Wednesday, January 15, 2014

What's Up Wednesday: Or Rather, What's Down?

What I'm Reading
STILL waiting on Insurgent from the library. Grrr. On the upside, I got Emerald Green by Kerstin Gier from the library so I reread Ruby Red and Sapphire Blue in prep and now I'm on the last of the trilogy. These books are so much fun and I love them like crazy. It's funny because I remember when I read Ruby Red for the first time, I found it hard to get into at the beginning. I didn't have the same problem on my reread at all. But maybe that's because I knew what was coming. ;)

What I'm Writing
Oh gosh, I feel like such a slacker. I was supposed to start my revision of EPONINE the 1st week of January. Then I said, okay I'll start the next week. I still haven't started. BUT, I'm almost done critiquing a CPs MS, so once I'm done that and my reading pile diminishes a bit, I'm going to get cracking on EPONINE. Hopefully Monday.

What Inspires Me Right Now
To be honest, I'm not really feeling the inspiration right now. I've had a couple down days and so it's hard to find that spark, you know? I know it's still there somewhere and if it doesn't appear by Monday, I'm going to dig it out with a shovel or an ice pick, or whatever it takes to get myself lit on fire again. "This I vow," she said, head upturned, one hand pressed to her heart. Ha.

What Else I've Been Up To
My newly seven-year-old daughter had a birthday party last Saturday which reminded me why I was hesitant to do birthday parties in the first place. Girls can be M-E-A-N. I think I'm going to go back to doing a special activity for birthday kid and that's it. No party. That may sound harsh, but so is my daughter crying in my bedroom for 15 minutes because a girl was mean to her. I still have bad memories from my own birthday parties and I don't want that to happen to my kids.

ANYWAY, what have you been up to?

8 comments:

  1. Good luck wipping your muse back into shape. Getting back into writing the 3rd week of January is still acceptable, just don't wait until July. I hope you have a great week!

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  2. That's just terrible about the mean girl! And at your daughter's party, too. What's wrong with people? I like your idea of doing a special activity for them instead. As a kid, I hated birthday parties big time, so I would have been all over the special activity idea. I know what you mean about needing to dig out your inspiration. I've been feeling much the same way for far, far too long now. I'm trying to find it again, but it's so hard. In the meantime, I've been reading good books. Sounds like you have been too. (I really enjoyed the Ruby Red books, too.) Here's hoping we both get writing again soon!

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  3. Happy birthday to your girl, though I'm sorry there was a mean girl at her party. My girl is six and I'm already worried about the mean girls of the world. It seems like that bad sort of behavior is happening earlier and earlier, too. :-(

    I'm glad you hear that you like the Kerstin Gier books. I've heard great things about them, and I'm anxious to read them. Love the pretty covers.

    Best of luck with your EPONINE revision. I've got a revision of my own to finish!

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  4. Girls can be the worse. Boys fight it out. Girls are so bitchy. It sounds like an awful cliche, but it's so painfully true. Sadly, I think most of us have memories like that. Your poor daughter. I hope she had a wonderful birthday and got loads of lovely new things regardless.

    Hope you can get to work on your revisions soon :D

    Have a lovely week ^_^

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  5. Sorry the birthday party was so full of dramz! I hear about some kids' elborate birthday parties with all the favors and the crafts and custom cake pops and it makes me want to take a nap. It's hard to do smaller parties too because then girls feel left out if they weren't invited. Tough...I hear you on doing something special besides a party.

    Giving back to other writers by critiquing really takes time. It's hard to balance critiques with our own writing time sometimes.

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  6. aw man, I'm so sorry your daughter had such an awful experience on her birthday. I never had anything like that happen with my parties, but times have changed and I think kids are meaner than they used to be. I need to read Ruby Red, I've seen it a couple of times on Amazon as a recommendation, but never really took the time to check it out. Hope Insurgent gets in soon and that you can find inspiration as well!

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  7. Happy belated birthday to your daughter! Too bad that girl ruined it for her. Girls can be SO MEAN. I used to just celebrate my birthdays with close friends.
    If it makes you feel any better, I've been slacking mega time with my writing too.

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  8. Still waiting on INSURGENT?? I hope you haven't been reading spoilers... ;)

    And yes, kids can be mean--especially girls. I should know, I have 5 of them. Good idea doing the event-birthday as opposed to the party. We'll usually do something special like go to a movie, or go out to eat, which for the 8 of us is a treat!

    I hope you get inspired this week, Melanie. "I'll start tomorrow... or next week..." is a killer. Even if you just manage a paragraph, making the start is what matters. Remember, every great novel began with a paragraph. :)

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