time

2. you have to need to write all the time (what do i mean by this? you need to be doing something else that you enjoy, and then when that other thing ends--or even during this other activity--you think to yourself i  think, yep, i think i could write right now.) it doesn't have to be fiction...it can be writing in a journal or a reflection on something, writing a blog post, making a list of ideas you've stockpiled in your phone)

3. you have to read. you can't just be a writer of words,  you have to be able to read others' first. you need to know what's out there (not necessarily for competition purposes either). you need to know how others do it. you need to be even more inspired than you already are. you need to find your company (the couple of authors you follow and look to when you need some clarification on "how to do it right"). you need to immerse yourself in the genre/type of writing you want to do. so that when someone asks you "who do you write like?" or "what are your books like?" or "if you could pick an author to model after, who would it be?" you know your stuff. oh, and you'll be asked that a lot.
(mine are emily giffin,  kirstin hannah, nicholas sparks, elin hilderbrand, jane green)

4. you have to have time and focus. and if you're not a full-time writer--as in, you have another job(s)--you have to be willing to work odd hours like early mornings and late nights and weekends to get the time in. tip: it helps to have a deliberate work space to get in your zone whether that be a home office, a coffee shop you like, or the library.

5. you have to actually write the book/story/etc. you have to work when you get to the boring chapters, the lull times. you have to keep writing until you get to a place where (at that moment) you know in your gut that you are ready to write my favorite words--besides sushi- "the end" down on your paper/on your screen. no one else can finish it for you.

6. you have to be willing for it to take a while and be patient with yourself throughout the process.

7. you have to find a method that works for you. (for example: i write my books down by hand in notebooks and sketchbooks before i type them into my software--i use storyist. not only does it force me to have a hard-copy, gives me chance to edit it a little here and there when i'm finally ready to type, but i literally cannot write a story by typing it. nothing comes out. it's like i have type-fright. it only flows if i have a pen and paper. it's weird but, it works for me. woody allen still types on a typewriter...so there :) )

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8. you have to be ready to hear all kinds of feedback. and remember that what you send isn't a three minute song or a short poem, so you will have to be patient and very very grateful for those who take the time to read it.

9. the book industry isn't the same as the music industry (which is what i just came from). in music, the artist is signed berfore the record is made. in the literary world, the book has to be written first before a deal (unless you are commissioned or a celebrity/person of interest who gets a deal to write about something they went through--neither of which category i fall under). the work is all yours, not a producer's, not an engineer's, not a mixer's, not the session musicians. yours. you don't get to come sing and leave--not that it was so easy either. you are in charge from start to finish. then, and only then, you get to ask for true feedback, help, guidance.


10. you have to be willing to not get it right the first, second, third, fourth, fifth, six, and so on.. drafts. and then when you think it's finally ready, you'll get some crazy good feedback that sends you right back to the draft-board again. after all, it's not finished until it's finished--or published.



if all these are met with excitement, you are probably good to go--this coming from an unpublished, so far amateur author. i am currently on number 10, editing the first 100 pages of my novel. it was so close (i thought), but then i got some amazing advice. so now, i'm taking a break from writing with more writing--see what i mean (#1, #2, #3)? 

i have never felt this excited or in my element before. even on this draft. even after all the drafts i've done. this is still fun. every minute. every word. i hope you find your "writing" if you haven't already. 

have a wonderful weekend! 

ashlyne

something borrowed & something blue

i can't believe i forgot to post about both of these. maybe it's because i blew right through them and soaked in every bit of my rereading. maybe it's because i took notes in my real notebook and forgot to do a digital version. who knows and who cares right? we are here now! 

i know you know this because i've said it before, but i have read all of emily giffin's novels, starting with these two back in the day. someone told me they would be "right up my alley" and so i bought them both and read them with lightning speed. my friends know me well. i loved them and couldn't wait to keep reading. that's my memory of it. and i remember the stories well enough to remember that i did in fact like the stories...but i had no idea how much i either forgot or was unable to appreciate back then. 

i may have said something like this before too, but i'll say it again. when i was reading these books before, i was in a totally different place. i wasn't a wife. i wasn't a homeowner.  i didn't have a regular, steady life. i was either a student or a recent grad (the years are blurry), and i had a record deal i was preparing to undergo. i was a singer, a dancer, a songwriter....a so-called "triple-threat",  and i thought that meant i would be satisfied and somehow successful--that's another blog post. so with my sights set on my upcoming 24-hour/day job, i was reading with a completely different attitude. i did not think i was better than anyone else (that's not what i'm saying), but rather, i didn't see myself as any character in the novels i read. it was purely an escape. like if i watched a tv show. it was entertainment. it was something i could do all by myself and enjoy. (that last part has not changed at all, even now as an aspiring author)

back to the books at hand: as i reread these books, i was thrilled to read the voices ms. giffin created. no wonder i loved the books so much! she researched her roles, her personalities, her fears and wonders, her hesitations that the characters possessed to the point that i wondered if it was real--rachel is consistently rachel and darcy is consistently darcy. i know that seems obvious, but when you are creating a person that technically doesn't exist, it's easy to stray from that character's brain and replace it with your own-especially at some point within 300+ pages. 

if you have watched the movie for something borrowed,  read the book, even if you think you already know the story and there would be no point. i'm not going to blast the movie version on a blog--to each his/her own--but i believe the book is better for a couple reasons.  first, in a book, you don't have a time constraint. you don't have to finish the book under two hours. you don't have to hurry or take out scenes in order to comply with some sort of regulation. you can take all the time you want to give backstories (unless they have no use in the story), to show funny moments, to give the characters more depth. basically, you don't have to rush. second, you don't have to pay for anything...locations, wardrobe, trailors, catering, and the most expensive, actors. if you have a character that plays an important role but only appears in phone conversations, you don't have to worry about how much screen time that character  for it to be worth what they are getting paid (in a book). you can have extra characters all over the place and not go over budget! and third, you can be the cast director. and as readers, you are the cast directors in every book. you decide who makes the best rachel or darby, so to speak. (disclaimer: i'm in no way saying that the movie was poorly casted- i am speaking in general terms.)

so, if you are a movie person, i challenge you to read the books of all the movies you've enjoyed. for example, all nicholas sparks books and the stieg larsson series (dragon tatoo). it's worth reading. and it makes the movies that much more dense because you know more than they have time to tell. 

again, BACK to the books. gosh, it's obviously monday. the books are sensational. well written. funny. real. everything you want in a two-book series. and it even gave me the idea to make a sequel for my latest novel, falling stars. you don't know anything about the my novels yet so i won't spoil anything, but let's just say that reading these two books again gave me the confidence to do the sequel. i've been feverishly researching and writing backstories for the past couple weeks, and i think i'm onto something. 

now, at my married, emotionally-adjusted, home-owning (and by that i mean an adult in the financial sense), routine-loving stage of life... i am reading these books with an understanding i could not have had back then if i tried. 

i highly recommend these two books for anyone who loves chick-lit. emily giffin really gets it. 

*i just saw all the points i kind of made in this post, and i want to apologize. i woke up with lots of thoughts. 

have a great week! :) 

ashlyne 

multi-tasking

i have been sick for the past two days. stupid stomach bug. but i'm finally on the mend today, and while i cannot get back into yoga and writing fully, i can do one thing: fulfill orders from my etsy shoppe! the piecemeal shoppe

i just so happened to have 2 orders to fill (one with 6 cards and and one with 19 cards). i have a whole shoppe of them, but my most popular is the one where i make bridesmaids next to the bride and customize them for the buyer. (dress, hair, colors, etc)

 i started making cards when i was on the tour bus on the new kids/backstreet boys tour in 2011. i missed home and i wanted to make cards to tell everyone. i was chronically sick, so i kept my voice-using to a minimum when i wasn't on stage, but i could write. the problem was that i couldn't find cards that said what i wanted them to say. they didn't have my personality, my quirk, and while that's probably a good thing for everyone else in the world, it wasn't good for my card-giving. so i sat in the bus and order paper in bulk, and i started on a logo. the logo i came up with was written on a steno pad. i took a picture of it, and messed with the filter and voila. the logo you see in my shoppe is that exactly. and if you notice the little peachy looking color in the corner, that was my quilt i had on my bed on the bus. the picture i took accidentally snagged a piece of it in there, but i liked it, so i kept it. happy accidents :)

upon the encouragement of my wonderful friend whitney (who also has a blog and a thriving etsy shop)--elm street life and her shop: brighter day i opened an online shoppe on etsy.com. since then, it's been a wonderful reason to keep making cards!

fast forward to the approaching months of september 28, 2012: my wedding day. i needed a card for my bridesmaids. again, nothing i found captured what i wanted to say or how i wanted to say it. so i made it of course! and lo and behold, it's been the biggest seller in my shoppe ever since.

i like making cards, even with all the craziness. it gets me out of my head when orders come in. makes me do something else with my brain.