What's Up Wednesday

Its time for What's Up Wednesday!

What I'm Reading  I'm still on my reading binge but I think I'm slowly coming out of it.  I don't want to come all the way out of it though!  Its wonderful to be lost in a book.  This week I finished reading Crown of Midnight by Sarah Maas.  It is my favorite book so far this year.  One of the things that I loved most was that it is written in third person pov, not first.  My WIP is in third so I found this to be very encouraging.  I also finished Shadow and Bone by Leigh Bardugo (and ran right to the library to get the sequel!) and If There is Something to Desire by Vera Pavlova.   I am now reading Cinder by Marissa Meyer and then will start Siege and Storm, or vice versa... I'm not sure yet.  I made progress on my chapter a day classic, Anna Karenina, worked on some exercises from Writing 21st century fiction by Donald Maas and read some random poetry.  

What I'm Writing  I set a goal.  I want to finish my current WIP by March first.  Before that can happen I need to get the evil witch in my story to turn my MC back into a human, or find someone else to do the job.  I did make some progress this week, just not enough to get where I need to be for poor MC to be rescued.  I am so ready for her to be human.  It is much easier to write.

What Inspires Me Right Now  I've been haunting a sweet little Carribean style coffee shop on the weekends.  It leaves me relaxed and ready to write every time!  The last few times I have brought a book to read but I think I'm going to start writing there when I get the chance.  It is across the street from the Gulf and has palm trees right by the windows.  Oh, and it has great coffee and cute surf board tables!  When it is warmer I plan to take my coffee for a walk down the pier.

What Else I'm Up To I'm making hot cocoa and enjoying the Florida snow!  I knew it was suppose to be cold and icy today with a chance of snow but whoops and hollers from my oldest son confirmed that there really was snow.  He misses Montana and its snowy winters.  Thirty minutes after waking up my three children and I were outside.  Singing, dancing and slip sliding may have taken place :)  My two year old has decided that he likes his winter coat and won't take it off.  He has the hood on and I have been informed that he is now a turtle.

    Besides dancing in the snow I've been working on my 2014 goal to live intentionally.  The book Saying Goodbye to Survival Mode by Crystal Paine has helped me make some wonderful progress in this direction.  I've identified my priorities and am now in the process of weeding out anything that keeps me from them.  Its liberating.  

What have you been up to?

What's Up Wednesday

Its time for What's Up Wednesday!

What I'm Reading  I read The Fault in our Stars by John Green over the weekend.  It is the first book I have read for my TBR pile challenge.  I knew it would be good and I knew it would be heart wrenching.  I wasn't disappointed.  
  I'm currently reading Crown of Midnight by Sarah J.Maas and If There is Something to Desire (100 poems) by Vera Pavlova.  My chapter a day classic is Anna Karenina (as it will be several months...) and I'm still working through Writing 21st Century Fiction by Donald Maas.

What I'm Writing  I made progress on my fairy tale WIP and realized that I am lost in my own plot twists so I'm rereading parts of it to try and sort it out.  My main character is currently cursed and is an inanimate object which is proving to be a challenge to write...  Perseverance may be in order.  And coffee.  Lots of coffee.

What Inspires me Right Now 
 I walk the tightrope.
A kid on each arm
for balance.
- Vera Pavlova

What Else I've Been Up To  I'm really not sure.  I know I've been doing something but everything I can think of is mundane such as dishes and laundry.  Oh and rescuing the cat from a toddler with a toy sword.

What have you been up to?

What's Up Wednesday

Its time for What's Up Wednesday!
What I'm reading  I went on a bit of a reading binge this past weekend.  I finished both The Great Gatsby and Neverwhere (yay!) and then I read Fever and Sever by Lauren DeStefano (books two and three of The Chemical Garden Trilogy).  
  I loved the writing in The Great Gatsby.  Gorgeous! I'm saving my opinion on Neverwhere for a review I'm writing later this week and The Chemical Garden Trilogy is something I both love and hate.  I hated what happened to some of the characters.  I loved the writing, the setting and the emotional bonds between the characters.
  I'm still working through Writing 21st Century Fiction by Donald Maas and I've started the first book for my TBR book challenge (The Fault in Our Stars).  Since I finished The Great Gatsby I am now reading Anna Karenina as my chapter a day classic.  I'm actually reading about three a day.  I've never seen a book with so many tiny chapters!  My children and I are reading The Magician's Nephew by C.S. Lewis every night and they love it as much as I always have.

What I'm Writing  I'm afraid that I spent my writing time reading.  It was refreshing though.  I feel creativity swirling in my brain and I can't wait to use it!  

What Inspires Me Right Now  This does!

What Else I've Been Up To  I have been baking bread.  Lots and lots of it.  It is part of my goal of living intentionally.  I want to feed my family healthful foods and making most of our bread it a great way for me to make sure that they are getting a variety of grains and wholesome ingredients.  

Celebrate the Small Things

It's time for VikLit's Celebrate the Small Things!

This week I am celebrating Butternut Squash Bread!  I made some last night.  It is delicious! Moist, sweet and begging for a pot of coffee to go along with it.  To check out the recipe I used click here.  Of course I never fully follow a recipe...  I subbed coconut oil for all butter and oil and raw and coconut sugar for the sugars.  I also used a half cup whole wheat white flour instead of using only all purpose.  It is the perfect cure for a foggy, dreary day.  Hopefully it will inspire a late night writing session.

IWSG

   I forgot that today was Insecure Writer's Support Group!!!
 I guess my biggest struggle lately would be using my writing time productively.  How does one stretch a small amount of time and make it cover blogging, drafting, reading, studying craft, revising,  critiquing... and I'm sure there is more.  Right now I just fit in what fits but its hard to make much progress that way.  What I need is more time...  why is time so elusive?
I'd love to here any advice you might have to offer!
Happy New Year!  I hope its full of great stories and lots of writing!

What's Up Wednesday

It's time for What's Up Wednesday!

What I'm Reading  I'm not sure if other people do this but I have the bad habit of getting sidetracked and not finishing a lot of the books I start, at least not in a timely manner.  I'll start reading something I find at the library and realize (days, weeks) later that I have a half finished book on my nightstand.  This week I've been finishing some of those poor, neglected, half read books.  I'm about 3/4 through The Great Gatsby and I'm reading Neil Gaiman's Neverwhere.  Both are to good to just let sit there!  I'm not reading any books in my TBR challenge until these books are done so that should be motivating.  I'm also working through Writing 21st Century Fiction by Donald Maas.  I won it in a giveaway.  Its amazing! I'm trying to spend a week on each chapter in hopes that I absorb all the information.

What I'm Writing  I'm trudging away on my fairy tale inspired WIP.  I love this story and I still don't know why it is so slow to write.  

What Inspires Me Right Now  I've been inspired by my 2014 goal.  It is to live intentionally.  Its amazing how having a bit of focus can change the way you approach things.  I'm also inspired by Writing 21st Century Fiction.  This book really gets my creativity flowing!

What Else I've Been Up To  My kids have the stomach flu so that pretty much sums it up...  It would be more fun to write about what I wish I was up to...

New Year Rebel

I didn't feel like starting the new year on the first.  It came with to many expectations.  Every one of them was in my own mind but that didn't keep them from weighing me down.  So I rebelled.  I let the new year begin without a set list of goals.  I had some in mind, but nothing concrete.  I celebrated the new year but I shut off my inner deadline.  Who says that everything you want to accomplish in a year has to be figured out and begun on a certain day?  Goals are important in accomplishing anything and I have some big dreams but I don't want goals just for goals sake.  I only want ones that help me reach my destination, not ones that sound good but end up adding stress.

After much thought I found my one goal for this year.  One.  Everything I want to accomplish fits under it. 

 My goal for 2014 is to live intentionally.  

That means taking my time captive and putting it where it counts.  I know me.  I'm a list maker, a goal setter.  There will be other goals but they don't have to be made this week, or even this month.  They will be made when I know what they should be.  Oh, and in case you're wondering, a great many of them will be writing related :)  

TBR Pile Reading Challenge

  Happy New Year everyone!  I'm still sorting out my goals for the year so I'm not going to post about them just yet but I did decide that I need to do something about the heap of books in my room and in virtual shelves on my e-readers (yes, that's plural...).  I am joining the 2014 TBR Pile Reading Challenge.  I'm going for "First Kiss" (21-30 books) but I want my minimum to be 30.  I have other reading goals this year so I don't want to make this one all consuming.  If I hit 30 with time to spare I can always add more books to it :)

It would be cruel to post my entire TBR pile in this post so I'm going to only list the first ten books I'm planning to tackle (in no particular order).

If your joining the TBR Challenge I'd love to know about it and if you are interested in joining you can sign up here.

1. The Fault in Our Stars 
2. Not a Drop to Drink
3. Pawn of Prophecy (the Belgariad #1)
4. On Writing
5. The Counterfeit Princess
6. I’d Tell you I love you But Then I’d have to Kill You
7. Ender’s Game
8. Ruby Red
9. Lead your Family Like Jesus
10. Water for Elephants