One of the first things I noticed when we (the biggest winner team) started this diet was my reaction to food.
I'd see cheesecake and think I can't resist that. Though I'd wrestle myself away, it was always a struggle.
A few days into the diet, when confronted with chocolate marshmallow cookies in the cookie aisle in Walmart, I took a breath, said, I want to be thin, and walked to a different aisle.
The day after that, when my husband and son ordered pizza, I popped a Weight Watchers pizza into the oven telling myself, I like these better anyway.
As I thought that, I sort of paused, realizing that how I talked to myself made the difference in whether I walked away happily or had a huge struggle.
Now, I know all about positive affirmations! LOL. I've been doing them for my career for decades. I can write. I love to write. I'm happy to have this career. I CAN write a book in three weeks (that was for a special occasion).
I've been telling myself positive things about my writing, my abilities, my desires for this career forever. So why did I have such terrible beliefs about food?
Who knows? At this point, what difference does it make how or why my mind was such a bad place when it came to food. All I had to do was KNOW I had some bad thoughts running through my head and KNOW I had to create some good ones.
Like:
I love to eat veggies. (It's true.)
I love fruit.
I love oatmeal.
I long to be thin.
I look good in my orange bathing suit and want to fit into it again.
Eating well gives me energy.
I feel better when I eat well.
Vitamin water is my friend.
I have a closet full of thin clothes just waiting for me.
I need this success...
Let's pause here for a sec...
I need this success is a special affirmation. Do an experiment with me now. Take a breath, close your eyes and say that...I need this success.
I need this success.
What happens to your psyche or soul when you say that? Do you feel it? Do you feel how much you do need it? How much it will mean to you...I think so. I can't say that without getting a little heart hiccup.
It means something to me. That's what makes affirmations work. They tap into something deep inside of us that longs for whatever we're affirming. They remind us of who we are at our core. They remind us that ... we need this. If you do them right or well, they can also remind of us WHY we need this. Because if you know why you want something, it's so much easier to achieve it.
So copy my affirmations and start your day repeating them into the mirror. Say, good morning self...I love veggies. Do this every morning -- adding your own affirmations as you go -- for one month and see if your struggle with your weight doesn't take turn for the better!
Happy Friday. Enjoy the weekend. But remember...life isn't all about food. Every event doesn't have to be about food. Life is about people. Don't eat as much as you socialize. Make somebody feel good about him or herself. See the joy on someone's face when you really take the time to listen when they talk. That's really the spice of life. (I learned that volunteering at Hospice, by the way. There is no greater joy than giving someone a voice. Letting them know they're worthy of your time.)
By the way, my weight loss for this week was 3.38%. Not bad. I was "the biggest winner" on my team and also out of the 100 participants!
susan
Friday, July 15, 2011
Thursday, July 14, 2011
Reminder
Monday's posts are for writers. Wednesday's for Readers and Friday Losin with Susan.
If you're a writer, looking for some info on craft...just scroll down. There are lots of posts on writing and motivation for writing!
Get ready for a weight loss post tomorrow!
susan
If you're a writer, looking for some info on craft...just scroll down. There are lots of posts on writing and motivation for writing!
Get ready for a weight loss post tomorrow!
susan
Wednesday, July 13, 2011
If it's Wednesday, it must be reader day
I made an amazing discovery this week!
Harlequin has digitized some of my Silhouette Romance backlist. Not all. My favorite series, BREWSTER BABY BOOM is NOT yet available.
But the TEXAS FAMILY TIES series, including IN CARE OF THE SHERIFF, THE RANCHER AND THE HEIRESS and GUESS WHAT WE'RE MARRIED has been digitized under the Treasury program.
The TEXAS FAMILY TIES series revolves around three foster children taken in by a grizzled old rancher Angus McFarland. Angus is rich enough to take in the kids, and smart enough to put them to work, teaching them the value of hard work, but also giving them a chance to find out who they are.
The first foster child Ryan Kelly ends up becoming the town sheriff. He's put in charge of beautiful Madison Delaney, a witness in a burglary trial. Madison had refused protection, but the DA is a friend of Madison's and secretly tells Ryan to keep an eye on her. When she's attacked, he grabs her and her baby and takes her to a private cabin to protect them. It's a cute story about a guy who thought he wasn't husband material discovering he's BOTH husband and daddy material! LOL
GUESS WHAT, WE'RE MARRIED is actually one of my all time favorite books that I've written. And, considering I've written close to 50 books, that's saying something! LOL Grace Wright is the only one of the foster kids Angus adopted. He adopted her because she was the youngest when she arrived on his doorstep. She's a sweetie as a child who falls in love with the poor, bad boy neighbor and actually runs away and marries him. The marriage immediately falls apart -- so immediately that they don't even have time to tell anyone they ran away and got married -- and they never get a divorce. Fast forward ten years. She wants to marry someone else and has to get gorgeous Nick to sign divorce papers. She wrecks her car on the way and loses her memory. When Nick comes to pick her up at the hospital, she doesn't remember him, but assumes they're still married because he takes her to his house. He only does that because Angus and her "brothers" are out of town and can't be located. (Couldn't write this book in this day and age with cell phones! LOL) So, she and Nick spend two weeks together rediscovering each other and falling in love again. But when Angus comes home and her memory returns she's furious--I won't tell you the rest. It's just too good of a book to miss!
And what about THE RANCHER AND THE HEIRESS? This is the one with really sexy Caleb Wright, Grace's brother. When Angus's real granddaughter comes to Texas for financial help, Caleb is furious. Angus's real family has ignored him. Now when the chips are down they want money? Oh. No. Not as long as Caleb breathes. But Alexis is heir to half the ranch, Caleb the other. And he's stuck working with her.
It's a fun read. I won't lie and tell you it's rocket science. It's just fun.
So those are my first three digitized books. Fun stuff from Silhouette Romance. Those of you who enjoyed my lighter stories will love them.
Go to Amazaon and B&N and check them out!
Happy Wednesday. I'd better hustle my butt to my laptop and get to work on the book that's due 8/1 -- since I'm going on vacation 7/31! LOL!!!
susan
Harlequin has digitized some of my Silhouette Romance backlist. Not all. My favorite series, BREWSTER BABY BOOM is NOT yet available.
But the TEXAS FAMILY TIES series, including IN CARE OF THE SHERIFF, THE RANCHER AND THE HEIRESS and GUESS WHAT WE'RE MARRIED has been digitized under the Treasury program.
The TEXAS FAMILY TIES series revolves around three foster children taken in by a grizzled old rancher Angus McFarland. Angus is rich enough to take in the kids, and smart enough to put them to work, teaching them the value of hard work, but also giving them a chance to find out who they are.
The first foster child Ryan Kelly ends up becoming the town sheriff. He's put in charge of beautiful Madison Delaney, a witness in a burglary trial. Madison had refused protection, but the DA is a friend of Madison's and secretly tells Ryan to keep an eye on her. When she's attacked, he grabs her and her baby and takes her to a private cabin to protect them. It's a cute story about a guy who thought he wasn't husband material discovering he's BOTH husband and daddy material! LOL
GUESS WHAT, WE'RE MARRIED is actually one of my all time favorite books that I've written. And, considering I've written close to 50 books, that's saying something! LOL Grace Wright is the only one of the foster kids Angus adopted. He adopted her because she was the youngest when she arrived on his doorstep. She's a sweetie as a child who falls in love with the poor, bad boy neighbor and actually runs away and marries him. The marriage immediately falls apart -- so immediately that they don't even have time to tell anyone they ran away and got married -- and they never get a divorce. Fast forward ten years. She wants to marry someone else and has to get gorgeous Nick to sign divorce papers. She wrecks her car on the way and loses her memory. When Nick comes to pick her up at the hospital, she doesn't remember him, but assumes they're still married because he takes her to his house. He only does that because Angus and her "brothers" are out of town and can't be located. (Couldn't write this book in this day and age with cell phones! LOL) So, she and Nick spend two weeks together rediscovering each other and falling in love again. But when Angus comes home and her memory returns she's furious--I won't tell you the rest. It's just too good of a book to miss!
And what about THE RANCHER AND THE HEIRESS? This is the one with really sexy Caleb Wright, Grace's brother. When Angus's real granddaughter comes to Texas for financial help, Caleb is furious. Angus's real family has ignored him. Now when the chips are down they want money? Oh. No. Not as long as Caleb breathes. But Alexis is heir to half the ranch, Caleb the other. And he's stuck working with her.
It's a fun read. I won't lie and tell you it's rocket science. It's just fun.
So those are my first three digitized books. Fun stuff from Silhouette Romance. Those of you who enjoyed my lighter stories will love them.
Go to Amazaon and B&N and check them out!
Happy Wednesday. I'd better hustle my butt to my laptop and get to work on the book that's due 8/1 -- since I'm going on vacation 7/31! LOL!!!
susan
Monday, July 11, 2011
Monday July 11 First segment of RWA Nationals Workshop
Hey! Good Monday to you.
When I realized the notes for my segment of the workshop I gave with Jenna Kernan and Deb Mullins at RWA Nationals, was only about 18 pages, I also saw that I could easily put these notes up for those of you who couldn't go to Nationals. And for those who did go to Nationals but missed the workshop...or those who went to the workshop and just want the notes... LOL...I'm posting it!
To get you up to speed, Jenna, Deb and I gave a workshop on building a great hero. My 3 segments dealt with Family, Flaw and Conflict. So these segments will go up for the next 3 Mondays.
Today's segment is Family... Enjoy.
***
Everybody needs family. Your heroes were not hatched as adults on page 1 of your novel. They also do not live in a vacuum. They’ve had parents (either present or absent) who made a difference in their lives and who might still have some say. They should have brothers and sisters, cousins, friends, teachers, bosses, co-workers, a preacher, priest or Rabbi.
These people form your hero’s personality. So even though you have a hero and heroine trapped in a cabin in the woods or on a deserted island, their families will have played a part in the person/people they are now.
And we’re not just talking about dads who deserted their families or moms who were distant. A chatty mom could produce a chatty heroine…or a heroine who HATES to be chatty because her mom drove her nuts. A quiet dad could cause a heroine to feel insecure…or feel that she’ll never let herself depend on a man! Being an only child will produce tons of beliefs. Having doting aunts or no extended family at all will create other beliefs.
Religious parents? Alcoholic parents? Two teachers for parents? Nosy neighbors? A workaholic dad? A workaholic mom? A more successful than dad mom?
Your characters’ families don’t even have to step on the page to influence your hero and heroine…and your villain. (But that’s another workshop.)
So family…even without stepping onto the page...is UBER IMPORTANT in the creation of characters!
But sometimes they are going to step on the page…
Because unless your characters are trapped on the moon, (or living hundreds of miles away, for their jobs) family also form your characters’ world. They give advice. They chit chat. They help the hero and/or heroine feel they belong or they don’t belong.
They form the basis for the characters’ correct and INCORRECT core beliefs about themselves, life and others. (And we’ll talk about this more in the segment on conflict.)
But they also pop up and mess with the plot.
They don’t merely show up on the pages of your novel to populate your book. They need a purpose. To win a spot on the pages of your novel, they should do something.
Whitney Ross’s dad in my April release, THE BABY PROJECT, forces her to become co-guardian of the hero’s infant half-brother, to protect the interests of Darius’s other half-brothers.
The death of Darius’s mom leaves him totally alone.
In SECOND CHANCE BABY, the heroine, Maggie’s step-mom threw her out when she got pregnant at eighteen. Now, fifteen years later, at that same step-mom’s funeral her relationship with her dad is strained.
The hero’s mom in A BABY ON THE RANCH match makes the hero and heroine. Worse, just the presence of Cade’s former father-in-law on his ranch serves to remind him he was married before and he didn’t make such a good husband.
Family pokes into business, offers unwanted advice, meddles, gives the hero and heroine a chance to shine…or shows the reader how they behave in an environment where they are just one of the bunch…or litter! How you behave with family says more about who you are than all your outside behavior!
Family can add depth and sparkle to a book. A dad who likes to cook and is always asking the hero to stay for supper can make us laugh. A little sister who sees through her big brother’s convenient stories and teases him about being in love can add some tension. A next-door neighbor who loses her husband and tells the heroine not to let such a good guy – the hero – get away can make us weep. (If it’s done right!)
And don’t get me started on babies and kids! A baby or a child can totally turn a story.
Now…
It’s never a good idea for the secondary characters to steal the show, but it’s wonderful idea to learn how to use secondary characters. How to manipulate them into having your hero and/or heroine do what YOU NEED THEM TO DO.
But most of all, intentionally or unintentionally your characters’ families have helped form your MAIN CHARACTERS’ personalities.
Which takes us to fatal flaw. Or What’s not to Love!
***
The Fatal Flaw segment will post next Monday. Have a great week. And if you have any questions, just post them! I'll be glad to answer them!
susan
When I realized the notes for my segment of the workshop I gave with Jenna Kernan and Deb Mullins at RWA Nationals, was only about 18 pages, I also saw that I could easily put these notes up for those of you who couldn't go to Nationals. And for those who did go to Nationals but missed the workshop...or those who went to the workshop and just want the notes... LOL...I'm posting it!
To get you up to speed, Jenna, Deb and I gave a workshop on building a great hero. My 3 segments dealt with Family, Flaw and Conflict. So these segments will go up for the next 3 Mondays.
Today's segment is Family... Enjoy.
***
Everybody needs family. Your heroes were not hatched as adults on page 1 of your novel. They also do not live in a vacuum. They’ve had parents (either present or absent) who made a difference in their lives and who might still have some say. They should have brothers and sisters, cousins, friends, teachers, bosses, co-workers, a preacher, priest or Rabbi.
These people form your hero’s personality. So even though you have a hero and heroine trapped in a cabin in the woods or on a deserted island, their families will have played a part in the person/people they are now.
And we’re not just talking about dads who deserted their families or moms who were distant. A chatty mom could produce a chatty heroine…or a heroine who HATES to be chatty because her mom drove her nuts. A quiet dad could cause a heroine to feel insecure…or feel that she’ll never let herself depend on a man! Being an only child will produce tons of beliefs. Having doting aunts or no extended family at all will create other beliefs.
Religious parents? Alcoholic parents? Two teachers for parents? Nosy neighbors? A workaholic dad? A workaholic mom? A more successful than dad mom?
Your characters’ families don’t even have to step on the page to influence your hero and heroine…and your villain. (But that’s another workshop.)
So family…even without stepping onto the page...is UBER IMPORTANT in the creation of characters!
But sometimes they are going to step on the page…
Because unless your characters are trapped on the moon, (or living hundreds of miles away, for their jobs) family also form your characters’ world. They give advice. They chit chat. They help the hero and/or heroine feel they belong or they don’t belong.
They form the basis for the characters’ correct and INCORRECT core beliefs about themselves, life and others. (And we’ll talk about this more in the segment on conflict.)
But they also pop up and mess with the plot.
They don’t merely show up on the pages of your novel to populate your book. They need a purpose. To win a spot on the pages of your novel, they should do something.
Whitney Ross’s dad in my April release, THE BABY PROJECT, forces her to become co-guardian of the hero’s infant half-brother, to protect the interests of Darius’s other half-brothers.
The death of Darius’s mom leaves him totally alone.
In SECOND CHANCE BABY, the heroine, Maggie’s step-mom threw her out when she got pregnant at eighteen. Now, fifteen years later, at that same step-mom’s funeral her relationship with her dad is strained.
The hero’s mom in A BABY ON THE RANCH match makes the hero and heroine. Worse, just the presence of Cade’s former father-in-law on his ranch serves to remind him he was married before and he didn’t make such a good husband.
Family pokes into business, offers unwanted advice, meddles, gives the hero and heroine a chance to shine…or shows the reader how they behave in an environment where they are just one of the bunch…or litter! How you behave with family says more about who you are than all your outside behavior!
Family can add depth and sparkle to a book. A dad who likes to cook and is always asking the hero to stay for supper can make us laugh. A little sister who sees through her big brother’s convenient stories and teases him about being in love can add some tension. A next-door neighbor who loses her husband and tells the heroine not to let such a good guy – the hero – get away can make us weep. (If it’s done right!)
And don’t get me started on babies and kids! A baby or a child can totally turn a story.
Now…
It’s never a good idea for the secondary characters to steal the show, but it’s wonderful idea to learn how to use secondary characters. How to manipulate them into having your hero and/or heroine do what YOU NEED THEM TO DO.
But most of all, intentionally or unintentionally your characters’ families have helped form your MAIN CHARACTERS’ personalities.
Which takes us to fatal flaw. Or What’s not to Love!
***
The Fatal Flaw segment will post next Monday. Have a great week. And if you have any questions, just post them! I'll be glad to answer them!
susan
Friday, July 8, 2011
Don't forget
Today's post...Friday...is Losing With Susan.
Wednesday's posts are Dear Reader posts.
Monday's posts are for Writers.
If you're looking for a post about writing, scroll down. There are lots of them.
If you're looking for posts about losing weight. Those only started. Today's Friday post in the first of the series.
If you scroll down enough, there's something for everyone!
susan
Wednesday's posts are Dear Reader posts.
Monday's posts are for Writers.
If you're looking for a post about writing, scroll down. There are lots of them.
If you're looking for posts about losing weight. Those only started. Today's Friday post in the first of the series.
If you scroll down enough, there's something for everyone!
susan
Losin with Susan -- First Friday
I had a rough start to this diet. After three weeks of eating everything I wanted to eat and being at some great places like NYC where I could get cheesecake that melts in your mouth, I was cranky when I told myself I had to go back to eating good foods.
But when I thought about it I had to ask myself why I was cranky. Seriously. I'm doing something that's good for my health. Yet, here I was rebelling.
I sometimes wonder why we choose to rebel against the things we rebel against. Parental authorty when we're teens. Bosses when we get a little older. Vegetables when we need to lose weight!
Are we nuts?
Or are we just independent?
I'm going to vote for independence run amuck. And there's nothing wrong with running amuck, if you eventually realize you are amuck and get yourself going in the right direction again.
So what got me going? I took out a dress that I bought but never wore because I gained out of it before I had a chance to wear it. It's only ten pounds to get into it, so hanging that dress where I can see it everyday reminds me of a very reachable goal.
Reachable goals are the greatest tools we have for any endeavor that requires discipline. If I look at myself in the mirror and see 40 pounds that need to go, I will melt into a puddle of despair. The goal is too hard to reach. But if I look at that dress and KNOW it's only ten pounds away, perfectly within my reach...well, ladies and gentlemen, that's a goal I can handle. Plus, there's a reward attached. I will get to wear that cute little Liz Claiborne dress!
So look at your own life, your weight, your writing, your work...and see if you can't find a little, reachable goal that you can turn into a stepping stone for attainment of one of your big goals. Something sweet and shiny that you know should be yours!
Happy Friday!
susan
But when I thought about it I had to ask myself why I was cranky. Seriously. I'm doing something that's good for my health. Yet, here I was rebelling.
I sometimes wonder why we choose to rebel against the things we rebel against. Parental authorty when we're teens. Bosses when we get a little older. Vegetables when we need to lose weight!
Are we nuts?
Or are we just independent?
I'm going to vote for independence run amuck. And there's nothing wrong with running amuck, if you eventually realize you are amuck and get yourself going in the right direction again.
So what got me going? I took out a dress that I bought but never wore because I gained out of it before I had a chance to wear it. It's only ten pounds to get into it, so hanging that dress where I can see it everyday reminds me of a very reachable goal.
Reachable goals are the greatest tools we have for any endeavor that requires discipline. If I look at myself in the mirror and see 40 pounds that need to go, I will melt into a puddle of despair. The goal is too hard to reach. But if I look at that dress and KNOW it's only ten pounds away, perfectly within my reach...well, ladies and gentlemen, that's a goal I can handle. Plus, there's a reward attached. I will get to wear that cute little Liz Claiborne dress!
So look at your own life, your weight, your writing, your work...and see if you can't find a little, reachable goal that you can turn into a stepping stone for attainment of one of your big goals. Something sweet and shiny that you know should be yours!
Happy Friday!
susan
Wednesday, July 6, 2011
I'm back from Nationals...
Sorry to the writers among us! I missed posting something on Monday. Tired. Seriously. Hard weekend aftter a long 5 days at Nationals! =:)
This is going to be a difficult and interesting month for me. Not only do a I have book due the day AFTER I'm leaving for vacation, but also today is the second day in participation of THE BIGGEST WINNER. It's sort of a takeoff on THE BIGGEST LOSER. We have 50 romance novelists and 50 readers working to lose weight. We're in teams who share information and encouragement. And we're competing for a prize. Sadly, it's not the lump sum of money THE BIGGEST LOSER winner gets. I could really get on board with losing weight for that. Writers seriously do not make a lot of money! Any influx of cash is greatly appreciated. :)
So why do I want to lose weight? Have you seen my pictures LOL? Seriously, if I gain much more weight I'm going to explode.
But the truth is I don't want to lose the weight as much as I want to get back to good eating habits. I genuinely believe the accountability of a group like this will help.
So there's going to be another blog posting. Mondays will still be for writers. Wednesdays will still be for readers. Fridays will now be Losin with Susan days, as I blog about the experience of trying to get myself back on track with my eating habits!
I'm sure some of both groups, my readers and my writers, will appreciate these blogs. I can sometimes be profound when it comes to self-discipline.
One last thought to the readers...Thank you for helping A BABY ON THE RANCH become a top seller!
Those who liked the BABIES IN THE BOARDROOM series will adore the Montgomery Moguls duet I began to work on the week before Nationals. Once again I have two tasty heroes with some family problems they need to work out with the help of smart heroines. I worked on Max and Kate's story this morning and, seriously, that guy makes me shiver he's so ... hot. And cool. LOL
So come back on Friday to hear how the diet is going and meet me here next Wednesday for a little more about what's going on in my writing life.
susan
This is going to be a difficult and interesting month for me. Not only do a I have book due the day AFTER I'm leaving for vacation, but also today is the second day in participation of THE BIGGEST WINNER. It's sort of a takeoff on THE BIGGEST LOSER. We have 50 romance novelists and 50 readers working to lose weight. We're in teams who share information and encouragement. And we're competing for a prize. Sadly, it's not the lump sum of money THE BIGGEST LOSER winner gets. I could really get on board with losing weight for that. Writers seriously do not make a lot of money! Any influx of cash is greatly appreciated. :)
So why do I want to lose weight? Have you seen my pictures LOL? Seriously, if I gain much more weight I'm going to explode.
But the truth is I don't want to lose the weight as much as I want to get back to good eating habits. I genuinely believe the accountability of a group like this will help.
So there's going to be another blog posting. Mondays will still be for writers. Wednesdays will still be for readers. Fridays will now be Losin with Susan days, as I blog about the experience of trying to get myself back on track with my eating habits!
I'm sure some of both groups, my readers and my writers, will appreciate these blogs. I can sometimes be profound when it comes to self-discipline.
One last thought to the readers...Thank you for helping A BABY ON THE RANCH become a top seller!
Those who liked the BABIES IN THE BOARDROOM series will adore the Montgomery Moguls duet I began to work on the week before Nationals. Once again I have two tasty heroes with some family problems they need to work out with the help of smart heroines. I worked on Max and Kate's story this morning and, seriously, that guy makes me shiver he's so ... hot. And cool. LOL
So come back on Friday to hear how the diet is going and meet me here next Wednesday for a little more about what's going on in my writing life.
susan
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