Blind Date Book

So it’s going to be Valentine’s Day in a little over a month, which doesn’t mean much to me because I am single. Surprise, surprise.

Anyway, my library had this shelf with “Blind Date” books on it and all the books were wrapped up in colored paper with no clues as to what they were except for little stickers on the binding telling you what genre they came from. I am not much of a romance reader (if the book is on a Valentines shelf it obviously has romance in it no matter what genre its from), but I like to unwrap things, and I like books, so I got one so I could unwrap it. I picked a blind date book that had “Thriller” and “Mystery” on it hoping my choice wouldn’t turn out to be sappy and hopelessly mushy. I dislike mushy.


When I unwrapped my Blind Date book, I found Shadow in Serenity by Terri Blackstock under the lovely red wrapping paper. Terri Blackstock means absolutely nothing to me because I have never heard of this author before. It doesn’t look too awful, so I might give it a shot instead of instantly returning it to the library. We shall see.

 But on to another book, I recently got Wrede on Writing by Patricia C. Wrede which I am rather psyched about. I read her blog (http://pcwrede.com/blog/) on a regular basis and the book is based off some of the blog posts she’s done with other new stuff too. Should be good. Though maybe I should use it as incentive to start my Blind Date book...Nah.

The Head's The Thing

I have this idea for a painting series which involves painting landscapes, but also painting the back of someone’s head.  I got the idea when on a walk with my brother and he wanted to know what the back of his head looked like. Don’t ask me why, I don’t know. Anyway, I took a picture of  the back of his head and realized the composition of the photo was actually rather intriguing. It sounds weird, but I think if I did it right, it would work. I just need some friends to lend me the backs of their heads and some motivation to actually get started.

Research Papers and Lady Londonberry

Trying to remember to keep this updated is harder than usual considering it's the end of the semester and all of my class instructors decided to give me extensive research papers to work on. *faints*

At any rate, I'm still trying to keep a little bit of non school related writing going, but it's going very very slowly. I also came to the realization that the story I started working on is not ready to be written yet, so I am jumping back to the story I was working on originally. Hopefully, I can keep myself from editing the first few chapters over and over again. My inner editor seriously needs a time out.

While I'm on the subject of writing, here are two links from authors who give very good information about writing, the writing process, and other helpful tid-bits that can be extremely useful to new writers like myself.

Brandon Sanderson
http://www.writeaboutdragons.com/

Gail Carson Levine
http://gailcarsonlevine.blogspot.com/

Bouncing on to another subject, I recently discovered Lady Londonberry tea which has quickly worked its way onto my list of favorite teas. Currently, my list of favorite teas includes Irish Breakfast, Japanese Sencha, and the Zen tea from Tazo which is a blend of green tea, lemon grass and spearmint. Yum Yum. I felt very proud of myself when I was able tell Lady Londonberry had strawberries and lemon-balm in it before looking at the list of ingredients. I only bought an ounce of it when I was at the tea store, I'm going to have to go back and get more. =)

Waiting for Frankenstorm

Soooooo, New blog. Ta Da! The reason I’m starting this up again is simply because I know it’s good for me to write on a regular basis, and I don’t, which is bad, so hopefully, this is going to push me to write more often.

 With Hurricane Sandy (aka, “Frankenstorm”) tearing up the coast, my family and I along with most of the east coast are buckling down for some nasty weather. The sun never managed to make it out of cloud cover today, the air is charged with nervous energy, and the wind is making everything quiver. It’s getting me quite excited.

Theo, our cat is simply miserable because he thinks he should go outside, but we aren’t letting him for obvious reasons. It’s hard saying ‘no’ to such a cute creature.

On another note, the light bulb in my reading lamp broke yesterday and I have been forced to sit at my desk. Not exactly comfortable for pleasure reading. Hopefully, later this week AFTER the storm, I can convince my brother or father to find me a new light bulb.

 Lastly, also yesterday, I spent an hour or two writing in the new novel I just started. I put my poor protagonist in a meeting with a rather mean businessman who is giving her direct insults. It’s fun to write someone insulting someone else, but the insults are nasty enough (though not vulgar) to make me wince myself. This character is only around for one scene. I’m going to have to write him in somewhere else.