Reading Journal

Winter Lights: A Season in Poems & Quilts by Anna Grossnickle Hines


My rating: 4 of 5 stars


I've never seen quilts in this light before. The pictures are wonderful, and I'm so glad the grocery store had this in their bargain bin. The photography and quilting skills help me appreciate art in all it's forms. I plan on reading this book to any children I care for.

Personally not a fan of the poetry, but I don't hold that against the book.


Seriously.  Find this book.  If you've got kids in your life, buy it.  If you've got a quilter in your life, share it.  If not, just check it out.  I promise you won't regret it.

Reading Journal

I've hardly touched Family Lies.

I finished O! Pioneers last night, and found myself trying hard to figure out the relationship between Alexandra and Frank.  I've read the book a few times before, but this was really the first time I had thought about what goes on between these two.  And it may be a few more times before I understand it.

When I finished Old Border Road, I picked up A Thousand Bayonets.  I feel as though my reaction to it is common in the reading world.  I started off tentative about liking it and slowly made my way through the beginning.  Then, one night, I couldn't sleep.  So I read.  And I read deep into Christmas Eve morning with this book, getting wrapped in the plot.  It had finally started to move!  It wasn't earth-shattering to the point where I couldn't put it down (most books aren't), but it was better than I thought.

I can tell I'm nearing the end of something self-or-locally published, though, as the editorial stuff is starting to weaken.  One page has three consecutive paragraphs on the page starting with "John [verb]ed..."  But considering I got it for free, I like it better than the other one I won from goodreads.

Reading Journal

I finished "Old Border Road."  It was an okay book.  Not bad, but not really my style.

The ending was one of the worst I've ever read. 

I'm going to talk about the ending....
....just so you know.

....If you don't want the ending spoiled, stop reading.

.....I mean it.

It ends with her taking him to the hospital, and the very last scene is her filling out the paper work.  She signs her full name.

It should have ended with them leaving the hired man at the old adobe house.  That would have been a better ending, and probably fit more with the style of the book.

I started "A Thousand Bayonets," which is a Goodreads Giveaway I won like 6 months ago.  It isn't bad, but I'm not so sure I'm going to be impressed with it.  We'll see.

Writing Journal

First off, I've been an utter failure with making 2012: Year of the Poem. I've gotten a few pretty good ones, I'll admit, but highly doubt I'm anywhere near the 366 I wanted.  I'm so far behind, I might not even add them up.

And I haven't been doing all that great at reading poems after every book I read, either.  Part of that's because I've had to slog through all my reading.  Part of it's because I forgot, though.  Yeah.  To be fair, the forgetfulness happened because it was November and I was excited about starting my annual re-read of O! Pioneers.

Last week, I went to the grocery store...I forget why, exactly, but I had an experience there.  I started composing a few lines about it to post as a clever little facebook status, but then I got long-winded.  So I'll put it here.  As with most all of my other poems, it's open for title suggestions.

(This is the raw version, the one mostly scratched out in my car......at stoplights....of course....)
---------------------
After finding my own peace of mind,
I went to the store, and what did I find?
My energy gels in flavors galore!
And then books were on sale,
So I picked out four.
One for my roommate,
And then three for me.
(It's abou ttime we put up the tree.)
And then right there, at the end of the aisle,
Was the perfect big gift
To make my Secret Friend smile.

All of these things I was so glad to find.
And after all this, I was still glad to find
When I went up to pay,
There was not a line!
She scanned half my things as I dug through my purse,
'Twas then that I saw things turn for the worse.
My wallet--have mercy on me!
My wallet was gone--oh, where could it be?!

I scoured my memory, then left like a jerk,
For my wallet, I realized, had been left at work.

Writing Journal

(A repost for those who follow my general blog.)

I'm only about 40% pleased with the title of my NaNo: Family Lies
Then again, I'm probably my worst critic since I judge myself against who I want to be (like) and who I am/have been.

Anyway...you're probably going to ask if I finished it.
Well....my answer is: I hit the 50k, but the story I wanted to tell is not yet complete. (Which, by the way, is not that uncommon.)

My intentions are to toss the dross* in December, mostly to see how many worthwhile words I wrote.  I aim to finish telling the story in January and go back through it in February.  March I'll design the cover and then look into getting 5 free copies of it from createspace, which is a deal they offer through June for NaNoWriMo winners.  Everything for 2013 is a pipe dream, though.  We'll see if I get to smoke it. 

Just for fun, here are links to my word count rewards.  I hit every one of them on time, except for the 40k, which was due to my not taking the project with me on vacation.  But I'm saving it for if I finish the doss tross by the end of December.
5k by Nov. 3
10k by Nov. 6
20k by Nov. 12
30k by Nov. 17
40k by Nov. 23/24 (can't remember)
50k by Nov. 30
(haven't partaken of this yet, but did find it rather entertaining that the label-typer switched "is" and "never," despite placing the label directly next to the words on the case.)

*(I so wish I could take credit for that phrase, but my buddy Diane introduced it to me)

Writing Journal

Partai!

I finished NaNo! 

In that I wrote 50,200 words of a novel.  I did not, however, finish telling the story I wanted to.
Since validating my novel,  I added an acknowledgements page (and a half).  It's some of my best work, and perhaps I'll share that excerpt here.  I've perused some of the pages, and I've cut probably 1,000 words already.  I did take out a scene that took up an entire page and a half because it made me uncomfortable, and not in a good way, but I've also removed a lot of "that"s, which is a great fluff word.  One of the biggest whoopsies I noticed was that I kept switching the names of the towns.

There is a larger town and a smaller town.  Sometimes I called the larger town Harbringer and sometimes I called it Colbion.  Sometimes I called the smaller town Harbringer and sometimes I called it Colbion.  So you can see some need for clarification.

It also wasn't until the very last scene I wrote that I gave one of my characters a last name.  (Come to think of it, Justin doesn't have one, either, I don't think.)  The last sentence I wrote was:

"He was very proud of the people that is children had becomed."

Not literary's finest, but it will be finished someday.