Reading/Writing Journal

Cleaning out the open tabs in the web browser on my phone.
Had a friend post to facebook asking for recommendations for short stories.  These are her responses.

A Letter to God by Gregorio Lopez y Fuentes
A Lodging for the Night; Suicide Club stories; Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde by Robert Louis Stevenson
Ray Bradbury
Tuck Everlasting
A Rose for Emily
Holy is the Firm by Anne Lamott


Writing, Places to Submit
www.freedomwithwriting.com/freedom
List of contests and places to submit short stories and other writing.

Writing Journal

I've been ridiculously sick with a nasty cold for almost a solid week.  I'm down to just the drainage left.  It was seriously the worst I can remember feeling from an illness as an adult.  I coughed so much so hard that I popped a blood vessel in my eye!  Headaches, fevers, chills, congestion, fatigue, all of it.  Three solid days.  Then three days where some of the symptoms were lessened.

I didn't want to touch anything because I didn't want to spread the germs.  In fact, I left church earlier than I anticipated yesterday because a family came in late and sat behind me.  With an infant who was less than two months old.  I was like, "Jesus, get my germs away from this baby!"  I didn't even shake hands with people.  Gave a couple of air hugs.  But I mean it when I share everything except my germs with people.  Even when I lived alone, I would cough and sneeze into my shirt collars.

Anyway, that's what's kept me from writing.  In an odd way, it made me grateful that I hadn't applied for jobs, or gone looking for one.  Terribly poor form to call out of your first full week or an interview because you have a cold.  Even worse to show up with one.  I seriously rubbed my upper lip raw.  There's a small open sore between my nose and lips from all the wiping.

But I'm going to write today.  About a drunken painter in a city of wonder, thanks to a 60 second art challenge by a couple friends of mine.  Watch here.

Came back to add that Pandora, even though I have all my stations on shuffle (and I listen to a wide array of stuff) started my writing session off with Carrie Underwood's "Just a Dream," and ended with George Jones' "If Drinkin' Don't Kill Me," which is funny because I made Underwood's song the motivating factor for my MC to leave his regular bar early that night and my page ended up with him passing out as he entered one his ex hated.

Reading Journal

Finished a Maeve Binchy book in the span of about a week.  I tend to use those to relight my reading fire.  I always enjoy them, and since most of my collection is purse sized paperback, I get through one quickly and can ride the success of that.

Not sure what title is next.  I think I might do a movie-book combo with Roommate One's copies of Stardust.  I've seen the movie a couple of times, and what's funny is her copy of Stardust is on the shelf directly above her copy of Eleanor & Park, which I borrowed without her knowledge/explicit permission one weekend she went out of town in the second place we shared.

Saw something on twitter I might try next year, if I can meet this year's Goodread's Reading Challenge.  I like challenges and need to get back into them, honestly.  Anyway, the thread was about what people used for bookmarks and a guy said he used a playing card because he tried to read 52 books a year.  I thought it was cool, and you could write the title and year on each card.  If I can get through fifteen this year, I'll give it a go next year.

Reading Journal

I finished Persuasion today.  Now my Pandora shuffle is playing the Pride and Prejudice soundtrack, from the 2006 version.  I'm supposed to be writing.  That's my goal for being down here.  I did do some typing on an LDS forum.

I also just updated my goodreads.  I'm only four books behind my reading goal.  Which I set at 15, planning on one a month, plus about one more per quarter.  My own books are still packed.  I need to get my bookcases, or at least one of the big ones, somewhere other than my bedroom.  I need to be sleeping on my bed.

Finished a blanket today, too.

I guess I'll just go out, get  a writing prompt and do that.  Small but simple things.

Writing Journal

I'm doing this for real.  Again, I guess.  But for real.

I read this article by Kiki Schirr about setting a rejection letter goal, and it inspired me to start writing again.  This weekend, I made the final moving steps into a new home.  It's a humbling experience, but I needed to leave a toxic work environment.  And there was no other place in the town I was living in to make what I needed to make in order to afford my apartment.  My best friend had a room open in her home, offered it to me, and I decided to take a leap. 

My life still feels a little shambly as of this current writing, but I can already tell that it's going to be better for me than what I left behind.  For instance, I don't have a place in my room for a bed.  For the past three nights, I've been sleeping on communal couches.  It's a process.  One that, quite frankly, I'm hoping will be conducive to my artistic endeavors. 

Right now, I'm writing on a table set up in the basement.  Last night it was used to play Magic: the Gathering.  My plan is to listen to Pandora and write until the battery on my laptop gets to low or my drink runs out.  Not sure what I'll be writing.  Mostly journaling to start with.  I might work my way into book or movie reviews or short stories.  We'll see.