My Two Blessings

ROW 80: Curiousity

Nano Nano. Why is it every time I think of Nanowrimo I'm reminded of Mork and Mindy. *grin* The 2012 site has been relaunched. Be sure to check out the new forums. I'm in the curiosity stage where anything and everything is possible. Also just finished reading the 'curiosity' chapter in Writing Begins with the Breath and one of the touchstone exercises asked:

What are you curious about? What have you learned through experience and what have your learned from books? Notice the difference between heart/body learning and head/mind learning.

That triggered quite a few brain cells to start shooting here, there and everywhere. My late grandmother was a great believer in brainstorming and creative thinking. When you brainstorm, all things are possible and don't discount anything. Throw it out there on the table and see what happens. I'm trying to keep that in mind as ideas pop up for my latest story. Herring says:

"If you already know where you're going, then your mind stops you from letting in possibilities from outside the box and focuses on its predetermined destination. You will, in all likelihood, get to your destination, but the journey won't have been enriched by detours and unexpected synchronicities.. If you have already decided what your answers are, you destroy the spark of curiosity that sustains the work."

I just had an epiphany and pretty sure that's what happened when I was trying to edit Eyes in the Ashes. I wasn't letting the story deviate or let the characters steer me in new directions. Decided I had a plan and this is where we are going and they (the characters) just simply stopped talking to me because I wasn't listening anymore. Guess we need to have a come to Jesus meeting so can move forward.

Excuse a writer's crazy moment here. Another touchstone question was "what is your character seeking?" Since just starting the research and planning process for Green Ice, asked Hunter, my main male character to tell me and we somehow got around to women and he had caught a glimpse of a woman in some market in Europe. He couldn't tell me much except that she had long dark hair, beautiful smile, and she was wearing sunglasses. She checked him out and then he lost her in the crowd. Caught another glimpse of her a couple days later, but she got away. Even though they were just fleeting glimpses, he wanted me to find her. Needle in a haystack, right. I think I found her. She looks quite similar to this gal

Sage Emile Allard. She's a french scientist. He's in big trouble.

Off to do some research. Happy writing!

Oh - check out Daily Good. It is the most wonderful sight on positivity I have come across. From an article about Why Creative Thinking is Inclusive Thinking:

"Albert Einstein was once asked what the difference was between him and the average person. He said that if you asked the average person to find a needle in the haystack, the person would stop when he or she found a needle. He, on the other hand, would tear through the entire haystack looking for all the possible needles. With creative thinking, one generates as many alternative approaches as one can."

Now go be curious and check out everyone's first days of Round 4 here.

Row80: 4th round and Nanowrimo - What a combination

Today begins the fourth round of A Round of Words in 80 days. Round 3 was a complete and utter failure for me. The editing didn't go so well. I got side tracked by an online critique class which ended up going nowhere when the instructor simply disappeared the last three weeks of the class and never returned. The powers that be are still trying to figure out what to do. And I just quit writing. I was completely blocked and my muse took a vacation.

Happy to say my muse has returned and I'm feeling more creative. Started reading and working through Writing Begins with the Breath by Laraine Herring. I like her perspective on being blocked.

"The writing is not blocking you. You are blocking the writing... The first step when you find yourself stuck is to become aware of what is being blocked...Can you identify some piece of the next step that contains something you might not be reading or willing to address yet? Writing has a sneaky way of pushing us outside our comfort zone...Stay with the discomfort. Stay with the uncertainty. Stay with the emotions that a scene or memory might conjure up for you. Stay with the work. It'll guide you home."

Herring intersperses body breaks into the chapters - breathing or stretches to wake up various parts of your body and mind. And the touchstones at the end of each chapter has you journaling on different prompts and story ideas. Can you tell I'm getting a great deal out of the book. I'm back to getting up a bit earlier than usual and writing every morning. I'm feeling good and psyched.

My goals are going to be simple this round. Anything I accomplish beyond them will be gravy.

1) Write everyday
2) October: continue with F2K creative writing course and prep, plot and plan for Nanowrimo.
3) November - Write like crazy
4) December - push to finish nano book so can begin editing come Jan 1st.

Check out what other ROWer's are doing here.

Sunday Salon: September wrapup

Wow! September reading wise is a really big blur. Surprised to find I only completed 8 books and half of those were audio books.

Memory in Death - J.D. Robb
I'll Be Watching You - Charles De Lint (ebook)
Life Skills for Kids (dnf)
Born in Death - J.D. Robb (audiobook)
One Hundred Years of Solitude - Gabriel Garcia Marquez
Innocent in Death - J.D. Robb (audiobook)
The Raw Shark Texts - Steven Hall
Creation in Death - J.D.Robb

I started a few and just couldn't get into them. I've been listening to the In death series and find myself listening more and reading less. Presently in a non fiction mode and for the past week have been reading Journeys on the Silk Road: A desert explorer, Buddha's secret library, and the unearthing of the world's oldest printed book (yes it's a mouthful of a title) by Joyce Morgan and Conrad Walters. Almost halfway through and enjoying it. Guess I just read non fiction a lot slower than fiction.   Also reading and writing my way through Writing Begins with the Breath by Laraine Herring.   Happy to say the book has really stimulated my writing.   I'll have a few snippets from the book to share soon. Hopefully it will also stimulate me to write a few book reviews. I'm so behind.

Speaking of which I'm thoroughly enjoying my online creative writing course and have some very unique and creative fellow writers joining in.

Today is the 30th anniversary of Banned Books Week which I highlighted on 52 Books in 52 Weeks. Be sure to check out the list and see what books have been challenged this past year.    I've also declared October as spooky reads month and I'm determined to finally read Bram Stoker's The Snake's Pass which I've had in the stacks forever.   Also have a few other scary books on the shelves going to try and read this month: Dean Koontz Odd Thomas, T.L. Hines The Dead Whisper On, Dan Simmons The Hollow Man and Ted Dekker's The Priest's Graveyard. If I at least get Snake's Pass read, then I'll be happy.

Starting the countdown for National Novel Writing month in November. Will spend the next 31 days plotting and planning so I'll be ready to hit the ground running come November 1st.

How is your fall shaping up?

Happy Fall!

Happy Fall!   The days seem to have gotten away from me. Summer passed in a blur and don't feel like I accomplished very much.   Fall is here and for some reason feeling more inspired. The majority of extended family crises have passed which is a very good thing. I'm feeling a bit more creative and actually missing my writing time. We're slowly settling in to our new routine with 7th grade lessons. With the addition of P.E., James and I are spending an hour or so outside, playing catch and discussing a variety of things. My son is thoroughly taxing my brain to the utmost extent jumping from subject to subject, mainly history. I find myself saying 'wait a minute', running inside to get the encyclopedia. *grin*

Hubby is working on a new, improved version of his latest widget which means we've been working on advertising and websites and all the things that go with new and improving something.   I'm in the process of learning all about ecommerce and online shopping carts. I'm thoroughly hating FTP protocols and wysiwyg editors when what you see isn't what you get. Way too buggy for me.   Makes me really appreciate blogger. Now I'm trying to figure out a way to just do our business websites in blogger instead and save myself a lot of headaches. *sigh*

I've been ignoring my poor characters lately and never did finish the 2nd, or is it the 3rd edit, of Eyes in the Ashes.   November is on the horizon and ready to start a new story, so...... Decided to take F2K's online 7 week creative writing course through Writer's University to give my creativity and imagination a bit of a jumpstart.   Loving it already and this week, the task is to have one of the character's you created, tell a little about you.   I'm going with Hunter who will be my lead in my newest story "Green Ice." He was supposed to have played a small part in Blue Steel as an old love interest. However, his part grew and threatened to takeover the story, so promised him a story of his own. Yep, the creative juices are flowing and I'll be doing a lot of brainstorming the next few weeks.

The next round of a Round of Words in 80 Days will be starting October 1st and I'm determined to do a better job with my goals this round. I unintentionally ended up sitting out Round 3.   Now I just have to work on getting up a hour or two earlier in the mornings to fit in my writing time. Life is in an never ending state of flux. Wouldn't have it any other way.

Happy Fall!

Full Disclosure by Dee Henderson

Overview: "Ann Silver is a cop’s cop. As the Midwest Homicide Investigator, she is called in to help local law enforcement on the worst of cases, looking for answers to murder. Hers is one of the region’s most trusted investigative positions.

Paul Falcon is the FBI’s top murder cop in the Midwest. If the victim carried a federal badge or had a security clearance, odds are good Paul and his team see the case file or work the murder.
Their lives intersect when Ann arrives to pass a case off her desk and onto his. A car wreck and a suspicious death offer a lead on a hired shooter he is tracking. Paul isn’t expecting to meet someone, the kind that goes on the personal side of the ledger, but Ann Silver has his attention.

The better he gets to know her, the more Paul realizes her job barely scratches the surface of who she is. She knows spies and soldiers and U.S. Marshals, and has written books about them. She is friends with the former Vice President. People with good reason to be cautious about who they let into their lives deeply trust her. Paul wonders just what secrets Ann is keeping, until she shows him the John Doe Killer case file, and he starts to realize just who this lady he is falling in love with really is . . ."

I can't tell you how excited I was when discovered Dee Henderson had a new book coming out after a long multi year wait. I fell in love with her writing and the O'Malley Family series several years ago. I was fortunate enough to win a Advance Reader Copy and Henderson has hit it out of the ballpark again. She has built a story around Ann Silver who not only is the top homicide investigator but she is also the writer, and friends with all the couples, who are the basis for the fictitious O'Malley family series. Paul Falcon is also related to and friends with most of the couples. However, he and Ann have never crossed paths. So throughout the book, the reader (if you've read the O'Malley series) feels a familiarity with the characters and grow to love Paul and Ann through their eyes. If you haven't read the O'Malley series, then you'll probably be wanting too, once you've finished Full Disclosure.

Paul is a very intense character who is thorough and precise, studies and analyzes everything. Ann is more free spirited, the job taking from one side of the country to the other at a moments notice. She never quite knows where she'll be one day to the next and just goes with the flow. He intrigued by her enough to find out as much as he can from all their mutual friends before he decides whether to make a move or not. Because they are barely in one place together long enough, they talk through video Internet link, enjoying each other's company virtually, discussing cases and learning more about each other. He also learns she holds a closely guarded secret that could affect more than just their lives.

Full Disclosure is one of those books that once you start reading it, you won't want to put it down. Paul and Ann's unique personalities, the intrigue, the twists, the secrets, the emotion wraps around you and holds you entrenched. And when you are done reading it, won't want to read anything else for a while. Upon finishing the book, felt like I had just completed a gourmet meal and was so satisfied, couldn't eat another bite.

Here's the deal. Full Disclosure will be released October 2, 2012. But you don't have to wait that long because Bethany House is having weekly signed giveaways on a special Facebook page. Head on over, check out the conversations with Dee Henderson, ask her a question or read the latest review of the book.

Check out the book trailer and read an excerpt here.

7th Grade

7th Grade has officially started and we are off to an interesting start. We are already making changes and fine tuning the schedule. Originally planned on changing from Voyages in English to Saxon's Grammar and Writing. James did a couple lessons and decided he hated it, so back to Voyages we go. Will be supplementing the writing portion with Susan Wise Bauer's Writing with Skill and continuing with Spelling workout.

After much research, decided to go with History Odyssey for History. In the process discovered K12's history book Human Odyssey and fell in love.   Thanks to the ladies on WTM, some had matched up already with Story of the World and some with History Odyssey.   After much debate decided to go with Human Odyssey as our History Spine and a blend of lessons from the other two activity guides. I spent the past two weeks working up a schedule in order to match up with Visions in Education's calendar of things to study for each learning period. So much fun and finished the plan last night. James decided he likes Usborne's Encyclopedia of World History over Kingfisher, so we will be utilizing it for timeline and additional info. We have a bunch of fun historical fiction books including Door in the Wall, Adam of the Road, Trumpeter of Krakow, 1001 Arabian Knights, King Arthur and his Knights, plus a few others.

Math wise, James is still not ready for Algebra and my wonderful counselor at Visions said anything before Algrebra is pre-algrebra so don't sweat it. *whew. We are continuing with Saxon 6/5 and supplementing with Life of Fred Fractions, Decimals and Percents and Pre-Algebra with Biology.    Love, love love Life of Fred. The series has changed James attitude about math and he doesn't dread it anymore.

James and hubby will be doing Life Science together and have fun doing experiments from Pandia Press's Logic stage biology course Classiquest. We'll be doing straight biology for the first semester and the 2nd semester will be studying evolution, earth history and light. Still have to work on resources for 2nd semester.

Elective wise going to continue with Thomas Kincaids Drawing Basic and will try out Alfred's Essential Music Theory for the 2nd semester. For faith, character, life skills, I have a few fun things picked out to do and even snagged a copy of Game Maker's Apprentice to get James started in Video Game Design. All in all, shaping up to be an interesting year.

Sunday Salon: Celebrations and planning

We've had a wonderfully busy week. Thursday the 23rd was our 15th wedding anniversary! Truly, our wedding doesn't seem that long ago. I guess the saying "time flies when you are having fun" is true. We went out to dinner at Ruth Chris steakhouse. It was our first time there and the staff was truly friendly and the food delicious. James had fun flirting with all the girls and talking video games with the guys. They comped our dessert - a very chocolatey creation called chocolate explosion which just melted in our mouths. Then Saturday the 25th was hubby's 53rd birthday. I promised him when we got married I wouldn't combine the dates and do a duel celebration. Have kept my promise so far. *grin* Yes, he's spoiled.

Finally received all of James 7th grade curriculum and spent the weekend organizing, going through all the books, setting up notebooks, figuring out lesson plans and schedules. 85% done. We were supposed to officially start on Wednesday the 22nd, but since we didn't have any books, starting on Monday.

May look like a lot but it's only 7 subjects. Really! ahem.... The bottom shelf contains the curriculum for mandatory courses along with teachers manuals. The top shelf contains all the extra stuff: character, faith, creating writing, photography, nature, game development, etc - the fun stuff!!! We'll get round to them eventually. I'll be posting a "what we're doing for 7th grade" soon!

Hubby also has an ad coming out in Tapeop magazine for his latest Warmenfat design in late september so we've been working like mad on the copy for the past week. Done, submitted and we can breath for the moment. Now we just need to redesign the website. Never a dull moment in the household.

More later, guys and dolls! Have a wonderful week!

I'm still here plugging away!

I'm still here just haven't had a whole lot of time to post. 7th Grade is starting on August 22nd, two weeks earlier than we normally start and I don't even have the majority of the curriculum yet. *facepalm* Finally had meeting with our teacher counselor through visions who okayed choices, then headed out to homeschool store to select everything. Had to wait until meeting since they are providing the funding. I usually have everything already in hand by the beginning of August and plans done so feeling a bit stressed. Will be picking up in a couple days. There are a few things not available through the store and it would take too long to wait for the school to do their ordering so went ahead and ordered directly.

Printed off all the tables of contents of everything and have been working up lesson plans. About half done but really, really, really need the books to complete plans.

"A little whine with that cheese ma'am"

"Oh yes, thank you."

I read an absolutely awesome book last week. Full Disclosure by Dee Henderson. Yes, she finally wrote a new story which references the O'Malley series quite a bit and I was fortunate enough to receive an Advance Reader Copy. Will be writing up my review in the next week or so. Have to say that once I finished it, felt like had just finished a gourmet dinner with a fine Bordeaux wine and filet mignon and was so satisfied and full didn't want to read anything else. Haven't picked up another fiction book yet.

Heading back out to Arizona on Friday to visit my folks for a few days. Mom is doing much better which means Dad is doing a whole better as well. Hoping once get all plans laid out, life will get back to normal or as normal as our life can be and I'll be able to catch up on review posts, visiting blogs and get back into editing my latest WIP.

Tootles!

TLC Book Tour: The Prisoner of Heaven

The Prisoner of Heaven

Synopsis: Barcelona, 1957. It is Christmas, and Daniel Sempere and his wife, Bea, have much to celebrate. They have a beautiful new baby son named Julián, and their close friend Fermín Romero de Torres is about to be wed. But their joy is eclipsed when a mysterious stranger visits the Sempere bookshop and threatens to divulge a terrible secret that has been buried for two decades in the city’s dark past. His appearance plunges Fermín and Daniel into a dangerous adventure that will take them back to the 1940s and the early days of Franco’s dictatorship. The terrifying events of that time launch them on a search for the truth that will put into peril everything they love and ultimately transform their lives.

Full of intrigue and emotion, The Prisoner of Heaven is a majestic novel in which the threads of The Shadow of the Wind and The Angel’s Game converge under the spell of literature and bring us toward the enigma hidden at the heart of the Cemetery of Forgotten Books, a collection of lost treasures known only to its few initiates, and the very core of Carlos Ruiz Zafón’s enchanting fictional world.

After reading and being pulled into the drama and intrigue of The Angel's Game, (review here) and The Shadow of the Wind (review here) I was quite excited to read The Prisoner of Heaven. The story takes you into Fermin's past and Daniel's present, blending the two story lines until they meet in 1957. It wasn't as deep and mysterious as the other two books, but more of an emotional character read. It is intriguing and will engage you from page one until the very ending which leaves you with the feeling of wanting more. Even though the story can standalone I would definitely recommend reading the other two books first so you'll know what's going on. Makes me want to go back and reread the other two books now. Check out the thoughts of the rest of the participants of the tour. I have a couple treats for you.

Trailer of The Prisoner of Heaven

Plus download a free short story Carlos has also written called A Rose of Fire.

Thank you to TLC Book Tours for asking me to be part of the tour, Harper publishing for providing me with a copy of the book and Carlos Ruiz Zafon for creating such an interesting series about 1957 Barcelona and the Cemetery of Lost Books.