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Delaware, United States
Deborah Hawkins, penned Debra Renée Byrd, began writing after a blank book project in elementary school and never stopped, fashioning stories based on her favorite TV shows and movies before creating more original works. She studied at the University of the Arts and Florida State University before settling down and graduating from Temple University. She now resides in her hometown of Dover, DE, where she spends most of her time at work or at church. She loves fantasies, superheroes, is a trekkie and a brown coat. She loves television and lives for Final Fantasy video games, having collected most of them. She has read a myriad of authors, and her favorite authors change whenever she finds a new book that changes her life... "When you can't run, you crawl. When you can't crawl...well, you know the rest." -Tracey, Firefly, "The Message"

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Tuesday, March 25, 2014

Express Yourself: Characters Wanted

I stole that from USA Network. lol


Welcome back to Express Yourself, the weekly meme brought to us by Jackie @ Bouquet of Books and Dani @ Entertaining Interests.

This week, they ask us what our favorite character we've written or read is.

I have an archetype I've been using in my stories since I was a kid. I often attach the name Johnny to it, but it's been others, too. He's always a vulnerable, loveable guy who is slightly or extremely guarded because of some circumstance in his life. He's average height with shoulder-length brown hair and large brown eyes. He's had asthma, heart issues, mental health issues, and sight issues. lol I have NO idea why I always used this specific type to have these kind of problems. I'm trying to break away from him now.

One of my favorite characters I have read was Desi from Robert Olen Butler's short story "Help Me Find My Spaceman Lover" and his novel Mr. Spaceman. If you've seen Futurama, I have always pictured Desi looking and sounding like Kif but whiter. He was such an adorable character who falls in love with a lady he met while touching down at a Podunk (Wow, that gets capitalized? lol) Walmart parking lot. His mission: to tell the world there are aliens. They're both great stories.

Friday, March 21, 2014

Friday Freeday: Aims

Good evening!

A very late blog today. I had a very nice first week at work, snow day aside. I love waking up knowing I have a real job, thank you, Jesus. My boss even said she wants to put my creative writing to use for their weekly reports! I'm so honored.

I'm part of the Spec Fic Group at AgentQueryConnect, and one of the posts this week was called Aims, and we all posted things we wanted to get done this week. I said I wanted to actively seek beta readers. So this week, I joined Deviant Art's Beta Readers section! I'm about to go now to see if I have any hits, and look at the beta reader profiles. I'm still excited about this, and I don't want to ever give up on becoming an author.

Wish me luck! Have a good weekend.

Wednesday, March 19, 2014

Express Yourself: Writing Advice


Welcome back to Express Yourself: a meme created by Jackie @ Bouquet of Books and Dani @ Entertaining Interests for writers to get to know each other a little better!

This week, they ask us about some good writing advice we were given.

I would have to say some important advice would be when you finish writing, to walk away from it for a while before you come back to read it. That way, you get a fresh perspective when you begin the editing & proofreading stage.

I also think it's important to do that with critiques, especially if, like me, you never mastered developing the thick skin people always tell you to develop. Sometimes, a critique can hurt, and if the person on the other side leans more towards being harsh over constructive, it hurts a lot. So the best thing to do is walk away for a while and come back to consider if there is any validity in what they're saying.

Friday, March 14, 2014

Friday Freeday: Turning in My Badge

Good morning!

I am writing this Thursday night so I can celebrate and catch up on blog reading Friday at my last 6 hours of working as a temp!

It's been a JOURNEY. From graduating and moving back home with no job in my field in sight, to quitting a job I absolutely hated, to five weeks of stressing as to where my next job was coming from, Kelly Services has really been great, giving me work for three years straight. Being assigned for the state the last two, I know a lot of people in the Division of Developmental Disabilities Services will miss me, and I'll miss some of them, too. But someone else finally picked me up for something that isn't temp work. I'll have a real income, with money I can live on comfortably!

This is the start of great things to come. I can feel it. :)

Tuesday, March 11, 2014

Express Yourself Meme: Two for Tuesday


I'm here! lol Welcome back to Express Yourself Tuesday!
This meme is brought to us by Dani Bertrand @ Entertaining Interests
and Jackie Felger @ Bouquet of Books.

I missed last week, constantly forgetting to look for the autographs I have in my junkyard of a room. I have 5, but I remembered where 4 were, and they're also authors, so that's fitting. :)


We read Junot Diaz whatever year this was I was at Temple. lol He came and did readings, so I had him sign this. I should probably iron and frame it so it doesn't get messed up more.


This is an autograph from one of my best friends who published his first book a couple of years back, Christian Wynn! I won this in a contest. The Holiday Hotel was a pleasant surprise (I didn't know he wrote, some friend I am lol), and it's a great children's fantastical mystery. I plan on purchasing the second book: Cloud City very soon.


This was during my tenure at Florida State. I fell in LOVE with Robert Olen Butler! I was so excited that he could sign this before one of his classes. One more semester, and I would've taken his class! And probably been a stalker.


And this one is from Libby Street, who actually grew up down the street from where I live right now. My sister and I went to their first book release when we were in high school, and it was very cool.

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This week, Dani & Jackie ask us what saying or catchphrase we use all of the time.

I'm a person of few words when I'm not blogging, so that's a harder question than I anticipated. lol I say "Booooo" a lot. Not as a ghost, but when I'm picking on my friends.

I still say things are awesome. I also say "neat," "cool," and "dude." I dare someone to judge me. <-- Actually, I say that a lot, too. lol

Thursday, March 6, 2014

Una Poema

I just wrote this.

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Diós supo que estaba haciendo
Cuando colocó el océano
Entre nosotros

Porque mi naturaleza salvaje
Brotó cuando me hablaste

Las posibilidades!
Que eres tú que busco
Cuando estás tan lejos de mí

Sus palabras se ponen
Los toques contra mi piel

Y no puedo pensar claramente
Racionalmente
Casi no puedo pensar

Quiero sentir, quiero besar
Sus labios contra los de mí

Quiero hacer más
Sin inhibición, sin avergüenza
Sin arrepentimiento

No sé que hace
Solo te conozco

Como la canción:
Estamos la luz que cae
De los ojos

Cae por mí

Wednesday, March 5, 2014

IWSG: My 200th Post!

It's the first Wednesday of the month! Happy Insecure Writers Support Group Day! And Happy Lent! lol Be sure to stop by as many of the hundreds of group members in the link embedded two sentences ago. ;)

Today marks my 200th blog post in The Writer Ambitious! That's a feat. I didn't think I'd still be trying to blog 2 years later. I went to see what some of my old posts were. My very first, I was sending a not-ready manuscript out to a publisher(ouch). I might actually try again, now that I have two years behind me and a better take on reality. My second was about the tribute sequel I just talked about, Ruby, which is kind of cool that two years later, I'm leaning towards making it my first publication instead of my fantasy WIP I've slaved over for more than those two years. Honestly, though, Ruby also came to me so much more easily. Interesting.

With that said, for today, I advise everyone to take a look back, laugh, cry (lol), and then move forward. :) Have a good day!

This blog hop is sponsored by the legendary guitar guru and ninja warrior Alex J. Cavanaugh.