The last few weeks have been a bit nuts so I'm sorry for the absence of posts, but group commitments and kidney stones kind of took priority. The bright side to all that is that we were finally forced to do some things we'd been putting off [read: making a general doctor's appointment for my husband, and deciding to quit trying to make book group happen—it's not going to happen].
Aside from that craziness, life has been pretty quiet as is the norm around here. I've begun transcribing my notebooks for the novel that I shared parts of with you guys way back in 2014 [sharing is caring, chapter one part two!, a little excerpt for this holiday post—a lot of what was published here has been changed or moved around since I posted these but feel free to read them if you're bored]. There are four notebooks crammed with my somewhat cumbersome scrawl and three weeks of work has gotten me almost all the way through the first two and I'm currently at over 35,000 words. And it's only been about four days in the story...Yikes. This is definitely the drawback of writing a first draft long-hand but I don't see myself converting exclusively to word-processors anytime soon so I'll just power on.
It's been a really long time, honestly, since I read through the start of this story, and I can really see how extended time away from a project can clarify things for you. I'm resisting the urge to edit as I go, because then I'd never finish digitizing it, but there are certainly a lot of places I'm eager to get back to a tear into.
In other writing-ish news, I've been asked to be a member of the editing board for the new student journal, which is rather exciting. They're planning to have a few meetings over the summer to prep but the real work will begin in the fall when we begin advertising and calling for submissions. I think they've got the right idea of publishing the first issue in the spring as that will give us a lot of good time to build awareness and interest in the journal, which will hopefully result in a better batch of submissions to choose from.
My husband's entire family are puzzle geeks [in the best way, honey], so last Saturday we went a did one of those escape puzzle rooms as a group. I have to say, it was a total blast. This particular room was actually a gutted air-stream trailer that we were initially concerned about being able to fit ten people into, but it turned out to be the perfect size. There were enough puzzles for everyone to take part and enough room for us all to move around pretty comfortably. In the end, I think I was a bit more of an observer than a participant, but, introvert that I am, that worked just fine for me. There are some pretty big personalities in this family and, like all others, sometimes being in close-quarters doesn't have the best result, so it was really cool to see all the siblings and spouses working together on something that we all had fun with.
After two and a half years [and just as I felt like things were becoming more manageable, of course] I was released from my calling as Sunday School teacher for the 12-13 youth in my ward this month. Then I was called to be the secretary for our Primary Presidency. I've never served in a presidency before [and young women's doesn't count because I was always the only girl in my class] so it's a little intimidating to be in charge of rolls and organizing calendars and keeping track of birthdays/who's reading a scripture or giving a talk next week. I did feel right at home when I found out that I'm in charge of making a chart to track the kids' progress in memorizing the Articles of Faith, though. Independent craft time? That I can do. Forget nap time, adult jobs should have miscellaneous craft time built in.
Honestly, I'm surprised that it hasn't turned into an oven out here yet. We've been swinging back and forth in the 60s and 70s for the last two to three months along with what feels like [for Utah] an abnormal amount of rain scattered throughout. But Utah's weather is notoriously unpredictable from year to year—let alone from one hour to the next—so I'm just trying to soak up the pleasant weather for as long as we have it. Who knows? Maybe there'll be a blizzard in June. It's happened before.
Thursday, May 26, 2016
Thursday, May 5, 2016
brace yourselves, summer is coming
It has begun. We've had our AC on for a few weeks now but it hasn't really created a drastic difference until this week when temps have started ratcheting up again. Summer is coming. I must prepare my habitat. Scorching to death outside---blankets, hot cocoa, and fuzzy socks inside. Too bad I can't sit wrapped in blankets at work, this place is freezing!
I hope my book review post last week lived up to your expectations. [Edit: It's currently gotten 60 views which is my all-time high for a single post. Thanks, guys!] A friend told me that she enjoys my reviews because she knows I'm being honest. That should be part of my book review slogan: I may not be nice, but at least I'm honest! Age is turning me into a more demanding and less tolerant reader, haha.
Some of you may remember that I was working the "middle shift" while I waited for the powers-that-be to hire a new morning coworker for this position. That circus ended up taking two whole months and is a story all its own, but we finally landed a keeper. She started a week ago Monday, which means that I shifted back to my regular schedule last Friday. It's amazing how working a different shift for two months can make me forget how slow my usual shift is. Don't get me wrong, I'm super happy to have a coworker again and it's nice to take a step back from the more frantic pace of covering both shifts, but my brain and body have both been two steps behind all week. I'm so tired. Why am I more tired now that I'm going into work later? Mysteries. The reality is that the timing just aligned perfectly with the end of Spring semester so campus is d-e-a-d right now---a fact that's always more obvious from 2-3 in the afternoon. And Go Set A Watchman is sitting, finally delivered, in my mailbox at home. Mocking me.
With Spring semester over I have a lot more time on my hands and I'm still figuring out how to use it wisely. I'm set up to take a Summer course but it doesn't start until the end of June and the student journals don't run over the summer. There is a small potential exception on the horizon. I was invited [along with probably most students that worked on a journal last semester] to apply for positions on the editing board of a brand new student journal that's just getting off the ground. The premise of this journal is "leadership" which doesn't really grab me from the get-go but the opportunity to work as a member of the founding staff offers some pretty good experience. Applications are due by tomorrow so I'm on the waiting train for at least a week before I hear if I'm in, and while I hate waiting for responses to stuff like this it's kind of nice to anticipate the possibility of something.
One of my efforts to make better use of my free time has been to allot the first hour of my day as "writing time." Thanks to a massive migraine on Monday and general schedule adjustment fatigue, my record for this week isn't fabulous but I am getting excited for it. I just have to rename one of my MCs first... I know there are authors who can get rolling on a story without feeling totally solid on their character names but I can't work that way, especially for a main character. It's not like a pregnancy [I'm not pregnant] where you can have an adorable place-holder name until the baby is born. For me, knowing a character's name is a vital part of knowing that character so I was rather disappointed when I realized that the name I'd picked initially for this particular heroine just...doesn't fit. Back to the drawing board---I mean baby name sites! This is probably why I keep getting coupons for Similac in my mail...
I hope my book review post last week lived up to your expectations. [Edit: It's currently gotten 60 views which is my all-time high for a single post. Thanks, guys!] A friend told me that she enjoys my reviews because she knows I'm being honest. That should be part of my book review slogan: I may not be nice, but at least I'm honest! Age is turning me into a more demanding and less tolerant reader, haha.
Some of you may remember that I was working the "middle shift" while I waited for the powers-that-be to hire a new morning coworker for this position. That circus ended up taking two whole months and is a story all its own, but we finally landed a keeper. She started a week ago Monday, which means that I shifted back to my regular schedule last Friday. It's amazing how working a different shift for two months can make me forget how slow my usual shift is. Don't get me wrong, I'm super happy to have a coworker again and it's nice to take a step back from the more frantic pace of covering both shifts, but my brain and body have both been two steps behind all week. I'm so tired. Why am I more tired now that I'm going into work later? Mysteries. The reality is that the timing just aligned perfectly with the end of Spring semester so campus is d-e-a-d right now---a fact that's always more obvious from 2-3 in the afternoon. And Go Set A Watchman is sitting, finally delivered, in my mailbox at home. Mocking me.
With Spring semester over I have a lot more time on my hands and I'm still figuring out how to use it wisely. I'm set up to take a Summer course but it doesn't start until the end of June and the student journals don't run over the summer. There is a small potential exception on the horizon. I was invited [along with probably most students that worked on a journal last semester] to apply for positions on the editing board of a brand new student journal that's just getting off the ground. The premise of this journal is "leadership" which doesn't really grab me from the get-go but the opportunity to work as a member of the founding staff offers some pretty good experience. Applications are due by tomorrow so I'm on the waiting train for at least a week before I hear if I'm in, and while I hate waiting for responses to stuff like this it's kind of nice to anticipate the possibility of something.
One of my efforts to make better use of my free time has been to allot the first hour of my day as "writing time." Thanks to a massive migraine on Monday and general schedule adjustment fatigue, my record for this week isn't fabulous but I am getting excited for it. I just have to rename one of my MCs first... I know there are authors who can get rolling on a story without feeling totally solid on their character names but I can't work that way, especially for a main character. It's not like a pregnancy [I'm not pregnant] where you can have an adorable place-holder name until the baby is born. For me, knowing a character's name is a vital part of knowing that character so I was rather disappointed when I realized that the name I'd picked initially for this particular heroine just...doesn't fit. Back to the drawing board---I mean baby name sites! This is probably why I keep getting coupons for Similac in my mail...
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