Sunday Salon: Summer laziness

Good morning! We are still alive and kicking around here. Just full of summer laziness. I refused to schedule or plan anything the past two weeks even though said laziness caused boredom for one particular party which resulted in getting in mischievous trouble.  I needed the break...badly.  We contemplated our navels for awhile, read a lot, hung out, and generally drove father crazy.  *grin*  Seems he thrives on schedules as well.

Now feeling a bit more refreshed and even rewrote one page of my current wip this morning. May not seem like a lot, but its progress.  The 2nd round of ROW80 has come to an end and I don't feel like I accomplished all that much.  My goals were to finish the 2nd edit of Eyes in the Ashes.  I like the creative part of the process so much more than the editing process.  Once I reread and outlined the story, discovered had done a lot of head hopping with several points of view.  Narrowed down the points of view and managed to rewrite the first five chapters.  Admittedly, I didn't work on it every single day and there were days felt like was going in an endless loop.  Reviewed my notes the other day and realize was reinventing the wheel several times.  It really does help to actually write down your to do list rather than keep it in your head.  For an organized person, I was extremely disorganized this round.    I stumbled across a post the other day by Nail Your Novel entitled Letter to a writer who is losing confidence which gave me the kick in the pants I needed. Especially this part. 

"Writing a novel is a big job. You have a heck of a lot to get right. Plot, character, pace, theme, structure, description, logistics, language. If it’s your first novel, you’ve also got to learn the craft too. If you take it at all seriously (and thank goodness you clearly do), you’re bound to have wobbly times. Most professional novelists take at least 18 months to get a novel right – and they know what they’re doing."

So I may not be done by the end of June but that's okay. It was a self imposed deadline and life happens.  Getting my to do list organized and going to take baby steps.  I have a new story ruminating in my head but going to throw that first love honeymoon feeling at my current WIP and take a 2nd honeymoon.

Reading wise, I completed Lilith Saintcrow's Jill Kismet series. Sad to say goodbye to Jill but sure I'll find another heroine to fall in like with soon. I just finished Alafair Burke's suspense novel Angel's Tip which was pretty good and enjoyed it more than Never Tell.   Really hate reading books out of order so will be going back and reading the series in order:  Dead Connection, Angel's Tip, 212 and Never Tell.

Currently working on nook book Judas Kiss by J.T. Ellison. Finally got into Jane-Emily by Patricia Clapp (reading during breakfast and lunch) and listening to audiobook Portrait in Death by J.D. Robb.

We are on week 26 in our quest to read 52 Books in 52 Weeks challenge.    I'm always on the look out for unique or interesting book lists and forget exactly who turned me on to Hawes Publications (think maybe Jen from Life with Books)  which lists every New York Times Bestseller listing from the year 1950 until now. You can look up which fiction and non fictions books were published and on the best seller list for the year, month and week you were born. Checked out the list and already have a few in my TBR pile: Exodus by Leon Uris, Dear and Glorious Physician by Taylor Caldwell, The Thirteenth Apostle by Eugene Vale and Doctor Zhivago By Boris Pasternak.

Life wise, today we are heading out to the nursery to get some goodies for our garden plus working on our family to do lists for household projects, summer field trips and lessons. 

Life is a great big canvas, and you should throw all the paint on it you can. ~Danny Kaye