The Internet Miracle

This post is part of VikLit's new blog hop, Celebrate the Small Things. To be part of this blog hop, all you have to do is post every Friday about some small (or big) accomplishment for that week.  It can be about writing or family or school or general life.

I first started writing a novel when I was a kid in the late 70s. I armed myself with a big notebook, pencils and erasers, a dictionary, and a dog-eared copy of Roget's Thesaurus.  I knew nothing about writing a book, but I figured, How hard could it be?  (I see you all laughing out there!)  After managing ten or fifteen pages of scribblings, I got overwhelmed and gave up.

(Don't get confused because here's where I get to the thing I'm celebrating.)

 This week, I'm just grateful for the internet!

Everything's online now -- the whole world is literally at your fingertips.

• Online writing communities to give you tips and support
• Reference sites all for your dictionary, thesaurus and grammar woes
• Sites where you can research everything from quantum physics to jungle spiders to San Francisco cable cars
• Writing programs with that glorious auto-correct feature (I love that thing!)
• Info about what agents and publishers are looking for
• YouTube vids, shopping sites, or chatrooms for entertainment during your down time (and we all need down time)

I'd never have succeeded in becoming a writer without the internet making it so easy for me.  Plus, I've made awesome online friends. 

I love the internet, don't you?

VikLit's Celebrate the Small Things

I'm not usually into blog hops because they often want too many days, have too many rules, or are too writer-centric.  But VikLit's new blog hop, Celebrate the Small Things, is so cute and self-affirming, I had to join!

It's easy to get tunnel vision about what's going wrong in your life, and you forget all the little things that are going right.  To be part of this blog hop, all you have to do is post every Friday about some small (or big) accomplishment for that week.  It can be about writing or family or school or general life.

This week, I'm grateful I got my January Horror Newsletter written for Writing.com.  I made a really nice Chicken Noodle with Bechamel casserole.  (It must have been really nice because Hubby ate half the casserole in one sitting! O.o)  And I've managed to finally get rid of a cold that's been dogging me for three weeks, due to a surprising mild break in the winter weather here in Egypt.

Yay for the small things! :-D

 If you have small things to celebrate, go to VikLit's blog and join us by signing up on the Mr.Linky tool!

Resolutions?

I know. I’m lazy. But I made myself a New Year’s resolution that I would write myself something really special. Which means I have ‘til December, right?

~ Catherine O’Hara

New Year's Day now is the accepted time to make your regular annual good resolutions. Next week you can begin paving hell with them as usual.

~ Mark Twain

Now there are more overweight people in America than average-weight people. So overweight people are now average… which means, you have met your New Year's resolution.

~ Jay Leno

Good resolutions are simply checks that men draw on a bank where they have no account.

~ Oscar Wilde

The proper behavior all through the holiday season is to be drunk. This drunkenness culminates on New Year's Eve, when you get so drunk you kiss the person you're married to.

~ P.J. O’Rourke

A New Year's resolution is something that goes in one Year and out the other.

~ Anonymous

* giggles *