happy holidays!

Happy Christmas Eve Eve!

This will be our first Christmas on our own and while I had initial reservations about it, I'm getting excited. For the last three years we've spent Christmas at Tim's parents' house in Delta, which I love because the holidays were always a time for family when I was growing up so I have this need to have people around me. This year, though, his parents are taking a long overdue vacation to see their kids that don't live in our valley so we're on our own. We will be having one of Tim's sisters and her husband over for Christmas Eve, though, which should be a lot of fun! We always went to my cousin's house for Christmas Eve dinner in New York. The idea of staying snuggled up indoors on a lazy Christmas day has grown on me lately but I'm glad we'll have some company tomorrow

We finally got our tree up and decorated over Friday and Saturday [I know, so behind] after I spent a day and a half removing the pre-wired lights. Let me tell you, whoever puts those suckers on is not getting paid enough, not nearly. I also understand why pre-lit trees cost so much more. Honestly, though, I'm willing to put up with having to re-wrap the tree in lights every year to avoid potentially needing to replace the entire tree every other year because some of the lights go out and you can't fix them [the reason I removed the lights on ours this year]. Tim thought I was a bit crazy but I didn't really mind taking them off and as for putting them on, we always had a real tree, growing up, so I'm used to it and our tree has never looked this good, if I do say so myself.

Winter has been making periodic attempts to set its claws in over the last week. We've finally dropped out of the mid- to upper-50s and we're starting to get some precipitation, mostly in the form of rain. It did start out pretty snowy yesterday but by the time I left work it had all melted and today it's sunny, if frigid. The weatherman predicts at least 3 inches of snow on Christmas which would be appropriately seasonal and pretty but we'll see what happens. Only a fool trusts the weather forecast implicitly.

I only have to come in to work on Monday and Tuesday next week and I'm looking forward to a lazy vacation. I've set a goal for myself to break 20,000 words [continuing my word count from nanowrimo] before the new year. I know that's only a goal of 5,000 words for the whole month but it feels attainable and considering the holiday season as well as the other events that broke up my writing schedule this month, I'll be happy with attainable. Right now I'm trying to find pictures of people that remind me of my characters which is fairly simple for some but others, like Percy [who is undergoing a change of ethnicity by her own volition], are a bit more challenging. My search terms are often too specific or too many to bring up any good results so I might end up Frankenstein-ing pieces of different pictures together. Man, I really need to get that cork board!

I hope you all have a wonderful holiday wherever you are! And if you don't celebrate any of the current holidays, create your own! We should never really need an official excuse to celebrate life  : )

starting to feel more like christmas

Finally some snow!

Hey guys! Sorry for the somewhat unexpected radio silence for the last two weeks. I wasn't planning on posting last week because I had my friend out from New York but I had fully intended to post on the fourth. Work just got a little crazy those last few days before I took a vacation.

I know I'm a bit early this week but I figured I felt like blogging and it makes up a little bit for missing two weeks. I might post next Tuesday as well since Thursday will be Christmas and I don't think I'll be online much that day  : P

So a lot has actually happened in the last two weeks. I went to an author signing event at a local library where I met Shannon Hale and saw several other famous authors like Ally Condie [of the Matched series], Brandon Sanderson [Wheel of Time, Stormlight Archive, Mistborn], and Brandon Mull [Fablehaven] . I was surprised to see Ann Dee Ellis sitting at one of the tables further down the room. I had Ann Dee as a teacher for my Middle Grade and YA writing class at BYU three years ago and this was the first time I'd seen her since then. I hadn't brought Everything is Fine with me because I didn't know she was going to be there so I browsed the books they had for sale until I found The End or Something Like That which I purchased because I wanted to read it and because I wanted an excuse to talk to her. Ann Dee isn't as well known as a lot of the authors that were there so when I wandered over there wasn't a line at her table and she recognized me before I even got up to the table. I have such a hard time with remembering people's names and I don't consider myself to be terribly memorable so it came as a surprise that she remembered me from three years ago. It was awesome to talk to her again and I'm kicking myself for not getting a picture with her but she did sign the book with "can't to read yours!" which has double impact for me coming from a writer and former teacher.

With Emily here this last week we got to do a lot of fun stuff [guys, I need to go to aquariums more often] but I didn't get any writing done. I'd planned for that but now that I'm getting back to my regular schedule I've been dragging my feet about picking up the pen again. Writing consistently can be such an easy habit to fall out of - in fact, I don't think it's really a habit people ever get into, not really. Each day can be a struggle to keep going. The habit is in making yourself sit down at your desk or computer every single day and at least trying. I'm resolving to try tonight even though my evening is kind of booked. I'm going to do it. Even if it's just a sentence. 

Last week, while roaming B&N, Starbucks hot chocolate in hand, in true nostalgic fashion with Emily, I picked up The Graveyard Book by Neil Gaiman. I haven't read a lot of his work though I've been aware of him as an author for a long time. I have read Stardust [though if I'm being honest, I prefer the movie ending] and I've been meaning to read Coraline since I saw the movie [it waits patiently on my list]. I've heard a lot of talk about The Graveyard Book within the last year so I was intrigued to read this spooky, magical story.

Confession time - and I'm more shocked than ashamed of this - but I haven't read a book since August when my unofficial Wheel of Time hiatus began. The lack of literature has been a note in the back of my mind for the last three months and while I had plenty of reasons to not be reading as voraciously as I typically do, it felt really weird for books to not be such a constant part of my life. In high school I had several instances where friends told me that I didn't act like myself unless I was up to my neck in some book or other and I've realized that the longer this dry spell got the less I felt like myself. So on Friday I dug into The Graveyard Book and then The End or Something Like That. It felt so good to read again. To inhale characters and worlds created with such imagination and emotion.

I adore The Graveyard Book. It's shelved in the youth section of my B&N and I can see how it's appropriate for that age group - spooky but not disturbing, despite some of the events that occur. Gaiman has a skilled hand at describing horrific things in a way that doesn't traumatize you but also somehow doesn't lose any of its impact. In this way, The Graveyard Book is suitable for younger readers but it doesn't come off as childish or simple for older readers. The chapters could be set up as separate short stories, and I understand that one was published that way, but put together you feel the flow of time that is growing up for Nobody Owens. Growing up in a graveyard with ghosts and other supernatural creatures for parents and teachers isn't an experience any of us can relate to but Gaiman spins a world where everything Bod encounters seems natural and reasonable. First-class world-building here, folks.

I finished The End or Something Like That last night and it was with serious effort that I kept myself from sobbing. Ann Dee Ellis writes realistic fiction that is absolutely saturated in deep emotion. Emmy's best friend Kim died a year ago and Emmy has been doing everything she promised in order to meet Kim's spirit on the various dates they picked out beforehand but nothing is working out the way they expected and Kim hasn't made any appearances. The book is set over the course of two days - the day before the one year anniversary of Kim's death and the day of - with frequent flashbacks. Ellis's 1st person PoV is all consuming in a way unique to her. I'm awful at explaining it but I feel more completely a part of Emmy's mind and heart than I ever had with other characters. This makes for a breathtaking experience as Emmy struggles to come to terms with Kim's death, the events that led up to it, and what her life will be without her best friend - who Emmy will be now. This story and these characters really resonated with me. Ellis has a somewhat off-beat writing style that allows her to convey each emotional punch with incredible force as the characters feel them. Beautifully written and deeply felt, this book will touch a lot of hearts.