In My Mailbox

My understanding of the In My Mailbox meme is that one posts books recently received. This month my mailbox has been unusually prolific:

These two came from JEFritz, as a result of her giveaway!


I've begun How Fiction Works, but haven't gotten very far because I'm currently reading about four other books. I don't think I'll be reading Roget's Thesaurus straight through regardless, though.

And look how cute they were when they arrived!

The Art of Non-Conformity didn't
technically come this month, but I finally finished it after finals.

Bloom Where You Are came from a resident
at the retirement villa where my husband works;
 several of the ladies were cleaning out,
heard that I like to read, and loaded Chad up
with a miniature library. Thus far, this is the only
book so received that I have read.

I ordered No Impact Man after I
checked it out at the library & loved it. 

I got sleeping naked is green on a
whim when ordering No Impact Man;
it was under the "People who ordered
this also liked" section at the bottom
of the Amazon page. (So if anyone from
Amazon is reading, you can be happy
that your ads are working.)

A Texas Legacy Christmas was also a
whim; our local library has a continuous
booksale & I picked this one up.

I ordered Harmonic Feedback after
stumbling across Tara Kelly's blog.
(Note to blogging authors:
It really does happen! Keep blogging!)

Since I follow Dave Bruno's blog, I
always intended to buy this one.
But this time I did something new (or at
least, something previously reserved for
Harry Potter); I pre-ordered it!

So, that's my mailbox for December & January! I'm also expecting some textbooks any day now, but don't expect to see a post about those. What's in your mailbox?

Holiday's End

Five weeks is too long for a holiday break.

It's too long to be sitting around, but too short for getting a job. It's long enough to forget what it was like to go to class every day and then come home and do homework. It's long enough to get used to this rhythm of deciding what I want to do whenever I want to do it, because I have oceans of free time.

It's long enough to really mess with my sleep schedule. Grrr. On the upside, it's long enough to get myself off caffeine and resume my decaffeinated ways.

It's long enough that although I've had a question about a required book for one course since the day after I took my last final for the fall semester, I had to wait until instructors resumed their normal lives, too, so that I could ask without interrupting her Christmas holiday.

It was long enough for reading a stack of books (35 and counting), watching TV, catching up on everyone's blogs, and goofing off on Facebook.

In other words, the new semester starts tomorrow, and I am almost as unaccustomed to academic life today, after this crazy-long 5-week break, as I was at the beginning of summer school six months ago.

So, it's been fun reading your blog entries as soon as you posted them and leaving random comments. I've loved reading through books that my blogging buddies recommended and giving my reviews on Goodreads. And reading about everyone's adventures in writing has helped me in plotting and starting over on my own WiP. This break has been nice, but I've gotten into all these habits that now have to be stopped, and it's a bummer. It's been too long.

Okay, I know none of you feel sorry for me because you've been back in real life for two weeks now. So, today's question is: How's your weather? ;)

Just Put the Rock Down!

Last week I wrote about forgiveness and how it's not quite the forget-about-it-and-move-on verb that we might like it to be. Today, I'm thinking more about my response to someone who has offended me.

Glasgow

When I lived in Scotland, I was under the tutelage of Billy Wilson. One day our group was discussing the passage in which Jesus instructs his followers to forgive one another seventy times seven, and he asked us how often that was. So that you don't have to do the math, 24 hours/490 transgressions = Once every three minutes. As Billy pointed out to us, even on my worst days I don't err against God or against people every three minutes. And yet Jesus asks us to be willing to extend that level of forgiveness to others. (And, if we follow the reasoning to its logical conclusion, God must be willing to forgive at least that often as well.)

Use Less

Since some time in May, I've been doing research. When on the internet or in a healthy-living section of a store, I often wander over to the personal care products just to see what is available. And it turns out: A bunch of stuff.

Making Things

A few days ago I dubbed myself an honorary Walton. I spent a few days making various things, a hobby I greatly enjoy, although I don't think I would enjoy a sudden reversal in time that would make it necessary for me to make things, instead of it being a mere hobby.

Remember my New Year resolution? To make my own yogurt? And my announcement last Saturday that I was going to do it? Well, it got delayed until Monday, but I am here to say that I have now joined the ranks of the yogurt-makers.

Being Inspired

When I read A Million Miles in a Thousand Years a few weeks ago, there was one bit with which I had a serious disagreement. Mr. Miller said that non-writers have this idea that writers are inspired by life-- I forget the exact wording of the sentence, but something along the lines that after a game of Ultimate Frisbee, writers are bursting with things to write about frisbee-playing. And, he says, that is not the case.

I guess for him it isn't.

A Million Miles in a Thousand Years

I was halfway through this book before I realised that the author is the Donald Miller, the one all the Christian bloggers are always going on about (either to praise every word he writes, or to ridicule the people who praise every word he writes). He does, I am compelled to say, have a knack for putting words together so that they make lovely ideas and for putting ideas together to make light bulbs shine brilliantly over the reader's head, so often that I went back and forth between "This is amazing!" and "Why didn't I think of that?" about every other paragraph.

Image from Mr. Miller's
blog.

So, I think you should absolutely read this book. If you are a reader, you should read it. If you are a writer, you should definitely read it. If you think your life is too boring, you should read it. It's a book written by a Christian, to be sure, but even if you aren't wild about Christian literature, you should read it. Honestly, you can easily skip the bits about God if that's what you want to do, and still be struck by the message of the book, which is this: We get to write our own life story.

Teaser Tuesday

Fireflies in December, by Jennifer Erin Valent. This is Ms. Valent's debut novel.

Image from goodreads

First line: "The summer I turned thirteen, I thought I'd killed a man."

"Being only nineteen himself, Luke didn't have the sense to quit the conversation."

This wasn't a book that kept me glued to it, having to know more, but it was enjoyable enough. It's a coming-of-age book, set during the Depression in the South.

Teaser Tuesdays is a weekly bookish meme, hosted by MizB of Should Be Reading. Anyone can play along! Just do the following:

• Grab your current read
• Open to a random page
• Share two (2) “teaser” sentences from somewhere on that page
• BE CAREFUL NOT TO INCLUDE SPOILERS! (make sure that what you share doesn’t give too much away! You don’t want to ruin the book for others!)
• Share the title & author, too, so that other TT participants can add the book to their TBR Lists if they like your teasers!

Run This Way

Chad started mentioning in early December that he was in the market for new shoes. Now we are slow movers in the Cheeky house; a lot of time tends to go by between the realisation that we need to get/change something and the thing actually happening. So, as we discussed at length what his preferred shoe store was,  Fate intervened in the shape of a Groupon from The Running Company.

And we are so glad that she (Fate is a woman, right?) did.

Forgiveness

Chad and I got these t-shirts for our anniversary. They are actually pretty apt for the Cheeky house; people never seem to get tired of telling us that we are weird. The fact that we're being different on purpose never seems to stop anyone from listing all our strange attributes. So, why not announce it right off and let people know ahead of time that strangeness is coming their way, right?

I had a conversation with a teacher once that included the statement, "Forgiveness is separate from consequences." (As you may have guessed, it wasn't the happiest conversation of my young life.) This was quite a revelation to me, who had heard such sayings as "Forgive and forget" my whole life, and always thought that forgiveness meant that whatever had happened was now finished, never to be mentioned again. How wrong I was, firstly because humans aren't good at that sort of thing, and secondly because while "to free or pardon from penalty" is one definition of forgive, another is "to cease to feel resentment against". So in essence my teacher was saying, "I'm no longer angry with you, but that will not save you from the misery I spent half the night plotting for you."

You may have spotted where I'm going with this. God doesn't forgive like humans do; he really can (and does!) forgive and forget, for which I am very thankful. But he doesn't save us from our own poor choices, either. If I cause a car accident, my insurance rates will go up whether I love Jesus or not. If I refuse to pay taxes, God doesn't intervene to stop me from going to jail. If I jump off of the balcony of my apartment, I am in no way excused from the laws of physics that will result in broken bones once I hit the ground. As Stephen Covey expresses it in The Seven Habits of Highly Effective People, "If you pick up one end of a stick, you pick up the other."

I might just wear that t-shirt to church today for my own amusement. But I think I'll walk down to the bus stop, instead of trying to fly there.

One Resolution Done. I Hope.

Chad and I have the same problem with our attempts to live in harmony with the earth as have many before us: We live on a budget.

Inside Whole Paycheck.

Not that I think earth-friendly living is necessarily costly, but in this era of free-range eggs, grass-fed beef, and organic produce, all of which are more costly than their more traditional counterparts, it's easy to believe that only those with disposable income can afford to love the earth. All it takes to "confirm" this suspicion is one trip to Whole Foods (also known as Whole Paycheck).

Battle of the Crime Shows

My current favourite TV shows are NCIS and Criminal Minds. I have a hard time deciding between them, so I decided to do a little head-to-head. Here goes:

NCIS


vs

(photos from
IMDB)

Criminal Minds

Gloom, Despair, and Agony on Me.

I've spent most of my holiday break reading (and reading, and reading, and reading). Which has been glorious and fun. But you know the side effect of this much reading?

At some point, I'm bound to think, "I can't write like this," and go drown my sorrows in hot cocoa and Days of Our Lives reruns. Because while being in the presence of greatness is awe-inspiring, it's also a signal to my already-addled brain to give it up and quit while I'm ahead. Set myself up for a "I coulda been a contenda" moment in my distant future. Lose myself so much in other people's characters that I can forget, for a little while, about my own.

But, as I drain the dregs of my cocoa and drag myself from the pit of despair, I consider that surely I can write better that whoever is on the payroll at Days, and return to my computer. Well, my desk; I'm still plotting on my NaNo novel (I have to give it a different name now, I should think). Yes, there is still a lot of white space on there. I'm doing my best to remember all I've heard/read/learned in the past couple of months and give Natasha a lot more drama that I'm willing to have in my own life. But I'm also trying to remember to make her at least a little bit likeable, because as things stand right now, she may well be a complete jerk.

So. That's what I'm doing this week. How about you?

No Impact Man

I picked up No Impact Man, by Colin Beavan, at the library, vaguely thinking that I'd read a review and wanted to read it. And as is my practise, I started reading it on the bus.

Oh. My. Word. This book is crazy-amazing, inspiring, frustrating, funny, scary-- I think it hit all my emotions as I read through it. To begin with, I'm totally with Mr. Beavan on the frustration at seeing people make planet-destroying choices every day that could easily be fixed. (Just get a reusable travel mug for your Starbucks and a stainless steel water bottle for everything else, already! Enough with the styrofoam and plastic!) And like him, I have realised that the only cure to the irritation is to change myself and hope that other people will come to the same conclusion*.

Teaser Tuesday

Yay, my first-ever Teaser Tuesday! Today's book is the one I actually got on Christmas day:

Sleeping Naked is Green
Vanessa Farquharson

"He's probably my best friend, if you divide shared interests and opinions by soul-baring conversation, and multiply this by 15 years."

"Her message tonight was thus loud and clear: no deodorant = no babies."

I definitely recommend this book-- it's a memoir (which I love) and a lot of fun-- I giggled a lot in the course of reading it.

Teaser Tuesdays is a weekly bookish meme, hosted by MizB of Should Be Reading. Anyone can play along! Just do the following:

• Grab your current read
• Open to a random page
• Share two (2) “teaser” sentences from somewhere on that page
• BE CAREFUL NOT TO INCLUDE SPOILERS! (make sure that what you share doesn’t give too much away! You don’t want to ruin the book for others!)
• Share the title & author, too, so that other TT participants can add the book to their TBR Lists if they like your teasers!

New Running Gear

The short version of my running experience in 2010 is this: I ran a marathon.

And that's pretty much it. My training runs after that were sporadic at best, and non-existent once the fall semester started. Sigh... I had such high hopes.

However, I've picked it back up again these past couple of weeks, suddenly remembered how much I like running, and have a goal race in mind. Four goal races, actually; the Austin Runners Club has a spring Sprint Series-- two 5Ks and two 10Ks. In case you missed it, the 10K is my favourite distance EVER, and 5Ks are so short that they're over before anything has a chance to start hurting. Should be fun.

Putting My House in Order

This being Sunday and all, it's probably completely inappropriate for me to make this announcement:

I'm not wild about the "sermon" part of church.

Praise and worship? Great. Prayer? Yes, please. Fellowship? Absolutely. Sermon? Meh.  So, allow me to proclaim the following:

I, Su Elizabeth, Crown Princess of Cheekyness, could do without sermons for the rest of my life.

All Hail 2011!

No New Year-- at least, not in my lifetime-- will ever top 2000, when the news reports had rolling coverage of the new "millennium" arriving in each time zone. That. Was. So. Cool.

But, hey, 2011 is pretty good, too. Not as good as 2002, though, when I was doing this:

And clearly, I don't want to spend my anniversary writing a blog post. So I'm writing this a few days in advance, so you have something to read while I'm off eating cake and toasting another year with my Prince Charming.

I made a list of goals/resolutions/whatever for 2010, and I'm afraid to go look. I'm sure it's not pretty. But the nice thing about New Year is that it always comes round again! So, some goals for 2011:

1. I'm going vegetarian again. It's not because I'm overly concerned about the fate of the animals that I eat (I'm not that kind, unfortunately), it's that I just don't like cooking meat. I discarded my veggie-eating ways when I married Chad, because I didn't think it was fair to inflict my vegetarianism on him, but he has agreed to either go along the veggie path or cook his own food, depending on how he feels and what I'm eating.

2. I'd like to learn how to make my own yogurt.

3. I've been toying with the idea of the 100 Thing Challenge for a couple of years now. Every time we move, we get rid of stuff, to the point that we don't have a lot of major stuff any longer. We do, however, have a lot of odds and ends. I'd like to cut down on the odds and ends, organize the stuff we actually need into a sensible system, and get on with our lives.

4. Reading. I will keep reading. There are a lot of new books coming out this year that I'd like to get my eyes on.

5. I have two works in progress that I want to finish, with an eye toward querying by the end of the year. I don't have a specific timeline on this yet, but stay tuned.

6. I haven't yet set mileage goals for my running and cycling. I'm mulling them over. In the meantime, I have two time goals, one major and one incidental, for the year-- 1:00:00 for the 10K (major!) and 0:30:00 for the 5K (if I can meet the first one, I ought to be able to meet the second one, too).

So, there you go. Do you have any goals/resolutions/whatever for 2011?

Holiday Reading Challenge Wrap-Up

This challenge was a lot of fun. I joined in on a whim, thinking that I wanted to do some reading over my holiday break anyway, and I ended up reading seven books that I wouldn't otherwise have bothered with. (Plus bits of a couple that I shouldn't have bothered with.) Many, many thanks to Nely at All About {n} for hosting this brilliant challenge.

Tidying Up

So, here we are at the end of 2010. (You know, in case you hadn't noticed.) I hope your year was magnificent.

In an attempt to get ready for a New Year full of writing and earning all A's and sharing my various journeys with you, I've been stalking all of you (but you already knew that, right?) to see how your blogs are organized. And while I'm not ready to give up the "post every day" thing quite yet (it really is fun for me), I am going to keep a regular schedule of topics (at least for a couple of months) to see how I like it.

A Texas Legacy Christmas

My final read for the holiday challenge! Sneaking it in just in time.

This book, like most of the others, was an impulse pickup at the library. It's historical fiction, set in the early 1900s in small-town Texas. A newspaperman who has spent a couple of years in New York moves back to his hometown to run the local paper. On the eve of his return, he is the unwitting victim of a pair of 6-year-old pickpockets, and he feels directed by God to adopt them and bring them home with him. Back home, he is reunited with a friend from his schooldays; she now works in the boardinghouse where he and the children are staying.

Sesame Street, I Miss You

Update: Timbra won the guess-how-old-my-dad-is postcard! She guessed 57; the correct answer is... 55! And now back to your regularly scheduled nonsense.

This delightful video has been circulating among my Facebook friends:

Finding Noel

I'm still squeezing in these last few books for the Holiday Reading Challenge! (I've had to abandon the December Author Birthday challenge. Maybe next month!)

I read another Richard Evans book, Finding Noel. His books tend towards the saccharine, I have to say, although this one is not so bad. It's much, much less happy and loving than The Christmas Box. It's the story of two young people, Mark and Macy, who must address their respective pasts if they want to be able to handle the future. And I have to admit, I cried through pretty much the entire book. But I'm sappy and sensitive like that. (Warning: Kinda spoilers after the jump.)

Smiley & Festive Blog Awards

Kittie over at The Block gave me this award... quite possibly the happiest one I've seen so far:

This one doesn't come with any rules, so far as I can see, so I'm just going to hand it over to some bloggers that make me smile (but first, must obsessively check who Kittie gave it to so I don't double-award, then try to remember who I've given awards to already... forget it, here we go).

Faith @ Literary Coldcuts on Toasty Buns: has given me plenty for my TBR list and also renewed my hope for the Christian literature industry;

Mia @ My Literary Jam and Toast: hands out writer wisdom, giggles, and brilliant illustrations;

Thelma @ WidowSphere: Just go read it. Everything she writes is lovely;

and

Grandpa @ Life on the Farm: Breathtaking pictures and brilliant storytelling about a whole bunch of stuff I know nothing about.

So, my comrades-in-blogging: Enjoy it, display it, re-give it... or just pretend like you never saw it. Whatever you like. :)

And I also got this very Christmas-y award from Catherine at Kangaroobee:

But I'm not passing this one on, since Christmas has left us behind for yet another year. However, if you really really like it, by all means, take it with you. :)

Happy Birthday!

These people really need to stop having birthdays. And by "these people", I mean my relatives.

Dad's the tall one.

I don't have any more recent pictures of my father. So here's what he looked like a few birthdays ago. (I look more like him every year, although I sincerely hope to avoid the hair loss.)

So! This is my dad's mumbleth birthday! Way, to go, Dad; we always knew you'd make it to mumble! Bet you don't feel a day older than mumble, huh?

For the record, I do actually know how old my father is. (And I mean old! Wow! Ahem) Despite all my objections to the contrary, I can add. A little bit. I'll tell you this much; he was too young to serve in Vietnam (for which we are all very grateful), but too old to care about Sesame Street. Feel free to have a guess in the comments. Closest guess gets a postcard! (Relatives are disqualified.)

Okay, this post was supposed to be about my dad... His name is Bill. As in, "Did we pay for the electricity this month?" But not William, as in "Watch me shoot this apple off my son's head." Technically, it's Billy, as in, "That move where Adam Sandler plays a spoiled rich kid is on."

Since his birthday comes so close to Christmas, it was pretty much ignored throughout his childhood, which is really depressing. Especially since his siblings-- all 7 of them (my grandparents were crazy)-- had the traditional birthday fuss for their special days. So, he's spent my whole life telling us that he hates his birthday. We've all seen through the façade, and know that he in fact loves his birthday, but it's fun for him to pretend that he hates it. And if he should happen to read this blog post, he is certain to rant for 45 minutes about me putting it on the internet. Sorry, Mum.

Who am I kidding? He doesn't read my blog! Ha ha! I can post about the time I got stung three times in as many minutes and how it was entirely his fault (really, it was) and totally get away with it! Brilliant!

The other half of the balloon fiasco.

Where was I? Oh, yeah, Dad's siblings. So a couple of years ago my sister and I were decorating for our mum's birthday, and we had some balloons attached to a table, and we debated for a little while about moving them so that the kids couldn't get to them. Then we decided that it was no big deal if the kids did play with them, actually, and left them where they were. Come the day of the party, the "kids" played with them all right: Dad and his younger sister pummeled each other with balloons, while everyone under 10 never even touched them. For that matter, no one under 40 touched them. Ah, sibling love.

Happy Birthday, Dad!

Christmas Gifts, The Earth, and No Impact Man

I'm taking the day off for Boxing Day.

Ha! I've been taking the day off for two weeks. Today will be no more lazy than usual. :)

So, my Christmas gift to my husband was a compost bin, and all the stuff needed to get started. I realise that this sounds like the most bizarre Christmas gift ever, and in some ways it is, but there is an explanation.

Happy Christmas!

THE Tree

The older tree, also known as "Grandpa's Tree"

The doodads under the tree

No gifts in these pics, because I took them after decorating on Christmas Eve and as Chad's gift was, ahem, "differently wrapped" (I stuck a bow on the side), I couldn't get out until Christmas morning. And my gift is coming via UPS, who do not work the same hours as Santa, so I don't have it yet. Happy Christmas!

White Christmas

Yeah, we're not likely to have one of those in Austin. Apparently there's a cold front expected, but the forecasted low temp is 32 F (O C), so yeah, no snow for us.

Image from Wikipedia.

But never mind that! This post is about the movie White Christmas. It's been one of my sister's favourites for years, and by virtue of repeated exposure, it's now one of my favourites, too. AMC was kind enough to play it all weekend long a couple of weeks ago, so I watched it about four times.

Toastmasters

Chad joined Toastmasters a couple of months ago, and has since been badgering me to come along, try it, and join in myself.

I have no intention of diverting my attention from writing to speeching, however.

But, I did go along to their last meeting of the year, which included a holiday potluck, and as a bonus I brought along Chad's (okay, my) contribution to the spread. And it was a great spread, by the way; the food was fabulous.

Sunday

Chad wakes me up 15 minutes early.

I say "Grr-mmmhh-aarrrgh," which is Su for "If you don't stop poking me I'll pluck your nose hairs."

Chad goes away and then comes back to ask if I'm really going to sleep for 15 more minutes.

I give in and get up.

Chad informs me that a cup of tea does not qualify as breakfast.

I ignore him.

He continues to harass me.

I give in and have half a peanut butter sandwich.

I turn on my computer and cash in my 250 tabs in Chrome for a Cause. (Charity: Water. Which one did you choose?)

Chad says it's time to go.

I check the clock. He's right.

We race down to the bus stop and wait for five minutes.

We're still waiting.

Bus arrives. We get halfway to church and the driver gets off and goes for a stroll.

After church our gang discusses where to eat. Tres Amigos wins.

We discuss hunting, ethanol, and whether the migas are any good.

Someone from church at another table buys lunch for the six of us. Awwww!

At home I make a grocery list and check the bus schedule.

We almost miss our stop.

We check Sears for the presence of Christmas bears. None there.

We go into HEB and then back out because we forgot a basket.

We're going the wrong way around the store so we get our frozen stuff first. Oops.

We stand in the tea section for five minutes and then leave with no tea.

We stand in the eggnog section for five minutes and then leave with no eggnog.

We wander in the produce section for 20 minutes and leave with a stack of vegetables.

The bus stop is across the freeway.

Good thing there's a pedestrian crossing at the underpass.

A bus comes. It's the wrong one.

We get on it anyway.

Chad insists that even though there are five Cameron Road stops, we shall only refer to one of them as The Cameron Road stop.

The bus lets us off at the Cameron Road stop.

We wait for the next bus. It's late.

Chad tries to talk to the deaf people next to him but he only knows a couple of signs.
He starts playing Shadow with me and gets on my nerves.

I move so he can't watch me.

He rings the bell for our stop.

Time for wassail.

But first I need to unload the dishwasher.

And put away the groceries.

I get the wassail going in the crock pot.

Chad needs clean laundry for work.

I berate him for leaving a trail of dirty socks around the house.

Time to write a blog post!

My Facebook friends are funny.

Ooh, a book to read.

I just thought of another blog post.

The laundry is washed and needs drying.

Is the wassail ready yet?

Mmmm. Citrus-y.

Chad doesn't like the wassail.

More for me!

I hang up the laundry so Chad doesn't have to wear wrinkled shirts.

Another cup of wassail.
I think I just swallowed a clove.
Should I check WebMD to see if I'll die of clove poisoning? Nah.

I have a clever Facebook status.

Holy smokes! It's 10 already?

The Christmas Box

When the movie The Christmas Box came on TV in 1995, my whole family tuned in to watch. That's because we are all pretty tremendous fans of Richard Thomas (yes, I had to look up his real name; I've called him John Boy since I could talk), and also because my father, who has a reputation for being Ebeneezer Scrooge, also has a soft spot for Christmas movies. It's strangely incongruous.

So, the movie came on, we watched it, we liked it, and life went on.

Many many many years later, I found out The Christmas Box was a book first. Who knew? It's been lurking on my mental to-read list ever since, but I finally took it off the mental list, went to the library, and read it.

It was brilliant.

New Year Blogfest

My original post about the blogfest didn't get a lot of interest, so I was all set to say, "Oh, well, never mind"... and then that entry skyrocketed to the top of my "most popular" list. Goodness. Knocked Megan right out of the spot she's had for two months.

So, I'm proceeding. If it turns out some random spasm of Google sent people to my Blogfest post instead of the cute kittens or whatever they were looking for, well, then I guess we'll cancel the blogfest later, yes?

Be Jolly By Golly Blogfest

Do you remember me mentioning that I joined every blogfest going? Yes? Good.


The Rules (from Jen's blog):
1.Blog Post to be posted on December 20th (whatever time you desire)
2.Show pictures of your decorations, holiday lights & Christmas tree!
3.Share your favorite treat (Recipe included, chance for others to steal the yumminess!)
4.Share your favorite drink (Recipe included, chance for others to steal the alcohol – or non)
5.Last but not least… visit others!!! Take part in their holiday cheer!

Note: For those who don’t celebrate Christmas, you’re welcome to share any other holiday you are celebrating in this year!

The Snow Globe

I'll be done with the book reviews eventually, I hope promise. In the meantime, the Holiday Reading Challenge is keeping my reading life active and trips to the library frequent.

The Snow Globe, by Sheila Roberts, is absolutely delightful. It's definitely a feel-good, happy-ending chick lit book, but it's not sappy or maudlin-- the characters are very real-life people, with real-life problems. I will definitely be reading more from Ms. Roberts.

Actually, this is one of those books that I wish I'd written. I don't think it's intended to be a comedy, but I did laugh a few times while reading. It's a story about romance, friendship, and making your own happy ending.

This book is a new release, just in time for this holiday season. It's not too long-- I read it on a bus ride home (of course, the bus did get caught in a traffic jam). For something fun, uplifting and inspirational, get your hands on The Snow Globe.

Politically Correct Holiday Stories

I love this book. Love, love, love, love it.

I was introduced to James Finn Garner's Politically Correct books by my junior English teacher, who told us how funny they were. She was correct.

More Holiday Book Reviews

I don't usually look at the reviews on Amazon before buying things, because people put dumb stuff on the internet. But I did go back and look at the reviews for Stupid Christmas after I finished reading, and I gotta say: This book will not appeal to all senses of humour, and the reviews confirm that.

It's a collection of the dumb stuff people do around Christmas-- altercations with mall Santas, Nativity Scene thefts, burglary by people in Santa costumes, and other things that make the season bright. It wasn't bad, but not terribly funny, either. That is to say, I didn't laugh out loud, although I did snicker a few times.

This book is free on Amazon Kindle.

Stories Behind the Best-Loved Songs of Christmas

This book is fabulous. It helps that it includes many of my favourite Christmas songs, of course, but I loved it. It's not a novel, of course, but rather a collection of stories of the origin of each of the songs.

If I were to choose a weakness for this book, it's that it verges on the maudlin from time to time. But the stories are lovely and enjoyable enough-- for me-- to overlay the sappiness. Of course, I'm pretty sappy as it is; the story of "Do You Hear What I Hear?" had me a bit teary.

If you love Christmas music, this book will probably be enjoyable for you. It's available for free for the Amazon Kindle.

**Note: When I tell you that a book is free on Kindle, that's really just to tell you where I got it, and to save you a little money, if you like. I am not getting anything from Amazon. But if you're from Amazon and you want to pay me to mention you in every post, let's talk!**

A Spanish Story, Again

I was quite flattered that the Runner from A Runner's Life requested the Spanish version of the story I posted a couple of days ago. So, if there are any other Spanish-speaking readers out there, here's the original! You can read it in English here (unless you're anxious to get Google Translate some work; in that case, on you go).

Happy Birthday!

I had this as my FB profile pic for a
while, and Chad's friends who don't
know me kept asking if Denise was his
wife. I changed the pic.

My brother and sister have birthdays so close together it should be illegal. My parents didn't do it on purpose, but these two have holiday-ish birthdays while I'm way off on the other side of the year.

Not that I am complaining.

The Gift of the Magi

I've (finally!) started the Holiday Reading Challenge, and now it's time to share my reviews with you.

Okay, so this first one isn't actually for the Reading challenge, being as it isn't a book, it's a short story, and I read it in about three minutes. But it bears repeating. And it's about 100 years old, so if you've never read it, don't worry about spoilers: STOP READING THIS BLOG RIGHT NOW AND GO READ THIS STORY WHO LET YOU OUT OF SCHOOL WITHOUT READING IT ANYWAY IT'S FREE ON AMAZON KINDLE GO GO GO!!!

Right, now that we have that sorted out, let's begin.

A Spanish Story

I wrote this story for an in-class composition for Spanish class, decided I didn't want it going to waste, so I published it on Facebook in Spanish. However, the majority of my FB friends (and, I suspect, blog readers) are not Spanish speakers and therefore couldn't benefit from my mad storytelling skills. ;)

I'm actually really proud of this story, because I wrote it directly in Spanish. For my essays, I generally write in English first and then translate to Spanish (because my Rhetoric brain wins over my Spanish brain pretty much every time; I have to get the ideas down in one form or another, and English is the easiest way to do that). But since this was a fiction story, and my first Spanish writing since I was in high school, I was über-happy with it. And I got an A on it, which is always a bonus.

So I translated it to English to share with you.

There's an Extrovert in Here Somewhere...

Senior yearbook.
Shyest.
Yeah. They didn't know
me very well. :)

Once upon a time, between the ages of about three and ten, I was quiet and timid and known, if people noticed me at all, for being really shy. I still give people the impression (correctly, to some extent) of being reserved when they first meet me. That's because I am being "reserved"; I'm "reserving" all my cheek until they've had a chance to get to know me. I think it's unfair to unload the snark upon someone the first time I meet them.

New Year, New Blogfest!

Yes, I gave in. It didn't take much, really. I saw all those blogfests, and decided I wanted my own. And since Christmas is already SO well covered, I'm going for New Year. Plus, it's a special holiday for some other reason... what was it? I'm sure my husband knows. I should ask him.

Thanksgiving Blogfeast!

Today's the day for Erica's Blogfeast! Go here to read the rules (in case you'd like to make a last-minute entry) and see all the other entrants.

My entry, Gordon and Mollie, is already up, so click the link to go read it!

Luna in America: Harry Potter Blogfest

Michael at In Time is having a Harry Potter blogfest today! Yes, these blogfests are getting around! (Stay tuned... I'm announcing my own tomorrow. Everybody's doing it!) Drop by his blog and check out all the entries in the Blogfest.

In my entry, Luna Lovegood is spending Christmas-- and Boxing Day-- in America with her Muggle-born boyfriend, who she met last summer in Diagon Alley, and his family. I wanted to do a "wait-- we don't celebrate Boxing Day"-type thing, and Luna seemed the most likely character to spend the holidays out of the country.

Natasha and Clayton: A Midwinter Blogfest

Marieke is having a Midwinter Blogfest! Here's the description:

What does your MC do for Midwinter? Any special celebrations? Yule, Christmas? Celebrations for a midwinter solstice? A Festival of Light? A Wild Hunt? Perhaps something else completely? Christmas on the beach or winter in June? Maybe your MC has good memories of a winter’s day past when life was easier before the story you as Evil Writer wrote?

If you'd like to enter, it's not too late; skip over to Marieke's blog and throw your hat in. Or whatever the saying is.

So, this scene is (kinda) from my NaNo novel; that is to say, it's planned, but this is all that I've written of the Christmas chapter. It was kind of fun to skip waaaaaaaaaaay ahead and write a scene!

A Glimpse

At our local NaNoWriMo wrap-up party, we each brought a paragraph from our novels. We hung them up on a clothesline, and the idea was to take one and find the writer, by asking questions like, "Do you have a character called Natasha?"

The following is the paragraph that I took with me. It was remarkably well-received, so naturally I'm hoping that's more because I'm a writing genius than because the people around here are really polite. Truthfully, I'm sure it was a combination of me picking one of my good paragraphs and people being encouraging. :)

Anyway! This scene, in the original, is from Clayton and Natasha's first date. In the rewrite, I'll be keeping the conversation but moving it to earlier in their friendship, before they start dating.

Beth's Epic Contest

Apparently it's going to be two posts a day throughout December. :)

Beth Revis, author of Across the Universe, is having a tremendously large giveaway on her blog. Scoot on over, ooh and aah at her prize packs, and enter to win!

New Genre for Me!

A real, live schoolroom from the time
of the school story heyday.

 For years, I've been obsessed with school stories.

At some point in high school, I realised that I was only about 50 years behind the times with my favourite genre, since apparently the heyday of school stories was before World War Two. One of my favourite series, The Chalet School by Elinor Brent-Dyer, is indeed from this time period. EBD's writing style influenced mine a lot for a while, which is kind of a bummer, because it's not really a modern-day voice (and as much as I like her stories, her writing is actually kind of wonky), but I think I've managed to shift her out of my immediate consciousness and found her a place in the composite of authors who all influence me a little bit.

Moving to Britain was a revelation, since there are a lot more British school stories than American, and I could get my hands on a lot more of them. And thanks to the genius of JK Rowling and Harry Potter, the school story as a genre has been brought back from the vaults. Yay!

A Running Story

I'm on a running kick, to make up for all those weeks of neglect, I guess. So here's a running story that has nothing to do with anything, for your reading... yeah. And probably for the amusement for a 13-year-old.

Chad and I volunteered a couple of times at an area-wide lock-in night for the church youth groups in Lubbock. These events had basketball, soccer, racquetball, a mechanical bull, a rock-climbing wall, and all sorts of bouncy inflated things.

Sorta Like Sprinting

I'm beginning to feel guilty, because there are people who drop by here thinking they'll get a running blog. And I guess they do, a little bit, but since my last running post was back in October, anyone who wants to read about running has probably been bored.

Actually, that's kind of funny, because whenever I list this blog somewhere (Networked Blogs, BlogHer, wherever), I always list my "tags" as running, writing, college, and Christianity, because in my head, that's what I write about. In real life, that's not what happens, because real life doesn't fit neatly into four tags, no matter what Networked Blogs says.

Coming of age

And another thing I've learned since going back to uni:  It's fun watching people take their first steps into the adult world.

I'm beginning to see the appeal of teaching at this level, and it's scary, because I've never wanted to teach at university. And I still don't, but... it's fun to watch.

Watch what, you ask?

Coming Soon...

In my joy at returning to the land of blogging (following the end of NaNoWriMo and with one final left to take in my semester), I've gone a bit mad and entered all the blogfests and challenges that grabbed my fancy. Can you say "crazy"? Part of it is exuberance, as I said, and part of it is that the creative and I-love-writing juices returned in full force during NaNoWriMo. I can't believe how long it's been since I've written for fun on a regular basis (instead of every now and then). Now I remember why I loved it.

Anyway! I've already posted my entry to Erica's Thanksgiving Blogfeast; you can see it here. It runs until Sunday the 12th, if you'd like to join (and really, more people should!).

Next up, on this coming Saturday (the 11th), is Marieke's Midwinter Blogfest. The challenge is: What your MC celebrates in winter (Hanukkah? Christmas? Kwanzaa?), and what he/she does to celebrate.

Also on the 11th (I think they all got together, or something), is Michael's Harry Potter blogfest. Write a 500-word scene with any HP character and a winter holiday. I have no earthly idea yet what I'm doing with this one, apart (perhaps) from making it a Boxing Day adventure.

And, just for good measure, I'm participating in the Holiday Reading Challenge by Nely and Angela's Author Birthday Challenge. Which means a trip to the library is in order, as soon as I get my last paper written.

That ought to hold you for a while, right? Should you need any more challenges, just keep your eyes open; I've passed up a few just in the past few hours. There are blogfests all over the place! I may have to get my own.

Gordon and Mollie: A Thanksgiving Blogfeast

Erica is having a Blogfeast for Thanksgiving: Participants are each writing 1500 words mixing Thanksgiving and family secrets. Read on and enjoy (and I had a hard time staying under 1500 words!):

A Blog Award

Megan over at The-Write-At-Home-Mom very kindly gave me this blog award:

And the reason you haven't heard about it before now is that she gave it to me during NaNoWriMo. So, Megan, my apologies for the delay, and many thanks for thinking of me and continuing to read my blog! (And if you aren't yet reading Megan's blog, scoot on over there and see what you've been missing!)

Heard At University

This is a (slightly) more grown-up version of the "Heard in Journeyland" posts I've amused myself with from time to time. Today is the final day of my first semester at UT. So here I have, for your reading enjoyment, amusing things I've heard on campus since August:

Rhetoric and the Classmates of Crazy

I love the rhetoric major. I love that essay-writing is a major part of my grade in my rhetoric classes. You know what I don't love? Peer reviews.

Now, I've never really paid much attention to peer reviews, even in middle school, but from time to time I get good information from them. That has generally not been the case this semester, which causes me angst and also a swelled head, as discussed on Tuesday.

NaNoWriMo Wrap-Up

You know, I love how there's a looooong list of blog posts in the sidebar on the last day of a month, and the next day, it's back to teeny-tiny again. New months are fun.

Anyway! At about 11:30 PM on November 26th, during an online word war with my Austin NaNoWriMo buddies, I typed my 50,000th word.

The overly-large grin that crossed my face at that moment was comparable to finishing my first marathon, or watching my brother get married, or seeing my husband graduate from college. I stopped writing-- just for a second-- to go back to the chat page and type "50K!!" (thus messing up everybody else's word war, since they stopped writing to offer congratulations). I don't expect to get that level of exhilaration and happiness from 50K words on any future NaNos, now that I know I can do it. Because going into this, I didn't "know". I've been looking at the "verify & win" link on the NaNoWriMo page since early October when I signed up, wondering if I'd ever get to follow that link and put in my novel.