What's Up Wednesdays -- It's All About Me!

A while back I asked the question on Facebook: Quick, name five things you know I like. I did this because I am under the impression that very few people in my everyday “real life” know that much about me. (Or don’t take the time to.) Several people answered (In no specific order):

My kids

Snakes

Darren Criss

All Time Low

Writing

Hugs

Dylan O’Brien

Beer

Coffee

Raspberry Turnovers

Birdie’s Café

Buffy The Vampire Slayer

Tattoos Cupcakes

Dogs

Fans!

These are awesome guesses! And you all are right! I thought I would write a blog and talk about some of the things I like the most.

Favorite Band:

All Time Low …. I talk about them all the time. If I asked you and you said Taylor Swift, then you don’t know me at all. I would also accept answers of Maroon 5 and Evanescence since I do love them loads! But I’ve seen All Time Low in concert twice! I <3 Alex Gaskarth. Picture take at the concert I went to in May.

Favorite TV show:

I also LOVE Teen Wolf! I seriously think Dylan O’Brien is amazing, and Tyler Posey is a close second. I would love to go to a con where either one was signing autographs! I have all 4 seasons on DVD and I am currently on the edge of my seat for season 5 as each episode airs.

Buffy the Vampire Slayer was the best show ever written. Joss Whedon is brilliant. Period! I love all the characters, I really do, but there was something about Oz that is just so wonderful. His dialogue, even the lack thereof, was perfect. Seth Green did a terrific job. I think what I loved the most was the dialogue of the characters and how character specific it was. Truly inspiring.

My latest passion is Glee. I am 5 years behind, but better late than never. Blaine Anderson is my favorite character. I love his personality and depth of emotion. Blaine is a caring soul, and he touched me. Darren Criss (the actor) has such a wonderful voice and his facial expressions add so much feeling to him. Of course I loved Kurt and Blaine together, but I always wanted to know what Blaine was going to do or sing next. J And I really liked Sam <3 AND BECAUSE I LOVE THEATER, I went to New York to see Darren Criss play Hedwig in HEDWIG AND THE ANGRY INCH. SOOO worth my 5 hour drive as I got his autograph and a few pictures. He was so pleasant to the crowd of adoring fans. :)

I do love Dexter. Such an interesting show! Well written and unique. Hannibal is where I am now. Although I am behind on season 3. No time. And Penny Dreadful too. Very different. I like different!

I own all of Friends, That 70’s Show, Smallville, Angel and Buffy, Spartacus, some Xena, and I have all of Red Dwarf on VHS. (I think I need to get DVDs)

I do love movies. Lots of movies. Lets see… Top FAVORITES I can think of without looking in no particular order:

Shakespeare In Love

Pitch Black

Ocean’s Eleven

Shelter

Jurassic Park (and Jurassic World)

X-Men (All of them)

How to Train Your Dragon (1&2)

French Kiss

Ten Things I Hate About You

Heat

Underworld

Hackers

The Very Thought Of You

*ALL the Jason Bourne Movies

Galaxy Quest

Some Kind Of Wonderful

Empire Records

The Importance of Being Ernest

Bladerunner

That Thing You Do

Gone In 60 Seconds

That’s the best I can do without going through my stack of movies.

I love ART. My house is a mini art gallery. I collect art. Not REAL art that costs zillions, but prints of the originals. I have been to several art galleries around the country and I have prints from those galleries. (I pick ones where I saw the print IN that gallery.)

The Painter’s Honeymoon (below) I bought while in Boston a few years back.

I have a print of the Mona Lisa from Paris.

I also collect watercolors and such from cities. I bought one while in New Orleans in 2014 while I was hanging out with Jordan Hawk, and this one (below) is from Ukraine when I was there in 2010.

This one hangs in my house and is one of my favorites. (Below) I used this in an English assignment and then used the English assignment in Misplaced Affection.

I COLLECT stuff:

I collect tiny glass animals. (See below) It started out as 5 mini glass animals to represent people in the family, but it is growing. I especially love my glass sheep :) And Jason Mitchell and I have matching glass lizards.

I collect dice. Yes, I only have six different ones, but I want to collect a jar full of different colors, shapes and sizes.

I also collect stuffed skunks and opossums. 

I have a digital picture frame in my kitchen and it rotates 2000 pictures. If you said I love my friends, you are correct! I put on it pictures from conferences too! :) Chances are good, that if I took your picture, your picture is in my kitchen :)

I DO love beer (love Stouts), but I also love vodka drinks :)

I love writing. I get so much satisfaction seeing characters come alive. No, not everyone gets why I write what I do, but I love my characters. They are fun people and I try to have them make a statement. I want to write meaningful things and I really think I do that. Thank you to all of you who have taken the time to read my books and let me know what you think.

BUT, I rarely read :( I have a lot of books that I look at on my shelf that I have yet to read. I started out loving sci-fi / fantasy and these are the books I have read the most. The Hafling’s Gem I’ve read more than any other book. Legacy was probably the first fantasy book that made me cry ugly tears. Horrible, sobbing, ugly tears.

My Favorite blogs:

2 Boys In Love

Kage Alan

Jeff Adams

I love to travel and I’ve been to:

Paris & Mont St Micheal (I don't think I spelled that right)

London & Qew gardens

All over Ireland

Montreal & Quebec

Ukraine

Maryland (lol), PA, NY, Maine, Texas, FL, LA, DE, VA, NC, SC, Georgia, Tennessee, IL, Boston. (Yes, I list cities and states all mixed up.)

I love perfume and have about fifteen different ones I’ve bought all over the place from here to Paris.

And finally, I DO adore my fans. Thank you all for being so supportive. I have a plan to send out one random package a month to one lucky fan. Most are in the Wade Brigade, but if you are not on facebook, then just e-mail me: writerwadekelly@gmail.com and I will keep you n mind for the random gifts :)

I am currently writing the names of all my fans on little stones to keep in a jar on my desk. I did a few more yesterday.

Anyway… It took me forever for me to post this. My internet is awful. I will have to talk about myself another time. I hope you all have a great night. Comment. Let me know if you want to know anything.


oxoxo

Wade

What's Up? Wednesdays -- What Works?

Well, obviously it is NOT my Internet that is working. It has been out more than it works. So far, I haven't been so bothered that I felt the need to take up all my time and sit on the phone with Verizon and fix it. It took two hours last time and it only worked a day. The issue is actually two-fold.

I have Verizon for internet and for my home phone. I have Sprint for wireless. The Sprint booster tower and the Verizon modem/router do not communicate well. Every day the Sprint tower cycles through and reboots itself (so the representative said) and it then kicks out the internet because the Verizon modem doesn't like the Sprint tower. Something like that. What it means for me is the internet isn;t working most of the time. I need internet for the Sprint tower to function and send the signal to my phone. Without internet, I also have no cell phone. This sucks!

Do I have time to drive somewhere in order to blog and tweet and post on Facebook? Not really. The other day I was able to post to Facebook and check messages while I was in Westminster doing other things. I can be in Target waiting for my daughter's prescription and "like" something on Facebook, or make a comment, but I can not write a blog post. Maybe there are people who do use the Blogger app on their iPhones to post, but I find it difficult and annoying. The phone is small. I don't have the bigger keyboard and the multiple tabs to search for photos and links to add. It seems like too much work so I don;t post. Bu then days go by… DAYS, and I don't have any blog posts. I was trying very hard to get into a routine and post every day or at least several times a week.

I blame the internet for my lack of posting!!!!

I'm also a slacker when it comes to writing. My goal was to have my WIP done by April. It is April 1st and I am not done. There is the argument about setting priorities and I have, but my priority always circles back to my family and I guess we did a bit to much over the weekend and I didm;t write as much as I wanted. I am trying!!! I promise. I have written more in the last couple months than I normally do and I hope to continue that pace. The key is in consistency and i hope that being consistent with writing will produce more books.

Also, with that in mind, I am trying to focus on WHAT WORKS for me. Getting up at 4:30 a.m. works. My mind of more focused and creative in the mornings so writing as soon as I have my coffee DOES get the most results. I am up to 76k on No! Jocks Don't Date Guys, so keep your fingers crossed  that I keep that ball rolling!

Comedy works. Light-hearted works. In order to make a career out of writing I have to focus on what readers want and what sells. YES, I want to write meaningful things that grip readers and rip their hearts out, but that is not what sells well. Happy and light-hearted sell! I will continue to write the deeper things because they mean something to me, but I think the key to being successful is learning to balance it with the happy, fluffy stuff. Since I have a history of writing ONE BOOK A YEAR, it hasn't panned out well for me. I was stuck in the deep, angsty mode for a while and so my career has been tough. I hope this year will turn it around for me.

Or, more specifically, my writing THIS year, for projected sales NEXT year. I'm not in it to be rich, but I also don't want to get cornered financially where I am forced to to a "real" job. I don't want to work at anything other than writing. I learned a lot about marketing, so now is my chance to put it to use, but I can only do that if I have books to market! Writing comes first. I need to write consistently, as well as write more light-heartedly!

That is my goal and focus right now. My "JOCK" series has potential so I'm running with it. Readers love JOCK. Cole & Ellis, and Rob & Russell are funny. I need more funny. I'm working on Chris and Alonzo right now, hoping they will be a hit. (I really like them!)

We are all familiar with the SCALE, right?

I am shooting for a "2" for No! Josks Don't Date Guys. Whether or not IS a 2, I think I will have to ask my beta readers for their assessment as compared to My Roommate's A Jock? Well, Crap!
When I originally planned it, JOCK 2 was falling closer and closer to a 4. I am not supposed to be writing angst! It is so hard not to. So I changed some things and lost some words, and reshaped the angsty parts to be less strong. I don't need to kill my readers with a supposed comedy. Right? LOL!!!!

It is lighter now. I also reread my "blurb" to remind myself what the book is about. I think Blurbs are helpful, especially when they DO describe the content.

What is a sexy soccer stud supposed to do when “following family traditions” falls 180 degrees opposite his closeted ideal?

From birth, Chris Jackson had been schooled on how to land himself a cheerleader. After all, his father married one, and his father’s father before that. Heck, even his older brother married their father’s definition of a stereotypical cheerleader the summer before Chris went off to college. For two years, Chris dodged invasive questions about relationships by blaming his lack of female companionship on grueling practices and heavy coarse loads; but really, his lack of interest in girls period should have given the family a clue. It wasn’t until Chris mentioned meeting a boy that his father’s synapses short-circuited.

Alonzo Martin was anything but a buxom blond. From his black hair, combat boots, and trench coat, to his nail polish and guyliner, the mysterious introvert was not so easily persuaded to go on a date. Alonzo’s insecurities kept Chris at arm’s length, but even his painful past couldn’t compete with the charismatic jock’s winning smile and sense of humor.

When opposites attract, only cheerleaders and gummy bears can overcome fear and family traditions.

So… what do YOU think readers? Does this WORK for you?

Stop back on Tuesday. I hope to have internet enough to post an excerpt. Or are you on FB? Have you already read one? Tell me what you think?

HUGS :)

What's Up Wednesdays - Good Friends

I stole this from a post Matt Rayne did on Facebook. I liked how it referred to "Feeling Deeply" as a SUPER POWER! I think I do feel deeply. I see things in people. I sense things in the way they look at me. I've been able to do that for years. Not always, but extremely often. I believe I have a gift of "reading" people, and I am not alone in this. I have a friend named "L" (for privacy) that reads people very well and is in-tune with things that can't bee seen or explained. Lena (another "L" friend on Facebook whom many may know) can read people and sense thing very deeply. She sensed things about me over the Internet!! 

Sensing emotion can draining because often times it is not happy feelings I read. I can see pain in people's eyes. I can feel loss and sadness. I believe it is a gift God gives to help me and others like me, connect with people on a deeper level than most experience. Feeling Deeply is a good thing.

I shared this photo this morning and tagged a couple people. I can only tag five, per my rule. I will tag more people as the week progresses. I posted yesterday about having a list of 300+ people on it. I made the list so I can better track myself because I'd probably tag the same people over and over because even if I have 2400+ "friends" on facebook, I only interact daily with a small number. 

I'm not naming people specifically on my blog because I know I will forget someone and then hurt a person's feelings unintentionally, so I will talk in generalities for the most part.

Sometimes I meet people who just make me FEEL happy and they don't need to do anything! The person doesn't even have to be in a good mood or feeling happy themselves, but for me it's like being wrapped in a warm blanket. Maybe it is the other person's aura? I don't know. But it is very real to me. I feel it. Often this comforting invisible hug brings tears to my eyes because it feel so wonderful. I wish others could feel that. There are probably a handful of people that generate this "blanket hug/tear inducing/warm-fuzzy" feeling in me without any action on their part at all. I can DEFINITELY think of three for sure! Another couple I think I need to walk into a room with them and see if that same tangible warm feeling wraps around me. 

But even without the tangible happiness, there ARE for sure, people in my life who make me happy without doing anything at all. I am happy knowing you, being around you, hugging you, talking to you, texting you, and any number of things, but it isn't a doing of something that makes me happy knowing you. I HOPE that you know who you are without me saying it. 

By nature, I am a very friendly person and I make friends easily. However, some friendships do turn out superficial and we can talk about the weather, writing, or cooking and such without any problems. I guess those are acquaintance type friends. (Because you know all friends fit into some category or another.) Friend friends get to know me a title more and we talk longer, maybe. The deep level of friendships often take time. Although I do have one friend that no matter how long we are apart, we can jump back in and feel comfortable right away! Those are great kinds of friends to have.

I feel like I am rambling and you have no idea where I am going with this. Maybe I don't have more of a point.

I guess I mainly want to say, I am thankful and grateful for all the types of friendships I have, and to tell you I am not afraid of knowing you (person out there). Chances are I can see it in your eyes before you even bring it up. I'll listen any time, and I'll cry or laugh with you any time. 

And if you can make me smile even on a crappy day, then you are extra special to me! :)

MANY HUGS! <3

The OTHER Wade Kelly

So, I was poking around Google because another thing that was brought up over the week end was using YOUR NAME for an e-mail address. Not sleepynija27@____ or TurtleLover99@____, but claiming YOUR name in e-mail and domain name. I mentioned that I use Writer Wade Kelly. (writerwadekelly@gmail.com) The comment was made, "Huh. So you're a writer, are you?" Yes, I am. But WHY have that in my title when people who visit my already know I am a writer? VALID POINT.

When I originally chose the name I did google it and found out there is some guy with that name. So, MEETWade Kelly….

I found this picture and a link to a blog called "The Noteworthy" … You can find it HERE. On this page I read all about a guy named Wade, but I am still not sure WHO he is and where he can be found. If he is truly "noteworthy" shouldn't I be able to find him somewhere? I THINK he is a part of the educational system in South Wales, but IDK.

Anyway… All that to say I found another interesting tidbit. I have mentioned previously that my name originated with a TV show called SLIDERS. It was a sci-fi show in the 90's and the girl character on the show was named Wade Wells. See below :)

What I found super cool and unexpected is that when I was searching pictures of "Wade Kelly" and this one showed up, the description that went with it was even better!

I DID NOT KNOW THAT WADE HAD A SISTER NAMED KELLY!!!!

This was an interesting fact to me as I thought I picked "Kelly" because I liked the name. Perhaps it was a subconscious decision based on knowledge I'd gained from watching the show for so many years??? I don't know. I just thought that was fun! Wade Wells + Kelly Wells = Wade Kelly!! hahaha.

Back to the original comment from the weekend…. WRITER is a part of my e-mail and web address because when searching for Wade Kelly I could have sworn a football player came up 5 years ago. Maybe I was wrong, but the reason I put "Writer" in the title was to distinguish myself apart from that guy. Now, maybe I am set apart front he Education guy from Wales. Either way, the "writer" part of the title is staying because it does make sense in the context. If you look up Wade Kelly you find me anyway.