AndreaBlythe.com

For a multitude of reasons, I was a quivering ball of stress last week. It was all I could do to just come home and read or watch TV or play video games, let alone be productive. So, I’m going gentle on myself and not giving myself a hard time about not getting much done. I needed the mental break, and that’s okay.

Nevertheless, I recovered enough on Sunday to get another 599 words written on Chapter One and a few new poems down for Napowrimo. It’s not quite done yet, so I’ll need to finish it before Wednesday and get it to my Writing Gang for critique.

Speaking of my Writing Gang, we’ve planned a mini-writing retreat for ourselves. We’ll be spending the weekend at a hotel and have planned out our own idea for a workshop, with writing periods and critique sessions. I’m looking forward to it, both as a chance to get some writing down and as a chance to have a relaxing escape from life right now. It should be fantastic.

Things to do in the coming week:
– Finish off Chapter One of Under the Midday Moon
– Submit something (poetry, fiction, whatever)
– Come up with a writing workshop idea for Writing Gang Retreat
– Workout at least three days (1/3)
– Have a fantastic time at the writing retreat and get lots of words down.

Cross-posted to my webpage. You are welcome to comment either here or there.

1. The Talisman, by Stephen King and Peter Straub
2. Rosemary’s Baby, by Ira Levin
3. The Very Hungry Caterpillar, by Eric Carl
4. Cedar Toothpick: The Tomboy Dioramas, poetry by Stefan Lorenzutti and art by Laurent Le Deunff
5. The House of Mirth (audio book), by Edith Wharton
6. my name on his tongue: poems, by Laila Halaby
7. The Sweet Revenge of Celia Door, by Karen Kinneyfrock

Click to read my reviews on livejournal.

I tend to forget that it’s April Fool’s Day (if not for the fact that everyone on the interwebs talks about it) and I’m also easily fooled, so chances are someone is going to have a laugh at my expense today. If you’re into that sort of thing, Jim Hines has a round up of some of the better Fool’s Day jokes that have already cropped up online.

But that’s okay, because today begins National Poetry Month! and that’s way more important. (^_^)
I will be participating in the National Poetry Writing Month challenge, which is essentially to write a poem a day in the month of April, or 30 poems total. Following the Poetic Asides prompts is an excellent way to stay inspired, if you’re participating.

I’ve been posting the poems to my tumblr the last couple of years, just to not have to cross-post and to have all the poetry in one place. I’m a bit torn as to whether I’m going to continue posting them online. On the one hand, posting them publicly is a way to hold myself accountable and actually make sure I get them done. On the other hand, posting the poems makes them ineligible for submitting to journals and I need to submit more often than I do. I’ve seen some poets put up their poems only temporarily, so maybe that’s one way to strike a compromise. I don’t know. Still thinking about that one.

Last Week In Review

My story, “The Shadow’s Flight,” was rejected by Strange Horizons. I read it over to see if I could clean it up anymore (I could), and immediately submitted to to Clarksworld, which also rejected it last week (wow! amazing response times!). So, I submitted it once again to Flesh and Blood (perhaps third times a charm?).

I managed to get through the first half of Chapter One of Under the Midday Moon. I like it so far, though it’s gone an changed where it’s going on me. So now I have to re-figure out just how I’m going to end Chapter One, which is all well and good, I suppose. At least words are getting on the page.

I ran 1.5 miles on Monday, and my foot was killing me by the end, but it started to clear up again rather quickly. But I didn’t push it on Wednesday and just did some sit ups and planks and squats instead. By Saturday my foot was feeling almost 100%, so I did a run and it went pretty smoothly. Almost no pain, which was bleeping fantastic, and I’m all set to get back to my running schedule this week. Yay!

Still struggling with my finances and trying to figure out how to handle them. I’m taking “contact accountant about retirement plans” off my to-do list for now, because I literally don’t have any extra income to invest. I need to figure out how to earn some extra money first.

Things to do in the coming week:
– Finish off Chapter One of Under the Midday Moon
– Submit something (poetry, fiction, whatever)
– Walk/Run at least three days at least 2 miles each day (0/3)
– Get California taxes done
– Sort paperwork out by year for filing
– Either purchase new a new filing cabinet(s), and/or buy folders/large envelopes, and/or go through the process of sorting and putting everything in its place
– Get data transferred from the old computer to the new one (may require giving up my computer for a few days)

Cross-posted to my livejournal. You are welcome to comment either here or there.

Since I can’t seem to find a way to some it up on my own, here’s a description from the back of one of the editions: “Lily Bart, beautiful, witty, and sophisticated, is accepted by “old money” and courted by the growing tribe of nouveaux riches. But as she nears 30, her foothold becomes precarious; a poor girl with expensive tastes, she needs a husband to preserve her social standing and to maintain her life in the luxury she has come to expect. While many have sought her, something—fastidiousness or integrity—prevents her from making a “suitable” match.”

Lily was raised to love splendor and wealth and to be an ornament in that world. She cannot help but strive for the comfort and ease (even if it is marked by falsehoods) that that world offers. And yet there is a part of her that strives for some greater, higher ideal, some deeper truth beyond the finery.

Her downfall is in part due to circumstance (being a woman in her time period and raised to desire wealth and shun shabbiness) and in part due to her own poor choices. There are many times she could have prevented a mishap, only to blindly (out of naiveté) or purposefully (out of selfishness and her desire for wealth) step right into it. And many other times she could have saved herself, only to reject it due to her own sense of morality. Witnessing her mistakes is to see all the little ways she is guilty, while simultaneously discovering the multitude of ways she is innocent. It’s all just so profoundly human.

The story was easy to follow and compelling to read. the scenes unfolding with eloquent language and open frankness. By the end of the book, i found that my commute wasn’t long enough and I sat in my car upon arriving home listening to the conclusion, unable to wait until morning.

I often cry at books and movies; I’m easily moved (sometimes even a TV commercial will illicit a few tears). But this was an experience beyond mere crying. This was me with my hands pressed to my face, snot running out of my nose, abjectly weeping in the front seat of my car. I can’t fully express why this book plucked that inner string in me, but it did.

I’m sure a part of it was the spectacular reading given by Eleanor Bron (who also, as it turns out, played Lily’s Aunt Peniston in the 2000 movie adaptation) in the audio. She strikes just the right tone of reserve and emotions, her voice soothing and adaptable to each character. I don’t know if my wrought emotional reaction would have been the same had I read it in text, but that’s not something one can speculate on, since each individual experience is based on a multitude of circumstances that can’t be recreated.

All I know, is I started this book thinking I would merely enjoy it, and ended it being madly in love.

Cross-posted to my livejournal. You are welcome to comment either here or there.

Current Project: Under the Midday Moon
New Words: 1435
Current Total Word Count: ~2,500
Goal: Put together an workable draft of the novel that I would actually let someone read.
Accomplished: The second half of what I think will be Chapter Two

Random Rough Sentence(s): The sun was bright and glaring, reflecting off the fog that sat over Anchorage below. Standing there, breathing heavy after the last leg of the hike, it was easy to believe everything beyond this moment had been erased. Only a few higher mountain peaks poking out of the fog gave any indication there was more than just the two of us in all the world.

Notes: Chapter Two is progressing kind of interesting in the sense that I have Adam falling in love Jasper, but instead of drawing out the suspense of that first meeting, I have them immediately going on their first date. This puts them at the start of their relationship rather quickly (no watching the cute guy be all mysterious across the room). It feels like I set up the love interest and then am resolving it very quickly, which could be killing the tension, and I’m not sure will work in the context of the rest of the novel. I guess I’ll just have to see how it evolves.

In other news, while writing Chapter Two, I discovered where I want to go with Chapter One. Both, it turns out, will involve blood splatter and chunks of flesh, though in rather different contexts.