Poor Little Bunny

"The Man Cold"
I thought this poor little bunny was funny enough to make it on my blog. I hope you enjoy it! Let me know what you think of it, or send me links to other funny videos.  

Manuscript Fresh from the Printers

On Saturday, I printed my complete manuscript for the very first time. Printing it made the whole writing experience more real than I would have expected.  It's one thing to view your story on the computer, but when it's hundreds of pages printed out in a huge stack, it makes it more tangible—more real. Printing it made me feel like my thousands of hours plucking away at the computer wasn't for nothing. I couldn't believe that I actually made it this far with my book. The smile couldn't be wiped off my face for hours after the said printing. The poor girls working at the print shop probably thought I was going to pass out due to the thrill of the adrenaline punched excitement that was rushing through my veins. 

Of course, I captured the moment with some pics for a blog post.  Just wait until it is my very own ARC, or better yet, the published book.  It'll probably look like my head is about to pop off.

My weekend consisted of a mad 500-yard dash of revising. Saturday was my deadline to release it for the first time in its entirety to a couple people to edit/critique it for me.  Before that, I only had a critique partner work on a few chapters at a time. Anyway, I stayed up late on Friday until I was about to drop dead of exhaustion, and awoke early on Saturday and finished another edit.  Tehehe!  Plus, I wrote the book's ending which has been stashed away in my head for months now.  I finally wrote it.  And. It. Is. Beautiful. 

All you writers out there, how did you feel the first time you printed off your manuscript?  Were you as jubilant as I was, speechless, or did you really pass out?  

What Inspired Me to Write?

When I was growing up, to be honest, I didn’t like reading. My favorite book was The Plant that Ate the Dirty Socks. Yep, you got it! And I especially liked The Return of the Plant that Ate the Dirty Socks. Still love ‘em too. I read what I had to during school, but that was as far as it went. You may wonder how I am a writer if I never enjoyed reading while I grew up? Here’s your answer: I worked in the music department of a store all throughout high school. The book department manager encouraged me to read the Harry Potter books. At that time, the Goblet of Fire had just been released. I promised her I would read them and bought all four books.

Soon after the purchase, I started college. I don’t remember much of that first semester because my nose was stuck more in the Harry Potter books than my textbooks. I fell in love with the story and its characters.
Now you probably think that I gobbled up books from that point on. Wrong. I only read the 5th, 6th, and 7th HP books. The pivotal point of my writing life and steppingstone to my hopeful (crossing fingers) career as a writer occurred during the summer of 2007. I was bored and really needed something to do. While at Target, I walked passed the book section, and thought maybe I would get a book to read away my boredom. I remembered a book one of my old roommates had discussed with me a year prior—Twilight.

I purchased it, not really expecting much of it. I read the first three books within a couple weeks. I had to wait impatiently for Eclipse to come out, otherwise, I would have finished them in a week. From that moment on, I was a bookworm. I couldn’t get enough of them. Two and a half years later and a slew of books on my reading resume, I had a dream that was the catalyst for my novel. It stuck with me for weeks until one sleepless night I finally plotted out the book. The next day, I started typing away and have been ever since.
I wouldn’t be writing if it weren’t for the Harry Potter books opening up the world of reading to me, or Stephenie Meyer inspiring me to read. It was my love of reading that brought me from being a reader to a writer. I thank all you who write for inspiring me and helping me learn more about writing through reading your stories.
I love writing now and it is what I want to do for the rest of my life. My advice to anyone who desires to write is to read. A lot. And I hope that one day, my works will inspire others to read (or to write) as what happened to me.

Healthy Food Diet

I started a healthy food diet last week. I did pretty well except for Friday. I blame that on my old boss who was having a going away party. JK  Kirk you will be missed. Plus, how can I pass up peanut butter bars. Seriously.  Mmm, just thinking about them makes me hungry for the sweet taste and textured goodness. Back to the point, the diet is a 12 week program that includes menus for meals and an exercise program. I'm sort of excluding the exercise program because I don’t have time, and I feel that my three times a week doing the elliptical at the gym is sufficient. Could probably see better results if I went all the way and did the weights, but alas, I choose not to.
Note: I’ll be the first to admit that I eat really bad. Therefore, I am doing this diet in hopes that I can shape up my eating habits, thus becoming HEALTHIER. Plus, the loss of weight will be an added bonus.
The diet has you eat 6 small meals a day, and every week has a different set of meals for that particular week. At the end of the 12 weeks, you have a whole heap of healthy meals that you can eat thereafter. It’s AWESOME!
This week’s dinner is AMAZINGNESS! Here is the recipe--I altered the recipe slightly to my taste.

Picture of Couscous--it's a food of the gods.

4 oz cooked chicken
2 ½ TB Couscous (I put in a bit more cause I love this stuff)
¼ cup onions
½ cup bell peppers
Spice to taste
Add some Dole cole slaw mix for added veges.
Cook with some olive oil.
Layer the chicken and vegetable mix on top of couscous and enjoy.
Mmm, I loved it enough to write a blog post about it. Try it and let me know what you think.
Have a Happy Monday!

Birthday Surprise

At little background about Julia: I live with my parents, have for two and a half years. I'm 28--29 in four months from today. Yep, I'm mooching off my parents, but they love having me there.  I'm a live in maid--what more could you ask for?  The best part of living with my parents is it's free free free.
Anyway, I was at home alone last night editing/revising my WIP, and I heard the doorbell ring.  *Ding Dong*  Setting my lime green Dell laptop on the couch, I answered the door.  There were two young teenage girls at the door holding a plate of cupcakes.  Picture below:

The young girls said in super shy and quiet voices, "This is for Brother King (my dad) for his birthday."  Side note: The girls are from the church group that my parents attend, and I assume they do this once a month for all the "old folks" in the group. 

I was somewhat confused and hoped I hadn't forgotten it was my dad's birthday. "Oh, yeah his birthday is coming up," I said as the gears in my head caught up with me reminding me that his birthday was not today but in a couple weeks. 

As I took the cupcakes from the two young girls, I said, "Thank you."  And I closed the door, giggling at how adorable and nice they were to do that for him.  The funny part is I didn't think to tell them he wasn't even home.  They probably were confused and thought I was going to eat them myself, destroying the evidence in a huge bonfire in the backyard.  Nope, I didn't eat one of the chocolaty goodnesses.  Amazing, I resisted chocolate.  The world must be ending. 

Anyway, I chuckled at the cuteness of their gesture for at least an hour.  I texted my brother and sister and their spouses to tell them.  I even took a pic of the cupcakes to send them and for this blog post too.  

Isn't that the cutest thing ever?  

My dad saw the cupcakes when he got home and felt very special.  Thank you dear girls for thinking about my dadio.

Neglected Blog: Feed Me

Dearest all.  I have to admit, I feel like I've neglected my poor Writing Jewels blog over the past couple weeks.  Usually I try to post 3 - 4 times a week.  I tweeted yesterday that my blog is lonely and it's mommy (me) is not feeding it enough, especially since during Christmas, I fed it every day for my 13 days of Christmas.  I'll be better my poor starving blog.  Here's some food to fill your beautiful little tummy.


My haps during the holidays:

• I deleted  about 12,000 words from my WIP
• I almost went through a whole edit/revision of my WIP - I'll be done this weekend and then will hand it off to 2 of my peeps to edit/critique. Thanks Robin and Sarah. 
• I read two books - Matched by Ally Condie and Anna and the French Kiss by Stephanie Perkins.  GREAT books.  Highly recommend.
• I ate lots of candy, especially Peppermint Bark and Reeses Peanut Butter Cups (my fav)
• I had a great time with my family.  Love them dearly.
• I slipped into the snow outside of work which made me giggle wildly.  I wish someone could have seen it.  If I can make someone laugh then the fall was well worth it.
• I ate MORE sweets.
• Typically, I slept in until 10 a.m.  I love sleep!
• I worked 3.5 days total during the holidays (makes for a hard week knowing I have to work 5 days in a row now--insanity I say)
• Two cute stories about two of my nephews, written below:

Nephew (4yo) - During the day on Christmas Eve, he grabbed a suitcase on wheels, put a pillow and blanket inside, and proceeded to walk door to door to see if the neighbors would let him sleepover--he had no takers.  He ended up almost going door to door again that evening after we opened presents.  We stopped him before he could get out of the yard. We wonder what is going on inside that cute little guys head.  He's beyond hilarious.  Plus, when he opened his presents he said, "I totally want that!" 
Nephew (2yo) - Bless the little boys heart or should I say head.  Well, with two older brothers, you can believe that they like to rough house.  They were running around on Christmas Eve.  2yo nephew runs into the kitchen counter.  His face puffs up by his right eye.  My sister-in-law, his mom, was consoling him on her lap while holding some ice on the swelling bump.  And then it happened: he gets off of her lap and onto mine.  I console the cutie for almost 20 minutes.  No offense sister-in-law, I think your son loves me more than you. :)  Just kidding.  I was sad he got hurt, but his coming to me made my heart scream with joy.  He loves me.


Alright, bloggy, do you feel fed?  I hope! 


Anyway, do tell me something fun that happened to you over the holidays.  Make me laugh and snort (sometimes when I laugh REALLY hard, I snort.