#GUTGAA meet & greet!

So for those of you who didn’t catch my blog last week, I’ve signed up for #GUTGAA, which is not actually a horrid wretching sound, but rather a month-long blogging event to help aspiring-to-be-published writers like myself land a literary agent. #GUTGAA= Gearing Up To Get An Agent. Got it? Good! 🙂

So, the first step in this is to do a “meet & greet” to introduce yourself to the other writers participating. I thought those of you who already know me might enjoy finding out a few tidbits about me also.

Quick Bio: I’m 37 years old, and I work as a small town newspaper editor by day, but the dream is to live off my novels someday and do nothing but write all day, every day. What I write is called chick lit, women’s fiction, and although some say chick lit is a dead genre, I know it still has life in it!

So, if interested, check out my answers to the questions below! 🙂

-Where do you write? — Usually at home, at our dining room table or my room, on my bed. Sometimes on my lunch breaks at work, if I’m feeling especially inspired! 😀

-Quick. Go to your writing space, sit down and look to your left. What is the first thing you see? — My iPhone, so I can see incoming texts/tweets. 😉 I also sometimes pull up pics on it to inspire myself for a particular scene.

-Favorite time to write?– Nighttime, or on rainy days with all the windows open. Rainy night= writing gold!!! Haha…. and an Eddie Rabbit song in the 80s. (Random thought- what kind of name is Eddie Rabbit?? Is he kin to Jessica, I wonder…)

-Drink of choice while writing?–DIET COKE!!! (Slightly addicted…)

-When writing , do you listen to music or do you need complete silence?– I must have music. I have written in complete silence, but I much prefer to have music playing. It is my second love, after writing. It inspires me to write! In fact, if I’m writing a scene where someone’s out to dinner, for instance, I play some jazz music. If they’re at a night club, I throw on some Usher. If it’s just a regular day, Gavin DeGraw. 😀

-What was your inspiration for your latest manuscript and where did you find it?–My latest manuscript, the one that’s still a WIP, it’s hard to say where my inspiration came from. Sometimes I’m just driving home from work or in the shower and an idea comes to me. That’s what happened with my “Old Maid” story that I’m writing now. I thought, “I could use some of my ‘romantic’ experiences and write about how it’s not the end of the world if you’re 37 and single!” So, there you go. 🙂

-What’s your most valuable writing tip?– Never, ever give up. (To quote the late, great Jim Valvano)