The first book I ever wrote was a romance. I just didn’t know it yet. That book, Land of the Misty Gems, was a class project way back in the sixth grade. We wrote the text, illustrated them with colored pencils, even bound them with twine and pasted a fabric cover on our creations. I still have that book. It was the beginning of my writing career, even if until the early 1990s that writing consisted mainly of research papers and essay test questions and then newspaper articles.

I was born and grew up in Kentucky and began reading so long ago I don’t remember how it all started. I do remember loving a little book called The Runaway Pancake, then the regular treasures that would appear in our mailbox from the Weekly Reader Book Club, then books like the Little House on the Prairie series. The library was one of my favorite places. And even though being a bookworm didn’t do wonders for my social life when I was in my teens, I wouldn’t trade my love of books for the world.

That love of reading and writing has brought me joy and some of the most wonderful friends a girl could have, including many amazing writers in Romance Writers of America.

Since I wasn’t a math genius and didn’t particularly have a passion for the frog dissection required in biology class, I gravitated naturally toward writing. So I began writing for the school paper in middle school and kept on writing for papers through the years immediately after I received my print journalism degree. Until I left to try my hand at writing at home full-time, I was a magazine editor/writer.

On July 24, 2007, I finally got “The Call” and sold my first two books, young adult titles, to Razorbill, a part of Penguin Young Readers Group. On Oct. 26, 2007, I was thrilled to sell two romances to Harlequin American.

I am constantly looking for new ways to live a healthier lifestyle and to keep those efforts interesting so I don’t let them slide. After all, now that I’ve accomplished the goal of becoming a published author, I want that part of my life to last a good, long time.

For the story of how I started the Healthy Writer blog and its journey since its launch, see the About Us page.

• Michelle Butler
• Mary Curry
• Sally Kilpatrick
• Trish Milburn
• Anna Sugden
• Tawny Weber

• Rachel Graves
• Keri Mikulski

     

• I love to hike and have the dream of through-hiking the Appalachian Trail.
• I’m a total National Park junkie! I want to visit all 392 units within the National Park Service.
• I’m a county counter. I have a big map on my wall of all the counties in every state, and I highlight them when I’ve visited them.

Just Dance

Posted by Trish Milburn Feb 23 2012, 12:01 am

By MJ Fredrick

I’m here at Healthy Writer today to share my love for the Wii. The coach at my elementary school bought one for Fun Fridays, along with Just Dance. He gets all the kids to follow the moves and picks the best ones to take the controllers. Cool, right? I tried with the kids and just couldn’t get it, but I really was intrigued. When the Wii went on sale at Thanksgiving, I bought one and my own copy of Just Dance.

Y’all. It was hard to get used to. On Just Dance, it grades you on three levels: Missed moves, OK and Great. For the first week or so, my dominate percentage was in missed moves. Oh, it was awkward. But slowly I improved, learned to interpret the little symbols that showed the upcoming moves. And my percentages were more in the “OK” range.

And I was getting a better workout. I was able to get 10 songs done–about 30 minutes–before dinner, and I was working up a good sweat. The goal is always 10 songs, but it’s a fun workout, so sometimes I’ll play just one more.

The one downfall I find is the controller. Because you hold it in one hand, one arm gets way more tired than the other. And you have to hold it just so to get the right results. Maybe the Kinect is better because of this.

And it makes me sad when I can’t “get” some of my favorite songs. “Heart of Glass” and “Lump” are songs I don’t do well on. I have mastered “Wannabe” and “Groove Is in the Heart.”

I like it so much I bought Just Dance 2, which is SIGNIFICANTLY harder. “Jump in the Line” about killed me. And a lot of the Just Dance 2 songs can be played by 2 people, though no one in my house wants to try it (at least not when I’m around.) I like the first one best.

Does anyone else love this game? Any other Wii games you’d recommend? (Other than Glee, which I also have!)

~~~

Visit MJ’s website to find out more about her books including Bluestone Homecoming and Bluestone Song, the first two books in her Welcome to Bluestone series.

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The Biggest Loser: Self-Control

Posted by Trish Milburn Feb 22 2012, 12:01 am in The Biggest Loser, Trish Milburn

This week’s excuse being tackled on The Biggest Loser was “I lack self-control.” I think at one time or another we’ve all struggled with that very thing. Often it’s what leads us into the overweight category to begin with. So with that excuse at the center of things, of course there was a temptation challenge [...]

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Keeping it simple

Posted by Trish Milburn Feb 21 2012, 12:01 am in eating healthy, food

Yesterday I read a blog post by a dietician that reminded me that eating healthfully doesn’t have to be complicated. In fact, it should be very simple. Now I don’t mean that it should be easy to avoid those things that we crave (sweets, chips, etc.). The fact is that will likely always pose at [...]

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The Biggest Loser: Head to Head Challenge

Posted by Trish Milburn Feb 15 2012, 12:01 am in The Biggest Loser, Trish Milburn, weight loss

This week’s twist on The Biggest Loser was that each trainer was to pick one person to go home from his team and to go with him/her. That person’s weight would be the only one to count for the team for the week. Bob chose Daphne and Dolvett chose Conda, setting up a head-to-head challenge [...]

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Happy Valentine’s Day

Posted by Trish Milburn Feb 14 2012, 12:01 am in eating healthy, exercise, Trish Milburn, weight loss

It’s Valentine’s Day, so I hope you all have a lovely holiday. Today I’m going to be hitting my local grocery store to buy the things I need to fix a special Valentine’s meal for the hubby. Today is the 20th anniversary of when he proposed. Picture me as a senior in college running around [...]

6 Comments

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