Carey Burns

I had a story idea twitching in my brain while in the shower the other day so I asked the hubby to take notes for me as I dictated them (I'm a dictator!).  That was 1500 words ago and the story seems to be writing itself.  One of the main characters is a talking deer named Joel and he makes me laugh.  With any luck I'll finish the tale by the weekend so I can get it typed up and revised.  I'll have to do some hunting for a potential home for Joel.  Wish me luck! The slimming is going very well.  I'm down 5.5 pounds and I feel really, really good.  This weekend will be tough because of a birthday party on Saturday, but I will do my best to resist cake.  But we all know how much I love cake...wish me luck here too!! 

In accordance with my slimming plan, I started the Fat Smash Diet (as seen on reality TV, "Celebrity Fit Club") and after the 9 day detox, I lost 4 pounds and felt better than I had in a long, long time.  Day 10 was a bit of a fail because it was birthday treat day at work and I was the only April Baby...I only had a small spoonful of a couple "bad" things like cake.  But then a friend gave me 1/2 a loaf of raspberry rozek.  This is a Slovak pastry that I LOVE and only have once a year so yeah, that rozek is no more.  It has ceased to be.  But, I'm back on the eating well train and am about to hit the gym.  Gotta keep moving forward! In writerly news, my tale "All Fun and Games" will appear in the forthcoming anthology Made You Flinch--Again! and (as of right now) holds the first spot in the table of contents.  This gets me all sorts of excited and squealy.  I've also seen the cover for the upcoming Groanology:  Amusing Monster Mash-ups Unleashe

Not long ago a friend made the comment that I wasn't really a writer because I only had short stories published.  I was surprised and a little hurt and immediately thought "Well, YOU have never had anything published so THERE!"  But then I calmed down and breathed through the threatening tears and just smiled. So then I saw on a forum another writer that basically didn't consider herself a writer for this very reason.  It made me wonder "What Makes a Person a Writer" and it has been bothering me since. To me, if you put pen to paper in any attempt at poetry or fiction or nonfiction, you're a writer.  You could be an unpublished writer or a published writer, a short story writer or a novel writer.  Heck, you could even be a good writer or a bad writer.  You're still a writer no matter what format. Don't get me started on the word "author."  Seriously.