In Which I do Terrible Things...

Hey ya'll, first terrible think I have done is not updating this blog for a month. Oy, sorry about that! The last month of school got to be super crazy. Probably the most insane end of year I've had in eight years of teaching. It was generally nutso. So, that coupled with my little sister's graduation from high school, and the hubs buying a car, made for a particularly busy May. But, trust me, you weren't the only ones getting ignored. :)

At any rate, I'm officially on summer vacation now and thoroughly excited. It already feels like I won't be able to fit it all in, but I'm sure going to try.

So, without further ado, the second terrible thing that I've done, recently that is. I was mean to one of my characters. I know, after all that build up it sounds a little lame, but dang ya'll it was super hard. My first novel was much more autobiographical, so things that went bad in it, had actually gone bad at some point, so it wasn't hard to deal with. This new book though... it is super hard to be mean to my characters. I know that it makes for a better novel; heck just look at Harry Potter. What doesn't go wrong for that poor kid? So what did I do to my poor character? It wasn't even really that bad. She doesn't stand up for herself and a guy starts a terrible rumor about it. See? Not that bad. Now I feel super lame for even thinking it was hard, but honestly it was. Which brings up an interesting point.

When I write I always think that I want this perfect world where everything is sunshine and kittens eating ice cream. Cute right? But that's not what I read, and that's certainly not what other people read, so why am I compelled to write it? Do I get some kind of God-complex where I feel if I'm going to create a world it had better be nice? I'm not entirely sure, but serious conflict is always hard for me.

Does anyone else have this problem? Or are you all meaner than I am? :) How to you create conflict in your writing?

Wee Bit of Me- and an update

Hey ya'll, sorry it's been a while again. I was in NYC for a vacation and as much as I love to travel, I hate the whole getting there and back part. I hate packing and getting the house ready to leave and then all the catching up when you get home. At any rate... I'm back and while I don't have a legit blogpost, I'll try to satisfy you guys with a Wee Bit Wednesday, which I haven't done in a while.

I've also got a ton of books that need reviewing and some writing updates, so those will come soon. The next few book reviews are going to be short because I just need to get them out there. Many of the books are ones that I'm sort of ambivalent about, and I think that's why it's taken me so long to write the reviews. But, some are great books and I just haven't set aside the time to blog. So... anyway... that's what's coming up! Now, on to more of things you probably never cared to learn about me. :)



{one} what is one food that, as an adult you love, but as a child you said you’d never touch?

 Blue Cheese. My mom always used to eat it and I thought it was disgusting, but I love it now!


{two} did you go to college? if yes, what was your major?
Yep. Undergraduate majors were English Literature and Secondary Education. Masters is in Literacy Education.

{three} what’s the most wild animal you’ve seen in real life (not counting the zoo)?
Um... elk? Wild boar? I haven't really seen that many wild animals in real life!


{four} have you ever been to a fortune teller?
Not a fortune teller, but a psychic... which was interesting.

{five} can you juggle?
Not any more. I used to be able to juggle; a coworker one summer in high school taught me.

{six} hardwood floors or carpet?
I have carpet now, but would like hardwood floors. I have mixed feelings about both.

{seven} is it called “soda” or “pop”?
soda

{eight} what was your first car?

A blue 1976 Jeep Wagoneer. Her name was Bessie and my parents bought her for $100. She was one of the crappiest cars ever! Here's a picture for reference (not my actual car). I really hated that car.

{nine} what is the most decadent dessert you’ve ever eaten?

Uh... there is this cake from Whole Foods... chocolate explosion or something. It's pretty delicious.  I also had an amazing goat cheese cheesecake from the Dessert Truck in NYC.


{ten} how often do you rearrange your furniture?

Rarely. Our place is pretty small, so there aren't really a lot of options for where things can go.

Bernard Pivot Blogfest

Nicole Ducleroir is hosting a Bernard Pivot Blogfest today. Well, technically yesterday, but I'm always a day late and a dollar short aren't I?  If you are interested in participating, please visit her blog to sign up. There are over 100 people participating.



We're having fun with Pivot's ten questions, made famous in the United States by James Lipton of Inside the Actor's Studio. Blogfest participants have filled out the questionnaire and pasted it with their answers on their blogs today. We are then hopping from blog to blog to read everyone's answers and learn something interesting about our blog friends. Hopeully we'll meet some new people as well. Should be fun. I thought it would be an interesting departure from Wee Bit of Me. I've always fantasized about being on Inside the Actor's Studio... which is rather odd, since I've never wanted to be an actor. Maybe Lipton can host and On the Writer's Desk instead. :) At any rate... more than you've ever wanted to know about me below.
 
1.What is your favorite word? caddywhompus You can't help but smile when you say it. :)


2.What is your least favorite word? a tie between moist and girth Eww... they just feel gross in my head thinking them. Ew.

3.What turns you on creatively, spiritually or emotionally? Oh man... kindness, potential, possibility, humor

4.What turns you off? People who are rude or mean.

5.What is your favorite curse word? Fuck

6.What sound or noise do you love? Andrea Bochelli singing

7.What sound or noise do you hate? metal underwater

8.What profession other than your own would you like to attempt? besides writer, which I'm already attempting? Wedding Planner

9.What profession would you not like to do? anything with the stock market

10. If Heaven exists, what would you like to hear God say when you arrive at the Pearly Gates? Well done.
 
All right...it might be a good thing that I've no desire to be an actor. :)
 
At any rate, sorry I haven't been around, life has been the definition of insane. Welcome to my new followers! Yay! I will try my darndest to get something more posted next week, or maybe even this weekend. I'm heading to Crested Butte with my church's youth group and I plan on sitting my rumpus (another favorite word) by the fire and writing, reading and knitting... though hopefully not panicing. :)

Just When I'm on a Roll...

I always think that I'll be one of those awesome bloggers who writes cool, interesting, informative, useful things everyday. I have grand aspirations to be that person, but alas, I am not. I've been dealing with some sucky health stuff for the last couple of weeks, and blogging hasn't really be on the top of my to do list. I have, however, read a ton, so I have a lot of books to blogs about, and have a bunch of writing stuff to talk about too. So... next week, hopefully, I'll be back in the saddle. Have a great weekend ya'll. :)

Still here- with a Wee Bit of Me Wednesday

Well... yeah... not a whole lot to say. :) I'm still alive, still reading, writing, knitting and panicking, but just not blogging about it. In an effort to get back into the groove of blogging, I'm going to start participating in Wee Bit of Me Wednesdays which I shamelessly stole from Jumblemash (who is awesome!) and who stole it from myleighashley (also awesome). I have read roughly one bazillion books since April, bought a Kindle, went back to work and have not been writing at all... so I do have quite a bit to talk about, but blogging just seems so daunting, for no particular reason. At any rate, I'm going to do Wee Bit Wednesdays so I can have something to write about. Hopefully it will get me back into the groove of blogging. I'll keep my fingers crossed. :) So without further ado...

{one} have you ever seen a ghost?

Oh, goodness... a complicated question to start. Yes, I believe I have seen a ghost. When I saw my mother right after she passed away there were a few moments where she was standing next to me before she left. An interesting experience to say the least.

{two} when was the last time you dressed up for Halloween?

Last year. I generally dress up every year, but the hubs was out of town last year and so I only sort of dressed up. This year we're going to a club themed party though, and I'll be rockin' a totally sweet 80's outfit. We'll see if I wear it to work on Friday as well. I may just blend in with all the retro 80's looks the kids wear.

{three} what’s your favorite candy?

That is a tough one. I used to love Twix, but since I can't eat gluten any more that's out. I do love caramel though, or Skittles.

{four} did you have a favorite costume growing up?

I think my absolute favorite costume was the black cat costume that my mom made me. It was a huge furry body suit that she accidentally stitched her thumb to in the process of making. It was warm and fuzzy (two of my favorite feelings) and perfect for cold Colorado Halloweens.

{five} did you carve pumpkins this year?

No. Halloween always sneaks up on me and I never quite remember to carve pumpkins.

{six} what’s your favorite scary movie?

I'm not a huge scary movie fan, but I did love Zombieland, though that wasn't really scary. The Shining  is good, as was the Aliens trilogy, but I don't really like hard core horror.

{seven} haunted houses or corn mazes?

Mmmmm.... not so much on either. Corn Mazes are fun, unless they have those ridiculous chainsaw dudes. And I really don't care for Haunted Houses. These aversions may also be due to the fact that both places are generally infested with high school kids acting dumb, which I get enough of at work. :)

{eight} are you superstitious?

Sort of. I'm not super superstitious, but I do knock on wood, throw salt over my shoulder, say rabbit rabbit, etc.

{nine} have you ever owned a black cat?

Yes, one of my favorite kitties, Ralphie. He was the sweetest cat.

{ten} what are you plans for this coming Halloween?

We are heading over to a friend's house for a Halloween Party. It should be fun! I'd like to hope that we'll get Trick or Treaters, but we've only had two ever in the six years we've been in the house, so I don't think I'll worry about it this year.

New Year...new blog

So, it has again been far too long since I've written here. I'm not sure that anyone particularly missed me, but I'm back, regardless. 2009 went out with... well... it went, and I'm glad to see it gone. '09 was a year of a lot of trials for me health, work, writing, life in general. I'm really hoping that '10 is a true fresh start and will bring some peace and organization to my life.

I didn't make specific resolutions this year. Normally, I am the type to make resolutions, and promptly break them a few days later, but my overall resolution is to just get my life together. I want to organize my time better, organize my writing time more, get my health back in line, get my finances and career back in line, just get my act together in general. We'll see how it turns out, but so far I feel like I'm on track at least.

Since I'm trying to focus my time more and eliminite superfluous things I'll be paring down the focus of the blog. Not to make excuses, but part of the reason I haven't blogged is because I never feel like I have things to talk about that really fit into my "read, write, knit, panic" idea. I'm constantly knitting, but rarely remember to take pictures of my works in progress, or when they're finished for that matter. And a knitting blog without pictures is pretty boring. I always have plenty to panic about, but I'm also trying to focus on the positive more. So the knitting and panicing aspects of this blog will be no more. I'm going to focus on writing about what I've been reading, and what I've been writing. I've read mixed reviews on whether authors should reveal their process as they work on a novel, but I have always wondered how authors write and find it terribly interesting. I don't know if my own journey to publication will be quite as intriguing, but I'd at least like to document the process.

I also debated blogging about my heath trevails and what I'm doing to try to solve the variety of problems that I have. There isn't a lot out there from a first hand perspective about the illnesses that I have, so part of me feels like I should tell my story to help others, but another part of me really doesn't want to add anything else to my plate. We'll see. If I do decide to blog about it, I think I'll start a separate blog so as not to muddy the waters further.

At any rate... if you're still even reading this... look for more of a focus on reading and writing in the coming months. I'm going to shoot for blogging twice a week or so. If my track record is any indication this means that I'll blog twice a week for about a month and then no one will hear from me until July. Trying to break old habits though.

So, here's to a productive 2010 for all readers of this blog. I'd love to hear your resolutions, or goals, or whatever your hopes and dreams are for the new decade. I'm always inspired by the dreams of others. :)

The past oh.... two months

Well, I hadn't really realized quite how long I'd been away from the blog. So much for my grand plan of blogging at least four days a week. Ugh. I don't really have any specific stories or grand excuses for my absence. Life has just been a little insane.

School started back in mid-August and that definitely took some getting used to. I'm really not a morning person, so having to get up at about 5 to get to work just doesn't cut it for me. I'd much rather stay up until 3 or so and roll out of bed around noon. Unfortunately, school doesn't start at noon. :( Overall the transition back to work has been okay. I've been pretty exhausted and feeling stressed trying to get a handle on my job, but things seems to be calming down a little bit. I'm a literacy coach at a high school, which means that I monitor and teach students who are not reading at grade level. Unfortunately, there wasn't anyone really doing that job full time previously, so all of the files and data were a mess. It definitely took a while to organize it all and get into the swing of working. The kids have been decent and I generally like it, though I much prefer staying home and writing.

In writing news... well, nothing has really happened. I haven't been working on the book. I was working on revising a short story, but that has also fallen to the wayside in recent weeks. I'm really hoping to get back into writing this weekend and in the coming weeks. I just haven't felt inspired. I'm definitely questioning whether I have the chops to really be an author. Feeling a little depressed and down on myself about it... but I suppose all writers go through that. I'm just not sure if I'm good enough. No way to find out though unless I actually finish something and get it out there. Alas... I really wish some one or some thing from on high could just tell me if I should keep going or just quit now. Meh. I've also been half considering an MFA or PhD in Creative Writing. I definitely don't have the time or money to do either, but the thought is nice. I guess I just want some outward assurance that I'm on the right track, that I have some talent and might actually get published. Something...

Knitting has also been rather slow. I finished up the Sleepy Monkey baby blanket and gave that to Andrew's cousins. I have a few other projects that just need to get finished, but I've been working on knitting mittens and hats for Boulder's homeless resource center The Carriage House instead. They're pretty quick and it's satisfying to get something done. I have a couple of friends who are having babies in the spring though, so I'm going to need to come up with some more baby projects.

In reading news, I finished Mysteries of Pittsburgh by Michael Chabon. I'll post on that next week. I've also been reading the 2008 Best American Short Stories. I may or may not report on those. We'll see if I can find a non-irritating way to review a collection of stories. I'm still working on The Writer's Journey and plan to read another Chabon. Probably Kavalier and Klay.

Other than the general stress and self doubt, life is going okay. I might be having some eye surgery. I meet with the doctor again on Tuesday. If so, I'll definitely post on that since my own research into the subject has yielded little in the way of anecdotes. More to come Monday, when I hope to return to a semi-regular posting schedule... but we've all seen how that goes. :)

Still here

I'm still here... life has been insane. More to come, soon hopefully.