I Got You Blogfest/Blunt Honesty

If the theme is pick a blogger who has impacted your life/writing/blog, then in a moment of brutal honestly I would have to admit, that while there are blogs I actually read, follow, and comment on the blog that has most significantly, is Julie Powell's blog.

I don't follow her blog. I thought about it after the movie. I checked it out. Honestly, I wasn't impressed. I didn't like the way she didn't mind telling the world that she had an affair and the day I visited the blog her tagline under the blog's title read, "Random Rantings of a Narcissistic Whore." Way to flaunt it, I thought to myself. Needless to say, I didn't click "follow me."

That being said when I watched the movie for the Julie/Julia Project, I was in a similar spot in my life were I was just frustrated with everything. I have/had a day job that I don't care. I'm a cubicle employee just like Julie. I'm also not where I thought I would be in life, just like Julie and my husband and I live in an apartment because we can't buy a house yet, just like Julie (at least at the time of the movie).

But I watched the movie one week after finishing my first manuscript, that didn't take me eight years to complete. I didn't know how to market it and it was controversial. I had never heard of a critique partner. I didn't know what yalitchat or SCBWI was. I read online that after you write a book, you need to write a query and send it around. I planned to do this, but something about it was stilted--broken and I didnt know why. I understood in it's current shape it wasn't marketable. I thought the only way to fix it would be to scratch and start over from the beginning. Same characters different story.

I knew I needed to be writing. (You can't improve if you don't write). I had no ideas. Then I thought if this cubicle employee can come up with a blog that sells a book and a movie, maybe I can too. And if not, at least if I'm blogging, I'm writing something. I racked my brain for something that I could. (I was not cooking fatty French food). The thing is I have no real talent. My degree is English and I'm a law school drop out. But something I read, made me realize that my vocabulary was incredibly weak for a writer and that to improve it  needed to read more. I also needed a project, because my life was way to boring to blog about. So from Julie Power and Stephen King Project 52 was born.

Project 52 has changed my life. I started following blogs which is how I learned a lot, and how I happened on to a lot of the books I read. The books bred ideas that crept into my sleep which became Phantom Fires, my recently finished manuscript and Chance Encounters, the ms I'm hard at work on. The blogs explained things from how to find a CP to how to revise. Then I got brave and started emailing authors/bloggers. They were open to it. Happily answered my questions. I learned of writing groups and book clubs, went to my first book signing had a blast, made new friends, learned more and now my life isn't quite so boring.