Congratulations Golden Heart Finalist Terri Osburn!

Every year Romance Writer's of America (RWA) announces the finalists in its RITA and Golden Heart contests. This year I'm insanely excited to be able to squee over my friend and writing mate Terri Osburn being nominated for a Golden Heart in the Single Title Contemporary Romance category!

If you aren't aware of these contests, check out the RWA link here.

Basically the RITA is like the Oscars of the Romance Book world for published authors and the Golden Heart is for unpublished authors. It's an amazing honor to be nominated and I'm so proud of Terri!

Please go check out Terri's blog to wish her well and check out a snippet of her Golden Heart Nominated story Meant to Be!

A Few Excellent Writing Blog Posts

Lately I've run across some really great blog posts I thought I'd share:

How to Return to Writing After a Long Break by Nathan Bransford (Oh yes, this one was obviously very useful to me!)

Thank you for (not) asking by Bria Quinlan (Fantastic blog post I wish every writer would read)

Math For Authors by Deryn Collier

Deadlines: Why Do Some Motivate & Others Don't?

I'm a horrible blogger. At least at this blog. It's kind of my red-headed stepchild that is the first thing that I let slide when real life gets busy or my writing stops.

And lately that's been the main issue. I haven't been writing for the past 3 weeks because we have company coming to stay with us and suddenly we thought that was a great way to get all our little DIY projects around the house done. Like a countdown clock would inspire us to get the house finished.

And in truth? It's totally working. I'm amazed at what we've accomplished in 3 weeks. I know I said "little" projects, but some of them are rather large. Like rip out carpeting, paint ceilings, tile floors large. And we've been DIY rock stars!

But the writing...what writing. It's been on total hold. And that left me thinking lately...

Why doesn't setting a deadline for my WIP have as great an impact on my production as this deadline for our house repairs has? Why is this taking precedent over my world and home when my writing never seems to even when I set very hard deadlines and the hubby agrees to support me?

I'm a visual person, so I thought maybe at first it was because the house projects I can see and admire everyday and that's added incentive to keep going. But isn't seeing my page count go up the same thing. I look at that count and record it every time I write. So why isn't see the "progress" there propelling me to write faster, longer, etc?

I'm just starting to swirl this around in my noggin, and I'll post again when I figure out exactly what it is, but what do you think?

Is it because the hubby and I do it together and there's a 3rd party that will be witness to it? It is the visual cues of projects getting done? Maybe it's that I'm blocked in my story and this is an excuse to step away for a bit? Or could it be all of the above?