Goodreads Giveaway - SPRINKLES AND SECRETS

The paperback comes out on September 11th! If you are on goodreads, you can enter to win a signed copy. Good luck!

Goodreads Book Giveaway

Sprinkles and Secrets

by Lisa Schroeder

Giveaway ends September 12, 2012.

See the giveaway details at Goodreads.

Enter to win

Filling the well

After working hard revising a manuscript in July, I'm taking this month off, mostly, from writing. I still have business stuff every couple of days I have to attend to, and I'm doing some research for a middle grade idea I have. But not a lot of writing happening these last days of summer, and it's been really nice.

I think it's so important for authors to take time to fill the well. To get out and do things and become inspired in whatever ways work for them. I do spend a lot of my free time reading and watching movies, because as I told my husband the other day, even when I'm taking a break, I love stories. Well-crafted stories inspire me. Always have, always will.

But I also love to get out and see the beauty that's in the world. Last weekend, my family did a fairly easy 3.5 mile hike that's about an hour from our house, in the beautiful Columbia Gorge. I'd heard about the hike from Eagle Crest to Punchbowl Falls, but we'd never made the trip, and I decided it was time. Wow, so glad we did! We'll definitely be back, and maybe go even further next time. Here are some pictures, for your viewing pleasure.

Hope you are having a great summer!

Motivational Monday - Step off that bank

We went to Maui in June and I've been going through our photos and even managed to organize some and get a photo book ordered.

When I talk with my family about our time there, one experience stands out in each of our minds. It was a hike through a bamboo forest and across a river to get to a waterfall.

It wasn't an easy hike, and when we had to cross a river, I wasn't sure I wanted to do it. It was like a real-life choose-your-own-adventure. Do I want to get wet? Do I want to try and walk across the slippery rocks? Do I want to go at all?

I didn't want to regret staying back while my family went ahead without me. So even though I was scared, I went. I made my way across the rocks and when there were no more rocks, I got in and got wet.

Here's our reward for our efforts:

I have often felt the same as I ventured in to a new writing project. Standing there, on the bank, wondering if I can make it across, doubt filling me up and my ego wanting me to continue to stand there, because standing still is most certainly better than failing. Or so it thinks.

Yes, it is scary, to take that first step, and then another, and to continue across, wondering what challenges lie ahead for you.

And of course, there will be challenges. But I also have come to learn that it's these experiences that also push us toward something extraordinary.

Staying on that bank would have been easy. But I would have missed out on so much. And so it is with our writing.

So today I say - step out. Go for it. Who knows what amazing waterfall awaits you!!