Saturday, October 26

Yes, but can I do it again?

Last year I hid in my closet for a month, occasional treats and hot coffee nearby, earphones on with my playlist waking up the right emotions, and keyboard offering the rewarding soft tapping noises. Fifty-three thousand words in thirty days.

That was a challenging, rewarding experience.

I learned that I could budget my time (some) and get out a rough draft of a complete novel in a hurry. I counted myself among the thousands of winners. I took a silly picture to show you my happiness. And then I got busy with other parts of life.

I won NaNoWriMo last year.

Yes, but can I do it again?

I'm nervous. I want to write a story next month. I need to write a story. But can I do it?

I can't even write this post. I'm getting distracted by other things and thinking I should spend my time elsewhere.

I know I need to do this. I need to know I can make myself, perhaps let myself, value the act of creating a work of words in a full time schedule, in a new town, new everything environment.

And I need to choose a project. The stories are bouncing around in my head with new fervor. It's an exciting orbit that if I let it will do nothing but continue to circle and I'll never tell another story. I have to pick one, temporarily valuing it more than the others to focus on it and make it right before I can tell the next one. Choosing is hard. I want to see where all of them will go. But I am a linear being, so if it is to happen, it must be one story at a time. Which one will be next month? Which one will I start in six days?

I don't know if this post is coherent or not. This evening I am an excited, jumbled, nervous mess. But I came across this quote on Twitter, and for now I'll leave it at pondering this quote from Maya Angelou:

A bird doesn't sing because it has an answer, it sings because it has a song.

Monday, October 21

Book Review: The False Prince



The False Prince
by Jennifer A. Nielsen


Last week, I read this book in six days, and half of it in one (a day well spent). That’s the fastest I’ve read any complete work in…probably since I was required to for a college class three years ago. It was that good.

We follow teenage orphan Sage and his capture into a deadly political game, pitting him against two other boys to be the best, him against his clever capturer, and, well, he’s basically on his own against everyone including the servants.

Thus the weaving of clever and accidental schemes of how a boy who just wants to be himself must put on the most complicated mask in order to survive to the next day. Every page, watching Sage maneuver, succeed, and fail made me wonder how much longer he would last. How much longer he could hold on to being himself.

Certain scenes from this book follow me to my late night thoughts when my mind is free to race, as I mull over the comparison of events as I knew them when reading and as I know them now having finished the book, adding a level of storyplay with reader that makes this one last beyond the final page.

Nielsen’s first book in the Ascendance trilogy is full of layered characters, unexpected twists, and anticipation that will keep you turning the page for more. The False Prince was published in April 2012 and The Runaway King came out less than a year later in March 2013. The third piece to the story, The Shadow Throne, is set to be released in less than six months, March 2014.

I want some time to fully process The False Prince before I pick up the second book, but I can tell you Jennifer Nielsen has a new fan and I intend to continue with her Ascendance Trilogy.

  

Friday, October 11

Change of Seasons

Autumn is priming the pump in Charleston. The days still warm up, but there are several that start and stay cool. Evenings are lovely. The windows are open.

In Oklahoma, it seemed as if we had one or two false starts to fall. Two to four days would be cool, maybe even a touch chilly, but then the fifth day would warm right back up for another week or two before it cooled down again and eventually stayed cool. Someone told me the weather does that here, too, they guessed. But to me it seems more like a preparation than a false start, reset the timer, and line up at the starting blocks to try again.

And with the change of seasons in my new home, I'm changing too. Getting settled. Transitioning. Learning new patterns.

For instance, today I went to the local, annual Friends of the Library booksale, and I didn't buy everything that I thought I might want to read sometime. The "sometime" books I can store at the library until I want them. I didn't even buy the one I was tempted to just because I knew it's a great book (the 1998 edition of The Care and Keeping of You, in case you wanted to know, a good approach to preteen girls on what changes their bodies are going or will go through and how it's perfectly normal...if memory serves). I will admit, I had to have a little help recognizing that, no, I did not need to own a copy of that one.

But this boarder hoarder is learning. Yes, I have a bookshelf now, so yes, I have a place to put more books, but that doesn't mean I need or even want to fill the whole thing up to brimming. Honestly, I don't think I ever want my life to be that full of just stuff again. And so, I kept my purchases down to favorites I was looking for and favorites I didn't already have that I would like to have on hand.



Then I went to the craft store, and my delight in the autumn season came forth. So many decorations! So many options! Forty percent off!

But, I kept it simple. Not more than I could carry. And not more than I had immediate design and purpose for--I can go back for more of their tempting, fun supplies when I have specific plans. All I wanted was just enough to spruce things up. Just enough to have something nice without ever coming close to the overwhelming it's-too-much-to-do-so-I-won't-do-anything mark.

Abundant pleasure from a few things.

Yes, I think my season is changing too.