Have you noticed how crappy of a blogger I’ve been lately?  Just say yes.

I apologize!  I have been so busy this summer with other projects, I haven’t had time for much else.  But I will be back. You can’t get rid of me that easily.

The fabulous Julie Loden tagged me for this, so here goes nothin’!

Me in Threes: Amanda Plavich

Three names I go by: Mandy, Mrs. Plavich, Mrs. P (can you tell I’m a teacher?)

Three jobs I’ve had: Daycare worker, athletic department tutor, elementary school teacher

Three places I’ve been:

(in U.S.) Los Angeles, CA; San Francisco, CA; New York City, NY

(outside U.S.) Jena, Germany (lived); Berlin, Germany (visited), Prague, Czech Republic (visited)

Three movies I love: Love Actually, Any Disaster Movie, My Fair Lady

Three shows I can’t miss: Army Wives, Glee, Big Brother (beginning on my birthday this year! YAY!)

Three books I recently read that I loved: Spirit Bound (Rachelle Mead); The Hunger Games & Catching Fire (Suzanne Collins)

Three hobbies I do in my spare time: Photography, make children’s items on etsy, write :)

Three things I am really, really looking forward to: Having more children, building our dream home on our land, winning the lottery (what?  A girl can dream, right?)

Now for the tagged!

1.  Kate Hart (http://www.katehart.net)

2.  Creative A (http://www.HeaddeskForWriters.blogspot.com/)

3.  Houndrat (Deb) (http://www.houndrat.com/)

As I’ve been working on THE DEVIL’S UTOPIA, I had an odd little thing happen.  My brain kept wanting to write in present tense.

Now, let me explain.  I’m not a fan of present tense.  I’m just not.  I’ve read a few books (or drafts of other certain someone’s) where it worked, but most of the time I trip and fall over each word.  It just doesn’t feel natural to me.

So, when I caught myself doing it, I thought, OH NOES! Must make this past tense!!

And I did.

But as I was pondering today (I do that sometimes – ponder – it can be kind of scary sometimes), I thought, why am I forcing my story to do something it’s not meant to do?  Adelaide needs to tell her story as it’s happening.

So guess what, people!  It’s the Apocalypse!  I, Amanda, will be writing a story in PRESENT TENSE!  I can’t fight it any more.

Now I just have to go back and change everything I tried to fit in a past tense box.  Fun.

Meet writer me:

I’m one of those people that keeps my writing a secret with a few exceptions  Why?  Well, there are a lot of reasons.

~ I don’t want people to think I’m an insane person or delusional or both.

~ I don’t want people to ask me questions about what I’m writing because it always sounds stupid when I try to explain it.  This is why query letters scare the pee out of me, though I’m slowly getting better with summarizing.  It’s a process, people!

~ I just don’t want to face the questions: When are you going to be done?  When are you going to be published?  And then not have anything to tell them if I don’t.  I don’t mind if I only end up writing for myself, but I just don’t want beady, judgey eyes looking at me through this process.

I don’t know.  Some times I think I should be more open about it, but I’ve had some unpleasant reactions when I’ve decided to share, so that draws me back into my turtle shell.  But then, my husband, whom I love dearly, tells people all the time what I’m doing, and really, that’s what matters.  The people I love are proud of me.

Still, it’s scary to put yourself out there.  Granted, I use my real name and people see this that I know in real life and that’s okay.  It’s just when I have to look at someone in the eye and tell them what I’m doing face to face, it’s scary.

I know I’m rambling, but this is just something I’ve been thinking about lately.

Sharing my secret feels like my ceiling and walls all turn into this:

Granted, now that I look at that picture, it seems as if they are all baby eyes.  I don’t think my walls really turn into baby eyes judging me, but you get the picture. :-P

I’ve noticed that I’ve changed a smidge since beginning this wee-little journey of becoming an author.  Some of the changes, I’ve decided to list.  You may question my sanity, but I have a feeling you will relate to more of them not.  So what does that say about us as a group? :D

1. You try to sleep, but the little voices inside your head won’t stop talking to you (try to keep this one to yourself if you don’t want to wind up in a straight-jacket).

2.  Instead of seeing the weird old man that wanders the streets as having a one-way ticket on the crazy train, you start wondering about his life story and how it would make an interesting novel.

3.  Before, you’d have thought buying a $20 book of blank writing paper to be a total waste of money, but now you see it as a sturdy investment.

4. You used to be able to ignore grammatical errors made by others, but now they drive you absolutely bonkers (even if you continue to make them yourself).

5.  You have a new appreciation for quality pens.

6.  You bore your family and friends with talk of the imaginary world running around in your mind.  Sometimes you get the blank, glassy stare, but other times, they get just as excited as you are.  That latter is a good sign. ;-)

7.  On the flipside of #6, you don’t talk to anyone about it because you grow tired of the dreaded: “When will you be published?” or just because it’s too personal to talk about.

I know there are a lot more, so do you have anything to add to the list?