Passion...and Dancing in the Dark

Passion...My fearless passion

What makes you---nah, I have got to learn how to stop asking questions at the beginning of each post. So--- I’ll tell you what makes me feel the most creative. What makes me feel stress-free. As a 250 (give or take 5 lbs-I know…sigh…) pound woman, its kinda breath taking. And I mean that in the literal sense. It literally takes my breath. Like hyperventilating, almost can’t breathe sometimes if I don’t stop and take breaks and WATER breaks in between. What can I say, being overweight will seriously do that to you, I’ve tried losing it but food…bad naughty food-is just too good. Okay-BACK ON TOPIC! What could I be talking about? What’s my think-free passion? Dancing. I love to dance. I only do it when my husband works his overnight job, my kids are asleep and the lights are all off. Strange that I dance in the dark? Trust me I know everything in my living room and I do keep my eyes opne. I have great night vision. Anyway. I’m chubby and shit jiggles, I can’t dance in the light. It’s a hang up-it’s totally a fear of mine but whatev-that’s not the purpose of this post. Dancing for me makes me feel somehow fearless, and alive. Even with my heart starts beating really hard during a Whitney Houston song-I sometimes make it to the end and sometimes I seriously have to take a breath and drink some H2O before I feel like throwing up. Yeah, three minutes kills me sometimes, but I don’t ever feel bad. Just sometimes really fucking out of breath.

I am a mother-and yes they too are my passion-well they are my reason for breathing. Them and my husband-well God too naturally-I wouldn’t be here without Him, you know?-I’m not really talking about that.

I mean doing something that gets the creative juices flowing. I’ve taking dance classes for every elective since elementary school. I was in shape back then. LMAO. Anyway. Dancing for me creates whatever chemical in your brain that gets you feeling like Rocky Balboa when he finally reaches the top steps of whatever building that is-I’ve never really seen the movie, which makes me want to buy the movie now-but when he pumps his arms in the air like he accomplished some great fear.

It really gets my brain to think out of the box-I’d like to do it more if I didn’t feel so effing insecure-hey! We all have our issues, shit jiggling on my body when I can see it is mine. Playing around with my kids is something totally different FYI-When I dance in the dark (Fuck that sounds like something a stripper might say lol. Or something bad and naughty sorry)-anyway, when I dance and I’m ALONE (lol) my brain just de-stresses. Yeah, that’s not a word, and to WORD2013 and autocorrect, you can suck it because I’m adding it to my dictionary biatches-I don’t think about my job or my home life, I have so much fun dancing to pop songs, or 80’s music that’s made for dancing. I love dance movies, like Footloose, Center Stage, Burlesque, Step Up (only movie one with Channing Tatum-sorry all the others just are not my thing-#ChanningTatumGirl), Honey, even Billy Elliot. I do like watching ballet, I suck at it but it’s pretty to watch.

Any style of dancing too. Well to watch anyway. I could never physically do any of that, but I create my own style, I’m a gangsta that way. LMAO.

I would have loved to have gone pro, if I was a lot thinner and hubby/kidless. My life is great and I’m almost 30 so I’m not worried about that.

Like I said I’ve been dancing since I was a kid. Even as a teen and I had a lock on my door lol, I would play my music loud, because well what teen wouldn’t? Back then I was in great shape so I did it whenever I wanted.

Now, I like reading and I write and I LOVE THAT. I like seriously L-O-V-E reading and writing, yes is a passion of mine, and of course it’s creative but it doesn’t give me this ME-TIME. I know a lot of mothers out there who ME-TIME means taking a shower-that’s your ME-TIME. Mine too. Hence, the dancing with kids are ASLEEP and my hubby is working.

There’s not really a purpose to this post, except telling you how I get my engine revving, how I de-stress and feel my heart pulsing with life. Sometimes when I dance, I come up with the best things to write about in my books. I come up with plots or scenes for my books and I can usually stop dancing and write like a mad woman trying to get it all down. Example, there is a book in my PPDS series that is like the 5^th or 6^th book, I have notes of course but one evening I was dancing and thinking about my writing-(this was back before I even thought of Bound or any other series other than PPDS. At that time PPDS was the only thing I was writing)-thinking about my writing and about the girl who ends up being in a human trafficking ring and escaping etc., well I thought up how she was going to get out of under the guys thumb and saving the girls who was in the brothel or whatever with her. And how years later, becomes an advocate for these women and so on and so forth. I handwrote like idk maybe like 3000 words just from dancing. Of course I usually keep listening to music so I can keep that flow going.

I hope whatever it is you’re passionate about makes you feel rejuvenated and free. I love my family to the ends of this earth and back again. So don’t take this post as a selfish post. I’m just telling you what helps me get creative and feel like I can conquer whatever it is that is ahead of me.

Yeah, dancing does that for me. Even if it’s in the dark.

Tell me what makes you feel fearless! What makes you feel like you?

Thank you for reading this! Feel free to comment and leave me a line. Talk to me!

Take care, xoxo

Stephanie G

Hangers? Or no hangers? Cliffhangers, that is the question?

Okay, this will be a short post (Sorry, I thought it was going to be but MY BAD!), but how do y'all like cliffhangers in books? Any type of books, but I only read romance, so those are the only ones that interest me.

Anyways, do you like them? Or do you want to maim the author for leaving you in the dust, WAITING for the next installment? Especially if you have to wait almost a YEAR for the book? Those cliffies, I hate with a passion. As an author (well whatever kind of author I am) I understand this because if authors have a list of books they need to write and the order they want to get them out of.

Example, my first novel, Love Came Back, no it doesn't have a cliffhanger, but after I wrote it, I started on Anchor Me, book 2 in the series--think of it like Maya Banks KGI series or Cindy Gerard's Bodyguard series, except mine is a group of women and they are good friends, etc.--well Anchor Me I started handwriting it because whenever I got to a computer? Nothing. Zip. Zero imagination. But on paper? BAM! I wrote half of it. But then Christmas came, busy time for everybody and then i had a lot of crap going on @ my main job, (I work at Chili's Bar & Grill), where the hours get crazy because i worked a lot of split shifts. Crazy. Anyway.---- Then! Bam, an idea got in my head. If you have read or started to read Bound, I mentioned that the song 'Cop Car' by Keith Urban is the basis of where I got the idea of Bound from. Every time for like a month, every single time i heard that song, I was like, man, this would be a great beginning to a novel. or something likewise. I finally said eff'it and ending up downloading the song on my iTunes, and listening to the song on REPEAT the entire time i was writing the prologue and then WAMMO! I wrote Bound in 33days. I dropped Anchor Me (AM is my shorthand name for it FYI), and I wrote Bound. I hated that I dropped AM because i LOVE NATHAN. He's a dark and damaged man. I love me some Nathan. I can't wait to get back to writing it. I have to type it. UGH. That'll be the suckie part. Anyway. Getting off topic. That was my example. I probably won't get to AM until after my current project, Diamonds Are a Girl's Best Friend (DAAGBF for abv.)

ANYWAY! I hate waiting for the next book especially if authors give you a preview of the next one and it sounds SOO DANG GOOD! Then bam- a year goes by or six months whatever and then you're like-well I've read probably about 100-200 books in that time. I KNOW! I'VE BEEN THERE! But the gist is this, cliffies suck total ass, BUT enjoy the anticipation! You can read books in between and when the next installment comes in, reread the previous. Or what I sometimes do, especially if the books are like a mini-series, with many quick installments, ask to see how many installments, how quickly will they be published and if they are close together? buy each one, or whatever and if you have a Kindle (well on my paperwhite anyway I can), you can make a collection to put different books in the collection and when you have them all? Read them all like that.

If it's a full length novel and at the end there's like a major cliffhanger and you have to wait for it? Eh. I honestly don't know what to say. I usually just say, read books in between.

Don't give out low ass ratings because it left you wondering. Sometimes it's good to anticipate the next installment. Think of it as a TV series! The leave cliffhangers and it's like WTF!?!?!? You can't do this to me! Hello, of course they can. It makes you want to wait and watch the next one!

So! Don't hate and rate low ratings on serial shorts. It is what it is.

Laters, now I am gonna try and write a bit on DAAGBF. Dax is telling me to shut up and write!

Look at him? I LOVE CHRIS PINE@! So effing HOT! love the Star Trek's he's in.

I even loved him in Princess Diaries 2!

Makes me wanna take that finger and bite it. grr...arg...CHOMP! lol

BOUND IS LIVE!!!!

Hi everyone! Well, as of 7:30PM, June 1, my second book, Bound is LIVE on Amazon. Unfortunately, I am only keeping it on amazon. I do have ePub copies available though. I am so excited that I finished it and I get to share everything with y'all. I had my release party yesterday, with some awesome giveaways! Glad for everyone who made it. I think the next time though, I'll make it like a week thing so everyone who wants to enter, can enter. I didn't encounter the time zone difference! #BlondeMoment

Anyway, I am hard at work on Diamonds are a Girl's Best Friend. I am making it a goal to be done either by the end of this month or mid July. I'd really like to have Diamonds done and print ready by the time my VERY FIRST BOOK SIGNING (woot-woot!) in mid-August.

Indie Mashup Houston

 

 

Lots of Authors will be there. Most of whom I do not know! I know it's gonan be a blast!

 

The second signing i'll be a featured author will be at Houston BookRave, November 15

Houston BookRave

Now this one will be my highlight!!!! I got TWO VIR (Very Important Reader) packages (sorry one is for myself) The second will be full of signed swag- some books- etc that I'll be giving away here on my blog! Exciting year ahead! I've been very blessed! Thank you so much for everyone who supports me and all INDIE authors! You so totally rock!

 

 

And look at my banner!

(I'm covering up one of the book covers-NOT YET REVEALED-maybe at the end of this month!)