Tag Archives: writing

grateful gifts

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I’ve been busy trying to catch up on holiday shopping and housework lately, doing iStock photos, and putting up a few Christmas decorations. But I’m not really in the mood to put up the Christmas tree this year, it’s a big one because we have a high ceiling in the family room.  Mr. bookbabie seems a little bummed about that idea however. I don’t think it’s a ba-humbug Scrooge kind of thing with me or depression because my mom is gone. I just think I’m worn out and putting up the tree feels like one more chore to do.

The last months of my mom’s life were pretty intense, then she died (also an intense, emotionally charged experience), and then I went right into planning mode for her memorial party. And now it’s the holidays. It seems like I could use some downtime to process this past year. My mom’s illness and death. My son and daughter-in-law losing the baby. I don’t know. Then again, maybe processing/dwelling on what’s happened isn’t really necessary. I don’t want to get stuck in that woe-is-me place where melancholy and gloom rule the day.

Hmm, okay Mr. bookbabie, we’ll put on some holiday music, light a fire in the fireplace, and put up your giant Christmas tree this weekend. Because through all the sadness and the loss of late you’ve been there by my side and for that I am truly grateful. Your love gave me a soft place to land during this most difficult year, so yes, you shall indeed have your tree my dear.

No longer forward nor behind
I look in hope or fear;
But, grateful, take the good I find,
The best of now and here. ~John Greenleaf Whittier

hummingbird dance

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A couple of days ago I was watering the clematis in the photograph above. It grows up against the house next to our front porch. I was standing out on the driveway, staring at the water from the hose as it arced up and out toward the thirsty vine when out of the corner of my eye I saw a glistening emerald green hummingbird fly up to the spray. It hovered a few inches from the water and then it flew over it and then under it and then back to center, eye level with me again and only a few feet away. It did this delightful little dance several times.

As I watched the tiny bird play in the pearly mist, I realized he had no idea I was there, he was just as mesmerized as I had been by the stream of sunlit water. Do you ever have a moment you wish would last forever? When everything is exactly as it should be and you don’t want or need anything “more”? That was one of those moments for me. Watching that delicate little bird bathe in a rainbow of sun-drenched water then sit on a tree branch next to me and fluff and preen his miniature jewel like feathers—it was the universe at its best—it was perfection.

good reads

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I recently read two charming books by author Marisa De Los Santos. I enjoyed them both and I’m happy to add a new author to my list of favorites. Her writing style is very natural and easy to read, the books aren’t quite in the chick-lit category but they are geared more toward women (similar to Elizabeth Berg). They are about family, relationships, friendship, love lost and found, all that everyday life stuff. There are no guns or mysterious dead bodies (i.e. CSI crime scenes) so I would say that they are good reads for the beach when you want a little escapism and no nightly news gorism (yes, I just made that word up). I also liked how the characters carried over between the two books, I didn’t expect that so it was a pleasant surprise to meet up with them again.

6 word memoir meme

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As I read yet another book review of a memoir this weekend, my husband told me that I should write one. I said that my story would be much too short and rather boring so when I ran across the following book I decided it was just my speed. A six word memoir! Written by Larry Smith and Rachel Fershleiser, Not Quite What I was Planning: Six Word Memoirs by Writers Famous and Obscure is a compilation based on the story that Hemingway once bet ten dollars that he could sum up his life in six words. His words were- For Sale: baby shoes, never worn. There’s a video on Amazon with examples from the book, it sounds like a fun read! I’d like to start a six word memoir meme and here are the rules:

1. Write your own six word memoir

2. Post it on your blog and include a visual illustration if you’d like

3. Link to the person that tagged you in your post and to this original post if possible so we can track it as it travels across the blogosphere

4 .Tag five more blogs with links

5. And don’t forget to leave a comment on the tagged blogs with an invitation to play!

It was actually a lot more difficult that I thought it would be, but here’s mine…

This too shall pass, I hope.

I tag Melynn at Breathing Easy, Sandy at My Inner Edge, Lisa at Books on the Brain, Janie at Ragamuffins, and Fighting Windmills.

If you haven’t been tagged but would like to participate go ahead and copy and paste this post to initiate your own string of the game, or post a comment with your 6 word memoir and I’ll post them later:)

**Blonde Momentos added a link to Smith Magazine on her memoir post where you can go and leave your memoir, they are collecting them for book #2!

freaky friday

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You’ve probably seen this in e-mails and on blogs before, but I still get a kick out of these jumbled paragraphs…

I cdnuolt blveiee taht I cluod aulaclty uesdnatnrd waht I was rdanieg. Bcuease of the phaonmneal pweor of the hmuan mnid it dseno’t mtaetr in waht oerdr the ltteres in a wrod are, the olny iproamtnt tihng is taht the frsit and lsat ltteer be in the rghit pclae. The rset can be a taotl mses and you can sitll raed it whotuit a pboerlm. Tihs is bcuseae the huamn mnid deos not raed ervey lteter by istlef, but the wrod as a wlohe. Azanmig huh? Who nedes selpl cehck if we can raed cazry siht lkie tihs? You can mkae yuor own jmulbed txet by clikincg hree. The kooky letters are from Spell with Flickr.

2007 book lists

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Young Girl Reading by Mary Cassatt

Once the hustle and bustle of the holiday’s die down, you may want to put your feet up and curl up on the couch with a good book. In case you need some inspiration and direction, I’ve gathered a few of the best book lists of 2007 below for your perusal…

Publisher’s Weekly

The New York Times

ALSC Notable Children’s Books

Amazon.com

Library Journal

Salon

Slate

Time Magazine

St. Louis Post-Dispatch

The Economist

Guardian Unlimited (writers and cultural figures pick their favorites)

bake a book

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When I’m not working on my iStock portfolio, I’ve been tinkering with book number three. It’s good to set a novel aside during the writing process, let it set up a bit, and then read through it with fresh eyes. Writing is sort of like baking bread, you work hard at it in the beginning and about the time you ask yourself why am I doing this when I could just run up to Kroger and buy a loaf of freakin’ Wonder Bread? you get to set it aside and let it rise on it’s own. I still have a ways to go with new chapters needed to bring it to a proper conclusion, but right now I’m enjoying punching down those chapters I already have and kneading them into shape.

Maxine stared a weathered redwood trellis on the other side of the terrace. It was draped in twining morning glory vines. When she first sat down the green vines were covered with open bell shaped flowers, hundreds of starry blue faces turned toward the cool morning sun: but now the flowers had begun to curl, to fold in on themselves so quickly that she could almost watch it happening.