The Good Stuff:
- Organized parts of my fabric stash and made up patterns to use up scraps so I'll have plenty to do at the quilt retreat.
- Got the kitchen clean. Keeping it that way hasn't been easy, though. ;)
- Got a new, lighter vacuum for the downstairs since my back does not appreciate lugging the big one up and down all the time. It does a great job on the wood floors!
- Had a lovely phone call with my agent to discuss the future of my writing.
- Have reached the mid point on Girl with a Dragon Tattoo. It's good, but not something I normally would have chosen.
- Received my replacement iPod Nano in the mail and it's a Brand New 8GB one, not a refurbished first generation.
- Found a super recipe for Rump Roast which was on sale this week. I think it needs to cook a little longer (ours ended up a bit more rare than we liked ) but it was very tender and tasty.
- Only had fast food once, on my super crazy nuts errand day. Yippee!
- Deb from the quilt guild has a copy of a magazine I'm missing and she's going to let me borrow it so I can photocopy the pattern I need. That I had. But misplaced. Woot!
- Fruit. I have been eating fruit. I do not like fruit, but I even managed to eat a whole apple. I really dislike apples, so this was quite an accomplishment.
- I blogged every day for the 30 day challenge, mostly by writing the posts early and scheduling them to appear just after midnight on their due date. This has worked very well for me.
- Weight went up about 6 lbs. I've lost two of those, but I have a lot of ground to cover.
- Bill gave me his cold. Sore throat, sinus gunk. It should all be gone in about a week, though.
- I have a freaking MOUNTAIN of reading to get done this month, all fiction. Once I finish Dragon Tattoo, I have a book by Gloria King on deck, then Sue Grafton's latest. How am I gonna find time for all this reading?? Doesn't matter, I have to do it.
- Did not hit my exercise goal, but I sweated with Richard Simmons once. That is better than not at all, right?
- Desk is still a mess despite being on every day's to-do list. :(
Plan for Next Week:
- More notecards for Stain
- Finish Dragon Tattoo and analyze it for POV, character, pacing, tense, voice, etc.
- Move on to the next book in the stack. Finish and analyze it as well.
- CLEAN MY FREAKING DESK!!
- Gozer to the vet to get his incision looked at
- Stay on top of laundry and vacuuming.
- Blog daily for the 30 day challenge
4 comments:
We have upstairs and downstairs vacuums. I even bought a little Black and Decker hand held battery powered for the stairs, because I didn't like wrestling with either of the "big" vacuums on the stairs. We didn't have to buy anything specific (except for the little one for the stairs), because hubby had two from years ago (one stays in SA), and I had one, so when we blended our houses, it worked fine. The rats got the one in the motor home (different story), so when we sell the house in SA, we have a use for the "extra" vacuum. Mine is from the 1980s, and both of his are from the 60s or 70s, so our vacuums are OLD.
That's funny. Apples are my go to fruit, because they're easy and don't go bad quickly. I really like the texture and flavor of Gala apples. For a long time, I favored Granny Smiths, but not so much these days. Red Delicious just don't resonate with me, and Macintosh tends to be just a little squishy for my tastes, but I like one once in awhile. If you haven't already, try some different types of apples to see if any taste better for you.
One time is definitely better than no times for exercise, so good for you.
If you don't mind, please talk a little bit about how you analyze a book for POV, character, pacing, etc. It's something I really struggle with but think should be easier than I'm making it. (Stephen and Wendy, feel free to chime in on how you do this, too.)
Of all the apples in all the world, I actually like Empires. But can I ever find them? Nope, not unless I get them direct from an orchard during their harvest season. I have 'texture issues' I guess - I don't like pears very much either because they're grainy - and I have never understood why so many people like Red Delicious. To me, they're nasty. Th skins are bitter, and the flesh is mealy. What's to like?
Add in the life-experience of many, many times in my childhood where apples - specifically Red Delicious - were all we had to eat, I've definitely developed an aversion to them.
Analyzing a book.
Frankly, I'm playing it by ear here. I haven't done anything even close to that since high school English but my agent said I need to read current, popular fiction and figure out what's making it popular - so that, if I can incorporate those things, maybe my books will sell better and faster - so, here we are. He wants me to primarily look at women writers and women readers.
Anyway, I'm making a point to notice pacing, structure, number of POV characters, their occupations, their use in the story, how is description handled, tense, plot, openings, endings... all of those nuts and bolts story issues. When I finish Girl with a Dragon Tattoo I'll show you all what I write up about it. I was thinking of writing up notecards for each book I read this month, but I'm beginning to doubt I can get it all on a single note card, so I'll type it up in word. :)
All that said, I do like Galas, Winesap, and HoneyCrisp okay - It was a honeycrisp that I ate the other day - at least they don't make me gag. :)
I totally get if apples were all you had to eat when you were younger that they would be a huge turn off now. Hugs on that, because they're the only really convenient fresh fruit I've been able to find. I hear you on pears. I like them -- when I can find them in the right state of ripeness, which never seems to happen.
Try cherries and grapes and freezing them to keep them longer. They're like Popsicles from the freezer. Get seedless grapes and spit the cherry pits out.
Pear tree is trimmed. Waiting for the lawn mower battery to charge (I need to get a new one, this one is nearly dead) before I can spread the Bonus S.
I'd love it if you could post or e-mail your Word doc to me, too. Somewhere in my messy office I have notes I took at a workshop about analyzing books. I don't remember what all we were supposed to look at, but we were supposed to underline/highlight things with different colors. I started to do that with one of Diana Gabaldon's books but I don't think I got very far. I kept wanting to read instead of analyze and underline, and I kept forgetting what colors went with what thing. I have a couple of Tosca Lee's books I want to analyze, though, so I'm open to suggestions.
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