Good Friday

The blog will stay quiet today.

real/brilliant is taking off until Tuesday to celebrate the holiday with family and friends.

A Rather Calm Week

It's nice. My UK colleagues are preparing for a three-day weekend (as am I) and things are slowing for that. There's still work to be done, but the "go-go-go" pace we've had for the past six months is definitely on hiatus.

Next week should be quiet as well with another UK client on hiatus for a conference. What does this mean?

I can make some writing progress between now and when my sister-in-law flies in for her visit. Yep, she's coming from Augusta, Georgia to stay with us for nine days. It's her graduation present. A single mom with three very busy teenagers, she just finished her double masters degree last week with a 3.9 GPA. And her masters degree is in organization management and project management. Those are not small feats! So hubby bought her a ticket to escape and come to Seattle and relax with us. I'm taking that week off, and we'll just watch movies, gab, and sleep, I think. I will still have work to do, but it's definitely our spring break.

In other news today, the New York Times reports on the media's apology to the McCanns. Read it here.

Off I go!

Currently reading: The Making of Story (Alice LaPlante)
Currently listening to: Avalon

Slowing Down For Holy Week

Trying to anyway. Trying to stop thinking about bigger work and family/friend issues and focus on what this week signifies in my life.

Still waiting on the editor, still reworking the essay, still writing the nf book pitch for the agent who requested it.

See, it's hard to be still and just meditate.

Here's a very good article on microloans from the New Yorker's online edition: What Developing Countries Really Need

And with that I'm out.

Currently reading: What's So Amazing About Grace (Philip Yancey)
Currently listening to: Narnia soundtrack

Good Morning, Sunshine!

Not sunny here, but I had to tell myself this to drag my weary body out of bed. Yesterday was my day off, but I did a lot of little things that have been wearing on me. Plus then we went to a friend's house to celebrate St. Pat's Day and stayed until late. And I had my family and friends up to visit, so I'm still recovering from that.

All in all, a great long weekend.

We took the baby niece on her first carousel ride. She loved having her daddy on a horse beside her. I was on the other side on a horse and of course, they stopped the ride with me high up in the air. I am quite ungraceful, so imagine the giggles of the baby and my entire family as I struggled to get myself down. I am the crazy aunt (but if my sis wants to be too, we can be so together!).

In writing news, the feedback came back for my essay, need to rewrite it yet again and the first of the feedback for the novel came in Friday with a longer, more expandable version of feedback due this week. It was what was expected, more intense than the critique I received from my writing group, but along the same vein. It has had me thinking all weekend and I am preparing to get started for the April Marathon (like Nanowrimo, but only at my Bksp.org group).

It has sealed the deal for me though. I'm ready to make this a career. I love writing stories and this is the truth: I want to keep at it.

Many people think they'd be deterred by editorial feedback, or shut down altogether, but it isn't like that. There is something about slowing down enough to think through what you are trying to accomplish that really ignites your engines and gets your brain moving.

For me, it's the reality that this story actually exists outside my head now and people will take it seriously. That is humbling, gratifying, and terrifying. It also is a prompt to take my stories more seriously in draft stage and to let them (organically) become what they are trying to be.

The editor has basically said my story could be YA or adult, and I get to choose what would work best. I know which way I want to go, but I also could go the other way. The thing is, I get to pick one way and wallow in it.

It's very cool.

Currently reading: The Making of Story (Alice LaPlante)
Currently listening to: Charlotte Martin (Everytime it Rains)