1. I realize that this may not look like record breaking snow to a lot of the country. But I have never in my life seen so many healthy white snowmen. Usually they are streaked with dirt and full of dead leaves and grass.

2. Personally I wouldn’t mind never ever making a snowman.

3. I dislike cold immensely.

4. My bushes don’t like it either.

5. Do cats have armpits? If they do, that’s what my cat was up to in the snow last night. He must’ve liked it though, cause I couldn’t get him to come in.

6. Hard to believe that only a month ago it was in the 70’s. That’s Texas for you though.

7. This list is boring. I’m talking about the weather for goodness sakes.

8. Just finished reading Respect for Acting by Uta Hagen. Lots of useful stuff in there for actors. And I guess for compulsive liars too, if that’s your cup of tea.

9. Some people have too much money.

10. Why are Hoarders, Intervention and Celebrity Rehab so entertaining? Trying to figure out if it’s the train wreck aspect, but for the grace of God, or “Whew, dodged that one”!

11. What I’m going to read when I decide to leave the house (or when the snow melts or ten degrees are added to the temperature, whichever comes first):

12. The Lightening Thief by Rick Riordan – Came highly recommended by a real life school librarian.

13. Bloodroot by Amy Greene (no, haven’t found it yet)…and why did the local librarian look at me like I was crazy when I asked for it? You’d think, being a librarian that you’d be used to hearing all kinds of strange titles, and I don’t think Bloodroot is the weirdest ever. Maybe that’s just Fort Worth.

14. Fort Worth can be backwards sometimes. Can you tell I’m a Dallas girl? I mean, the closest bagel shop is like five miles away…FIVE MILES!

15. Sarah’s Quilt by Nancy E. Turner – The second book to in the Sarah Prine series. Loved These is My Words, and I’m ready to take on some more of the old west.

PS – Writing writing, always writing. Will tell more when I have something worthwhile on the subject.

PS#2 – Today is this blog’s one year anniversary!! Yay Writer’s Cramp woo hoo!!!!

These are the books I’ve read for the last week or so…

An Abundance of Katherines by John Green: Funny, funny, funny. Loved the footnotes especially. A light read.

Lucky by Rachel Vail: For me this was uber light. For rich kids whose parent(s) lose their income it might be more significant. I suppose it’s hard for me to relate. But I did enjoy it since I’ve always liked to imagine what it’s like to be wealthy. Nannies, housekeepers, stocked pool houses and all.

These is My Words by Nancy E. Turner: This book reminded me of Lonesome Dove for it’s rough and tumble western setting, though it’s not nearly as graphic. The novel is written in diary form you would think would be limiting but never feels that way due to the writer’s skill. It’s interesting to see the transition of the character’s writing from teen to mother, both for her growth as a writer as well as her growth as a person. The character is based on the author’s Great-grandmother.

Have you read any of these? What did you think about them?

As for my own writing…I’m thinking of jumping back to my long neglected novel. With so much time that has passed, maybe the changes that need to be made will be clearer. My poor protag in my current short story is going to have to wait in the woods for a while.

Here’s what went down at the local library I 1) picked up Paper Towns, then 2) looked and searched for and inquired after These Is My Words but 3) it was nowhere to be found. To assuage my melancholy regardingthis fact, I 4) picked up An Abundance of Katherines, (by John Green, author of Paper Towns). If you’ve read Paper Towns, you know what the numbered sentence is about. If you haven’t, what are you doing here?! Go get it (only I think I got the last one at the Southwest Regional branch of the Fort Worth Public Library–so don’t go there).

Another reason to get the book is that it was awarded the 2009 Edgar Award for best Young Adult novel. And it’s pretty good to boot.

It was interesting reading from the 18-year-old boy point of view. Besides The Outsiders (written by a teen girl, S.E. Hinton) you don’t really get the male perspective in a lot of YA fiction. The nether region jokes were not so awesome for a 34 year old mom, but were in fact much more tame than what I remember boys talking about when I was a teen.

Youngsters who enjoy this book might even want to voluntarily pick up Leaves of Grass by Walt Whitman which is a public service that John Green has provided.

On to writing:

So, I wrote a pterodactyl sized (but feathered) bird into my short story yesterday. And I’m currently wondering where I may have gotten off track. Before you say, “oh, that’s not so bad” let it be known that the bird dropped off a little man wielding a sword before picking up my protag and flying off with her. Oh the humanity!

I’m thinking that this might be my story’s way of avenging itself after being left untouched for over a month.

*In searching for a pterodactyl image I found out that pterodactyl is not the proper name for the flying lizard…in fact, pterodactylus is the correct name and they are much smaller than their brother, pteranodon who would actually be the creature I was talking about in my story.

Now that I’ve got you humming…

My writing hiatus is officially over. Back on the blog, back on the Word doc. So do me a favor, comment!!! I love the feedback and it encourages me to write more of the stuff you’ve come to know and love, or at least tolerate.

I’ll also be heading back to the library to catch up on my reading. If you want to follow along, this is what I’ll be checking out:

Paper Towns by John Green

These is My Words by Nancy E. Turner

and if I can find it - Bloodroot by Amy Greene I’ve seen it prominently reviewed in two magazines in the last week. Which means I might have to purchase it.

I’ll also be checking out whatever catches my eye. I’ll let you know what that is when I find it.

Have a super plus plus happy Monday everyone!

I’m a learn by doing kind of gal. My husband offered to buy me a Joomla manual to teach me to build websites for his business. As memories of vainly following steps in a math textbook shuddered through me I explained that it would be so much better if he just showed me how and let me mess around with the application. In other words, he should save his money. Which for me seems just a little off-kilter considering I adore reading. But for some reason textbook writers don’t usually include characters or a climax, which is a shame.

Don’t ask me why, but this reminded me of fourth grade (textbooks aside). I had a beef with a girl in my class and she had a beef with me. We decided to duke it out 3:00 style. It didn’t matter to me one bit that I weighed less than 50 lbs. at the time and she had to have been twice that weight. Or that she was almost twice my height. My righteous cause would be enough to see me through. I packed the ends of my generic Keds with wadded paper towels because she’d leaked her strategy. She was planning on stepping on the ends of my toes and punching my face like a speed bag. Cartoon physics aside, I thought I was pretty dang smart to give my self foot cramps and throw my center of gravity off balance.

One big difference between teachers today and my teacher (in 1980 something or other): A teacher today would have called authorities. My teacher, dear Mrs. Baker, tried in her own way to dissuade us but never called anyone. Was she trying to teach a lesson? I really think she thought I would chicken out. I didn’t. I lost a tooth. I never picked a fight again. Lesson learned…the hard way.

the inspiration for one setting in Sea Rose (Bishop's Palace, Galveston Island, TX)

Picking up the figurative pen again is proving an enlightening experience. I forgot during the 1.5 months I took off from writing new material (so editing is not included)–the freeing and fabulous feeling associated with creation. Luckily I didn’t come into it with nothing to start with. I’d saved the beginning of a short story sometime in September and promptly forgot all about it. I opened the file a few days ago and fell in love with the story again.

Starting again was weird at first. The things I was writing were stilted and awkward…but with just a small amount of perseverance I’m moving smoothly again…like riding a bike! Even if I’m never published, the joy of writing from my imagination is such a wonderful thing–it almost makes editing worth it.

Yesterday I come back from my month long vacay from computering and today I find out that I FINALLY won a contest! How is that for luck? Maybe I should start sending out queries right away. I guess I should mention–before everyone points it out–that I won the contest by having my name drawn from a hat, not for my awesome writing skills. Hey, we take what we can get, right?

The prize: a 50 page critique! Not so bad.

Along for the Ride by Sarah Dessen

I wanted to love this book for many reasons. First, it is the latest (and the last one to be read by me) of the Sarah Dessen books (at least for now). I was under the assumption that her successive novels would just get better and better. After Just Listen and Lock and Key, I was sure I would adore Along for the Ride. I enjoyed it enough, but it took me several days to read. That definitely means that I did not love it. I didn’t want to spike it into the book depository or anything. It was just okay.

Prom Dates from Hell by Rosemary Clement-Moore

This was a FUN read. Smart and sarcastic Maggie Quinn is having a helluva senior year. Strange things are happening and her “spidey senses” are tingling. Suspend all disbelief when reading this book and it will be a fun-house read. The story moves along quickly, lots happening. I got through it much faster than Along… and I can’t wait to get my hands on the next Maggie Quinn book.

And what I’m reading now:

On Writing by Stephen King

I am a huge non-fan of non-fiction. I try to put it off as long as possible. I was, however, very pleasantly surprised when I started reading On Writing and didn’t want to put it down. The first third of the book reads like a short biography, and King knows how to write about experiences. It’s vivid and quick, no wasted words. The second third is the heavier stuff, but even that King makes light. He writes like he loves it (even grammar!) and urges you to love your writing too. I’m not through it yet, but at this rate I will be soon–and for me to read non-fiction this quickly is stunning.

I’ve got a new “gig”.

Have you ever wondered about the state of Fort Worth charter schools?

Curious about charter schools in general?

You’re in luck! I’ve signed on as the Fort Worth charter schools Examiner for Examiner.com! It’s a cool site with national as well as local folks providing information and educated opinions with the public at large. Check it out and see all the neat stuff you can find.

‘kay.

catching fire

On my fifteen last Friday I mentioned that I read Catching Fire. That wasn’t a lie. I did, and I loved it. It left me hanging more than The Hunger Games did, so now I’m angry  with Suzanne Collins until the next book comes out. BTW, READ THIS BOOK. But make sure you read The Hunger Games first, of course.

writing stuff

This is really cool – MIT’s (that’s Massachusetts Institute of Technology) FREE online writing course. No grades, but you get the syllabus, assignments and course materials (downloadable).

This is where I got that link. There are also free courses offered by Purdue University, UCLA, and the University of Utah to name a handful (minus two fingers).

I learned a lot about writing this weekend thanks to my pal Jenny Martin. She is the librarian who guest blogged for me last week, remember? I learned that one of those courses mentioned above would be a great idea for me. Passive voice, who knew! (It seems like everyone I know knew. ugh.) Also, this one space between sentences is going to take some getting used to. It was the only thing that stuck from 7th grade typing class.  There!  I did it again. oy.