christmas post

i hope everyone had a merry christmas. i didn't post on christmas for one reason: i have a lot of family. i love blogging, writing, journaling, creating characters and everything, but sometimes, you have to stop doing a solitary project and look up. look up at the people around you...if for no other reason than to observe and stumble upon your next story. but it's more than that for me...i used to live in california (a place my sweet husband adores for the weather)...and we constantly go back and forth with each other about which is better: tennessee or california. we never change each other's minds, even though he was actually born here in nashville, and i was born right outside of los angeles. funny huh? but i grew up here, and i have a ton ton ton of family. most of his is in kentucky, so he didn't experience the growing up surrounded by 40+ family members.

anyway, the point is, i am so thrilled to be a writer and to be able to write whenever i get inspired. and i'm thankful that my husband is supporting my love and that he believes in me enough to let me do it full time. but i write all the time. and writing is a lone process. (i'll write another post on that). what i don't get to do is be in a room with people that share my dna, however much. see them, play with their babies, hug them, ask them what's new, play games, eat, be merry with them. everyone has such separate lives no matter how close we live. it's the way of the world. we are supposed to do that. and i wouldn't want it any other way. because we bring so much to the table when we are together during the holidays. so many stories, so many accomplishments.

and every year, we see how much the others have grown up, changed, moved forward. last year, my sweet cousin grace hadn't even spilled the "i'm pregnant" beans yet, even when i asked her point blank if she was trying soon..:) and this year, she has a healthy preemie baby named lyla (after our late great grandmother). that's just one example in a line of many.

like i said, posting is so important to me. i love my blog. i love that you read it. but, i have to lift my head every once in a while, keep my computers, books, and journals shut...my pen down in order to take the blessings in. and i did. and i'm full of joy and gratitude. the Lord is so so good.

this next year (another post as well) is going to be great. absolutely great. catch ya later. and merry be-lated christmas from the huffs/andersons/revelettes.

ps. my full name (if i had kept my original middle name after i got married) is

  ashlyne anderson huff revelette

all i can think about when i see all those is how i would fill in all those bubbles for standardized test. impossible right?

new family members

the day before, we were a three. 

we've had a lot going on this past year...our first anniversary, my writing in its many stages, new restaurants (and 2 more coming in the next year and a half), we went through the process of buying a house a few weeks ago--which we do as real estate agents all the time, but this was for us--but then had to let go of once we figured out the house wasn't in as good of shape as we had hoped. :( as if all this wasn't enough...we got another dog.

the scene of the crime.

maddie posing with her to send a picture to mason. 

this was BEFORE the hair being done..sorry for the bun. 

 yep! we did! i walked in historic downtown franklin (which you totally need to do if you ever visit nashville) with my sister maddie to our hair appointments on main street. the way we came out of the parking garage led us to the franklin square, and wouldn't ya know there were two tents set up with doggies up for adoption. normally, i look, squeal a little, and move on, knowing my charlie would disown me if i even dared bring another dog into the house. but mason and i had been talking about getting another dog--beagle sized or so--at some point. we either wanted to wait until our future first child (not, this is not that kind of announcement post) turned two or do it now, before we have any impending children on the way. one puppy/child at a time please. so, needless to say, this wasn't one of those times we oooed & cooed and scurried along. our hair dresser was running behind (it was the saturday before christmas) so we had some time to kill. it was a rare 65-degree december afternoon, so we spent it outside, and we back to the dogs. i took a picture of a couple, sent them to my husband, and he was hooked.

how do i know? he drove all the way from one traffic central 25-30 minutes to another to see these dogs. he hasn't come down to downtown franklin in forever for a reason! it's pretty far out of the way for folks living closer to downtown nashville. so, when he showed up...i knew we were adopting a dog. 

her name was sparkles, but we quickly renamed her to NASH. she's a mutt, but guess what we know she has in her? some beagle and some dachshund. she has a beautiful short coat and long little legs, and according to my uncle (who is a vet), she probably won't get that much bigger since she's already 5-6 months old.


my biggest fear was charlie. how would he react? would he flip out like he does on our walks around the neighborhood, alpha-male-ing everything in sight?

their first meet. check out charlie's hesitation. 

we introduced them on neutral ground (thanks to my uncle and nash's foster mom for that tip), and i was sooooo nervous. but it was fine! hallelujah! it wasn't like a family reunion or anything, but he didn't freak out on her. and bonus: she slept through the night!

so now, i'm on day two...and i'm exhausted. two big personalities, one puppy, one i need to remember to show i love him and i'll never forget my firstborn dog...holy moly. charlie is tolerated and getting used to her, but he's not chummy.

and nash is clumsy, teething, chewing on my hair, learning how to be led by a leash (first timer) and constantly whining, but we don't know exactly why when half the time it's when she's completely preoccupied.

in uncle jordan's lap.

coexisting.

he immediately got in his bag for as long as possible.

how charlie looked at me all last night. fire eyes.

crate training. she actually likes it. 

drunk on h20. i have to give it to her...she sleeps hard.

still gotta show my little man i how much i love him. 

currently reading: eleanor & park

eleanor & park  by rainbow rowell

in my pursuit to immerse myself into the Y.A. genre, i have really taken to miss rowell's stuff. she is really really good at capturing the voice of a young adult. in  fangirl  she is a girl starting her first semester of freshman year in college. in this one, she takes on the voices of both a girl and a boy (16). that's difficult, since girls and boys are usually in totally different mindsets at any given age. but i'm telling you, i buy it. eleanor & park takes you back and forth from, you guessed it, eleanor's view and park's view of the same life in nebraska.  they go to the same school, ride the same bus, and yet, they lead two totally separate lives. i love how miss rowell shows you little pieces of their backgrounds all throughout the book, rather than giving it all on the first couple pages. you keep learning about the characters as they get put into the situations. as someone who is trying to get into this genre, i give it two thumbs up. shoot, i even liked it for myself because there were some serious 80s throwbacks--the story is set in 1986. 

that brings me to my next point: i can really tell that she wrote what she knew. i was only 1 when this book took place (if even that),  but i didn't feel like i was out of the loop when it came to references. there were enough context clues for me to figure out any i didn't get. and i actually felt compelled to research a couple of them! little history lesson in pop culture never hurt anybody! 

as i start writing more in the Y.A. realm, i am going to take a note from this genius from nebraska. i am going to write from not only where i know, but also when i know. i know high school from 2000-2004. i lived it for 8 hours a dayyyyy. i think it would be silly for me to believe i could do any justice to a high school setting now, unless i sat in the classes for an entire year...and even then, i don't think like a high schooler now (can't un-ring a bell or perspective) so all the petty stuff would be brushed off immediately! 

thanks, rainbow.thanks a heap. i love your stories. 

love, ashlyne 

vacations...

i've been on vacations before. lots of them in my 28 years. but i just realized that vacations are totally different now. ever since i decided to be a writer, that i wanted to spend hours and hours crafting and creating lives of fictitious characters (sounds kind of lame when i put it like that...but it's not i swear) down to every detail...vacations some how shifted.

now you're wondering, what could i possibly mean? and how could vacations have anything to do with writing? well, let me give you an example of a before and after using the trip i just got back from.

mason, my mother-in-law, and i went to palm beach (their favorite) for about six days. i was sold on the 82 degree weather. i had a deadline to meet while i was there. it was sort of self-imposed, but that's how i like it sometimes (otherwise, there's always a reason not to finish). anyway, it was a wonderful trip.

pre-writer vacation: all i thought about was getting a sun tan. i would go out as early as possible, lather myself with spf, and stay out all day. reading novels, listening to music, going on walks along the beach...all until it started getting cold. i would go in, shower, do a little dinner, and then fall asleep....all to do it again the next day.

this trip: i still wanted to get a little tan considering i really skipped that whole scene in the summer. i started to look see-through (and some people look really good without a tan...homegirl isn't one of them), but it was more about being strategic with my time. how can i get the best sun of the day and still have time to write before getting showered and ready for dinner? i was more concerned with my writing than relaxing. 'what's the point of a vacation if you're going to work the whole time' you say.  it's simple. i feel more able to get my writing done without a house to clean, a dog to walk, laundry to fold, dishes to put away, errands to run. on vacation, i am getting a vacation from the parts of my life that take my attention for most of the day.  oh, i did read a little YA fiction though (Eleanor & Park)


writers don't get vacations. they don't want them.

before our first dinner of the trip...and a few hours before i got sick alllllll night.

the breakers resort is ri.dic.u.lous.

writing/revising in the courtyard

croquet anyone? for you dancers out there, it was the best grass ever to do barrels and  leaps and tour jetes:)

post sun writing sesh

dinner at flaglers

a little italian

while they shopped, i wrote at the starbucks on worth avenue

my man and me on the beach

dinner. my husband couldn't be any more GQ. i'll never keep up.

a little sun and rainbow rowell (currently reading post to follow!)

bye bye palm beach

my favorite part. no really. ok not really.

trying to type the new edits in on the plane...not the easiest ever. 

and we're back in nashville. 

finding time in the day to be proud of yourself.

there's no time to do this. our culture, our society, doesn't let us take two seconds to look around at our accomplishments and be a little proud.

the desk in all it's cluttered glory

i don't know if that means making it out of high school alive, getting that masters degree, surviving a devastating blow to your confidence, moving on from a relationship that had you in its grips, breaking through a lifelong struggle of some sort. whatever it is, i'll bet you don't tell yourself "way to go" all that often.

because there's no time. you have to get moving to the next thing, the next big hump of your life. you have to keep up with the rest of the world. when i was graduating college, it was all about "getting a job, any job" because the recession was about to hit. a lot of people i knew stayed in college longer than they probably would have to hopefully skip the whole thing. i got a record deal in the worst possible time ever...the economy wasn't doing so hot but even before that, the record business was changing at a rapid speed. i didn't have to worry about a job, but the job i had was uncharted territory for everyone it felt like.

so i ducked my head and went through the next 3 years with determination driving the bus. i was going to make it through. (and then of course, i kept getting sick, which is another couple posts worth). but i accomplished a lot in those years, not only in music. the stuff you see is a music video or two, two albums, a couple tours, tv show spots, etc. but the stuff i can finally see now that it's been long enough is the overcoming of my biggest fears at the time, persevering through a lot of personal confidence issues, working sometimes for weeks without any breaks,  moving 3000 miles away from my beloved tennessee, finding myself, getting out of a realllllly bad relationship only to find my future husband standing right there. those three years got me more than some awesome memories and  life-long friends. i found me.

the piecemeal shoppe

and fast forward to me now...i'm sitting in my office right now, taking a break from a big edit of my novel--a novel was something i always wanted to write but never knew how i would even do--with my dog under my desk, the rain tapping on my window on a strange 66 degree december day (that's nashville), and i can see all the little things i've physically accumulated in my office. the drafts i've written, the books i've read, the pile of post-its i've used, the cup of pens i cherish, the other novels i've started, my little etsy shoppe in the corner, the pictures of my last year as a married woman.

i might not be a published author yet, but i am an accomplished person. i have survived this world so far, so i think i can keep on going...only maybe today, i start looking up every once in a while.

my mascot, charlie

 have a great day everyone.

ok so i'm a writer...how to find your sweet spot

i woke up at 4:45 because my tummy ached....worst feeling ever. i tried to go back to sleep for another hour, but at 5:45, i gave up and came downstairs. it was pitch black and cold outside (well, i didn't actually go out there, but it was cold inside, so i used my deductive reasoning). :) 

Source

i made myself some coffee, turned on the fire, lit the christmas tree, and started watching some netflix on my computer on the couch. safe haven was my choice...love julianne, a fellow huff (different spelling but we know we're the same). and of course, i love anything nick sparks. so it was a perfect movie. when i feel nauseous at all, i want to watch something sweet like disney or saved by the bell or a chick flick. my usual forensic thriller shows like law & order: svu just don't make the cut. 

so here, i'm sitting in light of the fire and tree with my headphones on so that i don't wake my husband (sound travels up our stairs in some weird ways), and i suddenly feel not only awake, but ready to work. 

if you know me at all, i'm the furthest thing from a morning person, so this was a shock. i fully intended on falling asleep on the couch once my belly stopped churning. or at the very least, watching the movie until it was over. 

i had brought down the manuscript with me (at the time, i thought it had been wishful thinking), so i pulled it up and started going. talk about a zone. i'm in the part of the manuscript where some of my big changes are going to start coming in, the ones that will hopefully make the story that much better...and i got right into it, taking notes, getting ideas, writing all over my manuscript. 

now, i'm taking a break to write this post: it's almost 8 am. husband and dog are still asleep...which is the cutest thing i've ever seen by the way. and i'm looking around at the same fire and tree...and a few vanilla candles i lit a couple hours ago...

this, ladies and gentleman, is my sweet spot. i had a run during the summer/early fall when i was waking up early to work. i remember loving it, but after i got sick with a stomach bug ...or maybe it was the sinus infection...either way! after i got sick, i got off my early riser train and slept my life away. 

it's almost like it takes a fluke to get me back into the morning game. like something silly and annoying has to wake me up early for me to actually do it. and then my body clock adjusts and we're golden. 

so how does this apply to you? are you in search of that time of day when you are at your best? when you aren't working on your other jobs' tasks, taking the dog for a walk before it gets dark, working out, making/eating meals...there always feels like there is more to do than just write...like it is a luxury, so it can wait. 

and maybe it can...or  maybe it can't. i will tell you that finding your sweet spot can make all the difference. i used to write all night, but then i would feel like i could never get started in the morning. when mason and i lived in LA, he would wake up at 5 something to get started on the stock market at 6am (9am eastern) while i would be dead dog tired until at least 9 because i was up all night long with ideas. that's no way to live...so i feel like this early early morning thing is good. i feel rested, and then i can go to sleep when my other half does. 

your sweet spot is all about you. most things in life shouldn't be...but this should. you can't be in two head spaces at once and write well. you can't be half in, half out. i don't have children yet, but i imagine it would be difficult to try to write some dialogue when they are coming in every 2 minutes with a question or request. so, knowing that you're wasting your effort and frustration, find this sweet spot, this time when you can write, and i mean write. when the chances are the slimmest that  no one will bother you. (i.e. 5:45am) it will make all the difference in the world. and if you are thinking you just don't have time and maybe the universe is trying to tell you that you aren't a real writer...you just haven't found that sweet spot yet. keep looking. keep writing. writers write. 

so, the moral to the story is that my tummy ache was a gift. i'm up, inspired, and working. and feeling like a write should...hungry to keep going.