Summer Reading Thing Udpate

I haven't posted any book reviews for quite awhile. Not because I am not reading, but because I am reading three different books from my list and they are all slowing me down. The first one I started is the Sheri Dew book, No One Can Take Your Place. It is a wonderful book and I have come across a few passages that provided me with light bulb moments. I'll tell you about those moments when I do review the book. Even though it is a great book, it isn't a page turner, and it is really easy to put it down and forget that I am working my way through it. This is usually my Sunday afternoon read.

The second book slowing me down is The Princes of Ireland, by Edward Rutherford. I have read several of his books and I love his writing. But I knew when I started that this one would be a challenge to finish. It is over 700 pages long, and kind of meanders through history. I am almost halfway through, but the sheer size makes this one a daunting task.

The last book slowing me down is Pride and Prejudice. I have never read any Jane Austin before because I hate being told by people that I have to read it because I am going to love it. It makes me feel like my opinion is pre-formed for me. So I resisted for years. (Yes, I can be a little stubborn.) I finally decided to catch up with the rest of the world and pick it up. Again, loving it, but the style of writing slows me down a bit, and it isn't a fast-paced page turner.

So I am determined to finish the books on my list and review them all, even if I have to pull out the speed reading skills and do an all-nighter or two. It would probably help if I would stay away from the library and only read the books on my list. (That isn't likely to happen.) So that is the update. I have eight books left on my list and within the next month I will write eight reviews. (Gotta set those goals for myself.) But I am thinking I will have to start Jeff Savage's House of Secrets before I finish the others. I hear it is a real page turner.

Snowballs

No, it isn't winter here in Canada yet, but I think it may have hit early in my house. Yesterday, we were given a new couch and love seat. It was exciting to get these, as the furniture in our living room didn't match and was hard to arrange in any way that was pleasant to look at. The new set came from the home of an older couple and it was kept in their sitting room where they only sat "when the home teachers came." And the funny thing is, the set looks like I bought it with the room in mind. The colors exactly match the carpet and wall.

Anyway, we moved the new set into the living room and moved the old furniture out to the family room. I mentioned getting rid of one of the pieces, but my son begged me to keep it because it is so comfortable. So we started by rearranging the new furniture. It looks great, and my step-daughter even said, "It looks like a real living room now." It really does look nice, but a new problem arose. My family room was filled with furniture that needed a new home.

So today I spent the afternoon rearranging the t.v. room in the basement and having my two teenagers help me carry a love seat and two rockers downstairs. Of course, because there is more furniture, it takes more space. But we got everything organized so it looks good and we can watch a movie as a family without squeezing every family member on the same couch.

New problem. By moving more furniture into the basement, I had to dismantle the table I kept set up for doing scrapbooking. Now that table is sitting in the middle of the playroom-which is just a problem waiting to happen. Over the last few years, the scrapbooking has spread out a bit and isn't in the nice portable containers where I used to store it. So the t.v. room looks great, but the playroom is a mess with my scrapbooking stuff.

So tomorrow, I have to reorganize all the supplies back into portable containers so the babysitting kids won't be tempted to help me with the family photos. I should be able to get that done tomorrow morning, but that leaves me with my grandmother's rocking chair, that is going to have to be moved upstairs into the family room. I don't know how I will arrange that to fit.

It all makes me think of writing. I get everything arranged the way I want in a story and then I stand back and admire. When I admire I always find something that I should add to round out the story. Once I add that new plot twist or character, I end up needing to change something else so the first change makes sense. And so it snowballs, every change piling on top of the first one until I have quite the mountain of snow. Of course, it all comes to an end at some point. And just like I will get my house back in order after the addition of two simple pieces of furniture, I always get the story back in order, with the new elements fitting tightly into place.

Lost Ideas, or aaaargh!

I had a nice idea for a blog while I was making dinner tonight. I worked out the thoughts in my head and was very excited about how it would turn out. Only one problem. Dinner was almost ready, and I couldn't leave what I was doing, so I didn't write the idea down. I spent the last several hours making applesauce and trying to remember what great topic I was going to write about.

Nothing. The harder I thought the less I had. So I changed tactic and put it aside entirely. When I had a moment, I sat at the computer, determined to come up with something. Still, nothing. The applesauce is almost done, and I still haven't remembered the original idea. I know it was good. I even had a few bits and pieces come back to me, but no enough to do anything with.

So what have I learned from this? Probably nothing. I lose more good ideas this way than is reasonable. It always seems that whatever I am doing requires my full attention, although it is obviously not getting it if I am coming up with ideas. So once again I resolve to write more ideas down when I get them on the notebooks I keep everywhere. And meanwhile, maybe that brilliant idea will come to me after I go to bed tonight. One things for sure, I'll be sleeping with pen in hand.

Catching up

I am not a faithful news watcher even at the best of times, but during the summer, I almost never know what is going on. Once school lets out in June, we watch very little television. We also don't get a newspaper and it never occurs to me to read the headlines online.

This morning I thought about the world and realized I had no idea what was going on around me. I sometimes get so caught up in being mom and wife, babysitter and church member, I forget there is a whole other world out there. Tonight I sat down to fold laundry and turned on a newscast. To be honest, I didn't feel like I had missed anything in the two months when I didn't keep up with the latest stories. There is still tragedy and disaster all around. There are still the heartwarming human interest stories.

Really, I should take more interest in the world around me. If I pay more attention, it will only help my writing as I pick up more ideas from the stories within the stories. I guess I need to find a good online news service to send me the headlines everyday. And then I actually have to read them.

Office Space

I didn't do any writing yesterday, but I sure worked hard so I can get more writing done. We have a spare room that has functioned as an office, a bedroom and a catch-all for things that don't have a home. We moved the main computer out into the family room when the kids became old enough to beg for internet time. So the spare room became a place where it was better if the door remained closed.

I have tackled the room before. We set up it up for an older computer that I used as a second office where I could work. That was only partially successful because the monitor turned out to be flaky. I could work maybe half an hour before the screen would fade to black and have to be shut off to cool down. So again, the room turned out to be storage for just another item we didn't use.

My husband gave me a laptop for my birthday so I could be portable and also not have to compete for computer time with the rest of the family. I spent Saturday, making a home for the laptop. I moved the old computer out of the way and cleaned off the desk. I hung up some cork board and a white board. On the other wall I hung up several certificates I have that remind me that I can have success in this crazy writing world. Written on decorative pieces of paper and stuck right in front of my nose, are quotes that inspire me to reach for the stars. This is my fovorite thing about the space. Whenever I feel discouraged, I look up and the first thing I see are these reminders not to give up.

So now, whenever I have a few minutes to myself I can escape to the clean, organized office and work in the quiet. Of course, tomorrow night, my step-daughter will use the bedroom portion of the room. That is why it is great that laptops are so portable. At least the room is clean.

Whitney Award at Book Club

I received a phone call yesterday asking me me if the Relief Society book club could be held at my house in September. Of course I said yes. I love our book club. The ladies are fun to be with and we have some good discussions. But sometimes I have a hard time with the books they choose. Often they pick books that are a little far out in the attempt to try new things. Funny thing is, most of the time few of them actually enjoy the books. We do have good discussions though. It is almost like they feel that fiction isn't quality unless we don't enjoy it.

Anyway, I think at our next meeting I would like to introduce the Whitney Awards. I believe because we are an LDS book club we should do something to support LDS fiction. Most of the time when I mention this, people roll their eyes and change the subject to talk about "real" writing. I hope that by encouraging them to read some current novels written by LDS authors, we might find some books to nominate for the Whitney awards and develop increased appreciation for the stories that stem from our own culture.

I have a few books that were published this year that I will recommend they read. My selection might be somewhat limited, though. If anyone has any other suggestions of the best books eligible for the Whitneys this year, I would appreciate hearing what they are. I am determined to get at least some of these ladies converted to LDS fiction and maybe even read some great stories in the process. And authors, feel free to recommend your own books :)

Writer Mode vs. Mom Mode

Today I had a difficult time getting my brain into writer mode. Every time I sat down for a few moments to write something, life got in the way. I had the best intentions, but sometimes I just have to put away the writer side of me so I can get other things accomplished.

This morning I went into the garden to see if any tomatoes were ripe and ended up harvesting all the beets. As this wasn't a planned part of my day, I immediately had to scratch several hours of computer time so I could preserve them. I thought I would take the easy way and freeze them, but I started thinking of pickled beets in the middle of winter and ended up pickling and canning them instead. They sure are pretty in the jars, and I can't wait to eat them in a few months.

In the afternoon I turned my mother's brain from feeding my family to torturing them, or allowing them to torture me-I can't always tell the difference. I had to take my oldest daughter to the dentist to get a tooth pulled. (One of her baby teeth just refuses to fall out and she can't get her braces on until the adult one grows in. See, tooth-pulling and braces...it is all about making them miserable). She has never had any real dental work done, so I thought she might have a nervous breakdown right there in the waiting room.

Of course the dentist was a walk in the park compared to the next task of finding my son a pair of jeans for school. For a kid who doesn't care how he looks, he is awfully picky about jeans. We found several different pairs and none of them fit quite right, (he is too tall and skinny). The attitude just about pushed me over the edge, though. You would have thought I was applying thumb screws to the kid.

It was all worth it in the end when the two girls and I stood in line at the check out while my son lurked in the mall. Standing behind us was an older lady who commented on how pretty my girls are. Of course, I love to hear that and I agree completely. But the day's torture was all worth it when she declared that she thought we were sisters out shopping together because I certainly wasn't old enough to be their mother, and she could tell where they got their good looks from. Okay, I'm not sure how sincere she really was, but I'll take what I can get.

Just like writing, I'll take what I can get. And those torture sessions with the kids; they are all just fodder for stories anyway. So now I need to decide, do I make the 13 year-old who needs an attitude adjustment the victim or the villain in my next story?