Tuesday, August 17, 2010

Special Guest!


Special guest here today! And when you see Angela from Jaded Love Junkie’s photos, you’ll realize she is one cool chick. Angela was also the winner of my 200 Followers Giveaway. So please take the time to learn a little about my fascinating blogging buddy, Angela. (Otherwise, I'll send Simon the Snarktopus over to snark at you!)

Thank you, Alex, for inviting me to post on your blog. A year ago, I never thought I’d be writing again much less blogging about it and meeting so many amazing writers who share similar struggles and triumphs along the path to publication.

Like most of you, I’ve always loved reading and writing, from the day I could hold a pencil. A college friend said she hated writing. She’d never written in a journal or written poetry or short stories. It blew my mind people could be perfectly happy writing nothing more than an occasional check endorsement.

In college, I was a writing fool. I took creative writing courses, and I worked on the newspaper, as Copy Editor and Editor in Chief. I freelanced editorial work, won poetry, essay and journalism contests and even wrote for Oregon Magazine. It was sooooo much work! And nothing like the kind of writing I’d enjoyed my entire life. It burned me out so hardcore I stopped reading and writing, and then I left college.

Advance the clock fourteen years later—yes, fourteen! I’m a US Navy service member. I work on radar, communications and navigation electronics, absolutely nothing to do with writing. Two years ago, I found myself stationed away from my husband and five children with too much time to think about the gloom of being away from them. Then I got the bug back, slowly at first. It began with books, books, books, and when I finally ran out of those, I learned it’s never too late to get back on the horse. I began writing again.

I wrote my first book in four weeks. In the past, I wrote literary fiction and horror. I know. I’m weird. My current books are sci-fi romance. My tastes are eclectic for sure. I read everything from military and literary non-fiction, mystery, romance of all kinds, sci-fi, YA, and even westerns. This might explain why I’ve written a wide range.

I am incredibly overjoyed to be back in the writing realm. I love my blogger buddies. I love learning from and sharing with all the writerly types who are so generous with their experience and knowledge. I love talking about writing, and most of all I love writing.

You can find me at Jaded Love Junkie or on Facebook. Thanks for your time, and good luck to all on your path to publication!

36 comments:

Jessica Bell said...

Sci-fi Romance? Wow that sounds intriguing! Thanks for this. Off to follow and read her blog now! :o)

Are you a writer? Then you MUST enter this CONTEST!

RHYTHM AND RHYME said...

Seems like a very nice person and I will certainly pop over to her blog to see what is happening there,
Loved the read.

Yvonne.

T. Powell Coltrin said...

Angela, YOU rock. You ARE an interesting chick. It's so funny how one little line bonds me to you. When you said you enjoyed writing when others didn't made my heart skip some beats. I loved writing--even my research papers. But my daughter told me to keep that a secret from my other classmates. I really couldn't understand why they grumbled so about the writing.

Alex, thanks for the introduction.

Christine Danek said...

So nice to get to know you. I will be visiting your site.
Thanks, Alex.

Jules said...

Thanks for the introduction Alex. Will mosey over and check her out.
Oh, and nice meeting you Angela!

Jules
Trying To Get Over The Rainbow

DEZMOND said...

greetings to Angela, sci-fi romance sounds interesting, I've never read anything in that genre before :)

Matthew MacNish said...

What a cool story! Thanks for sharing Alex. Nice to meet you Angela!

Matthew MacNish said...

Wow. Duh. I just visited your blog and I already know you! I guess I just didn't know this part. So, nice to get to know you BETTER!

Unknown said...

Nice interview. 14 years is a long time but we're all glad you got back to us. I secretly like sci-fi but don't get to read it much. TO add it to romance, even better! I should come by your blog more often.

CD

Carol Kilgore said...

I think it's amazing that people know they're supposed to write. It took me a while to figure out that's why all those stories were in my head. Slow. Nice to meet you, Angela. Thanks for hosting her, Alex.

Bossy Betty said...

Four weeks?

Loved this piece! Thanks, Alex for the intorduction!

Four weeks?

Charles Gramlich said...

Hail and well met

Southpaw said...

Literary fiction and horror to sci-fi romance...yeah I can see that.

And I'm with Betty----4 weeks?

Alex J. Cavanaugh said...

Told you guys Angela was cool!

Old Kitty said...

First book in four weeks?!?! Wow!!

Good luck with your writing Angela and thank you for sharing your literary path with all its twists and turns here. As well as the great pics (the egyptian walk is my favourite!)! Thank you Alex J Cavanaugh for hosting this.

Take care
x

The Old Silly said...

Enjoyed the feature, Angela and Alex. And I'm glad you got the "bug" back! lol

Helen Ginger said...

Very interesting. Love the pictures. I've only read a little sci-fi romance, but have liked what I read.

Jemi Fraser said...

Sci-fi romance sounds like something I would enjoy!

Arlee Bird said...

Good to hear about Angela's writing journey. Thanks for introducing her to us, Alex.

Lee
Tossing It Out

BStearns said...

Awesome to hear! Glad that you are enjoying writing so much. Hopefully we'll see something of yours soon!

Cheeseboy said...

How very sad that college would burn her out on writing. It is supposed to be the other way around.

She sounds very cool and very interesting. I'll have to check out her blog.

Chuck said...

Scifi-romance?? IS that R2D2 and C3PO? I will be cheking out your site.

Crystal Collier said...

Once a writer, always a writer eh? Thanks Alex for having Angela post, and way to go Angela--remounting that abusive horse. =)

Susan Fields said...

What an interesting path back to writing you've had! Thanks for sharing your story. My current wip is a sci fi romance. I'm heading right over to check out your blog.

And thank you for introducing us to Angela, Alex!

RaShelle Workman said...

You are such a cool chick!!! Four weeks??!!! Holy WOW!!!! I love how diversely you read. Thanks for sharing. And Alex, thanks for having her on your blog. Great idea.

Jay Watson said...

I agree with all the other good stuff the folks are saying about you Angela! You seem to be writing (and reading) the stuff I enjoy as well, and you're just a decent well-rounded good gal! I'm glad Alex gave you the "soapbox" today.
best,
r/e

Glynis Peters said...

What an interesting post, thanks for sharing your writing journey.

Talli Roland said...

What a great look into another writer's life. Thanks Alex and Angela! And four weeks - wow!

Powdered Toast Man said...

Blogging buddies are so much fun.

vic caswell said...

literary, horror, scifi romance?
this is one awesome chicka!

Creepy Query Girl said...

Thanks for introducing us to Angela! Great guest post and I'm off to join her blog!

Creepy Query Girl said...

I'm back- I KNOW her! (ok, not know know, but I'm already a follower) lol. I totally didn't recognise the photos. What a cool chicka!

M.J. Nicholls said...

You sound like a wind-up one-woman writing army, Angela from Jaded Love Junkie. And that excites me. I'm not touching myself or anything. I'm just praising your dexterity. OK? Is "Angela" even reading this? Is anyone? Hello?

Lindsay said...

Sci-fi romance...ooh, sounds fun. Thanks for having Angela on the blog. Now I'm off to say hi to her on her blog. :)

Raquel Byrnes said...

I hope you hold a blogfest, or post some of your work. I'm dying to see a sci-fi romance out there. Great interview.

Angela McCallister said...

Yes, M.J., I'm totally reading this, and I write romance so it's cool if you touch yourself, just not in public ;)

LOL, I love you guys. Yes to the four weeks. I was on deployment, which is enough to drive anyone insane, and I had an eager alpha reader asking me every day, "So how many pages did you write today?" Talk about motivation!

Thank you all for reading and visiting my blog. I will be posting a blogfest soon, maybe announcing this week. Thank you again, Alex, for inviting me over to your place. You're a fantastic host!

PS, Matthew and Katie, it's a big blogger world and I do look like a different person in all my pics. Could be multiple personalities...