New Blog Schedule

Happy Friday! I feel great today. Had the best night of sleep since before I had kids. It's amazing what a full, uninterrupted night of sleep can do for you. I feel so good I'm not even that upset with myself for skipping yesterday's blog post. Well, I do feel a little bad. But it is just a blip in the 40 Blog Posts in 40 Days challenge.

But, on the bright side for you loyal readers (you know who you are) it probably wasn't going to be anything blog worthy anyway. I was too tired to think yesterday. I'm back on today and the gears are going at full speed.

Here's my tentative *new and improved* blog schedule. After my 40 Day Challenge is over I will not be posting everyday at first. I'd like to focus my energy on the new series I'm starting and on the existing ones.

Monday - Will remain Memoir Mondays. There are endless amounts of inspirational memoirs out there. My only problem is finding the time to read and get them up on the blog. My goal, and part of my new year resolution, is to post at least 2 a month.

Wednesday - Writer's Wednesdays. A new series highlighting all types of writers (beginners, freelance, published and seasoned authors). Inspired by the kind people on Twitter who do a special shout out to writers every Wednesday. More details on this soon.

Friday - Raising Kids in a High Tech World. This is another new series. It's something I deal with everyday with my kids and think it needs to be discussed. Click Here for the post that explains more. Notice that the title and the week day has changed. Originally this series was planned for Tuesdays and was going to focus on Teens. But as I write the first posts I realize this involves kids of all ages.

Saturday & Sunday - This will be reserved for reviews and blog tours for books I've read.

That leaves Tuesdays & Thursdays as free days to talk about my own writing or new book news. Basically whatever I want, or nothing at all. It's kind of nice to leave myself a few days like that. I admire the writers out there that can post something new everyday, but have to be realistic with my schedule and how I choose to split my writing time.

I hope that you stop by for some of these discussions. If you are a writer and want to participate in the Writer Wednesdays series let me know.

Thanks,

Kristin : )

Tech Teens: Raising Kids in a High Tech World

Anyone with teenagers knows it's a different world from when we were teens. The biggest change is the ever growing field of technology.They have computers, IPhones, Ipods, xbox 360, Playstation3, Wii, cell phones, etc. All of these devices and systems allow them to interact with the entire world. Their influences stretch well beyond their families and school friends. The scary part is how young this interaction begins. Just when I think my older boys have matured enough to understand the positive and negative aspects of all this technology, my 10 and 12 year children are asking when they get their phones and why they can't have their own online XBOX account or Facebook.

How much technology is too much? And a favorite question of my kids, How old do I have to be?

This is something I wrestle with constantly. It's a whole new ballgame for parents today. Used to be you could teach stranger danger to your kids and it covered every person that walked within their scope of life. Today their scope is widening and most predators can hide safely behind a monitor or a microphone and neatly behind the profile of an innocent child their own age. My kids know not to give personal information willingly online, but look at me like I'm crazy when I explain how they can easily baited into giving this information without even realizing it.

This is a on going battle in my house and since there are endless topics, I'd like to start discussing technology and teens weekly.

Join me next Tuesday for the first part of Tech Teens, when I'll start with the subject of age. How old should a child be before allowing full access to the virtual world?

I look forward to hearing your thoughts and opinions on this.

Thanks,

Kristin : )

40 Posts in 40 Days: Challenge Update

It's been about 2 weeks since I started my 40 Blog Posts in 40 Days personal challenge. This is what I've learned so far and what I hope to achieve by the time the challenge is finished.

It's not as tough to post everyday as I originally made myself believe. I'm not saying each post offered ground breaking information for the virtual world, but it helped me to get more comfortable with writing on the spot. I tend to be a tough critic in my novel writing. Most days I have no idea what I'm going to write for my blog (like today) and next thing you know I'm typing away (like right now).

Sometimes an idea hits me while waiting in the car for one of my kids to emerge from an activity and I can't wait to get home and put it on the blog. That's how my short story, The Perfect Resolution, came to life. Sitting in the school parking lot watching other parents waiting impatiently for their child. Some outside pacing, talking on the phone loudly about where they're going or what they still need to do. Other parents sitting in their cars, engines running, watching the doors for movement as they drink their bottled water and check their hair in the mirror. We are all in a rush to get to the next thing and following daily rituals to achieve some form of perfection in ourselves or through our children. That's where Jenny was born. She is a combination of myself and the many parents I see and talk with each week.

I am happy with some other changes blogging every day has brought on. It made me realize that if I plan to continue after my challenge is over I'll need to develop a schedule so that blogging doesn't take over too much of my writing time. So, as I type I have ideas percolating. Over the next few weeks I hope to have newly organized blog schedule up.

That's it for now. Thanks to those of you who keep coming back, whether you choose to comment of not I appreciate you giving some of your time to stop by.

Thanks,

Kristin : )