Procrastination and Deadlines

For your writers out there, both of these words are all too familiar. We all procrastinate, and we know looming deadlines all too well.

Turns out though, I am a person who will do much better with a self imposed deadline. I wrote my book "Divine Intervention" in 30 days during the last National Novel Writing Month. Having to finish a novel in 30 days may seem daunting, but in all honesty, it is what made me sit down day after day, hour after hour, and type away. Some days I wrote until 1am, which is really pushing it for me. I need lots of sleep.

I proudly printed out my finisher's award November 30th and posted it on Facebook. I wanted all to see, just how awesome I was. ;-) Yeah, well, and then came December 1st. And then January 1st, followed by February... and so on. I honestly wanted to sit down and edit my novel, but what can I say? I had no deadline, and so procrastination became my friend. I'm not sure why I didn't get this any sooner. Just a few days ago I finally had my light bulb moment. I needed a deadline... badly. I am giving myself until June 15th to publish this new novel. And I'm editing every single day. Amazing, how that works, right?

I will post an excerpt of "Divine Intervention" here soon. In the meantime, enjoy "PLANNED"... and if you liked it, this little author would appreciate a positive review on Amazon.

About PLANNED

"My last encounter with Sam was in the produce department, where he caught me with a cucumber in my hand and cracked a smile, ready to comment..
     "Don't say it," I said, "I do not want to hear it."
He laughed and said, "hi there, beautiful. I'm not sure what you think I was going to say, but considering the cucumber you're holding there, I imagine it's not rated PG."
     "How would I know what you would have said?"
     I sighed when I realized that I had just given him more reason to continue this useless conversation.
     "Indeed, how would you know. And so it is interesting that you assumed I was going to say something that you didn't want to hear."
     "Sam, has anyone ever told you that it is impossible to have a conversation with you?"
     "Actually, I've been told that conversations with me are invigorating and fun." He was hands on hips, taking a quick peek, into my shopping cart. I loved his confidence, and I also hated it.
     "Well, I have to go. Nice talking to you." I felt so lame for saying this to him, I actually let out a sigh.
     "Is it really that difficult? I was hoping to make up with you, and maybe invite you to my place for coffee."
     "Your place?"
     "The shop, not my apartment of course. I would not dare... Besides, I'd like you to meet my sister. I've told her about you. She wants to meet you."
     I frowned. "What am I, a piece of meat or something? If your sister wants to meet me, she'll have to come by my house and introduce herself to me."
     "It's a deal then. We'll be there Saturday night at eight. I'll bring wine," he said, waved his hand good-bye and took off.
     I stood with my cucumber, staring after him, confused and a little angry.
     "Hey, wait," I called and waved wildly with the cucumber. But Sam was long gone, and an elderly man shook his head at me.
     "He just assumes I like wine." I mumbled and tossed the cucumber into my cart.
     Sam had just broken all the rules that were important to me. He confused me. He invited himself over to my house. And he would bring his sister."

This excerpt is taken from the beginning of the book, of course. Claire, my protagonist (and a real jerk!), has just met Sam, and, unlike all the other men she has ever met and dated, she cannot read him, and therefore finds it difficult to keep her composure. She is independent and strong, advises women to stay away from marriage and children, and I will guarantee that you are not going to like her one bit. Well, at the beginning at least. Because she learns a few difficult lessons throughout the story, and by the end of the book, she has turned over a new leaf, and is actually quite likeable.

I had the idea for this book years ago, and in my imagination it took a completely different turn, than what finally poured out of me during National Novel Writing Month in 2009. Yes, I wrote this story in 30 days... Of course then I took about a year to actually edit and publish it. My hesitation came from the fact, that I'm a German native speaker, rather than an American. I felt self conscious about putting my work out there for everyone to read. But luckily I had my best friend, who read the whole thing, laughed and cried at all the right places, and encouraged me to "just do it". And so I did. 


A word of warning: This is a romantic comedy (not an erotic romance novel). It is an easy read, something you can read on a plane, or while sitting out in the sun, or on a rainy day. I hope you enjoy the story... and if you do, I would appreciate a positive review on Amazon. The more the better!

Welcome!

If you have found your way here, you have either read my book, or are curious after I posted the link to my Facebook page. Or you're one of my dear friends, who had mercy and decided help my stats climb.

Whatever your reason for clicking on this blog, thank you for visiting. Let me tell you a little bit about myself.

As some know already, Gabrielle is really only my middle name, and Moon is not actually my last name. I chose this pen name, because 1) I have a funny sounding German name that people just can't seem to pronounce, 2) I do really love the moon. I should write a book about the moon.

I call Portland, Oregon my home. I live here with my husband whom we shall call Ogre (based on his sheer height, and it really is his nickname in volleyball groups), my daughter, the Prima Ballerina, and my son, Indiana Luke Skywalker Jones (I should probably refer to him as ILSJ!) My kids are 11 and 9 years old respectively, and as you can see from my blog description, they're homeschooled. Yep, we're those weirdos... but we really are quite normal. My kids enjoy their friends, Wii, games, movies, and of course pushing each other's buttons, until Mom has a tizzy.

Ogre works from home. He spends the vast majority of his time in his office, writing code of some sort. Every now and then he will appear from the depths of his cave to explain to me something I don't understand, or to pour himself yet another cup of coffee.

As for me, I am your average housewife, crazy volunteer, half-assed writer with procrastination issues, who is desperately trying to keep up with homeschooling, cleaning, working out (Crossfit anyone?), volunteering, knitting... oh yes, and writing. Writing, it has been my dream career since I was a little girl. I wrote my first "book" with a pen and lots of paper at the tender age of 13. In 8th grade, my teacher had me know that writing was not a career... and especially not for (wait for it) a girl! Of course, I believed him, and so I gave up writing.

For about 20 years I tried to do "other things", you know, things that people do, because that's what you do. I became a cosmetologist, sold beauty products at home parties, created gift baskets, tried my luck at translations, and briefly worked at a telephone marketing company (nuf said). And then, about 5 years ago, I found my way back to writing, by way of a magazine article for the Institute for Children's Literature. And that pretty much sealed the deal for me. Two writing courses, many magazine articles, and one published book later, I can say, I'm doing just what I want to be doing.

I self published my novel, PLANNED, last year in April, and amazingly enough, I actually made money on it. THANK YOU!!!

My new novel, a sweet, romantic comedy, called DIVINE INTERVENTION, is in the works, and the plan is for it to be published in June. Stay tuned for more information on this new work, which I will soon post about. Also, this blog is the only place where you'll be able to read excerpts of the book, so do please come back.

My idea for this blog is to keep readers in the loop about my work, but also on why I chose to self publish, how I did it, what I'd do different in the future, and quite possibly, you'll get to read the occasional rant about my favorite subject: PROCRASTINATION!

Have a wonderful day!