Hey hi howdy-ho, pardners! It’s Wednesday, and you know what that means. Yup – it’s WRITER Wednesday. Wahoowa!
Today I’m delighted to have fellow Flash Friday competitor Joshua Bertetta here to visit. Josh writes some amazing flash (I know, because when I was serving as judge, I picked one of his pieces to win! Bwah ha ha!), and is an all-around friendly and fascinating guy (how many people do you know who hold a doctorate in Mythological Studies? And why didn’t *I* pursue that in grad school?)
He’d love to hear from you in the comments, so spread the writerly love, will you?
Also: authors, I have some openings coming up for future Writer Wednesdays, starting in October. Please email me if you’d like to take part!
What inspires you to write?
Ooh, this is a tough one. I have a very broad base of interests as demonstrated on my blog. We’ve probably all heard the adage “Every picture is worth a thousand words.” Can’t we reverse it too, and say every word is worth a thousand pictures? Images (visibility not required), ideas, words, they all inspire me in one way or another. As long as something moves me in one direction or another–that is all the inspiration I need to write at least something.
Name one interesting thing you learned in researching/writing your last book.
My WIP is a biography about the first person to ever be arrested for selling steroids. I learned there is a lot more to issues surrounding steroids than the media has presented over the past 30 or so years. In particular, I learned anabolic steroids developed in the 1950s America essentially as a Cold War weapon employed in the international sporting arena.
[ML: Holy cow, really? I need to read this book.]
Name two things people don’t know about you.
That depends on the who. As far as the flash community goes, I’d say most don’t know I am three-plus years sober and that I have an autistic son.
What one piece of advice do you wish you’d had when first starting out?
Join on-line flash fiction communities. They are a great way to meet other fantastic writers and hone your own craft by playing with genre, style, voice, etc.
[ML: I absolutely agree. Flash Friday was my first public venture into writing–and the first time I received acclaim from people other than my friends and family for fiction I’d written. I owe a lot to those confidence-boosting mentions.]
What’s Josh Up To?
I don’t have any publications to speak of, but I would invite readers to stop by my blog at joshbertetta.wordpress.com, where in addition to my flash fiction stories, I have excerpts from my first novel (for which I’m seeking publication) and essays on mythology, religion, spirituality, psychology, culture and society. A good sampling of all my little interests and inspirations.
Bio:
Josh Bertetta holds a Ph.D in Mythological Studies and teaches in the Religious Studies department at a small private university in central Texas. He is an aspiring author and a father of three boys. He loves to cook and garden.
Thanks so much for popping in, Josh! Can’t wait to feature you again when your novel is available!
Isn’t it pretty? Yup, here’s the brilliant cover for my second novel, A Matter of Time, which will be available November 30th, 2015 (Cyber Monday, for all you internet shoppers out there).
A huge THANK YOU to the unbelievably talented Joy of Lankshear Design!!!
I love the cover for A Man of Character, and I love this one, too!
I’m such a lucky author.
OK, maybe he does, since this, of course, is a take off of Baby Got Back (a song I love, but one which makes my husband cringe, because he remembers how often I played it when I first met him … bwah ha ha!).
I much prefer this version, and confess that our van has “I Like Big Books” as one of its many bumper stickers. 🙂
So here I am. Day 28 of the Whole 30. I’m still here. And I’m still not liking it – beyond the noticeable weight loss.
A list of positive benefits one might see. I checked off the ones I noticed. They were few, but at least there were some.
I wish I could be one of those people for whom this program worked miracles, who embraced it whole-heartedly and came out the other side feeling as if this were the way to eat forever, who found Paleo a perfect fit, who experienced all of the promised benefits.
I’m not.
I’m sure if I’d been able to do the plan more perfectly – had eaten a much broaden variety of veggies, a few more meats, had been able to stomach protein in the morning, and had not fallen into the predictable habit of one Larabar a day (occasionally two), perhaps I would have done better. Perhaps a few more of the promised benefits would have materialized.
Well, I’m sorry. I’ve done the best I could – which, based on how God-awful I felt on days 9-13, is better than I thought I would.
I won’t lie. I’ve noticed some things, besides the weight loss. My energy levels, while not high, are more even. I do wake less at night. My sugar and carb cravings are there, but not overpowering, and sometimes not first thing on my mind.
However, I’m still tired far too often (yes, I need to go to bed earlier, but still, relief of fatigue has NOT been something I’ve noticed during this experiment, and one of the things I was most looking forward to, that alleged Tiger Blood). I don’t have nearly the physical energy I wish I had (but I never have in my life, so this isn’t something new). I still have headaches (a bad sinus one at the moment, in fact). Still have food aversions and gag reflex issues going on. Still don’t eat nearly enough veggies, much less a broad variety of them, and I am so tired of beef and turkey and chicken I could scream.
I’ve been more emotional than usual this month – or, rather, I’ve been expressing those emotions more than usual. This is not necessarily a bad thing. It’s better than eating them, I suppose. But it’s been more uncomfortable, too, feeling so angry, so sad (I’ve cried more this month than I think I have in the last year), and so. darn. anxious. (Not sure if that’s a food-related thing; deadlines and worries about reader reception can do that to a girl.)
If anyone experienced the majority of these positives, talk to me. I wanted to check off so many more.
While writing this post, I asked my husband if he’d noticed anything different about me in the last month (besides the weight loss), in case I missed something. His answer? “Well, your mood was noticeably worse in the first three weeks, but I say maybe it’s been better this last one?” BWAH HA HA! Does that sound like something I should regularly inflict on my family?!?
And therein lies the rub … there haven’t been ALL that many benefits that I’ve noticed. But I HAVE dropped 20 pounds. That’s nothing to sneeze at. I’m wondering if I’ve improved my internal numbers, too – cholesterol, etc. I don’t know. And there have been a few positives, as outlined above.
Is it enough? Is it enough to keep me focused on healthier eating, even if I don’t stick to Paleo? I hope so.
Right now I’m so grumpy about this whole thing – how hungry I’ve been, how angry I’ve been, how hard it’s been – that it’s challenging to embrace this as a success (yes, even despite those twenty pounds). I went out to eat THREE TIMES this week (yes, I guess by choice): once with my critique group, once with two close friends, and then yesterday with the Virginia Romance Writers.
Y’all, do you know how hard it is to be in a restaurant, to smell all those smells, see all those items on the menu, and know you can’t eat 99% of it? Do you know how hard it is to order naked steak or naked chicken breast with steamed broccoli while the people around you are eating cheeseburgers and pasta and fried stuff? For me, it was excruciating. I know that’s part of my challenge – making healthy choices every day in the face of all the temptations around us, but come on. I was miserable. Angry. And it made me totally want to binge once this 30 days is up.
Which is exactly what I DON’T want to do.
Suffice it to say, while Whole 30 has helped me shed some weight, and has helped with the sugar/carb cravings, it has definitely NOT fixed my food issues.
I’m not surprised. The Whole 30 people themselves say, of course, that if one has been eating poorly for decades, or has more serious food issues, 30 days won’t fix them. Their suggestion? Keep going, for a Whole 45 or a Whole 60 or even a Whole 90.
Reader, there is nothing I want to do less. Come Tuesday, I’m trying peas and peanut butter, and you can’t stop me.
If only the Whole 30 could take off years as well as pounds … Bwah ha ha!
However, you can wish me luck in successfully navigating the “reintroduction phase,” the 10 days following your Whole 30, in which you reintroduce the avoided food groups, one at a time, and only one every three days (in other words, eat foods from that food group one day, go back to Whole 30 eating for the next two, eat the second group, repeat). I really, truly want to do that right, because I really, truly want to know for sure which foods bother me the most. My suspicion is sugar and white flour – but if soy is actually an issue, I want to know it. If peas produce problems, it would be useful to find that out for sure.
It would NOT be useful to wake up Tuesday and eat my way through the day, no matter how much I fantasize about chocolate and Chinese food, donuts and pizza.
I’m sorry I was not a better Poster Child for Whole 30. But I’ve been an honest one. This has been one of the most difficult things I’ve ever done. The Whole 30 people say “this is not hard. Having a baby is hard. Having cancer is hard. This is not hard.” OK, fine. I’m blessed – so very blessed – not to have yet faced cancer. I HAVE had two children, and while giving birth to them was no picnic, IT DIDN’T LAST 30 DAYS! (Though I would agree that child-rearing is harder. Enough said.)
Thank you to all who have put up with me this past month – ESPECIALLY my husband, and my kids. Thank you to all who’ve cheered me on, cheered me up, encouraged me to keep going. Thank you for tolerating my whining over something that, really, despite the last paragraph, isn’t something that’s been a life-or-death situation – no matter how much I’ve hated it.
The food issues are deep. They always will be. But I’ve survived this 30 day challenge. Frankly, knowing myself as I do, I didn’t think I’d make it the Whole 30 days. I did, out of sheer contrariness. But I did.
And there you have it. Oh, I’ll probably pop in on Tuesday to let you know if I did, indeed make it through the last two days. But this is the last big, whiny post you’ll have to read on this subject. Until I decide to do it again (I’m not ruling it out, because Lord knows I still have a lot of weight to lose.)
Any words of support, advice, wisdom, encouragement to keep me from falling back into the oatmeal cream pies would be greatly appreciated. Thank you.
Ha ha, see what I did there? A Matter of Time is the name my next book. Working it into the title of this blog post was a stroke of genius, or, more likely, a sign I need more sleep.
See, like many authors, I’m discovering there just isn’t enough time. For anything, it sometimes feels.
Writing isn’t even a full-time job for me – or it isn’t supposed to be. The Mom Hat still comes first, and since I have to drive kids to and from school, it chops up my day. Not to mention in the mornings and once they’re home, my silly kiddos actually want some of my attention. My darling husband, too.
But writing could be full-time, easily. It’s trying to be. So could editing, if I had the stamina for it. Don’t even get me started on marketing – that’s a job and a half, at least.
One day last week, I vented on Facebook about feeling as if I’m never doing anything right as I stumble along this book writing/editing/publishing/marketing path, and I got back wonderful responses. Truly wonderful. I keep returning to read the responses, but Grace Burrowes‘ advice has really stuck with me. It’s advice I’ve heard from many, many other authors, as well: the only job I really need to do is write the books, write the books, write the books.
I just wish I had time and energy enough to do what I want to do with writing (and editing and marketing and…). When I have time (evenings), I’m often out of energy. When I have energy (day), I’m lucky if I get a good four hours in. Because darn if my family doesn’t want to eat, so I have to grocery shop and cook. I have to occasionally do laundry and dishes, so that we’re not eating naked off our thighs or something. I sometimes decide to pick stuff up, so that we don’t end up on an episode of Hoarders.
I’m hopelessly behind in email (not in the least because I sign up for newsletters about writing, free video courses about writing, etc., etc, but can’t find the time to read/watch them). I do get caught up in social media, I admit; I want to respond to everything and everyone, but of course, that takes time. Time I willingly give. Plus, well, yeah, I get distracted by George Takei‘s posts and cute cat videos and pictures of friends’ kids, etc.
Time management is not one of my strong suits and never has been, so I’m sure part of this–maybe even a lot of this–is me. I’m sure I could do better.
I’m just tipping my hat today to those authors out there who seem able to do it all: write quality books, and write them quickly, edit them quickly, publish them quickly, market them astutely, keep up with social media, etc. I admire you.
Someday, I hope to be you! In the meantime, can you share your secrets?
Meanwhile, it’s back to the Editing Cave. Time, energy, or not, A Matter of Timewill make its way back to the editor September 28th. Wish me luck, will you?
Hey hi howdy-ho, pardners! It’s Wednesday, and you know what that means. Yup – it’s WRITER Wednesday. Wahoowa!
Name one interesting thing you learned in researching/writing your last book.
I don’t have any publications to speak of, but I would invite readers to stop by my blog at joshbertetta.wordpress.com, where in addition to my flash fiction stories, I have excerpts from my first novel (for which I’m seeking publication) and essays on mythology, religion, spirituality, psychology, culture and society. A good sampling of all my little interests and inspirations.
