All in name...

So, last month I got married! It was a pretty low-key wedding, with a total of 8 guests. My brother-in-law made our cake and officiated the ceremony. My sister, friend, and now mother-in-law did the decorations. And everyone pitched in to take pictures.

Everyone asks me how it feels to be married, and for the most part it feels the same. Joe (my husband) and I moved from Washington state to Arizona in February. Moving across the county together and leaving most of our family behind felt like a big change. Promising to be together at a ceremony when we were always committed to each other didn't feel as life changing. Maybe if we had waited to live together until marriage it would be different, but for the most part, we went back to our normal life the next day.

One thing though, is different. I decided to take his last name, which is Leder. Now, I've considered hyphenating it with my maiden name, and I still might, but on a daily basis, I will now go by Genissa Leder. IT FEELS SO WEIRD! Of course, with time, it will seem normal (or more-so at least.) It's left me with a big decision though...

What name do I want to write under?

So far, my plan is to self-publish, and I want a name that will stand out, but still be recognizable. My first name is already complicated. You can't find "Genissa" on any pre-made key chains. My maiden name, Bornong, isn't easy either. I sometimes go by "Nissa," and have considered using it since it's shorter. My new last name, Leder, still isn't common, but it's shorter and less intimidating to try to pronounce (it's LEEder, for anyone wondering :)

So, with four options ahead of me... Genissa Bornong, Nissa Bornong, Genissa Leder, or Nissa Leder, I'm totally confused. Part of me wants to keep Genissa Bornong so that part of me is still alive. Part of me really likes the idea of using my nickname Nissa, because I don't use it all that often in my grown-up life and it reminds me of friends who would use it, and I want readers to be friends. And part of me wants to commit to my new last name because it's part of me now.

Needless to say, I'm still deciding... But to end on a happy note, here are a few pictures from my wedding!

(Another) Fresh Start

Somehow my plans never seem to happen the way I think they will. But perseverance has to eventually lead to success, right? :)

My last blog post got deleted, so a quick summary of that post: My fiancé Joe and I moved from Washington state to the Phoenix area, got new jobs, found a house, and are now settling in to our new life. We're getting married next month (yay!). It's going to be a super small ceremony in my sister's backyard, so there isn't a whole lot of planning to do, but I want it to be nice so that's taken up some of my time, too. It's all been super exciting and things are working out great for us, but my writing has definitely slacked.

Good news though! We're settled, the wedding is planned, and I'm ready to start strong!

I've learned to the key to me succeeding is setting reasonable goals, so here are my goals until the end of June:

Write 500 words a day
Blog twice a week
Read more
Have fun with my writing

The last one is the biggest for me. I get too caught up with my self expectations sometimes that I forget to just enjoy it.

What about you? How do you handle writing when life gets crazy?

IWSG and the New Year

So it's a new year, when people write down what they want to accomplish over the next 52 weeks. A clean slate. A fresh start. A time that's booming with potential. Except, it's also the close to a year. I'm optimistic about the year ahead, but I also realize just how much I didn't get done last year, and it's kinda depressing :-/

I tend to reminisce about what I could and definitely should have done. My biggest insecurity- that I'm just going to fail anyway so why try- sneaks in and wrap themselves around my mind until I'm defeated and ready to quit. Luckily, I'm also determined, so I'll sweep those insecurities out of my mind for awhile and start over. I'll make a list about everything I'm going to do. For real. This time, I'm totally going to do it! Until I don't. I make my goals so big, that I overwhelm myself. I might stick to them for a short period of time, but eventually I fall off and instead of jumping back on and continuing full force ahead, I get discouraged and quit for awhile until I can fight the insecurities all over again.

Instead of dwelling (which I have a bad habit of doing), I have a new strategy to the new year. While I've made out a goal of the projects I want to do this year, I'm not making out a daily plan ahead of time. Very rarely do I ever actually follow a schedule if I make it. My new plan this year is to write down what I actually do each day. My hope is to analyze how productively I use my time, and to become more productive all around in my life, but especially my writing.

So that's my biggest goal of the new year. What about you? Are you good at following schedules or do you prefer to just go with the flow?

Oh, and Happy New Year!!! :)

icky sicky

So this last week didn't go quite as well as I planned, but here's my weekly update nonetheless :)

biggest news of the week

being sick does not make me a more productive writer :-/

this week's successes

I'm in the middle of rereading my manuscript, and I realize that it doesn't suck as much as I thought it did :)

what i learned

sinus infections suck! big time!
nyquil is awesome
DVR's are a lifesaver

what i can improve on

Achieving my goals of the week. I was sick with one of the worst colds I've ever had from Friday evening until yesterday, so I'll give my self a little slack. This time.

goals for next week

finish rereading my manuscript and decide if I want to change from third to first person.
if I decide to change it, switch the first 50 pages.
start writing the sequel, which I can't do until I decide on my POV

Here's to hoping I stay healthy and next week goes better!

ignorance vs. sanity

I've never been one to watch the news daily. I like to be an informed person, but watching all the bad stuff that happens in the world makes me sad, mad, helpless, and a million other bad feelings. Someone is murdered, someone is sick, someone stole something or blew something up. The bad things that happen consume the media far more than the good things, and whatever makes the better "story" is what gets the airtime. It's what gets spread like wildfire on the internet, with people from all over the world giving their opinions on facebook posts. Arguing with each other, determined that they are right and anyone who doesn't agree with them entirely is wrong.

More and more I wonder how things will change. It's easy to comment on how wrong something is, but a whole other ordeal to change something. And change is hard. Change requires more than arguing. I truly believe change requires people to see both sides of something. It requires understanding. And then it requires effort.

I want to be someone who can change the world. But anymore, I have the urge to bury my head under the sand and just ignore it all. I don't like to feel mad and sad and bad over things. All those feelings steal my energy and leave me worthless to the other things in life I should be doing.

Maybe that's why I'm a writer. I can create an army of characters to change my fictional world. As a writer, I have some control. And maybe my words can somehow change the actual world.

That's the hope, at least.

caffiene in system, ready, set, go!

So, I've decided to dedicate every Friday to a weekly summary of how my writing journey has been over the past week. It'll be a good way to keep myself on track, as well as share my process of bringing my book to publication :) (which btw I'm soooo excited about!)

biggest news of the week

This would have to be my official decision to go indie with the novel I'm polishing up, as well as the rest of the novels in the series. Let the excitement/nervousness/please-don't-pee-my-pants journey begin!

this week's successes

I won a consult with Susan Kaye Quinn! And I never win at any raffle type things ever! I think I repeated the phrase "OMG I can't believe I won. I never win!" at least 30 times. It was an extremely helpful thing for me to win, and I appreciate Susan's generosity and willingness to help fellow indie authors.

what i learned

I'd read Susan's book on indie publishing, as well as a few others, so I already had some knowledge on the subject. But with Susan's help, I've mapped out a timeline for the next year which will include the release of the first novel in the series (title to be announced soon!) as well as the next two books in the series, all by the end of the year! Yep, I'm going to be one busy lady!

what i can improve on

I've done a lot of planning this week, which will pay off, but I haven't gotten much editing or writing done. #mybad #betterlucknextweek

goals for next week

I want to get at least 5k words written in book #2, as well as some significant editing done on book #1. "Significant editing" is more vague than it should be, but I'm still assessing what all needs to be revised before the book is ready, so I'll let some vagueness pass (this time. next time it's off-with-my-head). Originally I wrote the book in first-person, present tense, and then during my last semester of my MFA program, I switched it to third-person, past tense. I think the change helped me figure out the story better, but I'm now realizing that first person suits the story better, and I'm questioning if I want to keep it in past tense or switch it back to present! Aahh! By next week, I need to have made a decision! (I'll need a lot more coffee if I plan on switching the whole thing back!)

Well, there's my first week's post! Has anyone else switched a novel POV and tense only to switch it back to where it started (aka, went crazy?)?

IWSG post!

So after a bit of a hiatus, I'm back with another IWSG post!

Lately, I've been putting a lot of thought into what I want in my writing career. In today's writing world, there are more options than ever. I've always been someone to consider all potential ways to do something, so naturally I've been looking into the pros and cons of both traditional and indie publishing.

After a lot of thought and self reflection, I have decided I'm going to start my journey into indie publishing! I had amazing luck and won a consultation with Susan Kaye Quinn, a successful indie writer. I've read a few books on self-publishing, but chatting with her really made me realize that indie is the path I want to try.

With any method of publishing there are insecurities, but taking my whole writing career into my own hands is scarier than hell! But it's also exciting! I'm hoping through the learning process I can get over my insecurities (or some of them, at least). No matter what, I know I'll learn a lot.

Anyway, stay tuned as I post more of my dive into the indie publishing world. Right now I'm revising my manuscript one last time, and then will have it edited and find some beta readers. I'm also starting to write the sequel!