I Actually Did It!!! #iwroteit

This is my first official post -as in one that hasn’t been imported from writespell.com and I am so pleased. I’ve been contemplating switching over to this domain for months-if you’re a regular to my blog you already know my blogging has been pretty sporadic of late. The reason is because I’ve been writing. I’ve been writing so much I can actually say, “I did it! I finished my book!”It is still very rough. Like, super-gritty sandpaper, road-burn rough. But it’s done. It’s taken me four years to finish. The bulk of that time was spent not writing which is the biggest contributing factor to it taking so long, but-and I’ve been thinking about this a great deal; I think the underlying factor was due in part to my not giving myself permission to really do this. Going after one’s dream can be a daunting task, and I think I had to come to it slowly. Add in, an MS (manuscript) written in first person and I think I was setting myself up for failure. Months ago I contemplated changing to third person, but I was half way through. So I plowed on. It proved to be a good practice, but there are still a few holes in the story, that I know would best be told from a different point of view. In retrospect I don’t think I’ll make that mistake again-not getting the POV wrong, but the not following my gut mistake. Either way I’m feeling pretty good right now. I’m excited to begin the re-write and I’ve given myself a strict timeline.To quote Steve Jobs, “real artists ship’. I’ve got UPS on speed dial. Nearly there.Here is a little glimpse of my writing nook. It’s a chalkboard I made, where I write little inspirational quotes or thoughts on.

We're Moving to Italy!

A few posts back I dropped a few hints...I can't believe I was able to keep a lid on it for this long!We're moving to Italy!

Four years of high school Italian and 3 semesters in college -I hope I'll do Mrs. Revilla proud!

The Perfect Sentence

I wrote the perfect sentence this morning around six.I should be elated right?Somewhere in my half-sleep-half-wake state it floated away, like a helium balloon let loose by a sudden gust of wind. All day I've heard bits of it...the faintest of whispers, but it elludes me.

My Life Through My iPhone [All About Me Sunday]

This week was crazy hectic. Here's a glimpse of some of the goings on in my life this week.

On Sunday I threw my sister a Baby Shower and got to sip from lovely glasses.Wednesday was chaotic. I got some exciting-life changing news from my husband (hint, hint).My brother Joe, had knee surgery-which meant I drove up to Ft. Lauderdale to pick him up, drop him off, go back to Miami to pick up my son from school, and then later in the evening pick him up. He was so hungry we went for pizza. He's doing great-and still planning his trip to the Congo.Friday night I went to see Snow White & The Huntsman with my little sister and bestie. I wore my Fibi & Clo sandals that made me feel like Cinderella.love & iphoneography,nicōle

Venice Dreamlike

Venice is like eating an entire box of chocolate liqueurs in one go. ~Truman Capote

I've always been intrigued by Venice. As a little girl I would dream about sitting on a terrace overlooking a canal, and all the mysteries that floated on it's watery streets.

A few weeks ago I dreamed I was moving to Italy.

I dream very rarely-a side effect of insomnia. When I do dream, I take notice, because in the past my dreams have been prophetic.

hint. hint. hint.

love & gondolas,

nicōle

Photo: www.flickr.com/photos/mbell1975/

Groping in the dark-no more...

I think...I think I finally "got it"! This "thing" I've been trying to find. For months I've essentially been groping around in the dark, discovering nothing, except handfuls of air.  A blindfolded me trying to pin the tail on my story.

I knew it was there. I could sense it. It would nag me. An itch in my brain I couldn't scratch.

The little morsel of a puzzle piece that's been missing in my manuscript. The ever elusive bit of story I've been squinting to see.

Then today while stuck in traffic, blasting Blue October it came to me. It was like looking for your eyeglasses only to discover they've been perched on top your head.

Wait, I need to back up a few days...To the moment when a bit of light crept in.

On Sunday night or was it Monday? The actual day is irrelevant, it's what I was doing when "it" actually began, that, I think-is important.

I was burning brain cells watching an episode of Dance Mom's Miami ( Ohmygosh have you seen this show? It's so sad. Those Mom's are... Sigh. Never mind...I'm not going there.

Anyway...I was watching Dance Mom's Miami and this song Speak in Silence played during one of the kid's performances (which was super cool by-the-way). I was immediately drawn to it.

The music itself is electronic and cool, and that certainly played a big part of it, but the lyric, the idea of speaking in silence led me to think about silence and the sound of it. Yes. Sound. That sort of buzzing in your ear when the world around you has gone quiet. Where I live in Miami moments where it's absolutely silent are far and few in between. I miss the quiet. The absence of silence in my life is-I'm sure-what caused my ears to perk up and listen to this song certainly...but it was the idea ultimately that fascinated me. I thought about how we communicate silently, how we purposefully keep ourselves silent-either to not harm someone, or out of fear, or for any other number of reasons. Then it made me think about myself and how I communicate, and how I do it best when writing. It made me think about writers and the solitary job it is, and how essentially when we're writing, we're speaking, silently to the page. Writing is speaking in silence.

This idea of silence not really being silent was rolling around in my psyche the last few days then yesterday-while in the car, I kept replaying HRSA by Blue October. I've always loved that song-and I've probably heard it a thousand times, but yesterday I kept replaying it, almost absentmindedly. I think the "dark" part of my brain needed to hear it. Like the mute-writer in there-arms outstretched-needed to hear it because it drew her to the light...and towards her silent voice.

This morning I was in traffic and grew bored of Talk Radio, there was nothing I felt like listening to on the music stations (Miami radio's level of suck-age is great folks) so out of habit I hit the CD button and of course on came HRSA. Something in me sort of clicked, and anything that might have irritated me normally about Miami traffic didn't-like my, "Oh this person is so rude! GRRR", button had been anesthetized. My son Evan who is usually a chatterbox full of questions (and the answers) sat silent in his carseat staring out at the people who also found themselves in unexpected traffic. Yet despite the honking and the blaring outside our car and the thrumming of the music, my son and I were the epitome of quiescence.

And I listened.

Except this time it was different than the thousand times I'd heard that song before. It was as if I was listening to my self listen. The writer groping in the dark suddenly found something to grab a hold of and she pulled.

Hard.

She it the floor hard-not knowing her strength, her hands full and heavy with the weight of a single board pulled from a window in the dark part of her brain. When her eyes had adjusted and she'd gotten over the shock of feeling something heavy in her hands she saw it. In a sliver of mottled light sat that missing piece of her story's puzzle, small, but significant.

As I said, it's just a little idea. One small grain of sand the itching-irritant I needed to occasion the creation of  (what i hope will be) a pearl. I'm off to revise my outline and do some re-writing-wrapping my words around this little grain of sand.

love, light, & warmth,

nicōle

photo: http://mollycoddled.deviantart.com/

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Star Gazing, A Few Planets, & The Moon

On Saturday night, after a day full of adventure we went to stare up into the night sky.It was AWESOME!I totally geeked out....A lot.I'm still geeking out.I got to see saturn, and venus, and the stars. I got to pick some geeky astronomy guys' brains from the Escambia Amateur Astronomers Association about the stars.I got to see the "super moon" through an amazing telescope.To top it all off, this all took place on Pensacola Beach.The brilliant beautiful moon shining over the ocean absolutely left me breathless.

In the full moons light I listen to the streamAnd in between the silence hear you calling meBut I don't know where I am and I don't trust who I've beenAnd If I come home how will I ever leave~"Full Moon" by The Black Ghosts

love & space,

nicōle