Meka James's Blog, page 27

Are BFFs A thing?... #MFRWauthor

When I saw the prompt for this week I was confused for a moment. I'm barreling towards another decade on this planet and it's one where I'm feeling too old to refer to my friends as 'best' friends. They are all simply my friends. I have 'real life' friends, ones I can see and hang out with in person. I have 'internet friends', people I've met online, talk to often, but have never seen. One such friend is a  person I've talked to nearly every day for the last four years. We started out chatting about a game we both play and it's morphed. It's a great friendship and one that I cherish deeply. So if I had to give her a label over and above, she could be my BFF.

Then I thought maybe I should have instantly thought of The Husband. You know how people always say they are married to their best friend. However, as I think of all the things The Hubs and I don't have in common, would we have even been friends back in 'those days'? The good ol' days of high school or college when you're making those connections. Answer, probably not. But I did marry him for a reason. We have almost nothing in common as far as likes, interests, that sort of thing, but we do respect each other for our differences and it works. That whole opposites attract thing at play. We can talk about anything which is good. In the seventeen years we've been together, I've learned a whole lot more about sports than I ever cared to know before meeting him. Still not a fan, but I can tolerate it.

If not people as your best friend, you can think of things. Possessions. Every writer has that thing they can't live without. It would be their BFF. In my case, it would be my laptops. I have two. A huge beast of a laptop (Rocco and yes I named him) The Hubs bought me for my birthday. It's great. Has a larger screen, lots to bells and whistles, but it's heavy. Like newborn child heavy! Which is great for a newborn baby, not so great for carrying around as a laptop.


So now I have a smaller (yet to be named) Chromebook that I bought for taking out and about. Much easier to carry it to my youngest's Tae Kwon Do class to get some writing in without the other parents around me giving stares for having such a large piece of equipment. The size difference is crazy right?

So all in all, I guess there are a few people and things I'd consider to be my best friend.

Thanks for stopping by
~Meka

She was slowly...#MFRWauthor

So I'm late to the game on this, but better late than never right?

Starting with week 4 of this 52 week blog hop challenge: MFRWauthor blog challenge. This week's prompt is about my writing mistakes.

I write in first person so I spend a lot of time talking about how my characters do their actions from their POV and in doing so, it was pointed out to me that I say was a bunch of times. He was staring at me. I was going to get him back later. I do it often. I'm simple in my writing. I don't stop to think about 'better' ways to write something, I write it as I hear it. Hence the repetition of the words. Now that it's been pointed out to me, I try to actively stop and think when I write a sentence like the above examples and figure out if the offending was could be eliminated.

My other issue, -ly words. Slowly she brushed her hair. He whispered quietly. Yeah, I know, to whisper is to be quiet. Again I look for the first word that comes to mind when writing and go with it then move on. Again this is the issue I will actively try to stop and think about when I'm writing to keep myself from falling into the same ruts.

I'm sure there are plenty more writing mistakes I go through. Grammar rules are not my friend, but that's why you get an editor right? That comma shouldn't be there, the other comma is missing. Type to fast and missed a word in the sentence. I hang my head in shame and admit to even getting the you're, your, and the their, there, they're mixed up when I get to moving too fast. I know, I know what a horrid mistake, but first drafts are supposed to be terrible. At least that's what I've been told. I promise I know the difference, I just get to typing to fast and the wrong thing makes it on screen.

So what are you common writing mistakes?

You can read about others in the blog hop this week by going HERE.

Thanks for stopping by
~Meka

Music Monday: Say You Won't Let Go

Hello and happy Monday. I'm back with another music Monday.

I'm slowly, but surely getting through Not Broken. I'm at a place where mushy music is the norm for me to play as I write. Not saying all the road bumps are gone, but love songs are certainly needed to help set the mood as I write.

There are so many great love songs out there so deciding which one I wanted to showcase today was hard. In the end I went with one by a new artist James Arthur.

Hope you enjoy
~Meka

"Say You Won't Let Go" by James Arthur

Book Review: Cause To Kill

Cause To Kill: Homicide Detective Avery Black has been through hell. Once a top criminal defense attorney, she fell from grace when she managed to get a brilliant Harvard professor off-only to watch him kill again. She lost her husband and her daughter, and her life fell apart around her.

Trying to redeem herself, Avery has turned to the other side of the law. Working her way up the ranks, she has reached Homicide Detective, to the scorn of her fellow officers, who still remember what she did, and who will always hate her.

Yet even they cannot deny Avery's brilliant mind, and when a disturbing serial killer strikes fear into the heart of Boston, killing girls from elite colleges, it is Avery that they turn to. It is Avery's chance to prove herself, to finally find the redemption she craves. And yet, as she is soon to find out, Avery has come up against a killer as brilliant and daring as she.

In this game of psychological cat and mouse, women are dying with mysterious clues, and the stakes could not be higher. A frantic race against time leads Avery through a series of shocking and unexpected twists-culminating in climax that even Avery could not imagine.

My Review *** 3 STARS ***
First book of the year done. While I enjoyed Cause To Kill, I wasn’t overly wowed by it. Because I am trying books out of my preferred genre, I went into reading this with an open mind. On top of that, I like suspense/thrillers so it wasn’t a stretch for me to enjoy this book. My issue was the main character, Avery.
I didn’t like her. Not even a little. I was happy to see a strong female lead as the main character for this series, but she just didn’t do it for me. I get because of her history, she had something to prove, but the huge chip she had on her shoulder made it hard to really empathize with.  Her every interaction with the other characters was the same. She judged, looked down her nose at, and generally seemed to go out of her way to piss people off.  And I don’t understand how she made it to detective with how she did police work. She had zero regard for procedure, or authority and just basically did what she wanted when she wanted because she was on to something. She was too robotic, uncaring, and full of herself. After what happened while she was a lawyer, I’d think she’d be a little more humble, but nope, not even a little bit. One scene in particular that ticked me off was her going to parent’s house of the last victim. There was no reason for that, I don’t care what she said to herself to justify why she was ‘asking permission’ I just thought it was beyond tactless. After that I was over her and all her other antics.
On the upside, the plot was good. That kept me interested in wanting to know what came next. I liked the mystery of hunt in tracking down the serial killer.  I like crime dramas and getting into the head of the villain. Learning their thoughts and motivations has an appeal so I was happy to see why the killer did what he did for the little time we were allowed in his head. I enjoyed the time spent with him more than the time with Avery and wished there was more. I would have enjoyed learning all of his motivations through him directly instead of being told why through the police.

I’m not sure if I’ll read more of this series. Avery just grates on my nerves too much and the other characters in the book weren’t memorable enough for me to read to see how they fair in the remaining books. 

A Need To Read

Last year I didn't read much.
I know, I know. One of the key things you're told as a writer is to read more to help you improve. On my list of goals for 2017, I didn't add read more to that list. If it counts, I did read a lot of kid/middle grade books during bedtime with the kiddos. Just no pleasure reading for myself.
Regardless I want to do better this year. However like my goals for writing, I set the bar pretty low for reading as well.
Yep, only 12 books. One per month, give or take. 
Now on Facebook and Twitter I've seen book challenges were you have a list of 52 books to pick from. I already knew I wouldn't make all 52, but I do want to read books that aren't my norm. So I'm branching out from romance/dark romance to other genres. But where to start???
I first went to Goodreads to check out their 2016 best books list. Some looked interesting and I'm still deciding on which if any of those I'll read. What I did do however is go on a download spree at Barnes and Noble. Yes I said Barnes and Noble and not Amazon. I'll let you in on a secret, I always go there first. Why? Well because brick and mortar bookstores are slowly disappearing and I do what I can to support the ones still around when I can. But getting off track here. B&N was having a sale! My favorite thing.
I purchased four books to get me started. 
  A Cause to Kill

Before He Kills
  Reckless
 The Forgetting
Now I've told myself I can't get more books until after I've finished these. Seriously my tablet is full of books I've gotten but have yet to read. I could have just read what I have, but most are romance and I'm looking for different. I'm sure I'll read some romances this year still. 
Currently I'm reading the first one on the list. A review will be posted once I finish. 
Anyway, if anyone has any suggestions for other books I might like, feel free to let me know. 
Are you participating in the Goodreads Challenge? If so, what's your goal for 2017?
Thanks for stopping by~Meka

Music Monday: Stressed Out

Hello and welcome back to Music Monday. I hope you all had a wonderful holiday season and that 2017 has started out great for you all.

Before the holidays I was doing special selections based on my three boys. I got the youngest and the oldest, but my poor middle son got skipped so I'm wrapping up my kid picks with his choice.

If you recall, I started this because I was being forced to listen to 21 Pilots each time we got in the car thanks to my husband buying them the CD. Both the Munchkin and Curly Top had songs on the CD they loved.  Munchkin's was "Goner".

This week we're back to 21 Pilots for Curly Top's pick "Stressed Out". A title I can relate to as I try to work out kinks in this first draft and get it done by my self-imposed deadline.

Happy Monday and enjoy.
~Meka

"Stressed Out" by 21 Pilots

IWSG #8: Making A Plan

Happy New Year!!! I hope you all had a wonderful holiday season and are ready to kick off 2017 with a bang!

It's that time again for sharing with the Insecure Writer's Support Group.
What is that you may ask, well their mission statement is this:

The Insecure Writer’s Support Group is a home for writers in all stages; from unpublished to bestsellers. Our goal is to offer assistance and guidance. We want to help writers overcome their insecurities, and by offering encouragement we are creating a community of support.
The first Wednesday of each month, we blog about our fears, insecurities, or even an accomplishment we had.
This month I'm all about making plans to achieve my goals. I made a post last week listing out 5 things I wanted to accomplish this year, but I didn't come up with any solid plan on how to go about getting them done.



I've thought about what I can do this year to stay on track and not let all my previous doubts and fears stand in my way. I'm sure they'll still trip me up every now and then, but I have to keep going. Here's how I'm hoping to do that.

1.  Publish Not Broken--To do that first I have to finish writing it. That of course is my biggest hurdle. Since joining IWSG I've gotten back to putting the words down and they keep coming. It's not done yet, but I'm making progress. I will keep my writing routine going that I have in place, but I'm adding to it. My oldest child is off at college and her room sits empty. I've staked claim to it as my writing zone for when I'm home. I joined another Facebook group called 10 Minute Novelist and a sub group within that called the 365 Club. The goal is to write at least 100 words a day, everyday. Now it doesn't all have to be on your WIP if you have one, but I want to make sure I open my WIP and add to it, at least a little everyday. My personal daily goal is 1200 words a day.

2. Increase my social media presence--One of my posts for IWSG was about social media and my struggles. To overcome that I'm dedicating at least an hour a day to social media. Looking for challenges on Twitter, like the one I'm doing this month #WIPjoy. Continuing my blogging on this site as well as on my new Tumblr. Lastly maybe trying to understand Instagram. I want to do over the course of the year is identify which ones give me the biggest return. Not in sales, but in making connections with others in the writing community as a whole. The most ambitious thing I'd like to do is a major overhaul of both my blog and website, but tackling that myself scares me so I'll be on the hunt for someone that can maybe help. If anyone has suggestions, feel free to let me know.

3. Start on my third book--I have ideas for future books. I keep a running doc of ideas. I try to not work on more than one major project at a time because I get side tracked easy and I want to keep my main focus on Not Broken right now. Once I get it out in the world I will blow the dust off some of those ideas and get moving on one.

The last two go together.
4. Write a novella and 5. Participate in NaNo--With the goal of NaNo to focus solely on a new project of 50,000 words I figure I can kill two birds with one stone. I don't plan. It's not how I write, but if I want to be successful in NaNo I figure I might need to attempt to think through plot points beforehand instead of flying by the seat of my pants. I have the next 10 months to work on planning and yes, it'll probably take me that long to do just the planning. Seriously I'm kinda allergic to being organized.

That's it. I made some goals, and thought through a plan on how to accomplish them for the first time ever. Hopefully I'll be able to stick to them and at the end of the year I'll be able to make a woo-hoo I accomplished stuff post.

Thanks for stopping by
~Meka

2016: A Year In Review

I've never done one of these year in review posts, but since I'm aiming for new goals in life, I figured why not.


Writing wise, honestly I expected to be finished with Not Broken by now. The fact that I wasn't was depressing and only served to add to my mounting self doubt as a writer. I'm not going to lie, I spent way too much time wallowing and not focusing. That all changed in September of this year. In May I found an online group called Insecure Writer's Support Group. Perfect name right? Well after a few blog posts where I had to list out what was holding me back, I realized they were all excuses. Since September I've added 35,000+ words to Not Broken. It may not seem like a lot, but for me it's huge since in the three years since I started writing it I'd only done around 30,000+. It's not finished, but there is progress which is something I'd lacked for a while now.


I've joined another Facebook group called 10 Minute Novelist and a sub group called 365 Writing. I'm feeling confident in my main goal of 2017 to have Not Broken finished and published. I have an ideal date in mind, but I won't post it since I'm not yet sure I'll be able to meet that deadline.

I've never made goals for myself writing wise. Hell I don't really do New Year's Resolutions because I can't stick to them and who wants to feel like a failure? Not me! Because I'm trying to be more serious about my writing, I'm setting a few goals I hope to be somewhat easily attainable. Next year around this time, I'll come back to this post and see how many I actually marked off the list.

Publish Not BrokenIncrease my social media presenceWrite a short storyStart on my third bookParticipate in NaNoPretty simple looking right? No need to go all crazy with some hard to achieve things.  Notice in that last one I said participate, not complete because I love to leave myself some loopholes. LOL

Anyway those are what my goals are for 2017. Have you set any for yourself?

Wishing you a very happy, healthy, and exciting new year!
~Meka

Music Monday-Holiday Edition

Hello and happy Monday! So with us in the midst of the holiday season, I decided to make this Monday a holiday edition. Now I'm not one of those people that like to listen to holiday music the whole month, even with as much as I like music. Maybe it's from working retail for years that's turned me off, but whatever the reason I can only do holiday music in small doses. On top of that there are only certain songs that I really like.
This week I'm posting two songs. One that I think is really fun and one that is my top holiday song. 
First the fun song. "You're A Mean One, Mr. Grinch". I love that song. My kids and I will watch How The Grinch Stole Christmas every year (the cartoon) and it never gets old. I love the Grinch and no it's not because I'm a bah hum bug person during the holidays, I just think he's funny and he learns something by the end of the movie. What a great message right?



The traditional song is "Little Drummer Boy". There are of course a few renditions of this song, the one I've linked is by Pentatonix. They are truly talented being able to do all of the songs using only their voices.


Hope you all have a happy holiday!~Meka

Music Monday-Not Afraid

Good morning and happy Monday. I hope you all had a great weekend.

So this week I was planning on following up last week's kid pick with that of my middle son. However today is the oldest boy's birthday so I thought we'd do his favorite-ish pick instead.

I listen to all kinds of music including some rap. My husband however is a much bigger rap fan and has influenced my kids on that in some degree. He is the 'cool' parent to here my kids tell it. LOL The Boy is a fan of Eminem but since he'd left for school before I thought to ask him which song he liked the most I'm winging it and picked one I've heard coming from his room when he's gaming. I like some of Eminem's songs as well. In fact "Love The Way You Lie" is on the playlist for Fiendish.

Next week we'll be back to 21 Pilots for Curly Top's pick but for today enjoy a little rap to get your day going.

Enjoy
~Meka

"Not Afraid" by Eminem **explicit lyrics**