First Double Salchow Since Total ACL Reconstruction Surgery!!!

Today I got the best Christmas present EVER. After tearing my ACL back in March 2010 I landed my first double salchow today!

Silly orthopedic surgeons totally under estimate the difficulty of skating, spinning, and jumping on narrow metal blades with sharp teeth on the end. They told me I'd be back to skating six months after surgery. Boy, were they smoking crack. At six months I still couldn't walk like a normal person.

TWENTY ONE months after surgery I attempted my first double jump. Kind of a big difference.

Regardless, I'm happy despite how long it took because there were points I doubted I could ever do any of this again. It's been a slow process of healing that has required a ton of hard work. My first back-to-ice-happy-moment was when I got to perform in the Pelham Skate School's production of Musical Legends and Divas on Ice and then came today.

Below, via my awesome coach, Danny's iPhone comes my first double salchow since surgery:



Funny thing is that I didn't wake up this morning thinking I wanted to try a double salchow today. But, Danny remembered a comment I made last week where I said I thought I could probably re-learn how to do a double salchow before a single flip. Flips put considerable pressure and torque on my right knee.

So this morning Danny said, "How about double salchow?"

I'm sure I gave him a look that clearly said, Are you crazy?

The first few attempts I popped and did singles because I was sooo nervous and scared. I was worried about how much the landing would hurt or I was worried about how unhappy my knee would be if I fell and twisted it. All sorts of negative horrific scenarios were playing through my head.

I pushed the negative thoughts aside and let the nineteen or twenty years of muscle memory kick in.

And it worked.

Granted, it's not the prettiest double salchow, but I have plenty of time to perfect it again now that I know that I can actually do it.

Just want to thank my coach Danny and my trainers Dedrick and Jorge at PURmotion for helping make this possible.

Merry Christmas everyone!

Google--An Indispensable Tool

As I work on my re-write/revision today I find myself turning to Google for all sorts of things:

• A street map of the area around Big Ben and Westminster Bridge
• A tube map of London
• Ice cream places near Big Ben. Which if you need to know there is a Haagen Dazs on Leicester Square.
• Different types of eyebrow piercings
• Types of camera lenses
• Turns out the British prefer the term cab instead of taxi

What have you googled today?

Reason #242 Why I Love the Writing Community

When you love your story and your characters you find yourself willing to do extreme things to make them shine. Last week, with some fabulous critiques and suggestions from Dear Editor I made the decision to move forward with what I think is my tenth rewrite/revision. I wasn't bummed about it, but actually the opposite--extremely excited.

And then I read this post by soon to be published author Shannon Whitney Messenger and I knew my decision was the right one. You have to read this post in which she details her journey from draft one to publication.

In case you don't have time to read it though, let me summarize it for you:

20

Yes, it took her twenty drafts. How fortuitous was it for me to read this post on the day I planned to embark on number ten--that is why I love this writing community.

So Thankful...

This past weekend was epic for me because it was the first time I performed on the ice since I tore my ACL back in 2010. I can't skate like I could before the injury, but I worked my tail off to do what I can do today and I wanted to share!

I also want to give a shout out to everyone who helped me heal emotionally and physically from my injury.Thank you Dedrick Agee and Jorge Bonnet, my trainers, for never giving up on me and encouraging me to keep pushing myself. Danny Tate, you are the best coach and best friend a girl could ask for. Mom thank you for helping me through my early recovery and for telling me that I will skate again. Sarcastically Delicious (aka boyfriend), couldn't have done it without your love, support, and lectures about the merits of fish oil, glucosamine, and not slacking on my therapy. My cousin Priya, for coming over after the surgery and coaching me through those dreadful leg raises. Rink buddies, you dont' know how happy it made me to rehearse and perform along side you guys again. And to my gal pals (you know who you are) thank you for listening to all my wining and for your love and understanding.

Both numbers below are group numbers. If you have trouble finding me, look for the brown person.

My Recent Adventures

I know. I know. I've been missing on the blog-o-sphere recently, but I've been busy with my adventures.

• I reached my page goal for the end of November. Woot! Woot!
• Experienced new exponential levels of traffic congestion.
• When we spent a night playing accidental vigilante cop, I learned that the D.C. in Washington D.C. doesn't stand for District of Columbia, it stands for District of Crazy . We witnessed a guy get thrown out of an SUV and punched in the face; saw two guys ripping their shirts off and throwing each other into glass shop windows; and witnessed a guy beating up a girl because she lost his keys. Pathetic. But, I must say, the 911 responders were amazing and got help on the way immediately. Sadly, though Sarcastically Delicious (aka boyfriend) thinks I'm crazy because prior to the trip I told him how amazing D.C. was. And it is, there is so much history and beautiful architecture. But unfortunately, S.D. didn't get to see this side of the city, and I doubt he ever wants to go back.
• My cousins and I were almost run over by a guy in a Mercedes. And then when we gave the driver the evil eye he responded with threatening to punch us in the face. Really?!?
• I've always wanted to be in a flash mob and I got the opportunity when we did a pseudo flash mob at my cousin's wedding reception.  
• I got my nails shellacked last week. It's kind of like gel or acrylic nails except without the sandpaper drills. So it's still my nail but with a super resistant nail polish on top. I'm impressed with where nail technology is going these days.
• It's show time this week! That means lots of rehearsals leading up to this weekend. If you are in the Birmingham area, come check out Musical Legends and Divas on Ice December 3rd at 7:00pm and December 4th at 3:00pm at the Pelham Civic Complex. This will be the first time I perform in front of an audience since I tore my ACL. Super excited and thankful for the opportunity!
• I'm going to the SCBWI conference this January! Any one else going?

Don't Switch Narrators on Me

One of the best narrators of all time is Jim Dale. He narrates the entire Harry Potter series on audio book and gives every a character a unique voice. He is very consistent about making sure each distinct voice is utilized with the appropriate character. Step back and think about how many characters there are in the series. The amazingness that is Jim Dale astounds me every time I listen to the series.

Recently, I've lost myself in a paranormal young adult series. The narrator for the first three books was fantabulous. She did an excellent job of giving every character a unique voice and making sure each voice was age appropriate. Well, something political must have happened in the middle of the recording of the series, because book number four and on are recorded by a completely different studio and publisher than the first three. Hence, there is a different narrator.

I know I can be resistant to change and I was extra skeptical when I put disc 1 in my CD player, but I was willing to give this new narrator a chance. I really was. But when she made the seventeen year old main character sound like she was thirteen it made everything seem less believable. In addition, this narrator is not consisent about giving each character a distinct voice. So sometimes you assume it's Character A speaking but it's really Character C.

I'm so put off by this new narrator that I'm seriously thinking of just buying the books or checking them out from the library. And then I wonder if that was the publisher's goal. Maybe they wanted to annoy us with the recording so we'd go buy the book instead. Maybe there's a higher profit margin on the book instead of the audio book.

Ok, sorry about getting all conspiracy theory there. Just speculating.

Lost in Fiction Land

My blog is my home page on Firefox and when I opened up my browser this morning I realized I hadn't posted since October 27th! Yikes!

And for that I'm very sorry.
I've been lost in fiction land.

Been ferociously busy rewriting/revising my novel Shift. And when I'm not rewriting I've been trying to be a good critique partner. And when I'm not critiquing I've been listening to the House of Night series written by P.C. Cast and Kristen Cast on audio book. And when I'm not doing those things I'm participating in real life stuff. Boo. But, it has to be done.

I don't have anything really inspirational, funny, or writerly to say. But here's some stuff that I find quite interest:

Amazon has a lending program for those who have an Amazon Prime Account and a Kindle. Very intrigued by this as I have one but not the other. Which one do I have? I'll leave you guessing on that one. Oh, the suspense.

I love Maggie Stiefvater's books. I am itching to find time to read the Scorpio Races. She wrote an excellent blog post about creating mood in your writing.