Wednesday Writer’s Cafe 3/9

~ tahenryauthoress ~ 3 Comments

It’s been an interesting week. I am once again spending way too much time on the scheduling committee compounded by a few “entertaining” discoveries.

A) We decided to use Rob’s Rules for the committee since one member had taken on an attitude of “my word is the last word.” LOL, sure it is, that’s why we’re a committee of seven, not of one. After we did that and concluded that meeting the member asked, after I left, if we were using Rob’s Rules because I was intimidated by him. Seriously? grow the bleep up. We’re using Rob’s rules because you’re acting like a bleep-hat.

B) after what amounts to somewhere in the neighborhood of 30 hours of work in the last two weeks, we got word that one of our former students is coming back next year. A student in a wheel chair. The facility we rent has no elevator. So once this kid decides what he wants to take we will have to rearrange the entire schedule to move the classes he wants downstairs and to the day that’s convenient for him. This is not a small coop. We have 130+ students. We offer 65+ k-12 classes packed into 7 rooms (plus outside) on two days of the week. So we could be completely redoing all of this grueling work. I’ll just stab myself in the eye now and be done with it.

Let’s see, in the awesome column, a woman who lives in my neighborhood posted she had a bunch of English newspapers, including some from WWII and did anyone want them? SCORE!

In the “you might be a freak” column. I have a sitter tonight but the desperate desire to be alone with a good book was so high, I didn’t go out. I left the sitter downstairs to entertain my kiddo and I’m hiding upstairs in the library with a can of apple pie filling and a good book. Well hundreds of good books on the shelves around me, but one good book in my hand.

I’ve decided to report on my stated 2016 goals each Wednesday at cafe for a little prod of accountability. You might notice I finally cleaned it up a bit and removed the goals that are completed.

– Participate in one flash fiction challenge per month.

√ eh, haven’t done one for March yet because I’m spending all my time working on the schedule. See above diatribe.

– Prepare and teach “Nano to Publish”.

√ Teaching.

– Edit my 2015 Nano Novel for 2016 publication.

√ ugh not much this week. Damn scheduling committee. And the worst part is if I get elected as VP of education, and no one is running against me, I have to do this committee again next year.

– Any time I am not actively working on my 2015 Nano Novel, write 2500 words per week on my spy novel until it is done. (After four years, it’s time to put this mess to bed.)

-Non Applicable at this time.

Non writing goals

– Prepare and teach two classes at the coop for the 2016-2017 school year.

√ Yeah. I’m on the mock schedule with nano to publish and a class that’s using a geographical approach to look at the unique history and literature of an area. By next week I should know if anyone would sign up for either. Mock schedule goes out this Friday.

– Take better care of my body, ie. stop compulsively painting, crocheting, and writing until my back or shoulder is so tore I can barely use either. Which leads me to …

√ Done good this week.

– yoga daily.

√ five out of seven ain’t bad.

Book Review: Something Borrowed

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Back to a comfort book, one can only move forward so quickly before needing to pause to allow the brain to catch up. LOL. Something Borrowed by Emily Giffin is one half of a story of two friends, Rachel and Darcy.

My reading of the books has changed over the years, more on that on Friday, but one thing hasn’t changed. This book makes me laugh every time. It’s well written, compelling reading. Emily Giffin knows people and she writes about them in an engaging manner.

The simple plot: girl meets boy, thinks she isn’t good enough for him so hooks him up with her perfect best friend. Seven years later girl discovers she and boy have something. Too bad he’s engaged to said best friend.  Entertaining calamity ensues.

℘℘℘℘+: four and a half pages. I thoroughly enjoy this and Something Blue, the companion novel (more about that next week). I have read other things by this author and while they are well written they don’t speak to me like Borrowed and Blue.

I’m likeable, LOL

~ tahenryauthoress ~ 1 Comment

Good morning friends in blogging land. This morning I got this little gem:

likeable-blog-1000-2x

Congrats on my 1000 likes.

That’s pretty darn cool.

I’ve been working like a mad woman lately on things not writing related because they were time sensitive. In fact, when I added it up, I averaged 2 hours a day this last week on the scheduling committee work. But another few weeks and it will be into maintenance mode I hope. sigh. And then I can spend those two hours on my blog, my WIP, and my reading. I suppose it might help if I wasn’t reading four books and once with a fifth I just picked up at the library calling my name. LOL. But that just wouldn’t be me.  Which clearly you all like.

Thanks for tuning in to read. Big hug and a kiss on the cheek (unless you’re European in which case two or three kisses on the cheeks).

Not so Fiendish Friday

~ tahenryauthoress ~ 1 Comment

A few weeks ago someone from my son’s coop posted a link to this article and I loved it. I sent it to my husband with my commentary and he immediately suggested I should blog about it. LOL. (Yes, my husband is ridiculously supportive of my blogging/writing. And yes I am aware of how flipping lucky I am.) I had to consider that for a while though. Did it really have a place in my canon? I am a writer. I blog about reading and writing and teaching writing. But then I figured, if I devote an entire post each week to making fun of myself, why not this?

So the first line that caught my attention: “There’s something kids are assumed to receive from the process of group schooling — especially from large, government-funded schools — that helps them fit in better with society at large.” Yes. I am constantly railing about this. Schools want my child to fit into their little box of acceptable so that he will grow up to be the citizen they want him to be. The socialization question is one I hear all to often. From well meaning family members to the clerk at the grocery story who says, “It must be so lonely to be at home all day.” Um….Kiddo immediately caught the logic flaw in that one. “Why is she saying that? I’m not at home.”

The article talks considerably about the socialization opportunities home schooled children have, if you define socialization as learning to interact with the world at large in a positive manner. Which I do.

The article goes on to talk about the changes in government provided educational goals over the years. Schools now emphasize group work and group think more than individual achievement. This directly contradicts studies in expertise and mastery that suggested working alone on things help you to identify that which is just out of your reach so you can grow/stretch/make the effort to reach that understanding/knowledge.

The article finishes with questioning what I always do. Are critics really afraid that home schooled children will grow up to think for themselves? Because studies show that they do. Home schooled children tend to be more independent, more likely to handle things themselves, to be self employed when they grow up. In other words, they grow up thinking it’s ok to challenge authority and authority never likes that.

Here’s the link if you like to read the article.

Wednesday Writer’s Cafe 3/2

~ tahenryauthoress ~ 2 Comments

Wow, it’s March already. How the bleep did that happen? In no time at all con will be here, then Legoland, then Hawaii thank god. I expect this whole year to slide by in a wash of head shaking, “wait, where did x go?”

So the Norwescon schedule is up and I want to know what idiot thought it was a good idea to schedule So You’ve Finished a First Draft, Catching Readers, Hook, Line, & Sinker, Beta Better, and Single Combat for Writers: Creating Believable Violence all in the same hour on the same day? I need a time turner.

Also this week, our friends J and A decided to go to Hawaii with us in May. Woot. This reminded me that I hadn’t put the family passport information into the cruise website yet. Which led me to discover … my passport expired. Bleep bleep bleepity bleep.

So in between putting in a couple hours a day on the schedule for the coop next year, double checking Scripting the Truth for errors before my next order, and editing my murder mystery for Beta…I am breathless. In fact, I’m so busy I had to spend the first 45 minutes of write in figuring out what I am going to cook for the rest of the week so I can go get groceries on the way home. LOL

 

I’ve decided to report on my stated 2016 goals each Wednesday at cafe for a little prod of accountability.

– Research marketing locations for the next free giveaway for Scripting the Truth. Figure out the Reddit problem. Fine tune my categorization on amazon.

√ This is done. I might just remove this goal. I have a list of marketing locations. I joined a publishing coop for the year to get more of my face out there.

– Write 2500 plus words per week on my 2015 Nano novel til completion. (Only another 5-6 weeks to go on that, I think.)

√ Done. Already back from first critique.

– Participate in one flash fiction challenge per month.

√ I did two technically in February but both were super short. One was to write an opening line to a novel. (Watch as she sits on the couch working on her laptop, one hand occasionally petting the sleeping dog next to her.) I was leaving it open so the novel could go a myriad of ways.

The other was to put the working title of your current WIP into an anagram site and pick an anagram of your title. There were over 70K+ anagrams of Sweeping it Under the Rug. LOL. Both challenges came from Dan Alatorre.

– Prepare and teach “Nano to Publish”.

√ January and February done. People are moving forward. It’s early still but I’m excited that only the people who weren’t ready to pull the trigger in January didn’t come back in February. Everyone came back. Everyone is still working forward. We even gained a member.

– Edit my 2015 Nano Novel for 2016 publication.

√ Edited 21 chapters this week including some pretty big rewrites to fix some issues. It’s still not where I want it but I think I will be ready to go to Beta in a month. Start thinking about if you want on my beta team.

– Any time I am not actively working on my 2015 Nano Novel, write 2500 words per week on my spy novel until it is done. (After four years, it’s time to put this mess to bed.)

-Non Applicable at this time.

Non writing goals

– Prepare and teach two classes at the coop for the 2016-2017 school year.

√ This got so out of control. I am now teaching 3 classes more or less. laughing. It’s in flux. And of course it depends on whether people sign up for my classes but still.

– Take better care of my body, ie. stop compulsively painting, crocheting, and writing until my back or shoulder is so tore I can barely use either. Which leads me to …

√ Pretty good this week, although a long stretch with a sander left one shoulder a little cranky. I’m on another house project. This one is just a book case so no pictures, I think.

– yoga daily.

√ Nope. LOL. But at least every other day. The three weeks I was sick, exhausted, sick, exhausted, sick really killed my daily habit. But I am building it back up.

Book Review: Essentialism

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I don’t remember what persuaded me to get this book. I do know I had to order it and get on the waiting list for some time before it arrived(thus adding to the lack of remember). Before I cracked it open, it was on the book review stack and then as I started reading I thought…weekend workshop. But as I finished Essentialism: The Disciplined Pursuit of Less by Greg McKeown, I feel like it’s one of those rare books where the sum is greater than it’s parts. To break it down and distill his message in a weekend blog post would cheapen the work.

I will however share a little something that fascinated me. Everyone has heard of K. Anders Ericsson’s study of violinists, even if you don’t know who did the study, you’ve heard 10,000 hours to achieve mastery, that the best violinists practiced the most. What I had never heard and I bet you hadn’t either, is that the second most important factor was sleep. The best violinists slept 8.6 hours per night on average and napped 2.8 hours per week on average. They were better rested and therefore able to make the most of those practice hours to become the best.

I definitely enjoyed this book. It is well written. It is repetitive in those areas where he is trying to get your attention, which works well for a non fiction book. It is both an easy read and a book I would advise against breezing through. Take your time. Read it slowly. Allow the ideas to percolate in between chapters.

The theme of doing less better is not a new one. I’ve read other books along that path. I find those books tend to find me when I am already feeling overwhelmed. It’s always a nice reminder to slow down and think about what really matters, then adapt accordingly.

℘℘℘℘ – Four pages. Quite enjoyed it. Read it a bit faster than I think was ideal but certainly heard what I needed to hear.

Nano To Publish February Edition

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One of the things I always noticed when I was getting edumacated was there are two kinds of teachers. Those who have a plan of what to cover and stick to it like glue and those who have a plan but follow the organic flow of the class. I always liked the latter because you never know where the discussion might go when you just let people talk about ideas. I had a plan for last weekend’s workshop. And while things somewhat went according to plan the detours were really fun.

I started off talking about my feedback from my critique partner. It was pretty harsh. My book is just not that good. And even though I felt that the whole time I was writing it in Nano, finishing it off post Nano, and doing some edits to get it ready for first pass, it still kinda hurt. My critiquer knew within ten pages of finding the body who killed the victim. Ouch. What was the point of laying my pain open for everyone? Well, by asking more questions of my critiquer I found out one line in my novel gave it away for him. One line. One line I meant to be a little odd, to make the reader think just a pause, but apparently I overshot the mark. Then I turned them loose to talk to their partner and find those little extra nuggets of information that might help rework their novel.

Then we talked about what they had heard. I wanted to identify places where they felt overwhelmed by the criticism or had no idea how to address what had been presented to them. And what do you know, almost everyone felt really good about what they heard. Everyone had something to share though.

Which lead to a fabulous discussion of erotica versus romance as a genre and what might be contained in those type books to make it fall into one category or another. The librarian on duty actually came and closed the doors of the conference room on us. Oops. LOL.

Another writer was concerned about time line clarification. Her reader was confused when in the story he was. One suggestion to fix that was to read through how an author you admire handles that sort of notification subtly and then apply it to your novel.

I think if February Nano To Publish had a theme it would be that. If you don’t know how to do something but know an author who does it well in your opinion, read their works. Model the changes you need after them. I’m not talking about changing your style to match theirs, just using their toolbox when you discover your tools aren’t working for a particular problem.

If you’re following along at home, get to work on making the changes your first pass critiquer suggested to you. Ideally you want your novel ready to go to Beta readers in April. You have two whole months. Get to writing.

Fiendish Friday: Connect the Dots

~ tahenryauthoress ~ 7 Comments

While I was in Portland, I went to Powell’s because hello, Powell’s is amazing. I spent rather a lot of time in their Star Wars and Lego book section. The perils of having an almost seven year old boy. It could be worse; I am eternally grateful that he outgrew the Thomas the Tank Engine age.

So after a while I got tired of standing about watching him look at every page of every book before asking if he could get it. So I started looking on the opposite side of the aisle. They had game books. Some of the normal game books but also a lot of cool things. Like a Murder Mystery Crossword puzzle book where you have to solve the crossword puzzle to figure who dun it and with what.

But I also grabbed an Extreme Connect the Dots. Now when I showed the book to G in the store, she laughed heartily.  But I bought it anyway and when I mentioned later that I bought it she was like “I thought you were kidding.” Hrm.

Then I came home and commented on a blog about adult coloring books, that I did connect the dots, and that blogger was like Huh?

So apparently I am a freak in this as well. I like Extreme Connect the Dots. This one has cool architectural locations from around the world and between 800-2400 dots per picture. LOL

dottodot
One of the smaller ones I did of the Sydney Opera House.

Thursday is apologies?

~ tahenryauthoress ~ 4 Comments

I know I missed my Wednesday Writer’s cafe the last two weeks. I’ve been running the blog on autopilot. But I think I am out of the fog now.

So I’m just gonna run it down quick and easy for you.

-Got my first pass critique back. It was bad. I won’t lie. Started rewriting my disaster of a book. I suspect it will take several passes on this one. Publication may or may not happen this fall as planned. I’ll keep you updated.

-February Nano to Publish class went well. The follow along summary will be up this weekend.

-I got sick twice in the last 3 weeks, throwing off my yoga schedule but I’m back on track.

-We reorg’d the coop and now I will be the VP of Education. Fun role, I hope.

-Somehow I am now teaching three classes at the coop next year, LOL. Assuming I get kids who want the classes I am offering, but one is a lock for sure. The other two, we’ll see.

Most everything else is ticking over. I could talk about getting a water restoration company out to look at the wall or taking my son in for a dyslexia eval but that would just be more words you have to read. LOL

Go outside, enjoy the sun if you have some.

Book Review; Bookends

~ tahenryauthoress ~ 5 Comments

I’m still doing that thing where I reread books of comfort by some of my favorite authors to soothe me out of my funk. This week I bring you Bookends by Jane Green. Jane Green has a variety of novels all with a vaguely familiar theme. Woman finds herself amidst the confusion of life. It’s a theme you would know I heartily embrace if you had read my novel.

So why Bookends when Jane has so many fine novels? I think because the main character is me on some level. I identify hugely with her. Cath has a great job, good friends she feels close to and that complete her life. She’s always been the ugly duckling, and no she doesn’t turn into a swan, I shudder to think. She had a stunningly attractive best friend in her youth which never helped her low self esteem. Despite the fact that she’s fab at her job, she hates it. Then one of her closest friends suggest they do what Cath has always wanted and open a bookstore. That’s always been one of my secret desires, back when brick and mortar bookstores still existed anyway. And yes I was the ugly duckling to a woman who pulled every man in a 50 mile radius in my youth. And yes, I have had more than one career I rocked while hating it desperately.

Anyway as the novel progresses they open the book store, deal with the past, and tackle some complications in the present. And yes, the book ends with Cath content with herself and her life. Call that a swan ending if you please. But isn’t that what we all want, to be content with ourselves and our lives each day?

℘℘℘℘℘ – Five Pages. Well written, amusing, good dialogue. A bit dated now, since the book is set in the 90s, ouch that’s 20 years ago, but still, people are humans. LOL.