My Two Blessings

Jonathan Wolstenholme  Well, my goodness.  I just looked at my  grand reading plans for 2015 and discovered I only read one of the books in my five categories of Dusty, Chunky, Luke, Translated and Philosophical.  I usually don't plan out what I'm going to read and this is exactly the reason why.  My year took off and I never looked back, too busy with writing and classes and reading whatever books called my name. Yes, I'm a mood reader so don't know why I bothered to make any plans.  Unfortunately, posting on My Two Blessings took a back seat as well which means I didn't keep very good track of what I read when.     I'm reminded of Robert Burn's poem To the Mouse in which he says  "The best laid plans of mice and men often go awry." I did end up reading more nonfiction thanks to my writing studies as well as historical books with James.  Which lead to discovering some very interesting creative nonfiction writers and opening up...

Jonathan Wolstenhome I'm working on my year end wrap up bookish wise, but thought in the meantime I'd share a flash non fiction piece written while working through Dinty Moore's Rose Metal Press Field Guide to Writing Flash Non Fiction . Word Hoards I met a woman who was rather didactic, who lived to learn, who loved to confuse with her rather pedantic soliloquies over the ramifications of a certain tome.  I met another, autodidactic this one, a lover of words who loved to read, who loved to share her thoughts.  Who also lived to learn, but also to teach.  Yet, you weren’t aware you were being taught anything at all.  She did it in such a way that before you knew it, you’d fallen in like with the sort of book you’d never considered reading before.  Reading and learning seem to go hand in  hand.  Whether it is fiction or non-fiction, whether scratching the surface or diving deep into the underbelly. It made me stop and consider. Am I aut...

This year went incredibly fast.  All my writing and reading goals basically went out the window once I became involved in Writers Village University MFA certificate program.  Bob Hembree, the brain behind WVU, developed an MFA program modeled after university programs.  Along with a one year creative writing, there is now a two year short story cert, and fiction or nonfiction three year certificate. I had completed a few self study courses as well as gotten involved in a group study reading and working through Alice LaPlante's Making of a Short Story . So when he asked for volunteers to help facilitate the classes, I jumped in with both feet.  It's been a remarkable year, learning and writing as well as guiding other writing students through different courses.  Somehow, the crazy person that I am, volunteered for another year and will be facilitating all the non fiction MFA classes as well as the program's core course, Narrative Design.  *gulp* ...

January seems to have passed much too fast.  I'm sure since February is a shorter month, we'll be meeting back here in 28 days saying where did it go.  However fast it went, I've enjoyed myself. Reading wise, even with slowing down I read 11 books and still leaning heavily towards the paranormal.  I finished the last two books in Nalini Singh's guild hunter series, the last book in Marjorie Liu's Hunter's Kiss and the last book in Dean Koontz's Frankenstein series. Lots of endings, but also began Keri Arthur's new Spook Squad series.   For my 52 Books Author Flavor of the month challenge, ended up reading Murakami's Hard Boiled Wonderland and the End of the World.    Murakami's books are admittedly strange and in this one he choose not to give any of the characters names. We have the narrator, plus grandfather, the librarian, the chubby girl and well you get the picture. It was definitely different and had me wondering for quite a ...

Fascinating!  I'm reading Dorothea Brande's Becoming a Writer which was first published in 1934. Now I think I know where Julia Cameron got her idea for morning pages.  As we all know, in order to be a writer, we must write.   Brande says: You must reach the unconscious to flow into the channel of writing.  Psychologists will forgive us for speaking so airily about 'teaching' the unconscious to do this or that.  To all intents and purposes that is what happens; but less elegantly and more exactly we might say that the first step toward being a writer it to hitch your unconscious mind to your writing arm. She recommends rising early, half an hour or even an hour and without doing anything else, write. Write anything that comes to mind. Then the next morning, do it again without reading what you wrote the day before.  This basic exercise is training you to write.  After a while, increase your output by a few more sentences, a paragraph or...

Grades for our first semester have been turned in, lessons planned for the week, laundry almost done, groceries have been put away and pork chops are cooking in the oven.  The guys are watching The Fall of Berlin and I have a few minutes to breath and think, plan out my to do list for the week.   Writing  and reading wise, Ray Bradbury put a fire under my butt ,  I'm instituting my Bradbury Book Camp for Writers goals which should prove interesting and hopefully not futile.  My plan for this week is Writing Wise: 1)  Write 500 - 1000 words a day, whether it is journal, prompts, blog, or creative writing class assignments which includes  POV Exercise for Method and Madness :  Write a scene 3 different ways in 1st, 2nd and 3rd person omniscient.   Vein of Gold -  Chapter One Kingdom of Story:  work on narrative timeline a bit everyday. F2K - Write up bio for introduction    2)  1 hour of editin...

Just finished reading Ray Bradbury's writing essays from his Zen in the Art of Writing and feel like I have been given my marching orders for Bradbury's Book Camp for Writers.  Zen is a short but powerful book and lights a fire under you with his passion and zest for life and writing.  There are so many snippets I underlined and wrote down, it is hard to know where to start. Everything you have ever experienced in life goes into your subconscious as food for your muse.  How do you tap into that food to help you grow as a writer. Bradbury kept a book full of lists of nouns; words that reminded him of experiences. He'd refer to the list and a word or collection of words would spark an idea such as the ones that lead him to write Something Wicked This Way Comes: The lake. The Night. The Crickets. The Ravine.  The Attic.  The Basement.  The Trapdoor. The Baby.  The Crowd.  The Night Train. The Fog Horn. The Scythe. The Carnival. The Carousel...

As we all know, reading plans as well as buying bans often go astray.  I have more than enough books in my stacks, that I could probably get away without buys any new books this year at all.  *gasp* The horror!  Excuse me while I have heart palpitations.    Okay. I came up with some Author Flavors of the Month and Reading Themes over on 52 Books purely for selfish reasons.  I have those authors on my shelves and need incentive to read them.  The little shelfie above will change in a month or so and it doesn't matter whether those particular books have been read or not.  It will depend on my mood.  Yep, I'm a big mood reader. However, I am in the mood at this point of the year for stories that challenge me a bit more than just paranormal or urban fantasies. My fall back books when I'm stressed or bummed.   But I also realize I have eyes/stomach syndrome so giving myself a break by going with 3/5/15.   I've been...

Hello again!   I've cleared out the weeds on my blog, given it a fresh coat of paint, remodeled and turned on the lights. Come on in and make yourself at home, take off your shoes and have a seat. Curl up in one of the overstuffed chairs and have a cup of tea, or espresso if you'd prefer.  Hubby likes to roast his own coffee beans. Alright, let's move forward, up those stairs and set some goals that are possible and flexible with  maintainable habits that are measurable and not impossible. I'm currently working on finally completing Eyes in the Ashes, a story I started during Nanowrimo a few years back.  At least I'm persistent. My son would prefer I work on a new story involving a retired FBI agent and a bikini babe, but alas, he will have to wait.  An idea I had, not the bikini babe, but about the agent has been percolating in the back of my brain.  However, he has made an appearance and wormed his way into EitA, which actually helped move ...

Yes, it's that time. A new day in a new year and time to think, dream, ponder, consider when and how and where life will take us this year. I've been contemplating the one word thing mentioned here and there .  One word to focus on for the entire period of 365 days that will guide you throughout. How can something so simple be so hard.  After going back and forth, coming up with intent, pursue, perceive, deliberate, purpose, and all the synonyms that go with these words, decided I need more than one word, a sentence, heck, a whole paragraph to focus on.  And how do I come up with a word that will not only guide me, but help me guide my son and my husband.   Our life is way too eclectic to narrow it all down to one word.  It would be too limiting and I've never really cared for labels.   Then I came across Vance Havner's quote and my imagination took off: The vision must be followed by the venture. It is not enough to stare up t...