Shallee McArthur

Hey there folks! Just jumping into the blogosphere briefly to announce both a birthday and a birth day!

My birthday was July 17th, and I got the fabulous present of a little baby girl. Yup, the little one hung on til one day past her due date so she and I could share birthdays from now on.

We're both feeling great. Hopefully I can get back into the full swing of blogging again in a month or so. However, baby girl (nicknamed Noodles by her big brother) and family will be the focus for now, and much as I love ya'll, I've also got to focus on finishing my last draft of my book. I'm excited to jump back into writing in the next few weeks.

And mostly, I'm so happy to be mommy a second time around to a perfect baby girl!

Sometimes, especially as a writer, I focus on...well, maybe not the bad, but on the things that need fixing. You know, I get a critique, and hurrah! So many things I can make better! (Of course, before the "hurrah-ing" comes the "aw-crap-I-should-have-known" and the occasional *wallow*-I-suck-*wallow.*)

But sometimes, things are just good. And I think we should take time to hurrah for the good! Because even though we all have things we can improve in our books and in our writing as a whole, there are things we've done pretty darn well with, too. In fact, there may even be a crap-load of awesome in our writing that we're overlooking because we're so focused on the fact that it's NOT YET PERFECT, MUST MAKE IT PERFECT.

So, my friends, take a little time today to look at your writing and find the awesome. And remember that you have a whole life outside of writing that has nuggets of awesome, too. Celebrate the awesome, folks!

Here's a bit of awesome from me. :) For all you fellow Americans, I hope you had a wonderful Independence Day, and for all you non-Americans, I hope your July 4th was a great day too!