Where's Lenny Lee???

Happy Birthday Lenny!!!

If you haven't met Lenny Lee yet, you're missing out. Lenny is 15 today and he is an amazing young man.

Despite some medical difficulties in his life, Lenny sparkles with wit and humor.

Lenny has been able to blog as much lately, but I think his birthday is a fabulous way for us to let him know we're thinking about him!

So join me in sending best wishes to Lenny!

Spread the Happy

Sometimes the world is full of sad.

Many recent events/tragedies have been very difficult to understand or believe.

It's easy to be overwhelmed by tragedy and grief and worry.
It's easy to forget that joy and laughter and hope are just as real.
And just as important.

Our news sources have the responsibility to bring us the devastation, but I wish they took their responsibility to bring us the joys as seriously.

Sadness and grief and fear can be contagious.
And sometimes a cycle is created, bringing more and more grief.

But a smile can be contagious too.
So can hope.
So can love.

It's easy to forget that we are capable of changing the world. It's easy to feel small and insignificant.

We're not.

Every act of kindness,
every dollar donated,
every smile shared,
every person reached,
every hand offered,
every compliment given,
every person heard (really heard),
every heart opened,
matters.

Go out and share yours.

Spread the happy.

Happy Dance!

I just finished typing the last chapter of the Steampunk novel I've been working on! Big time happy dance! I'd started the last 3 or 4 chapters 4 or 5 different times, but nothing felt right. I kept saving the files, then deleting everything I'd added and trying again. And again.

Finally had a bit of a light-bulb moment and realized I needed to delete one more chapter. It's where things had gone from exciting to bleh. And nobody wants bleh, especially at the end of their novel.

Once I deleted it and started from there, it more or less flew out of my fingers.

One of the sub-plots tied itself up in a nice pretty bow for me. And even though it's not a bright, shining, happy-ever-after ending, I like it.

It's happy enough - don't think my personality would allow anything else - but it's not saccharine sweet. They're battered, bruised, exhausted. But they've fixed the big problem and things are finally looking up for them.

I think the impetus for the ending came from knowing I had a whole hour to write this afternoon. In a row!! You have no idea how rare that is. It's actually been almost an hour and a half now. This never happens. Ever!

I know there's still tons of work to do - lots of revising/editing to come, but I'm still happy dancing. This is a much stronger first draft than my last one. I don't have nearly as many useless words. The pace is better. So, I'm feeling good about diving back in to do some polishing.

Do you ever have troubles with your endings? How have you resolved them? Did you plow on through or go back and delete?

Happiness is...

Thanks so much to the lovely ladies at Anne Spollen's Author Blog and Chasing Empty Pavements! They've both seen fit to award me the Happy 101 blog award (aka Cupcake Award!). If you want to see what makes me happy, check out this post.

This is a great award to get more than once, because who doesn't appreciate MORE cupcakes! As it happens I'm actually making a couple of batches of cupcakes today for some family birthdays -- chocolate with chocolate icing & golden with butter-cream icing. We have a few family members who don't like chocolate. Hard to even imagine :)

As with all else in life, this makes me think about my characters. What's the one thing in the world that would make them happiest? Surprisingly, not cupcakes! Both of the mcs in my Steampunk ms have family members who've been killed, but I'm going to keep it more realistic than having them get those people back.

My male mc would like to avenge the murder of his best friend - the old man who raised him. Vengeance, more than justice, would make him very happy. Steampunk England is a tough world.

My female mc would like to be safe. Again - tough world. She's been living by her wits on the streets. For a teenage girl at the time, this is no easy task.

Our poor characters. Life is not easy. We sure put them through turmoil! Most of us live much safer, happier lives (I hope), and what would bring us happiness would not be as basic or elemental.

So, what about your main characters? What would make them the happiest? Would it be an actual item or something much more basic than that?