I know that many of you will be busy tomorrow so I just wanted to say:


This was a good year for me. I am thankful for many things:

1. My family is healthy
2. I found a school that can realy help Carlos with his TDA and now he is learning!
3. A happy marriage year ( Not all the years are perfect in it)
4. A year were I found and accept that I do many things as my mother and grand mother even when I hate it. I know i have to change it and I moving forward to be a better me.
5. I wrote my first book in 1 month , 6 months later I ended revising it. And thanks to all your good advices I am revising it again adn translating it by myself!!
6. I found great friends like you all, that support me and give me advice in live and writing.

I hope in the year 2011 I can become a better me( better person, mother, wife, friend and writer).

As I said in my Christmas Card I hope in this 2011 all your dreams become true!

Happy new Year!!

Ps: I didn't made the image above i found it in the internet.

México is a country full of superstitions and rites for whatever you like so over here we have a lot of rites that people make at the moment of the arriving of the new year.

I will list the ones I know. But many of them I never tried. I warn you in case you try them and didn't work!

1. Wear red underware if you want love and passion in your life. I remember a friend of my mother always giving us in christmas red underware for new year...

2. Wear yellow underware if you want money. Ok I want both but I think it will not be easy to find unde-rware with the two colors. I have to go shopping...

3. Sweep the entrance of your home to take out the bad energy. You have to this in the very moment of the entrance of the new year.

4. If you want to travel in the next year you have to take a suitcase in each hand and walk around your block. This also has to be at the very moment the year is entering.Now I am thinking how can you sweep the entrance while you walk around the block with two suitcases if you want both?

5. You have to put a gold ring in yor champagne cup, if you have a platinum ring or a diamond ring the more money you will get. If I have a diamond ring why would I want more money? I guess we never have enough money. Take care not to swallow it!!

6. Last but not least the 12 grapes. You have to take one with each chime of the clock indicating 12 o'clock. With each grape you have to think a wish you want to become true in the new year. This is the most traditional and the one we make every year. I don't really know if it works or it's luck but we are also spanish and in Spain is very traditional to eat the grapes with the chimes of the clock of La Puerta del Sol of Madrid. I you are going to try this buy small grapes, believe me you will end the chimes with your cheeks full of grapes while you kiss and hug your family.

I once did the rite of the red underware ( i didn't had boyfriend that year) and every year we take the 12 grapes at 12 o'clock.

But if you want to make the six of them is going to be hard. You got to wear an red and yellow underware. Sweep the entrance of your home, walk around your block with two suitcases, put a gold ring in your cup and eat the 12 grapes at the same time. If someone can achieve this I really admire him!!

What rites and traditions you have for the entrance of the new year?

PS: I don't know if the word for the sound the clock does when indicating an hour is ring. Over here we use the word "campanada" because it were Church bells the ones that indicated with their sound the hour.

**Update: Thank to  know I know the word is chime. I already edited the post. Thank you Robin!
*** Update two: thank to   now I know underware is spelled without - in the middle. Thank you!!
With friends like you all I am going to improve a lot!

I wasn't sure if I would post anything before new year. Right now I'm mad with life but most of all with my mother. But what can I do she is my mother and I love her even when she says things that hurt without even noticing it. I will never be the perfect daughter in her eyes no matter how much effort  I put. But as I said I will always love her so I must calm down and go on. I will not pay attention to her words anymore (or so I hope)

I haven't translated anything but I do revised. I didn't have time because I am the cook for the holidays so with the kitchen and the kids on vacation I don't have free time.

I hope your holidays aren't as painful as mine!

By the way the tarta de santiago (cake) was perfect I will post the recipe in January.

I  hope I can come back with a happy post to wish you a wonderful new year.

PS: Sorry for talking about the things that got me angry but I had to write of it to take it out of my yistem.

Have a great day!!

I know that many of you will not be over here these days, some because of cooking, buying, etc and others because of traveling. So I wanted to post my Christmas card for you all today.

Thank you all for your friendship!

I'm not very good with photoshop but this is a card made by me:

This weekend I was making a summary of all the tips Tracy gave me and all the ones I have read on internet for revisions. I thought I should share it here so anyone can print as I will do and have it near.

Also please if you know or think of another thing important when revising please comment and I will go adding to this post.

Things to look for or change when revising:

1. Show, don’t tell:

“Show, Don't Tell invites understanding; I cannot find a better way to say this”

“If you are as captivated by what you read the tenth time you read it as you were the first time, then the author has succeeded in Show, Don't Tell”.

“When "showing" would prove to be more information than anyone wants or needs, then telling is perfectly acceptable. A good rule to keep in mind is that if it isn't important to the story, it's okay to keep it to the realm of telling”.

"In the case of "acceptable tell" always keep in mind that IF you can change it without it becoming more than you want it to be, do so. This leaves room for those necessary tells. Too much tell, even if it seems acceptable, drags a story down."

            “In resume if you want to build a character, shape a mood, you must show. But I you want to move the story maybe tell is correct. I guess it is the balance of them what makes the prefect story.”

-          The words: I heard, I saw, I felt, I was, usually are signs of telling.

 

2. Try as must as you can to substitute adverbs for strong verbs.

3. Avoid using as much as possible “which” “who” and “ that”.

4. Describe, you want the reader to experience the story.

5. Always check grammar.

6. Very and so are filler words. Find other words.

7. If there’s no dialogue in a while we must evaluate our technique.

8. Characters have to be in movement, living, making things.

9. Little or no ambiance and presence. If we gloss over important events, giving the rundown on who said what, when, where and how, and then slip out of the event without so much as a drink, it may be time to ponder. Why did we feel the need to include this important event in the first place?

10. Give the reader a reason to care for the character

11. Use dialogue effectively. Let the character speak, make the reader eavesdrop the conversation, not only hear it from you.

12. Use gestures and movements. . Act out the scene, if necessary to capture details.

13. Make every word count. Make every word mean something, be important for the history.

 

**One of the Links were I found this, I don’t remember the other ones ( I had the tips in post its all around my desk) And   of course. I added the great advice of    also

OH MY GOD!!!!!

I finally readed Finder by Terri-Lynne Defino(  ) this weekend.

It's great!! I devourded every word. I saw every place, smell every spice, live everything!

Now I now why tracy_d74 wanted to make Ethen real! I am going to also make real Nyael. I liked him a lot.

This is a great story, full of interesting subplots. I was intrigued from line one to the very end.

Terri you are great!!!!! You are mi idol!!

In case you haven't read it , here is the link to amazon. (click there and buy it, you are going to love it)

Now for the sparkles author I have to give sparks:

It’s becoming a tradition to post my new words on Monday.

Today I have only four. I haven’t worked in the translation- revision this weekend. My brain was like in formalin. I wasn’t able to concentrate with this flu. I hope tomorrow I feel better.

Here are the words and how I used them, to see if they are used correctly and are still used:

Disquiet: cause worry, make uneasy, disturb. I used it in: “I walked back home, disquieted not only by the noise, but also by a series of emotions that wrapped me.”

Intuit: sense intuitively, perceive through intuition. I used it here: “Perhaps my mother intuited what had happened to me these days”

Divert: distract; entertain; turn in a different direction, deflect. I used it here: “This caused him to laugh diverted, not upset at all by the sarcasm.

Sweep over: overcome, as with emotions or perceptual stimuli [syn: overwhelm, overpower, whelm, overcome, overtake]  I used it in: “The people’s emotions were so strong – in particular depression- that sweep over me completely.”

 

Have an excellent Monday!!

1. Yesterday my best friend and auntie by heart of my sons went to Carlos school to pick him up, because we can't. She does that many times but yesterday Carlos started to shout and cry in the middle of the school that he will not go with her. He shouted so much that the director nun came to see what happened and calmed him down. When they arrived home my best friend was crying, I felt so bad. She truly loves my sons, shes been there since minute one. I know how much it hurts when carlos does that because he makes it a lot with me, he always wants his dad. Anyway we had to punish him and make him talked with her. Now they are ok.

2. I got  a flu. I hate flu! My nose is red as rudolph , I can't speak ( well my husband will be happy for that) and I feel like crap. The worst is that the kids also have it.

3. I finished the translation of the first chapter of BTLAS and I hope to end this revision ( i know there will be many others) today or tomorrow. So I'm moving forward.

4. I hope this weekend I can sleep a lot!!

5. I am trying a new recipe for " tarta de santiago" is a very popular cake that is done in Galicia , Spain. And its made with almonds , sugar , etc. My father loves it so I'm trying recipes for this christmas dinner make it for him. When I get a good one I will post it here.

HAVE A GREAT WEEKEND!

Today was a crazy day! But I already told you that in the title of this post.

Carlos had his christmas festival and as always I was afraid he will not want to appear in public. But he did and did it well. His group sang the posada song that is very traditional here. I don't have to say that my face was covered with tears...

Also today I was able to see Carlos interact with his teachers. He has two, half of the classes with the english teacher and the other half with the spanish teacher. I saw him with the english teacher and she was very close to him. Always touching his shoulder or his head, making him feel comfortable about perfoming. The spanish teacher is older but makes all she can to make him learn and he is one of the best students she has.

So as you can see I walked out of the school as if I were walking on clouds, so happy, so proud and so calm. My son is going to be fine, even with his TDA. It seems that finally we are finding a way to be better parents, and now he has caring and hard working teachers. This is so important for him and his selfsteam!!

Then I arrived home and sat to write, always when I write I have my msn open although as occupied. Why? well because while I write I often talk with my best friend. Actually it can't be named a talk, we sporadiccaly say to one another " how do you say this in english?" " Which word you will use on this email?" " are you ok?" I know it is strange but we don't see ach other very much and that keep us connected. It also keeps me connected with the rest of the world when I'm not writing. Know going to the problem, I sat to write and realized by a bunch of emails my msn account was hacked. Why in the world could someone want to hack my account? I don't know but apparently it occurs often. After a bunch of emails my account is back and I am happy again.

In my translation- revision I think I can finally finish translating the first chapter this friday. Revising it and making it perfect I guess will take me longer but I think I did the best I could for now. You don't know how thankful I am with tracy for coaching me and seeing what I don't!! Even if I make the most silly mistakes and the words I choose in english sometimes are strange and bad, she corrects me and teaches me. So again thank you tracy_d74 you are a great coach and I want to shout to the world how grate you are for doing this for a person you know for a few time!! You are a dear friend!

Also I want to thank you all for your support and help in this translation procces!

As you can see I am emotional today. But I have learned that I must always say what I feel and always say thank you.

Now I am going to bed, maybe I will sleep something this night!!

Have a perfect day!

Here I’m again with my words post.

As I told you in the other post some of these words are new for me and other I don’t know if I used them correctly or are still used.

Toyed: meaning in the dictionary: was toying with the idea of writing a book: THINK ABOUT, consider, flirt with, entertain the possibility of; informal  kick around.

I used it like this: “I toyed with my dream for a long time, trying to make sense of it”

Creep in: enter surreptitiously; "he sneaked in under cover of darkness"; "in this essay, the author's personal feelings creep in" [syn: sneak in]
I used it here: “The sun began to creep in the room indicating that a new day had begun”

Endure: suffer without complaint, tolerate; continue on in spite of difficulty .

I used it here: “The noise in my head began again. It was terribly annoying, but I could endure it.”

Cease: stop, halt.

I used it here: “The noise in my head ceased”

 

Unknown : someone or something which is not known; someone or something that is unfamiliar; mathematical factor which is not known .

I used it like this: “I had so many unknowns to answer”

 

Flit: fly; flutter; dart; move quickly; change location; escape in secret

I used it like this: “A smile of satisfaction flitted across my face”

Have a great Monday!!

 

PS: Carlos did his Tae kwon do exam and did it perfect. I’m very proud of him for being able to do it in front of people.

As you can see I'm posting this still on Thursday. I don't know if I am going to be able to be in the computer tomorrow morning so I'm posting it right now.

1. Tomorrow we have the first Tae Kwan Do exam of Carlos. I hope he want to do it, because he hates to do things in public and all the parents are going to be there.

2. I finally found what to give to Carlos's teachers for christmas gift. Is a chocolate nativity scene!! I love it ( maybe because I love chocolate)

3. Yesterday my two kids spent a hole day without fighting , they even danced with me. When I had them like that --dancing, smiling, hugging-- I only thought " please Anabel don't forget this".

4. Finally I feel better, I really feel depression is behind me. Also I accept better all my crazy inheritance and try to control it. Its been hard but I'm almost on the other side. Someday I will explain you about it, believe me my family is crazy.

5. Have a wonderful weekend!! 

As you all know I am working in the revision and translation of my novel, something that needs a lot of work, so I need a lot of hours. And you may say yes, I know. What's the problem? The problem is to find the time to do this without feeling guilty.

I am a mom of a 5 year old and a 2 year old that need all my time. The 5 year old goes to preschool but the two year old stays in home all day and he will never let me concentrate. I write when he is taking a nap in the morning. But that isn't enough if I want to finish my revision - translation before the summer. So sometimes I take an hour at night when the kids go to sleep to write and I feel guilty because that's the time when my husband and I can be together and talk.

I think this time is important and I don't want a divorce. I love my husband, he supports me in my crazy life of writer but everything has a limit and I have to spend time with him.

The other problem is Holiday vacations begin next week and I am going to have Carlos also in the house so my time for writing will be null.

Well I guess I can write at  two in the morning when everybody is asleep and don't need anything from me. But I can't, the doctor told me to sleep every time I could because I started to faint with all the months I expent sleeping poorly with Alex ,my body needs sleep. So no, I can't.

What am I going to do?

I feel guilty for thinking of ways of expending less time with my family and more with my revision - translation.

Have you felt guilty for expending time writing?

I am tired!!! I haven't slept in four days. Alex is feeling bad of his reflux so he is crying all night. The raccoon is back! I am avoiding seeing my face in the mirror!

My translation is going slower also because of my lack of sleep, I can't concentrate but I keep trying. I hope I can finish the first chapter this week.

This are the news from here. How are you?

Happy Wednesday!

Finally I'm posting the new words I found in my translation. As you can see many of them may be common for you but I never heard of them.

What I need to know is if this words are still used and if they are correctly used.

Here are the words:

Grudging – as in: “Grudging I got out of bed.”

React- as respond, we use this word a lot but I don’t know if it is used in English. Like in “Making my mind react”

Faculty – We say that faculty is an area of a college specialized in something or were you learn something. Like the faculty of psychology or the economics faculty. Is faculty a word used in English?

Outskirts – as in: “The outskirts of the city” I’m using it as suburb.

Drifted – as in: “I drifted back to my memories of the other night.”

Keen – can you use this as an adjective for eyes?

Issuer – this is the meaning in the dictionary: person or thing that sends out.

Companion – “Compañero” in Spanish, it is used a lot in my language but I don’t know if you use it this way. I used it like this: “Tranquility was my companion on my way back”

Heinous- can I use this for fear? I am saying that I have heinous fear .As an atrocious fear.

Twist to understand – well as you can see this is not a word but I don’t know if in English someone can twist to understand something. In Spanish would be used as “ retorcerse” but I don’t know if it is correctly used like that.

Disrupting – as disturb. “He was disrupting me”.

Stubble – the meaning in the dictionary is: short rough growth of beard. Is it still used?

Stirred – can someone stir his hair?

Inspected – “Those eyes I couldn’t forget inspected me with such intensity that I felt as if they were touching me, making my skin burn.” Is correctly used there?

Cutting tone – can someone’s tone be cutting in English? Is like someone answering shortly and hard.

Interrogation- the dictionary says: act of questioning, investigation, inquiry, examination through questions. Is it still used like that?

Toured – As in: “I toured the legs with my eyes”

Lank – I’m using this for straight hair.

Ruffled – Can someone ruffle his hair?

“See you brother” – to use the term brother would be correct in Spanish between friends. Is it correct to use it in English or I should use another term?

Maybe some of this will not get to the final draft because I have to finally learn to SHOW and don't tell but I will really appreciate your help.

Now I will go to continue struggling with the show and tell...

Have a wonderful day!

 

I saw in your post the friday five so I decided is a great idea and I will do it also.

1. I already bought all the santa's presents for the kids. I feel relieved. Now I only have to buy the presents for Carlitos's teachers.

2.I love Christmas but I hate the chaos that comes with it. The streets are full of cars, the stores full of people. I hate multitudes!!!

3. Yesterday I advanced 2 and half pages more in an hour!!! I am very happy with the process, every day I learn more and go more quickly.

4. I want chocolate!!! I am a chocolate addict and I have been on a diet for a year now and I miss it a lot. Even more when Alex is leaving his pacifier and he doesn't like it because he is teething so I need chocolate to have all the tolerance he needs of me.

5. On Monday I m planning to post the new words I found and how I used them to see if they are still used. I hope you don't mind.

Have a great weekend!!  

I'm having a great day!! Yesterday I talked with Carlos teacher and she told me that he was behaving better and his attention also was better. He already reads and writes in spanish and english ( he is 5 years old). I am so proud o f him ,even with his TDA he has the best grades!

In my revision- translating process I have done in this week 5 pages, yesterday I did 3 of them. I can't believe it! 3 pages in 3 hours is a lot for me. I also learned a few new words, I hope they are still used.

My best friend right now is babylon. A program were you can add dictionaries of any language. It is very handy I recommend it.

Finally I have to put this quote because it's great. I am very inspired by quotes.

"My task...is, by the power of the written word to make you hear, to make you feel - it is, before all, to make you see. That - and no more - and it is everything"

- Joseph Conrad

He is totally right if you can make the reader see then you did everything you can do with your writing.

So as you can see I'm very positive today. How are you? How are you going with your writing, family, work?

Have a nice day!

"You sit down and you do it, and you do it, and you do it, until you have learned to do it."
Ursula K. LeGuin
...on writing

That's what I am doing sitting down and revising , revising again and then translating, correcting and searching words. Sometimes I think I will go crazy others I think I will reach the goal soon.

ufff it's hard but not as hard as i thought it would be.

So how are you?

I will now go, sit down and do it, and do it, until I learn to do it as Ursula says.

HAVE A GREAT WEDNESDAY!

"Write quickly and you will never write well. Write well, and you will soon write quickly."
Marcus Fabius Quintilianus, 65 A.D

When I read this quote it reminded me of the process I am in. I write slowly in English but I am learning to do it well , so I hope soon I could write quickly.

I revised and translated 3 more pages today. I am very happy!!

Although today a woman made me angry at my kid's school. I went there today to help him get out of the pool , bath, etc. While his father waited outside with Alex. Well when we were going out of the pool there was another mother and told me " Is your brother?".  I am 29 I really think a 5 year old can be my son. But that was good, as it seems I look younger.

 I answered " no , he is my son" and she replies " Oh so the baby outside that also has blue  eyes is yours?". " yes" . " And the father is the one outside?". At his moment I was thinking where were we going with all this questions. Finally I replied :" yes he is". And the woman told me "None of you two have blue eyes so or you made them with much love or..." And she leave it like that. I wanted to slap here on the face. What was she trying to say!!
 
I am tired of people looking bad at me when they see the kids and my husband eyes. I know it's totally strange to have two kids with blue eyes when the parents don´t but that's the way it happened. Great grandparents had a lot to say in the genetic of kids.Grrrr. So I took a deep breath, gave her an annoyed look and walked away. I was not going to say anything in front of my son.
 
 I guess its time of getting used to it. But you never get used to prejudice.

Well now that I shared my angry moment and this great quote I will go back to my revision-translation process.

How are you doing with your drafts,revisions,etc?

Have a great day!

We had a perfect day yesterday!! We celebrated the second brithday of my baby Alejandro.It was a simple party, we had lunch in home with my parents and my best friend, but we had a great time. I don´t know when he went from this:



To this:



Years pass quickly and I am trying to get everything I can from my children, every kiss, every smile, every hug. Because they are borrowed and some day they will fly away.

It also was a great day because I got the first picture of my father smiling, he doesn´t smiles much, only with his grandchildren. But I got a photo to remember his smile!

I am going well with the translation or so I think. I go slow but I feel good. Although sometimes I think I'll go crazy if I check another dictionary!!

So how are you?

Happy day!!!

First I am moving forward at least in the corrections in Spanish and I hope to work today in the corrections in English. I´m happy and really motivated!!
I think I must put my msn and yahoo messenger state on busy today. I f not I will start to chat and not work!

Now the question I have to ask you, in BLAS I talk about negotiating a price, over here we call it regatear so i seacrh for translations for that word and found:

First dribble but I think that is more for sports
and second haggle the translator program says:bargain, wrangle, negotiate, argue over a price or condition

Yesterday we went to see HP7 and it was awesome!!! For me it was the movie that was closest to the book. And all the images were as I imagined them on the book!

I am not going to tell here what I don´t like because  I will spoil it to the ones who haven´t see it but tracy_d74  know we can comment!! YEY!

After the movie we went to my parents house to pick up the kids. There I found my mother in the floor playing with the baby taking him in her back, it was funny . She has a lot of energy she became grandmother with 42 years so he wants and likes to do that things with them. Then I went to the kitchen and found Carlitos constructing a house with his great- grand mother. They were laughing and arguing as if both of them were 5 year old and not a woman of 82. I was so thankful that carlitos got to live this, that he will remember playing with his great- grand mother that i almost cry. I'm very emotional!

I am trying to find a good writers on line program. Do you know of one that you can recommend?

Well I'm going to go back to revision in spanish and translating to english. Thanks to the great tracy_d74 that is giving me the best suggestions and critique know I now a lot of things I have to improve in both languages so to work I go!!!

Have a great day!!

I just spent a great night. I went to the movies with my best friend to see Due Date. At first we were only going because we love Robert Downing Junior. So it was only for seeing him ( don´t put that face he is very sexy, not beautiful but hot!!) but the movie turned out to be very funny with a great quote that every time I remember I laugh alone. So I recommend it to you if you are in this mood that everything makes you laugh and well there is robert....

Today I advanced a lot of my translation!! I think that if everything goes well tomorrow I will have 5 more pages!! I am excited, maybe it is not the best written english but I am doing it, I never thought I could!

This weekend we hope we can put finally the christmas tree on saturday and go to see Harry Potter on sunday my husband and I without the kids. Carlitos doesn´t like HP he is only 5 and Alex can´t go to the movies so my mother offered to take care of them so we can have alone time in the afternoon!! We really need it!

I hope you have a wonderful weekend!!

Yesterday was a day full of things to do in home and also full of drama. Carlitos is getting aggressive again, it happens every once in a while. The therapist says it is a circle so this is going to happen again and again until he understands that he can´t react that way and can control the impulsiveness of his TDA. After this aggressive moment he was crying and crying because he knew he can´t do that but he can´t control it. I felt my heart ache with every tear because I know this is something he has to learn in other to control his TDA without medicine but is painful for him. The good news is he is learning!! His grades are better every month so that gives me hope that someday we will leave this behind.

Right now my therapy is translating. I focus on it the few hours or minutes that I have chance and I don´t think in anything else.

I´m going  better than I expected, right now I have 5 pages with the best translation-adaptation I can get. I´m hearing in the back of my mind that annoying voice that is telling me that although I think they are the best I can do maybe when I go back again when I finish all the novel I will find places to improve. But I´m not paying attention to the voice, now I have to focus in the whole translation!!

How are going your revisions,synopses,manuscripts?And the most important question: How are you of body and soul? I hope you all are feeling good.

Have a great day!! 

And this city is Madrid. Maybe this is because my husband is from there, maybe because i lived there my first married years and maybe is just because it is BEAUTIFUL.

I love so much its history,its old buildings,its people, its live that if I continue writing I will never end.

That's the reason why my novel is situated there even though the main character is from the United States. I needed to share this city!!

I am posting here some images of the places I love most and that I use for my novel.

Hope You enjoy them as much as I do!




this is the plaza mayor, it is a square that used to be the market of the city on other times now is full of bars and restaurants.


This is the Palacio de Oriente the most beutiful place I ever seen. Believe me inside every room is beautiful and unique. This is only one side of it but it has others with beautiful gardens.

And this is what you see in the other side of the picture that I showed before. The Catedral de la Almudena  was the church of the kings it is were the prince married a few years ago and is beautiful in the other sides too.

this is the Monasterio del Escorial. It is in a town of Madrid. I was constructed by PHILIP II for recovering of his diseases. I could get better there too!!
And last but not least my favorite above all:

This is the Palacio de Correos in the Cibeles Plaza.This building and this plaza are deep in my heart, the first time I saw them it was at night and I fell in love. Also is a place with a lot of energy because is were the Real Madrid soccer team celebrates his championships and also every achievement of sports of Spain is celebrated there.
 Every building I showed you before is illuminated by night as this one.

Uff I wanted to share many photos more but it was a lot if you want to se more you only have to search Madrid, believe me there are many more beautiful buildings!

I am sorry if I bored you by sharing this beautiful city but since it is in my novel I can left this post behind.

Have a great day!

I'm tired!

I thought this was going to be a great weekend in which I could have more time to translate , put the christmas tree and sleep a little. But life thought otherwise.

The four of us got sick. Carlitos threw up one night 8 times, Alex as always could not sleep with his reflux and my husband and I had stomach pain.

So we didn´t put the christmas tree and Carlitos was very disappointed. We spoke with him and told him that the next saturday we will do it but he was very upset and couldn´t understand any reason.

I didn´t slept so right now a raccoon has less circles under his eyes than I do. I always sleep 2 or 3 hours with the baby on weekdays and on the weekends I sleep in the morning because my husband doesn´t works. But this weekend they needed him to work so bye bye sleep.

The good thing is that I advanced in my translation. I have 20 pages translated but i have to go back and revise, I think a few times more. I have a new way of working, every 20 pages I will go back and correct and revise until I think I can´t do it better. Like that I will feel that I am not that bad with this and that I have something done.
Also I know that once translated many problems of writing could appear know that I see it with other eyes.And I know that I will have to correct and revise again. But I am staying positive, that will make better my book!

Today I don´t have a great post to share as you see but this is what I'm living right now.

I hope you have a great day and a very productive writing!

Today I spent the day dealing with school , homework, doctors and a little translation.I am tired.
I was sure that I could have 3 hours for my book but live got in the way!

Right now I will go to continue translating but I wanted to say thank you to you all for your advices, your offers of help and for being there. We met only a few weeks ago and you all are treating and accepting  me as a friend of months.
You all became important to me by being friends who think as I do, who like what I like and must of all that understand all the things we live by being a writer. You are very dear to me!

Uff I feel better, I wanted to say that to you and I never found the time or the words so I am letting them flow of my mouth to the keyboard!

It is going to be a long weekend here in Mexico because we are celebrating 100 year of the revolution. I will have to take Carlos to his competition of tae kwan do, put the christmas tree ( yes I put it a month ahead because we love christmas!) and then I hope to have plenty of time to translate because I go slowly. Hopefuly the more I do it the faster I will go!

HAVE A NICE WEEKEND!
 

As you know I don´t have a lot of vocabulary in english so I decided that I must take note of words I like or use a lot in writing in spanish and also of words I read in books and don´t even know what they mean, so I will take note and search the meaning and put them in my new vocabulary notebook. I hope with it I can have more vocabulary when writing and translating!

Now my desk is full of notebooks and notes again! Well what can I do I need them, so it´s going to stay that way!

Today we celebrated my best friend-beta reader-editor birthday. I am very honored that she decided to have lunch with us in these day. The kids love her a lot. She is their aunt, I don´t have blood sisters but she is my soul sister. So we spent a nice time and I am happy I choose the correct present  for once!!! I took a lot of pictures and ate more cake than I should, but is what you do in birthdays have a good time and eat cake!

Right now I am going to continue the translation and take some pills for the headache it is giving me.

Have a nice night and a happy day!

I am at this time very confused.

 A person that read what I published of my translation here and said me the following:” I really liked the concept, the idea that the main character could feel the emotions behind places. That has me hooked from the start. But, regarding the flow of the piece, it felt kind of choppy. I think this might partially be an issue of translation. Some of the words didn't make sense in the context of the sentence. For example, in the first paragraph it says "enjoying these moments of solitude where no alien feeling could alter my calmness, except for those that still remain in the old facades." I've highlighted the words that make it difficult to understand. This does happen in other places, too. Again, this seems like an issue of translation. I don't think that your ideas are being conveyed as they should be in English.”

 Well this got me thinking if it's such a good idea to have someone else translating my novel, no one knows the voice of my character better than me, well just my best friend and critique partner who is helping me with corrections in English and Spanish. Maybe it's time to think about doing it myself even if I make it slowly.

 Translating it by myself will help me in the entire publishing process and I could make revisions without assistance and only depend on me. It could also help me improve and can start writing in English directly.

But I have to admit that it scares me, I'm not American and my grammar is bad, I know I can improve with study and practice.But it scares me because I don´t have critique partners that can say if I am going well or I need to improve. Many writers are afraid to criticize a novel that is a translation. I don´t know why, I want them to see it as if it were one written in English but these are the reasons they gave me.

 On the other hand, a translator would translate it faster and my project would be available in English before, but may lose its essence...

I need your help since English is your native language. Do you think the girl that made these comments was right?

What would you do?

I know that every person is different and makes its decisions based on that but sometimes it is easier to decide on something important by hearing the views of others. Because if I venture in this it is going to be a tough job....

Before discussing the issue at an update of my life:

I could not write anything this weekend or research for my sequel, nor for how to make my query letter, nothing. My house was flooded and all my forces were intended to clean and fix the mess. Today I hope to return to routine.

Anyway, today my older child wanted to finally spend time with me and I'm happy! Since I became pregnant with his younger brother he was far away from me and no matter how hard I tried he did not want me for anything even for the basics if his dad was there he always preferred him. But today after many baby steps he wanted to spend his time with me and filled me with kisses and hugs. Can I be happier?

Now we discuss the issue at hand: For days I have been developing the theme of my sequel, researching and outlining the story. The problem? I do that while I have the voices of the characters in a new book resonating strongly in my head. I have yet to clear the thematic basis of the book, much of it but their voices are there and do not leave me alone.

That's why I constantly wonder if I should be disciplined and finish this series first before embarking on a new project or directly following these voices.

If I am disciplined with what I'm doing I have the advantage that I'm totally stuck in the personality of my character which is important because it is a novel written in first person, I have also very clear the rest of base characters and scenarios . This will make the sequel much easier to write and I feel that if I leave it now it will be more difficult to recover all this later.

 

On the other hand is to follow these loud voices what is tempting because it means they have very much to tell.

In your experience what do you think is better, the discipline or to follow the voices?

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Antes de hablar del tema en cuestión una actualización de mi vida

No he podido escribir nada este fin de semana, ni investigar para mi secuela, ni tampoco para cómo hacer mi query letter, nada. Mi casa se inundó y todas mis fuerzas fueron destinadas a limpiar y arreglar el desastre. Espero hoy poder volver a la rutina.

Además hoy mi niño mayor por fin quiso pasar tiempo conmigo y estoy feliz! Desde que me embaracé de su hermano pequeño se alejó mucho de mí y no importaba cuanto lo intentara él no me quería para nada ni siquiera para lo básico siempre si su papa estaba lo prefería a el. Pero hoy después de muchos pequeños pasitos he conseguido que quiera pasar su tiempo conmigo y me ha llenado de besos y abrazos. Se puede ser más feliz?

Ahora hablemos del tema en cuestión. Desde hace unos días estoy desarrollando el tema de mi secuela, investigando y esbozando la historia. El problema? Que mientras lo hago tengo las voces de los personajes de un nuevo libro resonando fuertemente en mi cabeza. Todavía no tengo claro la temática base del libro ni mucho de él pero sus voces están ahí y no me dejan en paz.

Por eso me pregunto constantemente si debo ser disciplinada y acabar primero esta saga antes de embarcarme en un nuevo proyecto o directamente seguir estas voces.

Si soy disciplinada y sigo con lo que estoy haciendo tengo la ventaja de que estoy totalmente metida en la personalidad de mi personaje principal lo cual es importante porque es un novela escrita en primera persona, tengo además muy claro al resto de personajes y escenarios base que me harán mucho más fácil la escritura y siento que si lo dejo ahora me será más difícil recuperarlo luego.

Por otro lado seguir estas fuertes voces es tentador porque hablan alto y eso quiere decir que tienen mucho que contar.

Today the person who is helping me with the translation of my novel sent me this few paragraphs for me to look at. Tomorrow we will see the conditions of the translation and negotiat emoney uffff. Well, meanwhile I paste you here the first paragraphs of between light and shadow to know what you think.
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            It was two in the morning and I was walking along downtown Madrid. The cold was freezing my bones and blushing my fair cheeks, but I couldn’t care less. I was deeply enjoying these moments of solitude where no alien feeling could alter my calmness, except for those that still remain in the old facades.

            My destiny this time was the Plaza Mayor, an emblematic place of this city whose origin dates back to the fifteenth century. Plaza Mayor was sometime a market which is nowadays a touristic plaza covered by pubs and restaurants. One may only enter there through the different entrances at the low part of the buildings conforming it.

            I was thinking of my family while I was walking, of my parents who adopted me when I was five and embraced me with love, my brothers and my only two friends. All of them live in the United States, so far away from me, but at the same time so vivid in my mind. I cannot recall a single moment of unhappiness by their side.

            My steps get me closer and closer to my destiny, I could sense it. The emotions of the plaza began flooding me. I walked across one of the arches and walked until I found myself in the center of the plaza next to the statue of Felipe II gazing at the house of the bakery.

            I admired that mural which I liked so much; meanwhile all those emotions the plaza kept in its walls began to overwhelm me with its multiple feelings: joy, sadness, desperation and pain. I believed pain was coming from the time it was burnt, but they began to overwhelm me in such a way I began becoming disoriented. I knew I should leave right away, since historical places would affect me so much at the end, I liked them so much notwithstanding.

            A bit dazed and with my eyes half-closed, I walked towards Cuchilleros Arch, one of the arches of Plaza Mayor which lead to some of the most visited pubs by tourists. Over there, its firm walls should bear enough joy to recover sanity and look for my way back home.

            Still with my heart unbridled and completely covered by tears, I managed to reach the first steps of my destiny. I stopped for a moment and took a deep breath trying to assimilate what was surrounding me.

            I opened my eyes slowly to find out if was able to see the way better, and I suddenly saw some shadows rushing by my side. I thought I was not totally recovered and close my lids once more. I took a deep breath a couple of times and opened my eyes again. They were drenched in tears, I could not see clearly and the pain caused by the emotion traces of the plaza blocked my thoughts; even so, I concentrated as much as I could until I got focused on them. Those shadows were there for a second time. I felt them just behind my back.

            Some emotions filled me, all of them were bellicose and irate, and I knew something was wrong. Never in my life had I felt anything similar, and fear filled me. Even in my condition I tried to run and get out of there as soon as possible, but just when I had climbed down a couple of steps, these shadows started to surround me revolving endlessly.

            Because of the emotion, I knew they weren’t shadows even though that was what I saw. They were persons, but who could ever move that fast?

            Suddenly, I felt I was dashed against one of the arch’s wall. The fairly sudden and painful impact prevented me from seeing who had caused it. Each muscle in my body was bruised, my head rumbled, and I couldn’t move. The air around me could be cut with a knife and despite it was cold, I didn’t feel anything. But the desire of knowing what those shadows were, who had beaten me, prevailed over the pain getting to a point where I barely felt it.

            I opened my eyes then and I saw a tall and corpulent person, with an uptight body in a striking position. Its face was covered with a black balaclava showing only some brown intense eyes full of rage, determination and hatred, although I could also feel that in the emotions it irradiated. Some murderous and cruel emotions, so intense that I knew they were going to make me faint at any time. What did they want from me? What were these persons who could move so fast?

            With a hoarse and threatening laughter, which made me know it was a man, he came closer with great determination and put his hand on my chest. The feeling his hand caused in me was terrible. It was like a vacuum that wanted to soak up something essential from me and which my body refused with all its strength to surrender, it was painful, exhausting and distressing.

            The man’s laughter stopped and started to streamed frustration. I didn’t know what the man wanted, but it seemed he wasn’t getting it.

            I closed my eyes trying to stay conscious. What he was doing to me was enough already without having to share his emotions.

            A second later the suction ended. I opened my eyes in surprise and I saw how a man, whom I couldn’t distinguish, beat my attacker while a swarm of white lights chased the swarm of shadows which was stalking me before. The fight between the two men next to me was wild; the thundering blows had broken some steps which left me astonished.

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 As you can see he left it in the middle of the action sorry!!

 

 

Today is my tenth wedding anniversary and it made me think about love, because that is what has kept me with my husband ten years.

Now the love in the books… Some writers idealize it drawing the perfect love where the two halves of the couple are perfect, like the same things, not argue about anything. Others describe it much more turbulent, a couple with differences, but wanting to be together, despite the arguments or difficulties.

For me, the truer love is the turbulent. Love is not always to be happy is also to cry, fight (I am not saying to harm each other but to have a discussion), reconcile, to be different to have of what to talk, etc... By this I don´t mean the difference of being a human and a vampire. I am talking about the taste, defects and virtues.

Sometimes I think that YA novels until recently idealized love too much making young people that then reached an adult relationship think that if it was not perfect, without tears and discussions, it wasn´t love or wasn´t worthwhile.

So I ask, when reading a novel that includes a love story do you like the perfect love story or the turbulent? Do you believe that the way a novel speaks of love can influence the way young people see love?

All this reminds me the speech Barbara Streisand gives to her class in The Mirror Has Two Faces…

Now I go to celebrate and try to write a little.
Have a great day! (I am very happy)

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Hoy es mi décimo aniversario de bodas y eso me hizo pensar en el amor , si porque eso me ha mantenido junto a mi esposo diez años.

Ahora el amor en los libros. Unos escritores lo idealizan dibujándolo como el amor perfecto donde las dos mitades de la pareja son perfectas , les gustan las mismas cosas, no discuten por nada. Otros lo describen mucho más tormentoso, una pareja con diferencias pero queriendo estar juntos, a pesar de las discusiones o las dificultades.

Para mí el más real es el tormentoso. El amor no siempre es estar feliz, también es llorar, pelear, reconciliarse, ser diferente para tener de que hablar, etc. Con esto no me refiero a la diferencia de ser un humano y un vampiro. Si no a los gustos, defecto y virtudes.

A veces pienso que en las novelas de YA hasta hace muy poco se idealizó demasiado al amor haciendo así que los jóvenes que luego llegaran a una relación adulta pensaran que o era perfecto, sin lágrimas y sin ninguna discusión o entonces o no era amor o no valía la pena.

Por lo que les pregunto cuando leen una novela que incluye una historia de amor, les gusta la historia de amor perfecta o la tormentosa? Creen que la forma en que las novelas relatan el amor puede influenciar en la forma en que se ha visto el amor hasta ahora?

Todo esto me recuerda la charla que da Barbara Streisand a su clase en el amor tiene dos caras…

Ahora si me voy a celebrar y a intentar escribir un poco

Que tengan un fabuloso día! ( yo estoy muy feliz)

 

Today I start my post with this quote:

If you have other things in your life - family, friends, good productive day work - these can interact with your writing and the sum will be all the richer.
David Brin

I'm sure he is right if the writer has a "real" life he could write better, with more detail. He can write characters and situations that make the reader feel connected.

For now my life has all been doing everything but writing, housecleaning, ironing, cleaning my desk (I still have a lot of work to do...), go to the supermarket, play with the baby. And finally I have a cold!It was what I was missing with the lack of sleep, but then yesterday I managed to sleep about 6 hours so I am well served.

Now I will try to write even a paragraph before my little baby wakes up and we start with all again.

Have a nice day!

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Hoy quiero empezar mi post con esta frase:

Si tiene otras cosas en su vida - familia, amigos, buen trabajo, un día productivo - éstos pueden interactuar con su escritura y la suma será tanto más rica.

 

David Brin

Estoy segura que tiene razón si el escritor tiene una vida “real” puede escribir mejor, con mayor detalle. Puede escribir personajes y situaciones que hagan al lector sentirse relacionado.

Por hoy en mi vida todo ha sido hacer de todo menos escribir, limpiar la casa, planchar, ordenar mi escritorio (aún me falta mucho…), hacer el supermercado, jugar con el bebé. Y por último tengo un resfriado!!!

Era lo que me faltaba con la falta de sueño, pero bueno ayer conseguí dormir casi 6 horas así que me doy por bien servida.

Ahora intentare escribir aunque sea un párrafo antes de que mi pequeño bebe despierte y volvamos a empezar.

Que tengan un lindo día!

 

Yes, I finally found my novel ELYS is a new adult novel! Uf it was hard to find this category!

I found this new category by accident. It turns out that these days I'm doing research on query letters to start mine and I signed up for the blog query shark. It is really excellent! she critiques query letters and says what is wrong or right so it helps a lot with the examples.

Well, a girl sent a query as Young adult with a protagonist who goes to college and she said there is a new legitimate category know as new adult whose age range was 18 to 22.

Then I gave myself the task of investigating what was this category of new adult and found that indeed is that age range and speaks of everything that happens to a young character of that age, college, first job, first house, marriage, etc. . Also can cover all the other subcategories that have the YA, paranormal, fantasy, romance, etc.

Apparently we should thank St. Martin's Press that  last year I believe created  this new category and launched a contest for manuscripts that should adhere to these criteria.

Here is the link of a girl who talks about what´s new adult?

I personally believe that this opens a new window for the writers to create characters that are a little more mature than teenagers, but to which similar things can happen too. It also gives the opportunity to write about characters that affront different things than a YA. So you have two possibilities in a market that was just created. Although in my personal view there already were books of this type but lost in the classification of adult fiction.

So ELYS is a new adult paranormal romance!!

I feel relieved!

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 Si, por fin lo encontré mi novela ELYS es una novela para nuevos adultos! Uf lo que me ha costado encontrar está categoría.

Está nueva categoría la encontré de casualidad. Resulta que estos días estoy investigando sobre las query letters para empezar la mía y para eso me inscribí al blog de query shark. De verdad es excelente hace una crítica de query letters y dice porque están mal o bien así que ayuda mucho con los ejemplos.

Pues bien una chica mando una query como Young adult con una protagonista que va a la universidad y ella le dijo que había una legitima nueva categoría que se llamaba nuevo adulto que iba del rango de edad de 18 a 22.

Entonces me di a la tarea de investigar que era esta categoría de nuevo adulto y encontré que efectivamente es ese rango de edad y habla de todo lo que le sucede a un joven de esa edad, universidad, primer trabajo, primera casa, matrimonio, etc. Además que puede cubrir todo el resto de subcategorías que tiene el YA o sea paranormal, fantasía, romance, etc.

Al parecer hay que agradecerle a la editorial St. Martin’s Press que el año pasado creo que está nueva categoría y lanzó un concurso para manuscritos que se atuvieran a estos criterios.

Aquí les dejo el link de una chica que habla sobre que es new adult?

Yo personalmente creo que esto abre una nueva ventana a los escritores de crear personajes que sean un poco más maduros que los adolescentes pero a los cuales les pueden suceder cosas parecidas. También da la oportunidad de escribir sobre personajes que le suceden cosas distintas que a un YA y que actúa con mayor madurez. O sea que tienes las dos posibilidades en un mercado que se acaba de crear. Aunque a mi modo de ver personal ya habían libros de este tipo pero perdidos en la clasificación de ficción de adultos.

Así que si ELYS es nuevo adulto romance paranormal!!!!

 

 

Me siento aliviada!