I know I blogged about this on my Writing Diary Blog , but I don’t think I blogged about this here. I read a few writing and productivity books, and I’ve been trying to form better daily habits. The problem is that my self-discipline is very bad. As in, embarrassingly bad. One of my goals has been to form a better writing habit. Since I’m a full-time writer, I already write every day, but I think there are things I can do to tweak my schedule so that I can be able to focus better when I write. I tend to get distracted by the thought of things I need to do that day which I haven’t done yet. I don’t know why my brain is like this, but I haven’t been able to break this tendency. So for example, while I’m writing, I’ll suddenly think about the fact that today’s the day when I need to change the bathroom towels, or mop the kitchen floor, or change the bedsheets. It’ll distract me for a few moments before I tell myself I’ll do it later and I need to focus on writing now. Then a few ...

The weather here in California has been really nice lately, although it does get a bit hot in the early afternoon. I recently started exercising again, now that my IBS is doing a little better, and I’ve been enjoying running outside in the early morning when it’s still cool. I’m listening to an audiobook, What I Talk about When I Talk about Running: A Memoir by Haruki Murakami. The author is a very famous writer in Japan who has won tons of awards, although to be honest I haven’t read his fiction since the more literary style of his books aren’t to my taste. But I bought the audiobook since it was about two subjects I wanted to hear, writing and running. The author apparently has been running for decades, and has run numerous marathons and even an ultra-marathon. His training methods aren’t as scientific as what I followed when I trained for the Honolulu Marathon, but his discipline is no joke. I liked the way he compared and contrasted his writing with his running. One thing t...

Yeah, it’s been a while since I last posted but I assure you, I am not dead. :) I decided to jump-start my running again, and since I don’t run consistently if I’m not training for an event, I signed up for the 2017 Honolulu Marathon. It’s going to be harder this time since I’ve gained so much weight since the last time I ran (maybe 10 pounds?) and I have to take care of my ankle, which I sprained at the last marathon in 2010 and it still has a bit of scar tissue. However, I’m going to a chiropractor about that and my ankle seems to be doing well. I’m also armed with KT Tape and Rock Tape, Phiten discs, ankle wrap, and massage cream. Please send a prayer for me that I can be consistent in my training and not get (more) injured. I’m getting The Spinster’s Christmas translated into Japanese! I was able to hire a woman from my church who is a professional translator, and she is doing about a chapter every 2 weeks. Now I have to figure out how to format an ebook in Japanese, with vert...

Those of you who’ve read A Dangerous Stage will recognize a new character I introduced in that book, Steven Nishimoto, who interacts with Charles a bit. My character Steven created the company Neesh, the most high-profile computer company in San Francisco. The profits from Neesh rival Apple. Steven is half-Asian (half Japanese), tall with the regal bearing of a prince. He’s lean, muscular, and athletic, with a shaved head and hazel eyes. He’s 55 years old, but he’s run 10 marathons and is in training for a new one after taking a hiatus from running for several years. When I was writing the book, I was groping for a name for this character and that’s when I decided to use the name of a young man I know from church, the “real” Steven Nishimoto! Captain Caffeine and I were youth leaders for the real Steven Nishimoto when he was in high school, and now that he’s out of college, he has taken over as youth director for our church youth group. (So basically, after we were his youth l...

I’ve had a lot of guest blogs and giveaways lately and I haven’t been blogging anything personal, so I thought I’d devote some time today just to say hi to everyone. I don’t remember if I mentioned this already, but I’m training to run the Honolulu Marathon in December. I already registered so there’s no going back! This past Saturday I ran 10 miles! Woot! Pretty good for an old lady! I’ve also started posting on my Facebook page what I call my “Running Cam-y-ra,” pictures I take when I’m running. (Get it? Running Camy-ra/camera? … {crickets chirp}) I’ve been posting them on Facebook. So far a lot of what I post are pretty flowers I don’t know the names of, and people have been really great about identifying them. Facebook is better than Google! Here’s one I just posted on Saturday. I didn’t know until people started commenting on Facebook that they’re cannas. Aren’t they pretty? So what do you think of the Running Cam-y-ra? And while I’m at it, what do you think of the give...

Okay, so the great war for control of Middle Earth, it ain’t. :) I blogged earlier about battling plantar fasciitis in my feet, and it’s still something I’m working to heal. I’ve been stretching, using a golf ball, and I also tried a Strassburg sock to use while I sleep, but it ended up being uncomfortably tight just under my kneecap and made me wake up in pain. I got a new sock, Thermoskin Plantar FXT Ultra , which feels much more comfortable and might do the trick. Anyway, I laid off my running for almost two weeks before I couldn’t stand it anymore, and I went running again yesterday. It felt GREAT. I’m a little sore today, but it’s that good sore that makes you feel super healthy and skinny enough to fit into a size 2. I’m still a bit dismayed at the extra weight I’ve put on, especially because it jiggles a bit in all the wrong places, but I’m hoping that if I can get back into my running and keep up with the decent eating habits I’m learning (let’s conveniently forget the ...

Warning: TMI post ahead! I was dismayed to find I’d gained 7 pounds since January, which I know doesn’t sound like a lot, but for someone my height (5’2”) it translates into one pants size up, and so I only barely fit into ONE of my pants and ONE of my pair of shorts! Aargh! I have been wearing sweatpants and occasionally a stretchy corduroy pair of pants ever since my Oklahoma/Texas trip because I was working on multiple deadlines and I got sick twice, so I was pretty much not going outside much. I didn’t notice my weight gain until I tried to squeeze into a pair of jeans for a lunch out with MaryLu Tyndall and I couldn’t button them. So I got back onto SparkPeople.com ( friend me! ), which I hadn’t logged into because I had been on deadline and SP tends to be distracting for me (so many neat articles and forums). MaryLu also inspired me to start watching my eating more than I used to. When I was training for the Honolulu Marathon , I didn’t put as much effort into my food ch...

My friend, NYT bestselling author Tosca Lee , was Mrs. Nebraska several years ago. She is a fount of information for health and exercise. One thing she mentioned is that some fresh lemon juice in water is great if you’re feeling bloated from your time of the month, because it’s a natural diuretic besides all the great vitamin C it’s packed with. What struck me about it is that it’s mentioned in the French Women Don’t Get Fat book that I've raved about before on this blog ( part one and part two ). Citron presse is a popular drink French women order at cafes—a lemon squeezed into water, whether cold or warm, without sugar. Maybe that’s why they order them—for the anti-bloating properties! Since I’ve been feeling fat lately, I’ve been drinking lemon juice and water at meals. Unfortunately, I’m still fat. But I’m running again (breaking in my Vibram Five Finger shoes) so hopefully I’ll lose the weight I gained in the past few months I’ve been on deadline. And what’s up with...

I'm blogging (okay, so I'm actually ranting) on the Love Inspired Authors blog today: Camy here, and I have to whine just a little. It’s been raining a lot the past week and of course this is the week I start training for my next marathon. I mean, God seriously has a warped sense of humor. Click here to read the rest of the post

Captain's Log, Stardate 12.13.2010 I finished my very first marathon! And a huge thank you to everyone who prayed for me! I really felt those prayers! (See below.) My chip time was 7 hours, 13 minutes. (Chip time is the electronically tracked time using a chip I got that attached to my shoe. Every time I passed a special strip on the road, the sensor picked up my chip, which was registered to my race number and identification, and that’s how my time was posted on my Facebook wall—the company who does the whole chip thing has a program that posted my time on my Facebook whenever I passed a chip sensor strip. For some reason, when I passed the 10K mark, it didn’t post on my wall, but it posted at 13.1 miles and on.) We got to the starting line at 4:30 a.m. and the gun went off at 5 a.m., but I was so far in back that it took me about 10 minutes just to cross the start line. When I crossed the start line, my timing chip on my shoe recorded my start time, so my actual race time w...

But I had a good excuse! I've been on deadline for a book and so I was putting in 18-20 hour days working to get it done in time. My poor husband had to deal with no cooking, no cleaning, and barely a "hello" when he came home from work! He also flew to China in the middle of all that (probably a blessing in disguise since he didn't have to watch me go into meltdown over my computer) so I ended up pulling a few all nighters to get the book done in time. And I turned it in! Yay! Now I'm catching up on all the other work I neglected while I was on deadline. While I was on deadline, I have to admit I was terrible in terms of eating and exercise. Eating, however, was not as bad as I have been for previous deadlines. While it was carb heavy, I also made sure I ate a lot of protein, too. Exercise, however, really fell by the wayside. Instead of running 3 x a week, I only ran once a week, especially b/c the last week I was on deadline I was either sleeping only 4-6 h...

Captain's Log, Stardate 10.05.2010 This was quite an unusual experience for me, and not all of it good. I wanted to experience an actual race before doing the Honolulu Marathon in December, so I signed up for the San Jose Half Marathon because I thought it would be closest to the experience of a Marathon event. (I wasn’t positive a 5K or 10K would be organized the same way as a marathon.) My problem is that in running this half marathon for “fun” (HA!) I was still doing my marathon training program, which required me to run 20 miles the same week as the half marathon. (Yes, you read that right, 20 miles.) I’m doing the e-coaching program with Jeff Galloway and he said for me to run the half marathon (which is 13 miles) and then run an additional 6 miles before or after the event (or both) to make up the 20 miles I had to run that day. He said that normally he doesn’t like people breaking up their “long runs” that way, but in this case he thought I’d be fine. So I had to ...

Captain's Log, Stardate 09.29.2010 So those of you unfortunate lucky enough to hear all about my low carb diet last month are probably clamoring for an update, yes? So after a month of going gluten free and low carb, I broke my gluten fast earlier in September and am now (relatively) normal carb. Technically, according to the program booklet that comes with the supplements I’m taking—which I’m still taking, by the way—I should have slowly increased my carbs earlier this month, but because I had been running about 20 miles per week last month and I was feeling really tired, my nurse/counselor suggested I increase my carbs earlier than the program booklet said to. I did some research and found out that most running articles suggest an extra intake of about 50-100g of carbs for every hour of running each day. I was running about 5-7 hours a week, so I calculated that translated into about 150-170g carbs per day. I’m trying to keep to that, although I admit it doesn’t always h...

Captain's Log, Stardate 08.16.2010 I’m training for the Honolulu Marathon , and I do one long run a week, building up to 26 miles. Last week, I did 13 miles! That’s half a marathon! Hooray for me! I was really slow (13 miles in 216 minutes = 16.6 minutes per mile) but I don’t care! I’m just glad I could do it! According to Jeff Galloway , the key to the long run is going 2 minutes slower than your projected marathon pace. The last time I tried to do a long run, I think I started out too fast because I started dragging around mile 7. This time I was determined to stay fresh, so I set my interval timer to go 20 seconds running/ 40 seconds walking to force myself to slow down. It worked really well, and I switched to 30 seconds running/30 seconds walking at mile 4 because I was able to keep my slow pace. I did the :30/:30 interval for the rest of the run and I felt great! In fact, I felt so good that for the last two miles, I even skipped a few walking breaks . I tend to swea...

Captain's Log, Stardate 08.05.2010 For a little while. Let me explain. I went to get new running shoes on Sunday, but since I have a million and one things weird about my feet—they’re extra narrow, I have flat feet, I was getting blisters on my pinky toes, I have flat feet, my heels tend to slip in shoes, I need a wide enough toe box, and did I mention I have flat feet?—the salesgirl had to pause for a freak-out moment before settling down to help me. I was in more pain from my blisters than anything else, and since I’ve lived with my narrow feet for so long, it doesn’t register as a major thing wrong with my feet when I go shoe shopping. I had told the salesgirl I had narrow feet, but I also mentioned that my feet had expanded considerably in the few months I’ve been running. In fact, I ended up needing a shoe size TWO half-sizes larger than the pair I walked into the store with. But I also didn’t insist the salesgirl remeasure my feet to make sure my width wasn’t the same n...

Captain's Log, Stardate 07.14.2010 This should not come as a surprise to you guys since I already blogged about how the Jeff Galloway Run-Walk method has enabled me to run injury-free and has also made me looooooove running ! I had mentioned the Disneyworld marathon in passing (only half-seriously) but then here's what happened. My parents wanted us to visit them in Hawaii for Thanksgiving, but tickets are something like $700 round trip PER PERSON (for Christmas, it's up to $900 round trip per person). Grandma offered to give us airline miles for one ticket, but we'd still have to come up with one ticket and Captain Caffeine had to take off work. I blogged earlier about talking with my Dad about the Jeff Galloway method , since Dad has been running since I was in middle school, and he was pretty excited to hear about me running, too. The next time I called home, the first thing Dad said was that I should run the Honolulu Marathon since it’s in early December...

Captain's Log, Stardate 06.21.2010 Some of you may not be on Facebook or Twitter and may not yet have heard me gushing (ad nauseum) about my new hobby! I have never been able to say that before I started the Jeff Galloway running program, but now I can really say I love running! Before you call the Gotham Sanitarium, read this to let me explain why this is cool and doesn't make me feel like I'm going to have a heart attack. I'm not expecting to convert (many) people, but I have been just so excited about this new method that I can't shut up about it! I chatted with my dad yesterday for Father's Day, and usually we don't have a whole lot to talk about but I spent 30 minutes talking about this running program. Dad was interested because he has been running since 1981 (which I didn't actually know until he told me, I thought he'd started running when I was in high school, but apparently I was 9 when he started running. The doctor told him his c...

Join me over at Girls, God, and the Good Life blog to witness my descent into madness! Camy here, and I am so excited about running! No, I do not need a psych eval (although my husband would probably disagree just on general principle). Click here to read the rest and tell me how crazy I am.