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.

The Bridges of Madison County- Robert James Waller

The Bridges of Madison County by Robert James Waller

My rating: 1 of 5 stars

I will preface all of this by saying that I don't generally read romance, so please don't be offended. And, everyone likes different things, so don't let my review taint you if you want to read this novel.

I hated this book. In fact, I think I would give it zero stars if that didn't seem too mean. I thought it was absolutely terrible.

Very basically the novel is about a photographer who goes to Iowa to photograph some covered bridges for National Geographic. He gets lost, meets a farm wife whose family is away at the fair and they have a torrid affair for a week, exciting all of the passion that she has never felt and all of the commitment that he has never felt. At the end of the week they part and return to their normal lives but never forget their one true love.

There are a wide variety of things that I disliked about the book, so I think I'll just list them. 1. I hate (HATE!) the writing technique where the "writer" has been approached to tell some story and then proceeds to tell it and wraps the whole book up with "well, that's their story." I don't care whether you were actually approached and commissioned or something to write this book. Don't tell me.

2. The actual story is so contrite. It's played and there wasn't enough plot to it. Really? Boy meets girl, boy can't have girl, boy and girl always wonder what would have been.

3. There is no depth to the characters. I hated the descriptions. If I had to read the female character describing her love as "hard" one more time, I might have thrown up. I didn't care about them. I couldn't relate to them.

4. Waller switches between points of view like a forth grader. I had a really hard time following whose head I was in. The reader is bounced around so much, I started to feel dizzy. The transitions aren't smooth. It wasn't well balanced between POVs either.

5. Waller also gets preachy at points. He had his characters spout off some long monologue that you can tell is just the author expressing his own viewpoint. It wasn't good and didn't feel natural.

6. The ending was awful. It ends with an interview of some random guy that knew one of the characters. No, just no.

Now, one might ask, if I thought this book was so terrible, why did I finish it? Because I thought it would get better. It was a bestseller. I honestly thought that something good had to happen in it. Nope, wrong. I really don't know how so many people purchased this book. My only guess is that there are a lot of desperate housewives out there.

As an aside, I got this book from my husband's bookshelf. It apparently was a gift or something. I knew he had read it and when I finished I tentatively asked him if he had liked it. Thank God he said it was awful too. If he loved this book, that might have been grounds for a divorce.

View all my reviews >>

A Good Dose of Panic

I figured I haven't panicked here on the blog in a little while, so it seems about time. Knitting might some tomorrow... if I decide that I'm in a good enough mood to work on it.

I'm starting a new job here in a couple of weeks, back to teaching, though I'll be teaching at a new school and a new subject. That in and of itself isn't particularly panic inducing, but the way that it has evolved it. I currently have no classroom. Well, technically I have rooms in which I'll be teaching, but not one of my own and I don't even have an office. I'll not explain why I don't have an office, but I'm thoroughly unamused by the fact that I don't have anywhere to sit down and do work. I also have no curriculum. Again, that might not be terrible, but in addition to the no office thing, it's a little irritating. Also, my schedule appears to involve a longer day that I had originally thought I was getting into and I'm just generally mad at the whole situation right now. I really didn't want to go back to work in the first place. I'd much rather be sitting on my butt here at my desk working on my novel, but money just won't allow for that. And, when I got this job I thought it would be pretty perfect at jobs go. Too good to be true I suppose. So, we shall see how this all plays out. I'm trying really hard not to get very angry and to just be all calm and zen, but it's not really working for me. Maybe some good Thursday night TV will help. :) Ugh.

Eleven Great Links for Writers

Well, I know that Wednesdays are supposed to be for knitting, but since I skipped Writing Tuesday and also because my current knitting project is soaking in a bucket waiting to be blocked, I'm going to share some of my favorite writing links. It's like a top ten list but better, since it's eleven. :)

In my own writing news, the book is coming along. I'm working out some subplots and trying to get the beginning to line up better with the new ending that I have in mind. I'm also revising a short story that I'd like to start submitting sometime soon. So, we shall see.

But, if you're a writer, or at all interested in the publishing industry you have to be reading these blogs:

I love reading agent blogs and if you aren't already following Nathan, Janet, Colleen, Rachelle, Jonathan and Jessica go add them to you reader now. Their insights into the industry are invaluable and they offer lots of advice on queries and managing a writing career.

Moon Rat is the Editorial Ass(istant) who is hilarious and always brings a ray of light to a sometimes dismal publishing industry.

The Intern is an intern at a New York publisher and her posts are funny, insightful and always make me feel a little better about the fact that I at least get paid for my toils. She offers an inside view to the editorial meetings, which is definitely interesting.

Eric over at Pimp My Novel works in sales at a major publisher and he offers a different point of view of the publishing industry. His posts are very informative and I'm pretty sure he's the only blog of his kind on the web.

John Upchurch runs More Novel by the Week, in which he offers tips for writers varying from common grammar mistakes to definitions of obscure literary terms. He also trolls the web looking for fantastic new websites related to reading and writing.

And finally, last but certainly not least is the Guide to Literary Agents by Chuck. He gives updates on new agents, tells stories of how real authors landed their agents and keeps me in the loop of his Cover Band drama. :) He has interviews from some of the greatest names in the biz and it is a great blog for advice and information.

Hopefully this will keep you all satisfied in the writing department for at least a week. I'll try to post pictures of the latest knitting project later this week.

Wonder Boys- Michael Chabon

Somehow Mondays seem to be good for blogging. Who would have guessed? I've been working through The Bridges of Madison County and am still unimpressed. I hope that it gets better. But, this week I have at least finished a book and can give my full review of it. So... here goes:

Wonder Boys: A Novel by Michael Chabon


My rating: 5 of 5 stars
Wow. This wasn't my first foray in the the wonderful world of Michael Chabon, but it was his first adult novel that I have read. I had previously read Summerland which is a fantastic Young Adult fantasy. I'd seen the movie version of Wonder Boys ages ago and loved it, so I was definitely excited to pick up the book. I had high expectations and Chabon exceeded them.

In brief, Wonder Boys is about a college professor, Grady Tripp, who is also a bit of a has been writer. Tripp saw great success with his first couple of novels, hence the professor job, but has been unable to finish his thousand page epic Wonder Boys, due partly to his marijuana addiction, partly to his disastrous marriage and affair, and partly to the fact that he's just trying to cram far too much into this novel. When Grady's neurotic and addict editor rolls into town for the college's LitFest, the pair end up on an epic adventure involving a suicidal student, Tripp's ex-in-laws, a dead dog and a lot of drugs.

While the plot of this novel is hilarious and well crafted, I enjoyed the writing the most. What I wouldn't kill to have Chabon's gift. He is a beautiful writer and each sentence is so melodiously crafted that they are hard to get out of your head. He finds uniques ways of saying things and his comparisons are superb. I would highly recommend this novel to anyone because it's a great book, but I would especially recommend this novel to writers. Seriously, study how this man crafts a sentence, a paragraph, a book. It's beautiful and lyrical. Well worth the read.

View all my reviews >>

Reading Monday!

Well, not so great about keeping my schedule, but apparently I can keep a Monday appointment at least. In my own slightly pitiful defense, it has been a ridiculously busy week and I'm not going to make any promises for the current week. This next week is very busy too. But, no more excuses... here's my reading for the week.

I actually haven't made a whole lot of progress on either Wonder Boys or The Writer's Journey. I did start The Bridges of Madison Country, but have not gotten very far. So far it's okay, but I'm not very impressed with the writing.

So, since I don't really have books to actually blog about, I thought I would share some of my favorite book blogs and websites.

First up: Bookshelves Of Doom. This is a great blog run by a librarian, or self-described uber-librarian. She offers astute and funny reviews of books, some YA movies and life in general. She always cracks me up and somehow manages to find tons of amazing new stuff on the web. Definitely worth checking out.

Next: Henry Sene Ye Designs I don't talk about it much on this site, mostly because I already have a lot to cover, but I love design and art. This is the blog of a book cover designer. He shares his process in deciding on cover designs, contacting artists and putting it all together. I find it really interesting, especially seeing the failed designs.

Finally, one of the most fun new sites I've stumbled across: The Book Seer. Though slightly silly, I really like it. At this site you type in the title and author name of the most recent book you have finished and the site pulls from Amazon, Librarything and BookArmy to compile a list of recommendations. Now, I don't particularly need to add anything else to my TBR pile, but I like it nonetheless.

Hopefully you'll all enjoy clicking around these new sites! I'm going to try my best tomorrow to be back with some writing news.