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Friday, October 26, 2012

Refocusing by Guest Author P.G. Shriver


Refocusing

 My favorite time to think about my writing, plan my books, or just get my head together and focused for writing, is in the early morning. I wake up, get a cup of coffee, and sit at my computer where I choose from sixty or so books to work on. So many ideas flow through my mind all of the time, I sometimes become overwhelmed with all of them and get the stereotypical writer's block. When this happens, I don't want to look at my computer.

I can't choose which book to work on.

I can't focus on one book or the other.

I don't want to write.

The fun is gone.

When writer's block takes over, I am completely lost and non-productive in the one task that I enjoy more than life... writing! I have to refocus.

 I have always been an animal lover. We have four horses, ten cats, and cows.  Most importantly, we have two large dogs, a Great Pyrenees named Reba and a very special, my pal, mutt almost as big as her. His name is Domino. When I get writer's block, they become my inspiration, my focus, my knock-down-that-stupid-wall-and-get-writing fans. If I wake up in the morning and can't write anything before daylight, I put on my sneakers and walk with my dogs. I do not walk my dogs; they do not walk me. We live in the country, so I don't have the stress of following them around with little bags. I don't have to have them on a leash. Our walk is complete and total relaxation and activity. It's a time for me to get my heart pumping, smell the earth in its natural aroma, and stroke some fur on the move. My dogs love walking with me, and I them.

 The entire time we walk my mind relaxes, all thoughts of panic dissolve and I can come home to my writing refreshed and ready with new ideas that filled my mind while out. Everyone needs to get away sometimes to improve their craft. I don't have to get far away. I just need to go outside and stretch while my Domino stretches with me. I just need to step toward the driveway and see that big, goofy, yay-we're-going-for a-walk smile on Reba's face! I love my dogs. They are my inspiration.

 
Title: Dead Perfect
Author: P. G. Shriver
Publisher: Self Published
Pages: 230
MEL 
My lifelong dreams never included falling in love. Graduating top of the class, going to college somewhere far away and starting a life in a place where my alcoholic mother could never find me were the first three goals on my list. Then the unexpected auto accident with Mother, after her regular doses of vodka, altered all of that. With her gone, my life and my perspective changed forever.  
 
DAVIS  
Desperate to find Joanie so I could break free, I returned to my old school. The search led me to her, my Aphrodite, a familiar lost look in her soulful eyes. Fantasies of her forced reasoning from my mind. I had to meet her! Once fallen, would her love for me survive the ghostly secrets haunting us?
 
Author Links:
 
 About P. G. Shriver
Born in California, and raised in Minnesota and Texas, P.G. spent her early years writing poetry and winning poetry contests, while escaping the drama in her own childhood by reading great books for children. Ever since her earliest days, she loved story telling. She wrote numerous short stories in High School and her early college years, continually trying to relive that first experience at the age of seven of seeing her name in print in the local newspaper. 
P.G. sought her education at the University of Texas, where she studied English, literature, and Education. During the entire process of earning her BA and M.Ed, she never stopped writing and trying to be published.  It was during this time that her first children's book No More Stinkbugs!  was accepted for publication by Castle Keep Press. Many of her stories develop from nature.
P.G. graduated college and began her career in education, another great world that offered real experiences to humor and delight through children's books. She watched children interact, bringing to surface her own experiences as a child and yet more events to write about. While teaching, she discovered many great books for young people, such as The Watsons Go to Birmingham-1963, Maniac Magee, So. B. It and many more. She is a fan of Dean Koontz novels, too, and loves reading fantasy and paranormal books.
P.G. was married 20 years in March 2012 and has a bright, young daughter who has begun her own college career. She lives on a small farm in Texas with her family and animals. P.G. has experienced great love and loss throughout her life. Those her family has lost have dedications in her books.
P.G. has two young adult books published, Dead Perfect and The Gifted Ones: The Fairytale the first book in The Gifted Ones Trilogy. She also has several children's books written under Gean Penny, her pseudonym.  P. G. has since dissolved her contract for her first book with Castle Keep Press and moved the title to her own imprint, Gean Penny Books.

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