What's Up Wednesday/Ready, Set, WRITE!

What's Up Wednesday is a weekly meme geared toward readers and writers, allowing us to touch base with blog friends and let them knowwhat's up. It is run by Jamie Morrow and Erin Funk. Jamie has a link at the bottom of her post with everyone who's joining in each week. 











So, I didn't get a post up last week. I knew I'd be traveling at the time, but I thought, surely, I'd have the time to write on the blog. Brought my computer, thought about blog posts...then I got to the beach, and all thoughts of my computer were gone from my head. I didn't open my computer once. I mean, can you blame me?

My nieces! 

Storms at the beach

Low tide

 Happy baby!

WHAT I'M READING:

Well, I thought I'd be putting Daughter of Smoke and Bone by Laini Taylor here. Then last night, I could. not. stop. And finished it at 3 am. (Good thing I'm taking a break from working right now, eh?) Oh man, it was so good. 

So, now I guess I'm reading the next book. I have it on my shelf, but haven't picked it up yet. I have some things I have to do before I open it, or I know I won't be able to do anything else. I love books like that!! Oh yeah, it's called: Days of Blood and Starlight. I am so excited to read it!

(Also, finishing Daughter of Smoke and Bone means I've read 12 boos so far in the month of June. And I plan to read at least one, hopefully two, more books before the end of the month. YES!

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WHAT I'M WRITING:

Again, I didn't have a post last week CAUSE I WAS AT THE BEACH! (Oh...the button is at the beach...)

Anyway, my goals for the first week didn't quite work. I think I wrote 3 out of 7 days. I was hoping for at least 4 out of 7. But I should have known that between packing for the beach, and actually being at the beach, there just was not enough time. So, I didn't reach my goal, but I feel okay about it. 

Knowing that it was hard for me to get in 7 days of writing, I'm going to pull the goal back a little, but still have the same idea in mind. I want to get in the habit of writing every. single. day. But, maybe I need to work up to it. And that's okay. I'm allowed to not be perfect. And really, if writing every day was easy, wouldn't everyone do it?

So my goal for this week of Ready, Set, Write: Write 5 days this week. Hopefully write at least 500 words per day. 

Any 5 days between now and next Wednesday. I still have some wiggle room for things that come up and keep me busy (or occupied watching Sherlock), without one day ruining my goal. And if I can get at least 500 words in each of those 5 days, I'll be happy. Obviously, I'd love to write more than 500, but  I can go for at least that. 


WHAT INSPIRES ME:

Two words: Benedict Cumberbatch. 

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I know tons of people have loved him for a long time, but the first time I saw him in anything was the weekend of my graduation when my family saw Star Trek Into Darkness. And I thought, "hmm... he's attractive. And his voice is delicious." But that was about it. 

Then the week before we went to the beach, I started watching Sherlock. And I was a goner. 

And then Saturday we saw Star Trek again and I about died. 

I exploded my friend's Pinterest feeds with almost 200 pictures of Mr. Cumberbatch. TWO HUNDRED. Ridiculous. 


WHAT ELSE I'M UP TO:

My break is starting to wind down, so I'm hopefully going to be job hunting soon. Which I'm not excited about. But it has to happen, I guess.

I'm pretty nervous about doing therapy full time. It's very emotionally exhausting and I don't know if I'm quite in the emotional state to do it 40 hours a week. Part time I can do, for sure. But full? I don't know.

So, I'm also going to be looking at other options for a part-time job. I would love to find something related to writing, books, reading, publishing...who knows. The problem is, there's not a whole lot of options like that in my city. The only publishing companies here are for technical manuals or textbooks. Which is NOT what I'm interested in. So mostly, I just have no idea what options there are, or if it's even possible to find something like this. Hopefully I can find something.

Any ideas?


What are you up to???

What's Up Wednesday #3

What's Up Wednesday is a weekly meme geared toward readers and writers, allowing us to touch base with blog friends and let them know what's up. It is run by Jamie Morrow and Erin Funk. Jamie has a link at the bottom of her post with everyone who's joining in each week. 

What I’m Reading:

I'm currently reading Beautiful Chaos by Kami Garcia and Margaret Stohl. Book 3 of 4. I’m really enjoying this series. I knew I would, I just waited a long time to start. I love all the characters. Especially the supporting characters. I find the world incredibly interesting and appropriately frustrating. I read the first two very quickly but have been taking my time with this one. I especially love that, thanks to the movie, I now picture Macon as Jeremy Irons and hear his voice in my mind. Oh, that man’s voice…

Also, I love that this book was co-authored. I’ve written plenty of research papers with a partner and it was always hell. Only with a few of them were we able to come close to sounding like one author. It’s hard! But these two do it so well. Granted, I haven’t read any of their other work, so I wouldn’t know if their individual author voices came through at any point. But, if I didn’t know before that it was co-authored, I would have been shocked.

I also recently read Blood Red Road by Moira Young. LOVED IT! I can’t wait to finish the books I’m on so I can read the second book in this series. It was a little hard at first to figure out how to read it because there are no quotation marks with the dialogue. It all just reads together, as if the MC, Saba, is telling the story directly. Unsettling at first, but I ended up liking it.

It’s funny, with the combination of the southern accents written into the Beautiful Creatures series and the Dust Lands series, my internal voice has developed a much stronger southern drawl than normal.

What I’m Writing:

My Ready, Set, Write goal for week 1:  

Write every day. 

No word count goals. Just write something, anything every day.

I plan on working on my novel every day. But, if I’m unable to do that, I’ll write something else. Write a blog post. Write in a journal. Work on world building and write that in a notebook. Just something.

I know that’s a really simple goal, and general good practice for a writer. But it hasn’t been my practice so far, despite telling myself over and over it would be. So, hopefully with more accountability, I’ll come closer.

But, realistically, there’s a good chance this goal won’t happen. And if so, I’m not going to beat myself up about it. As is normally my reaction to not meeting goals. I’m going to try to accept it as part of my process and something I have to practice and fail at in order to get better. As long as I write more days than I don’t, I will be happy. Eventually I’ll get to writing every day and then I can move up from there.

But I have to start somewhere, right?

What Inspires Me:

You. All you other bloggers out there. Everyone who writes and puts that writing up to be seen and read and felt by other people. Strangers.

You. All you who have joined Ready, Set, Write because you want to not only write, but you want to be part of something. Part of a group of people with similar goals but depths of differences and uniqueness. A group full of people who want to improve their writing, but won’t settle for just that. Who want to also help others do the same. People who want to connect and build friendships over huge distances. Who want to share encouragement and experiences and hardships and triumphs.

You 5 women who put this together. Who joined together to create a group which has a scope small enough feel attainable, but big enough to be meaningful. Even doing things unknown and maybe a little scary (I’m lookin’ at you, Erin, and joining Twitter; though I am sure there are other aspects of this that have felt scary and new to each of you). You who recognized the need we writers have to come together and support each other, and made a platform to meet that need.

All for the love of words.

I think that’s beautiful and inspiring. 

And I can’t wait to continue to be inspired by every one of you participating.

What Else I’m Up To:

Well, I’m trying to pull myself out of the funk I’m currently in. I did a load of laundry yesterday, so that’s good. I have a few things I HAVE to do today, so I’m hoping that will get me off my butt.

Next week, my sister and I are going to a private island in South Carolina with my best friend and her extended family. I went with her 8 years ago after I graduated high school and I am so excited to go back. I am much closer to more members of her family now than I was then, so that will be good. Monday is my birthday and we’ll spend a good portion of the day travelling. Then Tuesday is Sister’s birthday. And then Thursday is my niece’s first birthday. (We refer to Best Friend’s family as ours; so her sister’s baby is turning one). Lots of birthdays, all celebrated at the beach!

I can’t wait to relax on the beach and read and soak up some sun. And lay tons of kisses on those babies.  I plan on bringing my laptop and still writing to keep up with my goals and get a little blogging in. But, if I’m having too much fun to open that laptop up, I am bringing a notebook, so I will still get some writing done no matter what. 


What are you up to this week?

Source for Beautiful Chaos
Source for Blood Red Road

Ready, Set, Write!

A lot of you have probably seen this on other blogs the past week, but today is the day to sign up for Ready, Set, Write.

Hosted by Jamie Morrow, Erin Funk, Alison Miller, Katy Upperman, and Elodie Nowodazkij, Ready, Set, Write is a Summer writing group...thing. Click on any of those names and it will you take you to a better explanation than I can come up with at 12:30 am.

So, yeah...*awkward silence, crickets chirping*...  

...Button!!

The past two weeks since I last wrote have been difficult. Hence the whole not writing for the blog thing. Which crossed into to not writing much anything in my novel either. Which then became a nasty cycle of self-criticism and doubt and worthlessness and all those fun things I tell myself we all experience. (We do all experience these things, right? This isn't just me? Cause really, hoping I'm not alone in this was the only thing keeping me somewhat in my right mind. More on this... sometime... hopefully soon).

Soon after I wrote my last post, my sister's little Yorkie died. Pippin. She was 7ish years old. It was very sudden and unexpected and way harder on all of us than we would have imagined. So, yeah, that was hard. Add on top of the emotional pain the physical pain of digging in packed clay in South Texas in the summer when you have chronic pain... Not exactly my definition of a good time. 

Then, the day after we buried her, we went to a funeral for a 22 month old boy whose parents I have known from church for years. He drowned. It was a beautiful funeral and the faith of that family is incredibly inspiring. I never met him, and haven't talked to the parents in years, but it was still really hard for me. 

So, those two things put me in a funk that resulted in sitting on the couch and watching Teen Wolf for a week. Teen Wolf. The show I made fun of and couldn't understand why anyone would watch. The show my dad loves for some reason, causing me to make fun of him mercilessly. But last Monday they had a marathon leading up to the Season 3 premier and I thought, "what the heck? Someone said there was great cinematography. And it has the super cute boy who's playing Thomas in the Maze Runner, so I'll just watch it for him." 

And just like that, I was hooked. Embarrassingly hooked. Now it is my sisters making fun of me. But it's a very entertaining show! With LOTS of great eye candy. And seriously, Dylan O'Brien (the one playing Thomas) is so amazing in this show I am left with my mouth hanging open in awe. 

So, yeah, I watch Teen Wolf. Get over it. :)

Anyway, that's a good explanation of the past two weeks. Two funerals, Teen Wolf, lots of reading, and general laziness and self-loathing. No biggie. 

But! I am going to try to do better! And I'm hoping this Ready, Set, Write will help me in that endeavor.  Anyone else interested in joining? Visit any of those blogs up top and join us!

Sign ups are today (thought I am sure you could still sign up later). Then tomorrow, we will all state our goals for the coming week at What's Up Wednesday on Jamie's blog. 

Be excited. 

*Goes back to check Twitter for any more Teen Wolf updates... and hangs head in shame...*

What's Up Wednesday, #2

What's Up Wednesday is a weekly meme geared toward readers and writers, allowing us to touch base with blog friends and let them know what's up. It is run by Jamie Morrow and Erin Funk. Jamie has a link at the bottom of her post with everyone who's joining in each week. 

What I’m Reading:

I’m really enjoying my break from school and work with a ton of reading. In the past week, I’ve finished 5 books (you can check out all the books I’ve read this year on my Book List page). The most exciting reads were Under the Never Sky and Through the Ever Night. I read the first one in a single sitting, without closing the book once. And the second in 3 (twice before bed and then woke up yesterday and read until it was finished). So, so good. I can’t even handle it. I loved that the POV switched back and forth from Aria and Perry (plus, I’m a sucker for reading romantic, lovey stuff from the guy’s perspective). I loved the independent friendships they each had with Roar and the Marked senses (you know, and the ritualized tattooing; love that!). There was just so, so much that I loved. At first I was a little weirded out because my grandfather’s name is/was Perry, but I got over that quickly. Just like recently reading the Mara Dyer series, I had to exercise a ridiculous amount of willpower to NOT just start re-reading them again as soon as I finished. Those really are my favorite kinds of books.

 

I am currently reading the Eleventh Plague by Jeff Hirsch. I got it at a Scholastic book sale on campus about a month ago. It was one of my 8 new books I got for $28. It’s in my favorite genre, dystopian, and then MC is a boy, which I am excited about. I know that the majority of books are written by men with a male protagonist, but most of the books I read are written by women with female protagonists. So, I am always excited to switch it up. I’m 5 chapters in and enjoying it, for sure, but not loving it yet. Hopefully that will come as I get further and more characters are introduced.

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What I’m Writing:

AHH!! I finally was able to start writing my novel yesterday. I had planned on starting last Monday, the day after my graduation, but with packing for New York and spending time with the Sister (and last minute dress shopping for the niece’s Choir banquet, which resulted in finding half off brown riding boots! YAY!), I wasn’t able to. Then, I planned on finding a park in The City and writing a bit but it was rainy and cold the whole time I was there. Then I thought, Sunday, I’ll start Sunday. But alas, I slept all day Sunday (and finished An Abundance of Katherines and read all of Under the Never Sky). Then Monday…well, I went car shopping with Dad. So finally, after finishing Through the Ever Night, I started writing. And seriously couldn’t stop!! I wrote just over 5,000 words and 3 chapters. I am LOVING it!!!

I’m sure it’s going to take a ton of editing once the draft is done, but it feels right. If I am able to keep that pace up, I could finish at 70,000 words in 2 weeks. That won’t happen, I’m sure, but it’s a nice thought!

I’m going to try to keep most of the plot to myself until it’s written, but I’ll tell y’all what I told Facebook. The main character’s name is Quinn. It came to me months ago while I was planning but I never wrote it down because I was unsure how much I liked it. But any time I tried to change it, she just wouldn’t let me. There were a few close contenders, but they just didn’t fit. Her personality isn’t fully formed yet, but the other names I found, though I loved how they sounded, just didn’t fit her. So, Quinn it is. And her nickname will be Q. And I love that.

What Inspires Me:

I’m incredibly inspired lately by people, book characters, bloggers, anyone, embracing their flaws as part of themselves. I am LDS and there is a definite push towards perfection in the culture of the church, not in the doctrine and teachings of it. Growing up, any flaw I had was a source of shame and caused me to try too hard to a)not let people see any flaws and b)change it as quickly as possible. But all that did was increase my feelings of shame and self-loathing. Over the past 5 years or so I’ve been slowly learning to deal with my shame and change it and I’ve made a ton of progress. But lately, I’ve been really touched when I read about people, real or not, who accept their flaws and human-ness without shame and loathing. That’s not to say they aren’t working to become better, because to some extent, they are. They just don’t base their value as a person to be loved, on the existence, or lack of, flaws. I find that so beautiful.

I’m trying to accept myself more than I ever have. Even the bad stuff. And each step I take in that direction has been freeing. I want to be completely honest with myself about who I am, what I want, what I want to strive for. Each thing I do, I want it to be because I want to, not because of some outside pressure or expectation. I’ve learned a lot about inner-honesty as a therapist, and even more through the books I read, and I want more of it in my own life.

I want to share some of that on this blog as well. I’m working on some posts that will be more about me and my struggles than about reading. So, the content on here will vary a little more than it has so far. But reading and writing will still be a part of it all because those things have saved me over the past 9 months and are part of my story. So, I hope you’ll still be interested and follow along. I’m scared to be that real, but I’ve been working up to it for over a year, and I think it’s finally almost time.

What Else I’ve Been Up To:

Unpacking from New York, completing the rearrangement of my room, collecting graduation pictures from my family members, and NYC pictures from my sister. Mostly, I’m enjoying my time off. I’m going to spend my days reading and writing, with some apartment organization and cooking sprinkled in. Heavy on the visiting friends and family. I’m excited to just be me with no outside pressures. It won’t last long enough, but I’m trying to enjoy every second of it I have left.

This is the only picture I have from my graduation. We had to be there 2 hours early, which was ridiculous because we had to sit and wait to go into the Arena for over an hour. This was my reaction to having not enough sleep and being hot in the robes. See why I need to get pictures from the family?!

What about you?! What are you up to?

What's Up Wednesday, #1

I'm back!! It's been almost 2 weeks since my last post. But I am now done with school. Completely. WHAT?!?!

I graduate in 4 days. I'm so excited to wear that Master's Hood!!! I still have some work to finish up by the end of the week, but then I am done with everything I have to do for 7 weeks. I am so ready to get my post-Master's-break started.

I've been wanting to get on board with the new What's Up Wednesday meme started by Jamie Morrow and Erin Funk a few weeks ago.

What I'm Reading:

For the past month or so I've been re-reading some less-exciting books to keep myself from getting sucked into books when I had massive amounts of homework to do. But! With finally being done, I've been able to read some amazing books I've been waiting to read. 

First, Cinder by Marissa Meyer. SO GOOD. I can't wait to read the next one.

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Then I read The Unbecoming of Mara Dyer by Michelle Hodkin in 18 hours, with sleep and work and visiting the Best Friend in between. I could not stop. It was amazing. I am dying to read the next book and planning on forking over more money than needed to buy it from a store and have it tonight rather than get it cheaper online and waiting a few days for it to come. 

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I gave myself a graduation present in the form of 11 books bought with my Amazon Prime account. I ordered them late, late Sunday night and most of them will come today. I can't wait for them to get here! Here's the list:

~Prodigy: A Legend Novel by Marie Lu

~Scarlet (Lunar Chronicles, book 2) by Marissa Meyer

~An Abundance of Katherines by John Green

~The Perks of Being A Wallflower by Stephen Chbosky

~The Statistical Probability of Love at First Sight by Jennifer E Smith

~Under the Never Sky by Veronica Rossi

~Through the Ever Night by Veronica Rossi

~Daughter of Smoke and Bone by Laini Taylor

~Days of Blood and Starlight by Laini Taylor

~Blood Red Road by Moira Young

~Rebel Heart by Moira Young

What I'm Writing:

Well, I'm not technically writing yet. But I am starting writing my first novel on Monday. I have been planning it out in my head and on paper for the past 5 months and am finally allowing myself to begin writing Monday. I told myself I had to wait til after my graduation to make sure I still get done everything I need to. I graduate Sunday and will begin writing Monday. I just realized however, that if I am going to start writing, I better decide on names for my characters, rather than just calling them MC (main character), Boy, Bad Guy, MC's Mom, MC's Dad, etc. So I started looking last night with nothing jumping out at me yet. That's what I'll be doing the next few days. Any ideas? What are some names you love that you haven't seen in any recent books? How do you find names for your characters? 

What Inspires Me Right Now:

Mostly, I'm inspired by the excitement of finally starting my novel. But I'm also inspired by rearranging my room to better fit my reader/writer lifestyle. I can't have an office in my apartment, but I can change where things are so one side of it is like an independent office. I don't have work to do today, so after I post this I'm going to do as much as I can on my own, then finish it up when Sister gets home later. I think the changes will help open my mind to writing. I'm especially excited to re-organize my books on my bookshelf. It is completely over-filled and I need a second one, but I doubt I will get one soon. But, I'm going to organize my books according to color. I've never done that before and I don't know how long it will last, but I'm excited to try it. I like my series together, but they are rarely all the same color. Even if it doesn't stay long, at least it'll make a fun picture! 

What Else I'm Up To:

I have the best sister in the world. Have I mentioned that? After I got home from my 18-month mission for my church, she took me on a cruise to celebrate being home. Amazing. Well, to celebrate my graduation, she is taking me to New York City! She has a work training there starting Monday that goes through Wednesday. So her flight is covered by her company as well as the hotel through Wednesday. I am coming up Tuesday afternoon and we are staying until Saturday. I've never been to NYC and I am dying of excitement! We don't have a ton of money to do a lot, but we are very laid back vacationers. I mostly just want to people watch and relax. See the city, but without spending much money. So, with that in mind, have you been to NYC? Is there anything you would recommend doing? Delicious restaurants? Bookstores? 

In other news, remember this post where I explained that my computer died and I would lose everything? Well, I did lose everything, but I finally got it back. It is such a relief to have it again. Part of why I didn't post was because I missed my little MacBook and didn't like blogging from my old laptop. I still have almost nothing on it. No pictures, no music, no documents. But I'm sure it will fill up again very quickly. 

So, what's up with you?