Guest Author: Amy Ratcliffe, Geek With Curves

For the third month in a row, I'm happy to present a guest post by a local writer. Today, meet Amy Ratcliffe.

I love her story. She wanted to be a writer. She thought about it. Then she decided to make it happen and bam! 

I think you'll like Amy as much as I do.

My name is Amy Ratcliffe. I'm a geek (that will be relevant in a minute). For most of my life I said I wanted to be a writer. However, I didn't do much to make that dream happen. I wrote as often as I felt like it in my writing notebook, and if you only write when you feel like it, the notebook doesn't fill up very fast. I participated in National Novel Writing Month a couple of times and actually defeated it once. I started blogging and realized it was fun to get feedback on the words I was putting out there. But I didn't know how to translate any of this to making my dream happen.

Then I was watching Star Wars for the nth time in January of last year, and I thought to myself: why not create a blog just for discussing your favorite geeky things?  So I started Geek With Curves. I signed up for Twitter around the same time. This started a new chapter (pun entirely intended) for me. I made myself sit down and write every day whether I felt like it or not. I started making connections. I also found a huge geek community on Twitter. People that didn't judge me for reading comic books or dressing up like Han Solo.

Through these people, I found writing work. Slowly but surely I am building a list of sites that are happy to accept articles about the politics in Game of Thrones or the female role models in The Clone Wars. I contribute to websites such as Tor.com, ScienceFiction.com, and the L.A. Times Hero Complex. I am doing what I love. A talented artist I know always tells people, "Don't tell me how bad you want it, show me." This is the phrase I keep in mind when I've had a long day at work and don't feel like sitting in front of a blank screen. I don't sleep as much I'd like, I definitely don't watch as much television as I want to, but I hope the sacrifices will be worth it when I'm doing what I love to do full time. And I believe I'll get there. Eventually.

AmyR, in Seventeen Days

Fellow Pasadena-area blogger AmyR is beyond busy this month. Besides hosting a dinner party last weekend and her mother this weekend and besides it being a busy time at work (which I learned from one of her posts) and besides operating two blogs, Amy is writing a novel.

Yes, she's writing a novel this month. November is National Novel Writing Month, also known as NaNoWriMo, and Amy's participating. Her goal is to write 1667 words per day. Think that's a snap? Give it a shot.

I'm not participating in NaNoWriMo, but I know all about it. I'm participating in National Novel Writing Decade, which is totally different.

The aim of NaNoWriMo is not to complete a publishable novel in thirty days (bully for you if you can), but to get your first draft going. Just blurt it out onto the page or the screen, no stopping to edit. It doesn't have to be good--hell, it can't be, can it? The point is, maybe you've been saying for a long time that you have a novel in you and NaNoWriMo is your chance to get it out.

I'm cheering Amy on. I'm saying, you can do it! Spit out that book, my friend!

Amy took her mom to the Huntington yesterday. It was a cool day. The ginkgo trees in the zen garden are golden this time of year. I took the above photo in the zen garden last year at this time, when I came upon a group of young women kicking it up after a bridal shower in the tearoom. I don't know if this was bride or bridesmaid. I just know she was letting loose.

Something for Amy to do, perhaps on December 1st?