Sunday Salon: Life, love and happiness

Books, Books, Books: I finished reading Michael Crichton's Pirate Latitudes this weekend.  Have enjoyed  many of his books over the years including the Andromeda Strain and  Congo among others. I have yet to read Micro which was published posthumously in 2011 and finished by Richard Preston, author of The Hot Zone.  Coincidentally a friend recently recommended Hot Zone which is a true tale of a biological outbreak.  Considering that I read Sick last week, which was a fictional tale of biological terrorism and could very well happen, decided to add it to my wishlist.  Then I listened to NPR's Science Friday Book Club discussing The Andromeda Strain, and who was their guest speaker - Richard Preston - talking about Crichton's writing. Synchronicity wise, I think the universe is telling me to read Preston's book.  The audiocast is interesting so grab a cup of coffee or tea and sit back and listen. It's about 25 minutes long. 

Publisher's Weekly is talking about the 10 Most Anticipated Book Adaptations for 2013 which includes Mark Helprin's Winter's Tale which I have in my stacks.  The cast includes Russell Crowe, Will Smith, Colin Farrell, and Jennifer Connelly which guarantees it's going to be an extraordinary movie (I hope).  The book has been calling my name more and more lately saying read me, read me now.  

Instead of reading James Rollin's chunkster Black Order, I took a side trip and read a short novel by Karen Kingsbury called The Bridge, a poignant love story surrounding a flooded out 4 decades old bookstore that had been Charlie Barton's dream and the life blood of the community. It's been years since I've read anything by Kingsbury and this was a great reintroduction to her writing and I'll be reading more of her stories in the future.  Then I jumped into the young adult dystopian world of Birthmarked by Caragh O'Brien which of course is the first is a series and ended in such a way, I just have to read the rest of the series.  

Writing, writing, writing:  Craft wise, I am enjoying the heck out of the exercises in the Write - Brain workbook which is really helping my creativity. The exercise this morning involved what four textures came to mind when you think of a slinky and four textures when you think of a scarf. Then use those words in a story that begins with ---  Late night city streets were the perfect backdrop for....    Try it and see what you come up with. I'll be polishing up my story and thinking of posting it sometime this week.  

Still working my way through Writer's Journey and reading through the Stages of the Journey.  Slowly reading Echoing Silence: Thomas Merton on the vocation of writing which is compiled of essays from a variety of his books.  It is quite dense with lots of food for thought and his philosophical meanderings so only reading a few pages a day. It's also making me want to read his other books:  New Seeds of Contemplation (which I have and is waiting in the wings), The Asian Journal,  Literary Essays, and The Way of Chuang Tzu.  This may just turn into a life long study of Thomas Merton.   

Eyes in the Ashes has been on my mind as I read Writer's Journey and had some great ideas about changes to make, but I've yet to crack the notebook and reread the draft.  I'm in more of a right brained, creative, stream of conscious mode right now and guess I'm just not quite ready to get back into a left brain mode. Soon though....  Goal wise I'm going to keep plugging away.

Nobody trips over mountains.  It is the small pebble that causes you to stumble.  Pass all the pebbles in your path and you will find you have crossed the mountain.  ~Author Unknown

James and I have watched all the Star Wars movies (several times) and now we are going to delve into the books. He is into all things Star Wars these days and his Aunt K and Uncle G bought him the Star Wars: Prequel Trilogy written by Terry Brooks, R.A. Salvatore and Mathew Stover.  I thought it would be fun to read it together so diving in.  

Hubby received a wonderfully positive review of his latest micro amplifier which I was quite happy to see with all the hard work he has put into designing and building it. Nice to see him getting some kudos for a change.  

Have a great week and I hope it is filled with positive energy and lots of accomplishments, whether they are big or small.