I love deadlines. Without them, I tend to mosey along without any real motivation; with them, self-imposed or otherwise, things happen. As a seamstress, I'm used to working under the tightest of time frames. Customers come to me and they always need their dresses yesterday. The jobs that get finished first are the ones that have a deadline. Those that say they just need it when I have a few moments will find I rarely have a few moments.
When the Whitney Award finalists were announced, I decided to try to read as many of them as I could. On January 21st, I received the email asking me to be part of the voting academy for the Whitney Awards. While I was excited, I also knew it would be a lot of reading and the deadline was the 20th of February. There were 26 books that made it as finalists. I had already read three of the them, leaving me with a month to read 23 of them. So yesterday, I read the final words in the final book, leaving me a few hours to really think about how I wanted to vote.
Every book had things I loved about it, and a few had things I didn't like. I kept notes on each book as I finished it so I could look back and remember my initial impressions. A few people asked me how I could keep so many stories straight as I read them so fast. It wasn't a problem, because I always read fast and I always read lots of books (sometimes I have several going at once.) I enjoyed the excuse to read books I wouldn't pick up on my own and I truly felt that I read some of the best books LDS authors have to offer. I'm actually going to miss the excuse to read. Not often does the family tell me to go read a book rather than cook dinner or some other household chore.
I also had another deadline to meet as the entries for the LDStorymakers 1st chapters contest needed to be postmarked by the 21st of February. Over the last month I've been writing, rewriting and polishing so I could get those in the mail - which I did yesterday. So the reading is done, the chapters are sent, and it is time to move on to the next thing. There is LDStorymakers boot camp to prepare for, a manuscript to submit and another novel finish. At least I don't have time to be bored.
3 comments:
Wow. You're making me feel VERY lazy!! I haven't been reading that much lately AND I didn't get anything ready for the conference. Good luck with yours!
Have I ever told you that you're amazing? You're amazing! Tory told me that you were going to read all those books and I just said, "Well, if anyone can do it, it's her." Congratulations on finishing them.
Thanks, Shanna.
And thanks Ames! You should read some of them.
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