What day is it?

Posted on August 7, 2012 by Joan Stradling, Author

So last week flew by so fast I almost missed it! Here we are already on Tuesday of this week and I feel like I’ve accomplished a grand total of nothing. In reality, I’ve been busy, just not writing.

Mostly I’ve been catching up after last week’s insanity. K had some trouble last week with possible seizures and was home for a few days. On Friday, I traveled to visit a friend who came from TX (she was visiting her mother in another town in AZ—thus the travel on my part to see her). It was great to see her and catch up and do a bit of shopping around the quaint little town of Cottonwood, AZ.

On Saturday we had the huge birthday bash for my four kids. Yes, one big birthday party for ALL of them. Their birthdays are in June, July, August, and July and are only a few weeks apart. Instead of having a birthday party for each one individually, I find it easier to have one big party for all of them. This year we decided to rent the local movie theater and watch Ice Age 4. Unfortunately, the theater called on Monday to tell me the movie was leaving on Wednesday and wouldn’t be available for the party on Saturday. So we did some scrambling to see if we could get everyone to come on Wednesday instead.

That wasn’t happening. We then decided to hold the party at one of the local pizza joints. They were gracious and wonderful and we were all set . . . until I contacted the movie theater to tell them we’d made other plans and they told me there had been a change and the movie WOULD be there for us to watch on Saturday. *sigh* Commence many family conferences and phone calls to family and friends—Anyway, we decided to stick with the pizza joint and had a marvelous party with about 60 or so people (family and the kids friends). It was fun, but exhausting. The friend who was visiting from TX wasn’t able to make the party, but she did stop by later that night to visit. *love her*

That was my hectic week . . .

This week hasn’t started out great either. Yesterday the kids stayed home due to various complaints of not feeling well. I’d hoped to dive into a new week of writing, but that didn’t happen. I did try, but the constant knocking on the door (I tried locking it after the first thousand interruptions) wasn’t conducive to getting much done. After about two hours, I gave up and opened the door. The kids came in and we sat on the bed. They played their iPods and I played my iPad. We all played the same game.

It’s a new time waster app we discovered on Saturday (thanks to one of E’s friends at the birthday party). It’s “Let’s Create: Pottery.” I know they have this game for other platforms (like 3DS and I think Wii), but this was the first time I’d ever heard of it. What a blast we’ve been having! It’s especially fun for me since I’ve been missing my real life pottery class. Let me tell you, it’s so much easier to make the pottery in the app than it is in the real world! And, since it’s all in the app, there’s no boxes of pottery to fill up my house. Though I’ve wished I could have a few of them in real life since I’ve liked some of the things I’ve made in the app.

Anyway, the kids are all off to school today and I’m planning to get some writing done right after I post this—and finish my breakfast. Speaking of food—I decided a couple of weeks ago to try to eat healthier in hopes of losing some weight (I need to lose about 25 pounds). I looked into a few “diet” programs, but they’re super expensive—well, for our budget. So instead, I’ve been doing my own thing. For starters, I’ve started eating.

Yeah, that may sound strange or even bad to some of you, but the truth is, I hardly ever eat breakfast and rarely eat lunch. I’m too busy writing or going to school or doing homework or the like. Not healthy habits! If I did eat anything, it was junk food as I sat at my computer (York peppermint patties—though I rationalize that it’s dark chocolate so it’s not “bad” for me—lol). So now I have a breakfast shake each morning and some sort of breakfast bar. I was eating either a granola bar or a Nutrigrain (strawberry) bar. Yesterday I discovered some new “healthier” options. They’re Kind bars.

This morning I’m eating a Kind Fruit & Nut bar of the Almond and Coconut variety. They’re all natural, gluten free (not that I have a problem with gluten) and don’t have any artificial garbage in them. The ingredients for the almond and coconut bars: Almonds, dried coconut, honey, non GMO glucose (whatever that is) puffed rice, chicory fiber, soy lecithin. I was worried they’d taste gross, but I was wrong. I haven’t tried any of the other Kind bars yet (though I purchased a Peanut Butter Dark Chocolate + Protein—which I’ll try as my snack later today), but the almond and coconut is delicious!!

Last week, I lost three pounds—but I think I gained it back after the pizza party and cake and all that on Saturday. I haven’t been brave enough to step on the scale yet. In addition to eating and eating a bit healthier (with the exception of Saturday), I’m walking during the day (instead of driving to get the mail I walk the block to the mail box and back—I also walk to meet the kids at the bus stop in the afternoons and walk home with them which is about a block away).

Even though it’s only been a couple of weeks, I’m feeling better (and have lost weight). And apparently this “diet” is doing something for my hair because last week I got so many compliments on my hair that it isn’t even funny. In fact, it’s kind of weird.

Anyway, tomorrow is K’s birthday so I’ll have to take some time out from writing to take cupcakes to her class (at 12:20) and on Thursday I have to go in at about 12:45 to grade spelling tests. This will be a weekly thing. I know, I know, I was trying to avoid volunteering this year, but how could I say no to something so simple? It will only take about an hour out of my day (have to grade two classrooms worth since K’s teacher teaches spelling/reading to another class—that teacher teaches K’s class math in trade).

So, how is your week shaping up? Are you planning to get a bunch of writing/stuff done or is your week like my last week and you’ll be so busy you won’t have time to think?

Write On!

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Weekend Woes

Posted on July 30, 2012 by Joan Stradling, Author

Yesterday was J’s (oldest daughter) birthday. She became an official teenager (she turned 13). I thought the weekend would be a great one spent celebrating. Don’t get me wrong, we did have fun and celebrated J’s special day, but it wasn’t all fun and celebration.

Yesterday while hubby was using the steamer to cook his tamales, the stove caught on fire. Apparently some grease (from when he fried some tortillas for chips) had gotten on the burner or something. The fire was put out and no one was hurt, but my stove is burnt.

A few scorch marks on the stove don’t bother me, but when I was removing the stove-top heating elements to make sure the fire was out (I used potholders so I wouldn’t burn myself) I sort of pulled one out and think I ruined the wiring on it. Since it’s an electric stove and we don’t want another fire, we’re going to toss out the stove and get a new one today. In about an hour or so, hubby will call me and I’ll meet him at the appliance store to pick out a new oven.

It was an old stove that came with the house (we’ve lived in this house for eleven years and who knows how long the stove was here before we moved in) so I’m not broken up about having to replace it. Still, that means a day of not getting writing done because I’m moving out the old stove and cleaning (it’s amazing how much stuff gets under the stove) so the new one can be brought in (hopefully before dinnertime).

In addition to the oven fiasco, we discovered a leak under the kitchen sink. Hubby patched it up, but things were pretty wet so we’re still trying to dry them out (and trying to prevent mold). These things always seem to happen at once!

On the good news side of things, this is the first full week of school for the kids (they started last Wednesday)! I’m excited to see how it goes for them—and me. Those first few days of school, the teachers didn’t require much from the kids, but that will change this week. They’ll be sending homework home. Which means we’ll have to figure out how to get back into the routine of doing chores and homework. And I get to figure out if the old time schedule still works or if I need to make adjustments. I’m pretty sure I’ll have some adjusting to do since both of the younger kids will have to read 30 minutes each night instead of last year’s 20 minutes. It may not seem like much, but those extra 10 minutes end up being an extra 20 minutes for me since they read to me separately. *sigh*

Don’t get me wrong, I’m all for reading. I LOVE READING!! But it’s hard on all of us to schedule that much time and still fit in all the other homework and chores and hope there’s enough time left before dinner for the kids to get outside and have some play time. I’m not sure teachers realize what they’re doing to us when they make such assignments.

Another fun thing that happened this weekend: one of my sisters introduced me to a fun new time waster game on the iPad. It’s called Jurassic Park Builder. Yeah. Like I needed another time waster. As I write this, my iPad is sitting next to me on the desk so I can periodically check on it and collect the money from my dinosaurs. I’ve rationalized it by convincing myself it’s not a huge time waster because it only takes a minute or so to tap on all the dinosaurs and collect the money. Still, that’s a minute I could have spent writing, I suppose. Hopefully I’ll get bored with playing it soon and get that minute back.

How was your weekend? How do you plan to spend your Monday?

Play Write on!

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Thursday Thoughts

Posted on July 26, 2012 by Joan Stradling, Author

The first day of school went great for the kids! With them gone, I enjoyed diving back into my old writing schedule. There were a few hours when I had to stop writing to take oldest son into town and get some lunch (yeah, I have one NOT in school at the moment—he graduated last year—but he’ll be taking some college classes . . . they start next month), but for the most part it was a productive swim in the writing waters.

Okay, to be honest, I was too scared and nervous about diving back into deep writing. I needed some time to splash around in the shallow end of the writing pool and reacquaint myself with the waters. So I dipped my toes into the MS with some revising and managed to clear the three chapter mark.

Today, I’m swimming into deeper waters with some writing of new chapters/scenes. Hopefully I won’t flail around in the waters, sink to the bottom, and drown. I don’t understand why I’m so nervous about swimming into the deep end. After all, I know how to swim. It shouldn’t be any trouble to dive into the deep and and just do it . . . but I’m struggling to work up the nerve.

And it’s not like I’m writing a completely new novel, I’m just rewriting an old one. The bare bones are there, I just have to flesh them out and clean up the messy ones.

Have any of you taken a break from writing? If so, how did/do you get back into the “swim” of things?

Write on?

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Wednesday Words

Posted on July 25, 2012 by Joan Stradling, Author

It’s here! The kids are off to their first day of school. While I’m excited because it means I’ll be able to get back to a writing schedule/routine, I’m also a bit nervous. Not sure if it’s nerves for the kids and the new school year for them, or nerves for myself and my writing. I’m not sure why I should be nervous about diving back into a regular writing schedule, but I think I might be. This is the first time in a long time that I’ll have Monday, Tuesday, Thursday, and Friday for nothing but writing. I won’t be going back to school myself this semester, and (so far) I’m not signed up to do any volunteering at the school library. My days from about 9:00 until 3:00 are all mine for writing!

Of course, Wednesday isn’t in the list above because hubby is off on Wednesdays, and it’s hard to write when he’s home watching TV. But today, he had a meeting in Flagstaff so he’s gone too (won’t be home until after the kids are). I’m going to get some writing done today! It’s not that I haven’t been writing at all during the summer—I did a bit here and there when I could, but it was hard with kids home—but there’s a part of me that wonders if my lax summer habits will be easy to break (played lots of games during the summer). I’m hoping I’ll be able to get back into the swing of things (this blog post might be considered an effort to procrastinate, but I think it’s more of a “breaking the ice” type thing) right away and accomplish quite a bit of writing.

The first project I’ll be tackling is finishing up the rewrite of the MG I’ve been doing. Once finished with the rewrite, I’ll be revising it based on feedback from critique buddies. I’m setting a deadline and planning on having it all finished and revised and ready to send to my wonderful agent by the end of September.

What are your plans for this wonderful Wednesday?

Write on!

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July Recent Reads Reviews

Posted on July 16, 2012 by Joan Stradling, Author

It’s time for some reviews on books I’ve read recently (well, since my last reviews in April). As a reminder of my new scoring system, I’m using emoticons. Here’s what they mean:

Open-mouthed smileWOW—I loved this book and will talk/have talked about/shared it with others.

Smile–Not totally in love, but this was a great book and I may talk about/share it with others.

Thinking smile–This was okay. I enjoyed reading it, but it’s not my favorite.

Sad smile–This wasn’t for me. I stopped reading and couldn’t bring myself to finish.

Steaming mad–How did this get published?

If you happen to be the author of one of the books I review, please remember this is my honest opinion. Don’t hate me if I don’t give your book a great big happy grin. I am only one reader in the whole wide readership and I’m sure there are those who’ll love your work—it just wasn’t me.

This Dark Endeavor by Kenneth Oppel–Open-mouthed smile–I picked this up at a book fair at the middle school last year. It sat in my TBR pile for quite a while—not because I didn’t want to read it, but because there were so many other books I had added to the pile first (yes, I’m reviewing out of order). I passed over some of the books that had been in the pile much longer and picked up this one. I guess I was in the mood for something dark. I thoroughly enjoyed this book! I loved how Oppel treated Mary Shelley’s Victor Frankenstein and other characters. The idea of showing Victor’s earlier years is brilliant! It looked interesting when I picked it up in the book fair, but I may not have if the librarian (a trusted friend) had mentioned she picked herself up a copy. I’m glad I bought it! Oppel’s tale is rich with beautiful prose, and he handles the dark mind of Victor in a sympathetic and engrossing way. This is one I’ve added to my re-read pile.

The story—Sixteen-year-old Victor Frankenstein’s twin brother, Konrad, is ill and the doctors can’t seem to cure him. Desperate to save his brother, Victor enlists the help of his friend, Henry, and his beautiful cousin, Elizabeth, to help him find a cure. They think they’ve found the answer when they stumble on a secret library filled with Alchemy books. The practice of Alchemy is against the law, but Victor is willing to risk it when he discovers a recipe for the Elixir of Life. Certain it will cure his brother, he’s willing to make great sacrifices (I won’t tell you what and spoil it) to get the ingredients and see the potion made.

 

Dangerous Favor by Joyce DiPastena–Open-mouthed smile–While this wasn’t a “recent” read, I don’t remember reviewing it and wanted to. I love how DiPastena gives a brand new story and characters while still blending in past characters from her novels, Loyalty’s Web and Illuminations of the Heart. This is another sweet (and clean) romance that transports the reader to the middle ages. I loved traipsing across medieval France with Mathilde and Etienne!

The story—Mathilde’s family was thrust into poverty when her father was accused of stealing from the king. Mathilde knows he’s innocent, but without a rich and connected husband, she has no way to prove it. She’s set her sights on Lord Therri and is determined to win his hand—and money and connections. She sets out to grant Therri her favor (an embroidered white ribbon her brother let her borrow) for the knight’s tournament. Instead, she’s tricked into granting her favor to Therri’s friend, Etienne. This sets in motion a chain of events that puts Mathilde and those around her in danger. Etinne is smitten by Mathilde and determined to save her from the dangerous nightmares of her past.

 

Drawn by Marie Lamba–Open-mouthed smile–Lamba’s great characters pulled me into the story, but it was the fascination of time travel/ghosts of the past that kept me reading. I’m a sucker for castles and loved the one in Drawn. The twining of past and present was brilliantly done, as was the romance and growth of the characters in both time periods. There were a few things I figured out before they were revealed (including who the “bad guy” was). I’ve been known to stop reading books when they are too predictable—but there has to be an eye-roll factor present for me to put it down, and there wasn’t any eye-rolling while I read Drawn. Even though I figured it out, Lamba’s characters and world were interesting and real enough to keep me reading.

The story—Michelle De Freccio isn’t sure she’s going to like living in England with her father or attending Wallingford Academy, but she’s willing to give it a try. Especially since no one knows her, and she won’t have the embarrassment of being known as the daughter of a psychic mother and schizophrenic brother to deal with. She’s making a new life for herself and enjoying drawing the mysterious man who’s showed up in her drawings—until she comes face to face with him. She’s immediately drawn to him, but things get complicated when she discovers who he really is. When she tries to unravel the mystery of him, it changes her future and his.

 

Those are some of my recent (or not so recent) reads. There are more I’ve read and need to review, but this is already a long post so they’ll have to wait until next time.

What about you? Have you read any of these books? What did you think? What books have been your favorite reads recently?

 

Read on!

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I’m Free to Write

Posted on July 4, 2012 by Joan Stradling, Author

Today I’m grateful for those who fought to win American independence and those who continue to fight to keep us free. In honor of these amazing and brave people, I’m going to exercise my freedom of speech and using the morning to write. Yay!

After the kids are up, we’ll have our flag ceremony (our Cub Scout is excited). Then the rest of the day will be pretty boring. The kids promised to clean their rooms (we’ll see if it happens), and I need to do a load of dishes and a load of towels (amazing how fast they get used in summer when kids are playing in the pool). Maybe we’ll have a barbeque for lunch, but basically everything we do is distraction to keep the kids from constantly asking me if it’s time for fireworks.

Yes, despite the extreme fire danger, our town does fireworks every year. Only because they do the fireworks out on the lake in Green Valley Park. Once again, the sky is cloudy and it looks like rain (it seems to rain here EVERY July 4th). I’m not sure how much of the fireworks we’ll be able to enjoy if it’s pouring down rain (though we did watch the fireworks in a light rain a couple of years ago). Still, we need the rain, and I’m grateful whenever it falls.

We aren’t sure where we’ll go to watch the fireworks this year. We used to have a spot up by the airport but over the years, others in the town have discovered what an amazing vantage point it is and it’s been super crowded the last couple of years.

We don’t go down to the park because it’s WAY too congested down there with all the people and traffic. Still, we’ll enjoy celebrating our independence today however we manage to do it.

But, as I said, I’ll be using the morning to do some writing.

What about you? If you’re here in America, what do you do to celebrate Independence Day?

Write on.

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Friday Five

Posted on June 29, 2012 by Joan Stradling, Author

1. Another day of peace and quiet (at least till hubby comes home from work). I’ve done a little writing and then had to stop and do a lot of plotting (hey, sometimes these things need to be planned). I’m taking a break to blog and then get lunch before diving back into more writing.

2. On my break, I discovered the amazing Dawn Metcalf is celebrating the first anniversary of her book, LUMINOUS!

I can’t believe it’s been a year. Wow. In celebration of the anniversary she’s holding a giveaway. Go here to check it out and enter.

3. Though I’m enjoying my quiet time, I do find I’m missing my kids. Crazy, I know. The house is just so quiet. No one is banging on my door or yelling “Mom” from somewhere else in the house. And there aren’t any little arms to give me hugs. We’ve been keeping in touch with Facetime (the kids all have their own iPods and hubby and I have our iPads), but it’s not the same. I’ll be glad to have them back—but I’m sure I’ll miss the quiet time when it’s gone too. The grass is always greener and all that.

4. I can’t believe this month is almost over! It was full of fun with us taking the kids to the zoo and science center and Lowell Observatory. And oldest son, E, turned 19 on the 22nd!! July will be here in a few more days and with it J and JR’s birthdays, mine and hubby’s anniversary, and the kids will be going back to school! Crazy!

5. What plans do you have for the end of June and the first of July this weekend?

Write on.

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Thursday Things

Posted on June 28, 2012 by Joan Stradling, Author

My house is quiet.

No, I didn’t murder my family and bury them in the back yard or anything.  It’s quiet because hubby and oldest son are off working today. “But wait,” you say. “You have three other children. What about them?” Ah, fear not, my friends. Last night we dropped the three youngest kids off at the in-laws in Flagstaff where they’ll stay until Sunday. This means quiet time for me. Yay!

So, what am I doing with my first day of quiet? Well, I spent the morning catching up on emails and such. I thought I’d spend the rest of the day catching up on housework (cleaning the kids’ rooms while they’re gone), but another plan has formed instead.

Since it’s hard to get any writing done when the kids are home—they think they need their mother for other things, silly beasts—I decided to use this rare kid-free time to get some writing done.

Granted, it would be easier to clean their rooms while they’re gone so they aren’t looking over my shoulder and begging to keep things I want to throw away, but it can be done while they’re home (even if it means keeping a few things that would normally be thrown out), and writing can’t.

So, after I get something lunch-ish to eat, I plan to tackle a couple of critiques. Once I get those done, I’ll be able to dive into my WIP guilt free—at least until I have to walk down the hall for something and see that the rooms really do need my attention. I guess I’ll just have to avoid the hallway. Winking smile

Hope you all have a happy Thursday!

Write on.

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Summer Time

Posted on June 20, 2012 by Joan Stradling, Author

The livin’ may not be easy, but it’s livin’.

On this first day of summer, we’re hoping to take a trip to the cooler air of Flagstaff. If that doesn’t happen, I’ll be spending the day installing a door (well, half door—I’m cutting it) in my laundry room to keep J’s dog out (she jumps over the “baby” gate) and building a new display shelf for my bookmarks. Since hubby left the choice up to me, I’m thinking the trip is a go.

Yeah, I’m feeling lazy and don’t want to do the installation/building. It’s not that I don’t want to do the work eventually—just not today. Hubby even let me pick out new tools and everything. They’re lighter than the hulking beast tools hubby has so I should be able to handle them better. And the combo kit I picked out has a circular saw which hubby doesn’t have (and is the main reason hubby let me get new tools). I’m looking forward to not having to use a hacksaw to cut the door. And then I’ll have the circular saw for all my big projects—the tiny Dremel saw and hacksaw just weren’t cutting it (hee hee)—well, not easily at least.

new tools

But, as you can see, the package is still unopened so I can’t really do the work until I open the box and charge the battery (cordless tools are awesome—just sayin’). Hey, it’s as good an excuse as any to get out of work. I can charge the battery while we’re gone so it will be ready to go when we get back—though I’ll probably not do the work until tomorrow. And travelling doesn’t really get me out of doing any work, cause I have to clean out the van before we go.

In reality, I’m looking forward to doing the installing/building (just not today). I’m a girl who loves me some power tools—I’m weird like that. Building things (and taking them apart) has always been fascinating to me. I wouldn’t say I’m an accomplished designer/builder/carpenter or anything, but I manage to figure things out enough to get by.

Speaking of building things and taking them apart, I did manage to finish the chapter I promised to revise/rewrite last post. Yay! I doubt I’ll get any writing done today, but I’m hoping tomorrow brings another finished chapter or two.

How are you doing this first day of summer? Any plans?

Summer on!

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Friday Five

Posted on June 15, 2012 by Joan Stradling, Author

1. I love this post by Dawn Metcalf about beginnings and endings. Beginnings are hard for me. Endings can sometimes be hard too, but at least there’s the satisfaction of reaching the end. With the beginning, there’s a blank page staring at me, daring me to fill it. It’s usually a struggle. I rewrite/revise my beginnings countless times, but the endings usually don’t require much revision/rewriting. What about you? Do you prefer beginnings or endings?

2. I’ve been slacking again. Not only have I ignored my blog (sorry) and Facebook (not a bad thing, necessarily), but I’ve been ignoring my writing (a very bad thing). Okay, so things have been busy with the start of summer and family obligations, and crafting obligations (yes, it’s an obligation—I’m paying for a space in a local store and I needed to fill it), and everything, but really, I COULD have done some writing if I really wanted to. I’ve just been too lazy. Even now, I’m blogging to avoid working on my WIP (I WILL do at least one chapter today, I’ve promised myself—and now you). Is it harder for you to write in the summer?

3. Father’s Day is Sunday, and I haven’t done a single bit of shopping. I don’t even know what to get hubby. I’m making a shoe rack for my dad and still need to buy the wood and stuff to make it. I had no problem coming up with a gift idea for my dad, but it’s more difficult to figure out something for hubby. *sigh* I know my dad needs a shoe rack (and decided to build one instead of buy one), but I can’t think of a single thing hubby wants/needs. We always get him lame things like a tie or DVD or something. Although, now that I think about it, he has mentioned wanting a new speaker system for the bedroom TV/DVD/BlueRay. Hmm . . . problem solved—well sort of, I still have to take the kids shopping to buy it and that can be a HUGE problem (kids don’t shop well—always ask for stuff and stress me out). Winking smile What are you planning for Father’s Day?

4. Vacationing is exhausting. It was more of a day trip, really, but it was still exhausting. We went to the Phoenix Zoo AND the Arizona Science Center on Wednesday. We will never do it again! One or the other, but never both in the same day. I have never walked so much in my life, and my legs are S-O-R-E. Okay, so the exercise is good for me and all that, but DANG!

5. Even though there are more blogs to catch up on and all that, I’m going to resist temptation and get to work on my revising/rewriting. Hope you all have a great weekend! Happy Father’s Day to all the dad’s out there.

Write on.

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