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See ![[info]](http://l-stat.livejournal.com/img/userinfo.gif){kind=small} bookish_life for future updates. I'll still lurk on here to make sure I get all my friends' updates, but I'm looking to make bookish_life my new and official blogging home. And to actually keep up with it... Friend me, all those of you who haven't yet!<3 you all. |
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Ah insomnia, my old friend. Actually, I'm not sure if this is insomnia or the result of sleeping a lot today. Though I was up till 4:30 last night, slept in till 12, then slept from about 2 till 5. Now I'm awake. At 2:30. I think I've been more productive tonight than I was all day long. Did the dishes, finished one story in Trying to Save Piggy Sneed, edited some poems, picked out the poems I'm submitting for Poetry in Motion, and... played at least 5 games of iPod Risk. I'm so addicted, guys, it's not even funny. Oooh, and I also talked to alovablemess on the phone for almost an hour. That was pretty awesome. She has the most adorable voice ever. Seriously, guys.Also? I'm totally praying for a snow day. |
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I'm really starting to think that days off are just a waste of time for me, because I do all of nothing. Nothing. As in 'no' and 'thing.' I was up till about 4 in the morning last night, watching Rent for the first time (which I liked, minus the cop-out that is the ending) and playing Risk on Alec's iPod. Slept in today till about noon due to a combination of Alec trying to get me up and my mom calling to gossip more about my crazy extended family. And oh my God, are they crazy. And messed up. In ways that would take pages upon pages to describe. Alec and I came back from Louisiana Saturday night, but the drama continued! Basically, my half-sister and her husband have no idea how to behave like normal human beings, much less be responsible parents to her two kids. In other news, her oldest son had the biggest little-boy-crush on me. It was a combination of cute and weird. He's only 11, so the whole half-aunt thing doesn't really play into anything. He wanted to go everywhere with us and sit by me all the time. Anyway, I got up around noon and proceeded to be fairly productive for about two hours, when lunch didn't quite agree with me and I went to go lay down. And then sleep until 5:30 when Alec came in to get me up. Blah. Now I'm wide awake, thanks to lots of sleeping and a post-dinner coffee, and will probably be up till all hours of the night. Again. So I'm now hanging up my wet laundry and waiting to be able to go get the stuff in the dryer later tonight. Yay? It's good to be back home, though. No looking forward to work. As usual. |
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It's been a hell of a two weeks. For one thing, either my two weeks of holiday vacation has completely thrown off my sleep schedule, or I'm turning into a complete insomniac. Alec and I have been up all night. I didn't feel like going to sleep, and he didn't either. So we brewed some coffee and have been up since about 10 this morning. Two weeks ago, Alec's dad had a stroke. He's since doing better, will be able to go home this week, and will be able to go back to work in a diminished capacity. Last week, my grandma got taken to the hospital after passing out at their house during the night. She had Khrons disease and they discovered a blockage that they had to do surgery for. Following the surgery, her blood pressure dropped and they put her in ICU. Sometime between last night and today, she had a heart attack and was unconscious. My grandpa chose not to put her on dialysis, and she never woke up. We got the call about 2 or 3 this morning that she had died. My parents are flying down tomorrow and will, I suppose, be helping with the arrangements for the funeral. So I'll be flying to Louisiana sometime this week. Not sure if Alec will be able to go or not yet. He's got to talk to his professors. Needless to say, please keep my family in your thoughts and prayers. |
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Well, I did it. I set out at the beginning of the year to do the whole "50 Books in a Year" thing. And I did. Finished #50 last night, and am working on what will either be #51 if I get time to read today, or #1 for 2009. List behind the cut, with ratings! |
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Well, the holidays have come and are now going. I'm off of work till the 5th, but I have plenty to do that does not involve the LWML. Eva's wedding is tomorrow, which means that tonight is the bachelorette party. Also the rehearsal dinner, which I scored an invite to by being, quote, "badass." Story: Last night I was at the VFW in Collinsville, watching the karaoke show. Eva and her entourage showed up about 11:30, rockedsome songs, which earned Eva a tequila shot from a girl at the bar. Which apparently inspired Zach, Eva's fiancee, to try to get everyone to do a shot. Now, I thought we were just going to do a tequila shot, so I agreed. It was not just a tequila shot. Oh no. It is called The Stuntman, and is apparently what he and his fellow Navy boys do on the submarine. What you do is this: you snort a line of salt, take the tequila shot, then squirt the lime in your eye. ... Yeah. I was like, "Um, hell no." But I had already agreed to do a shot, and when I say I'm going to do something, I sure as hell do it. So I did it, marking myself as the first girl he's ever seen do this shot and proving that I have some serious cahones. Which got me an invitation to come hang out with the four of them at their friends' hotel room, have some more drinks, and then get invited to the rehearsal dinner at The Melting Pot. I think the shot was worth it. And I upped my street cred. Looking forward to hanging out at The Big Bang and other places on the Landing tonight! |
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Okay. Picture time, because I'm still not tired. |
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Well, it's official. I've written something "novel-length." Typed, to be specific. I have much more hand-written, but my typed word count is: 50,215 That's an awfully big number to look at. 50,000 words. 80 pages. This monster of a novel is starting to really feel like something. I have hope for its future. The St Louis Writers Guild is really helping my progress. I've been reading excerpts at the bi-monthly Open Mics and have gotten nothing but great feedback, which is so incredibly encouraging and inspiring. While praise from family and friends is very nice, compliments from complete strangers is a horse of an entirely different color. Still looking to have the first written draft completed (and mostly typed) by the end of the year. Then begins editing (and a lot of it) and beginning the publication process. Quite frankly, I'm terrified. I don't know if I should look for an agent, brave the slush pile, or what. I suppose I'll cross that bridge when I come to it. Also? Taking a four hour nap today was not a good idea. It's nearly 4 in the morning and I'm wide awake. |
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Hi. I'm not dead. Not yet at least. I've got lots of pictures to post, particularly as I have been a blonde for the past few weeks. But I'm not doing that now. I just wanted to make an entry noting that it is nearly November. Which, as a writer, brings to mind that whole NaNoWriMo thing. National Novel Writing Month, for those of you who don't speak the language. I've never actually done it. I started a pirate novel for it ages ago and died out after about... a week? Maybe? I still adore the idea, though. And I'm certainly not going to be writing 50,000 words this month. Though that would ensure an end to Merry Widow, as it has less than that to go until completion. But it would be a nice time to focus on writing. I listened to a very good podcast on the subject (Yes, I also have an iPod and am addicted to podcasts. And to watching movies at work. Shh, don't tell.) and the podcaster said something very simple, very obvious, and yet very helpful. She said that it's okay to suck. That's what NaNoWriMo is all about. It's not about cranking out a ready-for-publication manuscript. It's about just writing. Writing. How novel. (pardon the pun) I can't agonize over every word I put to paper. I can't tear my hear out trying to get one sentence right before moving on to the next. Because then I really never will write this damn thing. And that's really what I should be working on. Writing it. Editing and perfecting will always be there. The ideas, the mood, the itching in my fingers to get words out... that fades fairly quickly. Just... write. Huh. |
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A bad Disney movie. Pretty much Matt Damon saying what most sensible people want to say about Sarah Palin, but don't because everyone else will instantly call them sexist. Anyone else find it a little bit funny that Palin told Hillary Clinton to "stop whining" about the sexism Clinton faced when running for President? Or maybe just sad. I also got to learn more about the heap of racist smearing that is Obama Nation from an ever-helpful co-worker. You know, the book where the author gets most of the most easily-found facts wrong. But it must be true, because he has over 700 footnotes that no one will ever read to find out what the footnotes are referencing (blogs, the author's own writing, other articles proven to be equally untrue). But because it's printed and plays into the fears that were circulated when Obama first came into the public eye, people will believe it. But why does no one care that McCain and Palin continue to spread the lie that Palin opposed the Bridge to Nowhere from the beginning and that she's against earmarks? Why are we applauding the fact that a 17 year old girl is pregnant and going into a marriage that will probably end unhappily in divorce? Why don't we care about the moral issue of adultery? Why do we call Democrats elitist? What, exactly, ARE small-town values and why are they so awesome? Why do we throw around insults, only to take offense over a presumed insult to ourselves? Why are we afraid to ask the questions that need to be asked, for fear of being called names? /soapbox Sorry to all those non-politically minded individuals on my list. Sometimes I just need to rant against the fact that the world has gone mad. |
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Okay, maybe it wasn't quite ardent, but it sure felt nice. I had two (count 'em: two) compliments today from fairly random people. One was at the Open Mic I went to for the St Louis Writers Guild (of which I am a proud member and Membership Co-Coordinator). I read a bit of Merry Widow, and afterwards one of the women who I've talked to before came up to me and said, "You are one of the best writers I've heard in a while. Really." She went on to elaborate, but that really struck me. This is coming from an older woman who's been writing for much longer than me and has actually gotten some of her stuff published. So... it was really nice to hear that. Afterwards, I was feeling inspired so I stopped by Fox and Hounds to write for a bit before going home. I was doing pretty well, in spite of distraction from the Cards game and the class and/or book club in the corner talking about how much Jonathan Franzen sucks. (YES.) That is, until a random older man comes in, takes one look at where I'm sitting on the couch, and says what I think sounds like, "You're beautiful." Me: What? ROM: You're beautiful. Gorgeous. He then proceeds to the bar and starts talking to the bartender. ROM: What's the lady on the couch drinking? Carol: Bailey's. ROM: I need a Bailey's, then. I start to shrink a little into the couch. But apparently Carol informed him that I was "a minister's wife" so he decided to back off and not buy me a drink. But still sat down at the couches across from me and proceeded to carry on a conversation, wherein he told me that he wasn't trying to pick me up, he just thought I was beautiful, for the next fifteen minutes. There was also the nice awkward conversation about what I'm writing, what it's about, and then grilling me about where I'm going with it and what makes it different from every other book about being a small town girl. (Which Merry Widow isn't even ABOUT, but communication lines weren't the strongest.) Sigh. So much for writing. And now, it's time for bed. Work is wearing me out. |
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Merry Widow just reached 40,000 words. Typed. That's the longest thing I've ever written. And I'm pretty sure there's enough hand-written stuff left to reach 50,000. And I still have more to write. It's nothing when compared to I have hope for this monster yet. |
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Since I fail at keeping up on things, here are reviews of the last almost-dozen books I’ve read in 100 words or less: ( Books 16 to 28 ) |
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So I'm back in Chicago, back on campus, back in the Mary-Marth dorm. Feels like home. With the added bonus of being in the guest room and therefore having a air conditioning window unit. Score. I want to move back here so badly. Damn Seminary. Also? Once we get back, I decided I'm beginning the search for a new job. |
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So, dollsome got me inexplicably hooked on Kate Bush's "Wuthering Heights" song, as well as the quest for all the other insane versions of it out there.And then I found the motherload. It's... fascinating. In the flaming car wreck sort of way. |
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What does two cups of coffee at 9:30 get you? A very awake me at nearly 11:30, reading through Catholicism for Dummies with my G-2 .07 pen, researching for my next writing project, a re-write and expansion of my short story "The Dashing Miss Missouri Brown." I'm leaving Merry Widow to hobble along on its own for a few days before it drives me crazy, and am instead taking a page from Joanne Harris' book and focusing my energies on something else rather than try to force writing something that doesn't want to be written. Luckily, I took about a three hour nap earlier today. I really need to stop doing this. |
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The Big Read reckons that the average adult has only read 6 of the top 100 books they've printed. Well, let's see. 1) Bold the books you have read. |
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For those who are interested? My new more writer-y blog, wherein I shall strive to be creative and profound (and shall probably fail miserably), is A More Bookish Life. There's only like... 2 posts there, and I'm pretty much my only friend, but... it's a start, man! Don't judge. |
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