MamaManagement

A quick little post for you all today, simply because I read this great idea in a NaNoWriMo pep talk from author Kami Garcia and I wanted to share it... First, let me say that day after tomorrow, November 1, is the kick-off of National Novel Writing Month (NaNoWriMo) for 2014 ! I am both excited and terrified. Last year was my first year participating and I didn't quite make it halfway to the 50,000 word goal (I landed somewhere around 21,000 words). It was still a huge success for me since otherwise I would have written zero words, but I let life get in the way of getting my word count in. And, to be honest, to don't feel any better prepared this year to keep that from happening again. But I will give it the old college try! Wish me luck! Anyway, as a part of NaNoWriMo various authors send out these (usually awesome) pep talks to all the participating writers to get/keep them energized and inspired to reach their 50,000 word goal. Well, the first pep talk was sent ou...

I typed these words into my phone just before going to bed the other night... Sometimes I fail amazingly at some things. Like, really amazingly. At small things and big things. At lots and lots of trivial things. For most of these things, I am the only one who notices. Or at least the audience is pretty small...my kids, my husband, occasionally some other family member bears witness, sometimes I share the embarrassment with a friend. But mostly it's just me who notices. (Thank goodness I am not famous!) And I am not cool. I never was. Not. Ever. I was never most popular. I was never prettiest or smartest or best at, well, anything, really. I've always been good enough or okay at most things but never exceptional, never a superlative. This used to bother me. It used to make me sad. I used to long to be really great at something.  I fail a lot. Everyday. And I'm not cool. And I'm not the best at anything.  I've grown out of caring about cool (and my definitio...

Hello friends! I have something to report. I have decided to cut back on blog posts for a while so I can focus my limited writing time on my fiction writing. (I've tabled the novel I was working on last fall and am focused on a children's chapter book and some picture book ideas. I hope to share some of that with you all at some point.)  In the meantime, most of my posts will likely fall into one of two categories: short and sweet (like this one), and the more journal-like, cathartic essays that seem to rise up from inside of me when I just need to vent or think-write.  I hope you'll continue to follow along with me.  So here's my first short and sweet post: a Super Short Book Review: Love and Other Foreign Words by Erin McCahan Fun. Light. Entertaining. A YA book and a quick-and-easy, pleasant read. Kind of like reading a John Hughes Brat Pack movie. (If you're too young to know what that means, look it up.) Until next time, re...

I finished this book following a marathon, late-night, hundred-page reading session (almost unheard of now that I have small children), and I found myself in awe of Erin Morgenstern's ability to imagine, create and weave together such a wonderful, wondrous tale. Spoiler alert: I'm in love with this book. Story telling is a craft, and when it is done well, it leaves me in awe. When I finish a book that is so well-crafted, one in which the story is so intricately woven that it surprises you all along the way and you find yourself flipping back through the pages to reread sections and marvel at the breadcrumb trail the author left you, and you followed, without even knowing it...I just marvel. When an author creates a world so detailed and believable, even when it stretches the bands of reality, that you are sucked-in and standing: living and breathing in that world...I am in wonder. And, I am a little bit in love. I find myself smitten with writers who can do this. (And a...