All Purpose

So today in a SXSW session someone said, “If you don’t like your job there is someone out there who’d love to have it. And there’s someone else somewhere that has your dream job and probably hates it. We just all need to stand up and move out of the way”.

This, along with a lot of other wise observations from the group made me realize that I need to get out of the way. I need to give someone the chance to do my job and love it. I need to give myself the chance to do what I love, or at least what I think I love right now. I need the chance to be a whole person, not one bound by pain or lack of confidence. I need to give myself a chance at healing.

So how do I do that? How do I do that and have us still maintain our life and continue to meet our financial goals? I am not quite sure, but I’m going to find out, and I’m going to blog about it.

I think SXSW just changed my life.

No Comments | In: life, writing | tags: change, life, writing. | #

I did it. I wrote a 50,014 word novel in 30 days, and while it is a very, very rough draft it’s something, something I’ve never done before so it’s pretty awesome.

So yeah, I didn’t really journal here did I? It was hard, really hard, the last week especially, so I didn’t have a lot of time for blogging. Plus, my body? It’s really pissed at me now for all that computer time, and typing (it really hated all the typing). So I needed to rest when I could. I probably shouldn’t be typing now because, frankly, it hurts. I have a massage in my future though so it’ll all be fine.

So I’m going to keep writing every day for 10-30 minutes, but I’m going to stick to exercises for the first couple of weeks and then transition into doing some character and setting work before I read the novel and starting revising it in January.

I have no idea how to revise a novel, but I’m just going to give it shot and I have a deadline for finishing (March 15th) so that should help.

I have a ton of stuff to take pictures of, but it’s so cloudy I’m not sure when I’ll get the chance. I’ll try though.

No Comments | In: life, writing | tags: 2009, fiction, nanwrimo, process, writing. | #

So you are probably wondering where I’ve been, right? I’m deeply immersed in the insanity known as NaNoWriMo, or National Novel Writing Month. Yes, a 50,000 rough draft of a novel written over 30 days. Insane, painful, fun, exciting, liberating, frustrating and very, very cool.

So I’m at about 30K words right now and I a little less than 2 weeks to finish. I think I’ll make it, but some days it’s really hard. I know that whatever happens at the end that I have proven I can write every day if I make time for it. I have sparked my imagination again so ideas are everywhere now. And I think I have hit on a great idea for a series, maybe, I don’t want to be too cocky because it might be a totally stupid idea. Since my Inner Editor is away at camp for the month, it’s hard to judge.

I am really looking forward to crossing the finish line though and am also excited about taking this rough draft and whipping something great out of it, maybe in time for the agent conference? That would be pretty cool, but I don’t want to get ahead of myself.

While the last 20K should be downhill, I do worry about pacing, and being able to time the plot correctly. I mean this is my first novel.

I have other updates, mostly the knitting kind and mostly from last month, but it’ll have to wait until later, but I’ll try to check in more. I realize it would have been nice to journal a little here about the writing process and the frustrations and anxieties it brings up. So maybe I’ll try to do that as I head into the home stretch.

No Comments | In: writing | tags: 2009, nanowrimo, novel, writing. | #

So I made gumbo this past weekend for the first time in like 5 years. It was ok, but I had just totally forgotten how I used to do it. I never had a recipe I used, so piecing it back together was a little rough. It was good though and now I’d like to (re)master that recipe so I’ll probably be experimenting with that over the fall and winter.

I will work on getting a better kitchen photo set up too so I can start documenting these kitchen forays a little better.

In other news I’m feeling ready to finally start running again (yes!). I’m going to start the Couch to 5K program next Monday. I’ll be starting NaNoWriMo on Sunday as well so November is going to be hectic for me. Wish me luck, and I’ll try to keep the blog somewhat updated.

I’ll be doing a knitting update later this week!

No Comments | In: 9to5, life, running | tags: 9to5, cooking, running, writing. | #

I spent last week in the lovely town of Alpine attending a Writer’s Retreat. It was great, I’m motivated and I feel creative again. It was also exhausting so I feel like I’ve mostly been catching up on sleep this week.

We saw some fun stuff, like these cute donkeys. We were trying to figure out what donkeys were, and mostly we got it right.

Donkey’s can be interbred, but the offspring are sterile so while I’m not sure of the other two guys I took pictures of, this one is donkey and zebra:

We spent a lot of time on the Sul Ross campus where our class was held, and I saw something really funny there.

So he’s letting me get real close to get a picture and it’s not until I take this one that I understand that it’s a bug and not a pecan he’s got. Then it’s game time.

I saw this at the motel, very cool butterfly that I have been unable to identify so far, I guess a trip to the Life Sciences Library might be in my future.

We did go to Marfa on Friday and have dinner and poke around.

Then we went back to Alpine and stopped to see the lights. We did see them, but I could not get pictures. So small, so far away. I got this instead though.

It was great. I’d love to do it again next year!

No Comments | In: life, travel | tags: 2009, alpine, marfa, texas, travel, writing. | #

I have been very, uh, lazy I guess for the last month. I just realized I haven’t blogged since I got back from my trip to Alaska in September. Crazy.

So a lot’s been happening I guess. I have been struggling with the stupid occipital neuralgia crap. It’s pretty bad right now, but I’m back to regular acupuncture and I’m considering meds. I actually filled the prescription but I’m not ready to commit to it quite yet. I want to wait a little longer and try some other options to see if I can get the problem solved rather than medicated to an acceptable level.

The trip was awesome, but I totally had PMS the whole time and felt like I was a bit of a pain in the ass. I finished the Clapotis for my mom and she loved it. C loved her headband. I finished M’s socks. So lots of good knitting. The weather was great, nice and cool. Our excursion were so cool. The whale watching especially was amazing. I will have pics up soon, I just haven’t been up to sitting at the computer to clean up the images and load them all. Will try to finish it this weekend.

I’ve decided to do NaNoWriMo this year, for reals. I have an idea, and I’ll be spending this week doing some character and plot development in prep for the kick-off. So for those of you not familiar with NaNoWriMo, it’s National Novel Writing Month, and I think it’s been going on about 10 years, maybe longer. The idea is to try to write a novel (50,000 words or more) during the month of November. So Nov 1 to Nov 30th @ midnight. I have sorta been signed up for the last couple of years but have never done a damn thing. This year I’m taking it a bit more seriously. I hope that I’ll be able to get my prep work done this next week because I think that will be key to me moving forward for this for real. So because I’m also going to use NaNoWriMo as a way to get my ass writing everyday I’ve decided to split this blog up again. I know. I am so fickle. I’ve been wondering how boring all the knitting stuff must be to some people and vice versa for personal stuff. Not that I have more than like 5 people that have ever read this. So anyway, details to come.

So knitting is next…

No Comments | In: life | tags: alaska, blogging, blogs, nanowrimo, occipital neuralgia, pain, travel, trip, writing. | #

So I decided that I should merge the blogs and since knitter’s lib is where I’m posting the most I’m keeping it and merging in the content from the little hour (which I wasn’t posting in much anyway). So now this will be about more than knitting, but I guess it kind of was anyway, it’ll just be more obvious now.

So I imported all TLH posts and I’ll probably blow TLH away later this week and then maybe I can do a real index page for my site since I seem to have lost it.

So things are rough right now and I’m doing all this damn thinking. Thinking about life and death and goals and what I want to be when I grow up. It’s tiring, and sometimes depressing and for me full of ups and downs. One minute I think I should open a bakery or some kind of baking related business, the next I think no I need a legal job, then I think why did I stop writing-I should write. Today I realized I miss school (wtf?) but maybe I don’t miss school maybe what I miss are things like real writing workshops. I miss writing but it’s hard to schedule it in a day already full of work, marriage, pet care, family care, self care… Well you get the picture; my head is a mess right now.

Despite all this mental wrestling which is making me think more probably, I’m still depressed a bit. I still can’t manage to get the exercise routine down. I have kept my spending lent for 1.5 months now (woot) and I’m slowly getting my financial stuff more organized. I think I just do to a budget and maintain my weekly bookkeeping and I’m good. The spending lent is making me think more about every dime I spend and I think this habit will hopefully stick past the actual lent.

The garden which I promised would happen this year is so not going to happen unless a miracle happens this weekend. I want to drink beer and read all weekend so I’m not seeing that happening. Oh well, there’s always next year right?

No Comments | In: 9to5, life | tags: blogs, death, dreams, goals, jobs, thinking, writing. | #