Carrie Harris is getting published! The world needs more Zombies, and No Pain, No Brain sounds awesome. Head on over to Carrie’s blog and congratulate her.

Also, Kiersten White has a great post on her blog today about the harm caused by hurtful words. Words like Lashes reminds us all to not be so thoughtless about the words we use. Words matter.

Speaking of words mattering…if you know me at all, you know that I am silently correcting your grammar when you talk to me. I correct your grammar when you email me, update your Facebook or Twitter status, text message me–really anytime words are used, I will be silently correcting your grammar. I don’t judge you for bad grammar, I just can’t help but to correct it. Now, I am not telling you this to make you self-conscious. I am merely letting everyone know I am a grammar freak. BUT, I am not a grammar traditionalist. The rules that carry over from Latin? Not all of them need apply to English anymore. The 3000 Messages Blog has a great post on this today: Three grammar rules that are okay to break.

And now, moving on…

Personality Toolkit: Sacrifice

Writing a novel is really hard work. It takes time. It drains your energy–physically, mentally, and emotionally. With so many other options out there, it is a lot easier to not write a novel.

Distractions are everywhere. For many writers, there is the dreaded “real job”. New books to read are coming out weekly. Season 3 of DEXTER sits on top of the DVD player, begging to be watched. Dinners out. Nights at the theatre. Precious, precious sleep.

Things have to be sacrificed for writing–no writing would ever get done if this were not the case. If one is not willing to give up things that take one’s time away from writing a book, the book will never be written. It is not easy to sacrifice things we love, but in the end, it is worth it.

In my mind, there are certain things that are able to be sacrificed and things that should never be put aside for the sake of writing. And they are:

Things I am happy(ish) to sacrifice for my writing

• Time watching movies and TV (who am I kidding, Bubba and I don’t even have TV service)
• Sleep
• Some time with Bubba.
• Time baking, card making, and doing other hobbies
• My sanity

Things I will not sacrifice for my writing

• My marriage
• My health (hello, treadmill desk!)
• Sleep (contradictory? Yeah, well, I have to get some.)
• My values

Notice both lists are short. There are few things I will not sacrifice for my writing (but I will not budge on those points). The list of things I will sacrifice may seem super short as well. It is not because I will only let go of those five things; it is because everything else falls away to my writing so easily I don’t even notice the loss.

And for the record: I would love to sacrifice the “real” job (no matter how much I like it–which is a lot) to write full time. Sadly, I have to pay off my shiny new shoulder first.