Travel Bug

I have got a serious travel bug.  Not hard to figure out why I have this niggling, I haven't left the state in 2 years. Blurgh. That is too long. But we are in the middle of some major fix-its and travel right now would just deplete our funds. So we figure out other cheaper ways to entertain ourselves. They work most of the time, but I can't wait until these expenses are paid and we can continue to save to get out of here.

 We are sincerely trying to avoid touching much of our savings and stick with the one car without the  payment for as long as we can- this means for as long as I can handle it before I demand to have a second car so I can roll into work later than 5am. But for as much as I *hate* my schedule I do find that getting work over and done with that early in the day is really nice. So I get up and go at 3:20 ( I've  pushed it back 10 minutes lately- too hard to face the world at 3:10am.)

Recently, I have been torturing myself, looking at travel websites and "planning" cruises or just 4 day weekends at amusement parks. I haven't been to an amusement park since....since I was a teenager! The last was Disney when I was 19. But this would be Universal Studios in Orlando to go to the Wizarding World of Harry Potter. I am such a dork where Harry is concerned.

But the powers that be have reminded me we have a couple of commitments that cannot be put on the back burner....SXSW 2011 and the move of one mother in law. Oh and a wedding for one of my best friends, who apparently wants a bachlorette party in Las Vegas. 2 major expenses that I am not sure I can even pull off right now or in the next year with all these other expenses that are taxing us.  So we save and save. We are still waiting on the HOA to approve our "construction defect" repairs and a bathroom that needs some love. After those are done I sure hope that we can get our butts to Europe. So tired of waiting on this. And I'd like to do it before England's damp and cold could stop me from acting like a kid.

We have looked at a 7 night cruise of the Mediterranean  then taking a train north to Paris ( I have to see Versailles, Jardin des Tuileries, the Louvre, and the Marais neighborhood) then over to London and then up to Edinburgh. I am not sure if the cruise will be at the end or start of the trip yet, but a 10 day trip just turned into 21 days. I am not complaining. The poor dog will need to go to Pete and Mac's as I cannot leave her with family and I cannot shut her up in a kennel for that long. Pete and Mac's would provide doggie day care and playtime for 6 hours each day. I haven't found another kennel that can do that nor one she is as happy at as she is at Pete and Mac's. Last time she was happy to see us, but didn't want to come home! haha. In my mind that is better than the alternative where she just gets to lay in a kennel and get a walk a couple times a day.   This is going to be an expensive trip, but aren't all trips to Europe somewhat expensive? Funny, the cruise is the cheapest part!

The hunt for a good book to read

I have to admit the first trailer for HP7 set off another Harry Potter reading frenzy. But once I was done with that it was back to historical fiction. I do love historical fiction. I adore historical non-fiction as well, but sometimes that is a little too dry and I can't always make it through. It did take me about 2 months to read Marie Antoinette: The Journey by Antonia Fraser. Great stuff, but it was just a slow read for me.  Recently someone had suggested I pick up Margaret George and give her a try.

I did. I ordered Mary Queen of Scotland and the Isles and have not been too disappointed.I am nearing the end of the book and already starting to look for a new book to bury my nose in.(I am so glad my husband is just as much a reader and quiet individual as I am!) And once again I ordered too many books.....I read them all and usually pretty quickly! I also loathe the nearest second hand bookstore....they have NOTHING and give you NOTHING for trade...not worth the frustration, so I order from Amazon and be done with it.

What did I order? The Last Queen by C.W. Gortner and because I have not read it in forever....Skye O'Malley by Bertrice Small. I read this book at the age of 15ish, I may have been older. Then I continued to look for others, preferably a saga I can sink my teeth into. I like familiarity. I think I stumbled upon something worth reading....Jean Plaidy also known as Victoria Holt or Phillipa Carr. Before her passing she had 100 million books sold and has written more novels then I think I can read in a year. So I will give her a try.

If there is anyone out there that has some suggestions please feel free to comment and let me know.

Pushing forward

For years....3 to be exact, I have struggled with writing a book. Just totally struggled. I have had all the fire in the world at work, leaped buildings in a single bound to get home and then NOTHING would come. I forced myself to write anyway. I was making myself sit down and type. Eventually, I excused myself from the torture and just went back to reading. My number one excuse being that my wrists and arms hurt. But even when they didn't I would find something else to excuse it away.I would process things while knitting or crocheting, but that still was not putting pen to paper. I figured I was nourishing myself, feeding my brain with  inspiration, concepts, and imaginary play things. I would become bitter when someone told me they stayed up all night writing and then would look at me like I am crazy when I say I wish I could do that, but I have to get up at 3am. So on and off I wrote. But only when the fire was under me and my heart was wild with a scene. Truth is it was/ is part of the process. I spent more time blaming work for making me exhausted. I spent more time blaming my husband for "not pitching in." He was and still is, but since I wasn't getting what I wanted after trying so damned hard I was angry. Angry at myself, but not wanting to see that.

About 2 months ago I read an interesting idea....some authors outline their entire stories before they sit down to write. It is not a new idea by any means. I must have read it a million times in all the writing books I have read over the years.  Not having been an outliner in college (even in graduate school) I wasn't sure what this would do for me, but I knew sure as hell that I was not going to get anywhere just spitting out disjointed scenes. Some authors can do that, but it just wasn't working for me. I bought a wire bound notebook and promised myself and my story that I would fill it, all 180 pages, with notes about the world my imaginary characters were inhabiting. I am still working on it and loving it. Many many colored inks, scribbles, doodles, single words or sentences written in the margins. It feels and looks creative and so it keeps me going. I can say it looks like an anthropologists field guide to a new and interesting swath of land! I even have my colored pencils and sketch pad ready for a map. I can say that it is NOT what I thought it would be when I first started and I am comfortable with the adjustment I really can see these things I am writing and the deeper I get the more excited I get. So even as exhausting as work is I can still come home and write it down.  So a few lessons learned: If I type it up.... its gone, never to be thought on again. So not until I am ready. Not until I am totally solid on what I am writing will I do that. I also ban the single scenes for the time being. I now color code my notes and then when a particular idea is ripe I pluck it, re-write it and place it in the binder of loose leaf paper. These things then get organized and color coded.

Ten Nice Things

Our dear Doglet Miss Em
My dear husband who puts up with my solitary ways
4 day weekends
Family in all their crazy and not so crazy moments
Homemade Iced Coffee drinks
Homemade Sausage Biscuits
A clean house
A room of my own
A desire to do something better with myself
Courage to make those changes for the better

Disappearing Act

I haven't posted much lately. Mostly because I've been busy creating and sadly, working. But if I didn't have a day job I suppose life would be a lot more ordinary- my job, some may say career and I do on occasion, is anything but ordinary. I enjoy it 65% of the time. 30% of the dislike stems from lack of sleep and not being able to enjoy any kind of night life unless I take the next day off. The other 5% is from the "necessary" paperwork that seems to be multiplying year after year.

I've recently changed my layout and I think it goes quite well with my leanings. I am most at home with a book in my hands, a cool drink within reach, and my dog at my side. If only I could be paid to do that! I am also an unpublished writer. Currently world building and outlining have been my main distractions. Distractions that I am most happy and grateful to be able to do.

What have I been reading? Well I began to search outside my usual genres. I read a smattering of fantasy, J.K. Rowling and Patricia McKillip are the extent of fantasy I have read. I spend a  lot of time with general fiction, some of it being classified as literary fiction (sometimes I beg to differ.) And of course Historical fiction and non fiction. I tried to read Super Cannes by J.G. Ballard but became annoyed with the protagonist. Honestly, the man needed to find a hobby other than the one he thought was a good idea. I also picked up The Meaning of Night by Michael Cox. This book was very "Meh." At page 50 I set it aside and decided it may be a good read at another time or good kindling. Too bad I don't have a fireplace and its 110F degrees out. And so having nothing else to read and the first trailer for HP7 came out I began to read Harry Potter again. I could read HP5-7 over and over and over and over again.

But now that reading frenzy is over with I am restless about what to read next.  Any suggestions?

On Hiatus

I've been knitting up a storm lately and not reading or writing at all. That is odd for me, but Dancing to the Precipice was a very heavy book and I think I may have burnt myself out of the French Revolution for awhile.
And A Rose for the Crown was just so 'meh' that I started to search for something else to do.


So I redecorated my office/ guest room. And then because I love being in this room I started to knit with needles again. It took off from there. I finished a hat (today- pictures are still in the making) and am taking a break, for now. I'll start back up later this week I think.

for now here is the pattern I used :http://www.straw.com/cpy/patterns2/accessories/MochiPlus-SwirlHat.html

its a lovely hat.

Finished

A Rose for the Crown was alright. It always takes some time to get used to multiple viewpoint pov. I don't feel close enough to the main character and it keeps the story from sticking with me. It keeps me from making the book into a page turner. 3rd person multiple viewpoint makes it forgettable and horribly confusing if you are just reading to read and haven't fallen in love with the characters....which is what this book was.

First person? ehhhh. I like it more than multiple pov, but I do prefer 3rd person single viewpoint better than all. 2nd person in a novel just irritates me, makes me feel like I am being preached at. 

But I digress, I know this story could not have been told any other way. There was way too much going on, for it to be anything but what it was. So it was in the stories best interest for sure, but I wish she would have not jumped viewpoints mid-chapter and sometimes it seemed mid paragraph. Maybe she wasn't and I didn't get what she was up to, like I said I wasn't in love with the characters or the book. There were so many characters of the same name that it did get confusing when Jack was talking about John and John and Richard and Richard. After awhile I got used to it, but it took pleasure away from the novel.



One major complaint I have....Judith Merkle Riley's review on the book cover...." Move over Amber St. Clare!..." HA! This heroine had nothing on Amber St. Clare. Kate, the main character of the novel, is so not the femme fatale that Amber is nor is she as devious or as wicked when it counts.  She is not out for glory as Amber. Amber ran her own life, Kate? Did within reason and perhaps that is why I just didn't fall in love with the book. Headstrong she was, I will give her that, but it was all reasonable and rational.

I have stayed with historical novels for the time being and have started Margaret George's Mary Queen of Scotland and the Isles. The novel, thus far (the whole 59 pages I have been able to read) have been absorbing. It is the kind of book I would like to spend a lazy rainy day with. It is Third Person single viewpoint and that makes all the difference. It is also geographically pleasing.