This Is How I Roll, I Mean Write

I'm about 20k words into a new WIP and figured sharing a little about my writing process may be useful to some of my dear readers. So here's the skinny on my writing life.

First, I am NOT structured or disciplined, at all. Some writers follow regimented rules and give themselves all sorts of deadlines and crap. Yeah, anytime I can do something other than write, I do. I only write when the voices in my head are screaming WRITE ME so freakin loud I have to pen a novel just to get them to shut up. Right now the muse is talking to me, so I'm writing.

When I first got the idea for this book I wrote a summary. It was about three pages long and covered the basic key points of the story. My summary was much looser than a true outline, but had enough of a beginning middle and end that I at least had something to write towards.

After I had a summary, and a character's voice in my head (that's the most important part of this equation since I always write in first person), it was time to start writing. For about the first week I didn't even think about where the story was supposed to start. I just wrote the scenes that I saw, most of which will live somewhere in the middle or possibly even the end of the final novel. I'm sure I will rewrite all of these scenes eventually but starting with the big important scenes was an easy way to dive into this new world I'm creating.

Once I had a basic sense of my characters voice and the world I was writing in I started to write in a more linear fashion.I'm still not worrying about things like chapter breaks, as I expect I'll pepper in several new scenes between the ones I've already got as I continue to build this world. But the 20k words I've written are starting to feel a lot like the first third of a novel.

Because I'm now in crazy draft mode, I'm loosing the desire to do anything and everything that isn't writing. I doubt this MUST WRITE NOW frenzy will carry me all the way to the end of the book, but I think it will take me far enough to at least see the possibility of a real book before I start wanting my life back.

I feel like I'm writing this book relatively slowly. I've been at it for about three weeks now and am only 20k into it. I got so obsessed with the world I was building while writing COUNTING TO D (the book I currently have out on sub) that I think I hit the 30k mark less than a week into the drafting process. I have, of course, written 10k or less to many other stories that I've quickly abandoned. So even if I'm keeping some semblance of a grip on reality right now, I'm still doing some hard core writing.

I think this book is going to turn out pretty good. This early in the drafting phase it's easy to like what I'm writing. It isn't until I get to the editing phase that I realize how craptastic it is. So there you have it. That's what I'm up to right now. Just drafting away.

Since I'm actually pretending to be a writer right now, if you have writerly type questions for me, I might actually be able to come up with some writerly type answers.

RTW: Conference Dreams

For this week's Road Trip Wednesday, the good people over at YA Highway are asking the question

What book and/or writing conference would you love to go to?

 
The only conference I've ever been to is the Willamette Writers Conference here in Portland. I've been to it three times and totally love it. I even met my agent at last years Willamette Writers Conference. I haven't been to any other conferences but would love to go to more.
 
For several years now I've eyed the Pikes Peak Writers Conference in Colorado. I have relatives in Colorado and always love visiting that part of the country. Mixing writers and mountains sounds like a winning combo to me.
 
But if we are talking ultimate dream conference. Someday I want to go to BAE. Not as an annual thing, I just want to get there at least once in my life. It's seems like the ultimate book lovers haven. But maybe it's just crazy stressful with lots of publisher types running around. Still I want to go there, at least once.
 
What about you? What book or writing conference would you love to attend?

E-book Pricing

My agent sent me a link to a very interesting article about e-book pricing and I decided to share.
 


As the first sentence of this post indicates, I have an agent and am currently hoping to make a writing career for myself in the more traditional publishing market. Still with e-books currently making up about 25% of the book market share, it is fool hardy to ignore them. So today I going to blog about the cost of e-books.

I read a lot, and have come to seriously hate paper. I have a large stack of paper books that I own and need to read. Many of them are books I was really excited about when I bought them, and I'm sure I'll enjoy them when I finally get around to reading them. But their heavy and inconvenient. I have an hour train commute each way to work, which is where I do a large portion of my reading and my kindle fits in my purse so much easier than a giant hardback. So I buy new e-books at a much fast rate than I read previously purchased paper books.

I titled this post e-book pricing because that's the topic of the article I linked to above. But really what I want to talk about is e-book reading. I don't know what other avid readers do, but this is what I do. I download "sample pages". Every time I hear about a new book that I want to read, I go on amazon and download the sample pages to my kindle. This feature allows people to read the first few pages (usually about 2 chapters) for free. I currently have sample pages for about a hundred e-books that I haven't read yet in my kindle.

Whenever I finish reading a book, I flip through the available "sample pages" and pick one that seems interesting or fits my current mood. Once I finish reading those sample pages, I instantly buy the book and continue reading. I never even think about the price. I don't care if it's a 99-cent indie book or a $12.99 best seller. I pay what ever the book cost because I've already started it, like the writing, and want to know what happens next.

That being said, I think the average cost of most of the e-books I buy is about $9.99. When best sellers cost more, I buy them because I love there authors and seriously do not want to deal with reading that $22 hard back. Not because I don't want to pay $22 for a hard back, just because I don't particularly enjoy reading on paper.

Now I'm going to be even more honest. I'm always scared of 99-cent books and very rarely download their sample pages. Sometimes because of the low price point, there aren't even pages available, the sample is nothing more than the cover art. Yeah, so not paying a dollar to read that. If the author wont show me the first chapter, I'm going to assume it's bad.

I like good writing, and a lot of people jump into self-publishing to early. If I had self-published the stuff I was writing five years ago, you would not want to read it. It was seriously awful. I don't want to read bad writing by people who are self-publishing to early. So at least for me, the 99-cent e-book isn't a draw, it's a red flag.
 
What about you? How often do you read e-books and does their cost influence your purchasing decisions?

Really?

For this weeks weekend recap, I'm going to make fun of a random stranger. This weekend has been pretty busy but not with anything exciting. Just family get togethers, BBQs, and running errands.

Yesterday, while I was out running errands, I wore one of my favorite T-shirts. It has a picture of Shakespeare and the words "You Discussed Me". While I was at a sporting goods store, the cashier laughed at my shirt thinking the you discussed me comment was funny. Then he said, "Who's that guy, is he somebody famous?"

If you don't know it's Shakespeare, the you discussed me line isn't even funny. So I thought he was joking. But he asked again, "Who is that?"

"It's Shakespeare," I managed to say without rolling my eyes. I mean he does work as a cashier in a sporting goods store, but seriously? Are people really that dumb?

I like my shirt, I just didn't think there were really people over the age of 12 who wouldn't be able to comprehend the literary joke. So that's the highlight of my weekend. My gag T-shirt was to high brow for the hoi polloi.

Oh, and happy Memorial Day.

Recent Reads

I've managed to read five more books since my last reading update. So here is a quick description of the fiction that has been provided recent amusement.

Goth Girl Rising by Barry Lyga - This is a sequel to The Astonishing Adventures of Fan Boy and Goth Girl, which I read like three years ago. The fact that it took me several years to get around to reading the sequel is perhaps an indication that while I like Lyga's writing, I'm not a huge fan-girl. I enjoyed this book about as much as I enjoyed the first one, so if you have read and enjoyed Fan Boy and Goth Girl, then this sequel is worth reading. My favorite part of this book: Instead of keeping a diary like most girls do, Kyra regularly pens her most intimate feeling in letters that she sends to Neil Gaiman. You've got to love a chapter that starts, Dear Neil.

Crossed by Ally Condie - This is the sequel to Matched. 3 of the 5 books in my last recent reads list were sequels and 4 of the 5 in todays list are, so I must be on some kind of a series kick. I enjoyed Crossed but didn't like it quite as much as Matched. I'm not sure if my problem was simply that this is the second book in a trilogy so it fell into the standard middle book slump, but it felt like nothing significant was accomplished in the story. I will likely still read the third book when it comes out, but I definitely wasn't as impressed with this installment as I was with Matched.

Bestest Ramadan Ever by Media Sharif - I've enjoyed Media's blog for years, so I was excited to read her debut novel. I like to think of myself as a relatively open minded person, but I still have a very limited knowledge/understanding of Islam. So I found this book about a Muslim American teenager trying to balance her families beliefs with all the drama that being an American teen entails both entertaining and enlightening. This is the only non-sequel in today's line up, but I will admit that if/when Media writes another book I'll be excited to read it.

Bitterblue by Kristen Cashore - This is the third book in the Seven Kingdoms series (Graceling is the first). Graceling is probably my favorite fantasy, ranking even higher than Lord of the Rings. And Bitterblue did not disappoint. After finishing this book the only thing I can think is "I hope Kristen Cashore writes a fourth book?" I cannot recommend this book enough, except that you really do need to read Graceling and Fire first. So I guess I just can't recommend the entire Seven Kingdoms series enough.

Insurgent by Veronica Roth - This is the sequel to Divergent. Unlike Crossed, this book did not let me down. Divergent is one of my favorite YA dystopias, probably second only to Uglies by Scott Westerfeld. Insurgent was the prefect second book. It moved the story forward and ended with enough of a cliff hanger to make me eager to read book three, but it also had a firm beginning middle and end all its own. If you like dystopia, I would recommend Divergent/Insurgent above Matched/Crossed, and I would definitely recommend it above The Hunger Games.

 

What about you? What books have you been reading lately?

Apparently I Missed My Calling

My grandmother's memorial service was last Friday. Two pastors, my grandfather, my aunt, my uncle, and I all spoke during the service. Since I was one of six speakers, I kept my talk quite short. I've never been afraid of public speaking. And I know talking to people feels more more natural than reading at people, so I never wrote down my speech. I simply thought about what I wanted to say, rehearsed it in my head a dozen times, then got up and started yapping.

My grandmother was a very religious person, so I dusted off a few of the bible verses I memorized during Sunday school and tossed them into the eulogy. Do to her ninety years of involvement in the United Methodist Church, there were at least a half a dozen retired pastors in the congregation and one retired bishop.

After the service the bishop's wife approached me. She put her hand on my arm and said, "Darling, that was the best sermon I have ever heard." From a bishop's wife that's high praise. I don't plan on rushing off to seminary anytime soon (or ever), but the bishop's wife wasn't the only person at the reception after the service to make those types of comments.

Apparently, half way through my talk one of my cousins turned to her sister and whispered, "That girl should be a writer." Since, I already am writing, I'm going to assume I'm fulfilling my calling that way. And given the highly secular nature of everything I write, and for the most part think, I'm fairly certain I don't really belong in the clergy.

It's Just Like Talking

Writing is a lot like talking. No, I’m serious. I am a very auditory person. I’m dyslexic and didn’t learn how to read until relatively late in life. I should be a really bad writer. I am a really bad speller, but “writing” has always been easy for me. The reason is simple, talking has always been easy for me. And writing is a LOT like talking.


When I write, whether it’s a blog post or a novel, I simply pretend I’m talking to a real person and I type whatever I would say in real life. The first comment I get from my real life friends who have read my writing is, “this sounds exactly like you”. And the first comment I usually get from more writery people like my agent or my critique partners is that I have a great voice.

I’ve also been told several times that I’m very good at writing dialog. Again the reason for this is simple, I’m good at talking, and dialog is talking. I do seriously suck at setting, and pretty much all non-dialog parts of a story. But that’s not the point of this post.

So if you totally suck at talking, I have no advice for you. But if you’re like me, and have been talking pretty much nonstop since you were a toddler, pick up a pen and go wild. Because when you write your words down, it’s easier for them to reach a larger audience. And if you have something to say, you should say it.

The Bad Joke Conundrum

The new and improved blogger provides lots of blog stats that I find rather entertaining. I always wonder who reads the stuff I unleash on the internet and it’s fun learning a little bit more about my dear readers. Here are my basic stats – this blog gets somewhere between 30 and 100 page views per day, typically averaging about 60 page views per day. While some posts receive more hits than others the spread is minimal and it appears most of the people who read this blog, read this blog. So each entry receives about the same total number of viewers. Of those viewers, somewhere between 5 and 10% leave comments and the comments are all very nice. This is a nice blog.


Now for the interesting part. This is not my first blog. Before I started this blog, I posted for a little over a year at Misadventures In Spelling. That blog was supposed to be all about dyslexia. When I ran out of things to say about dyslexia, I moved over here. I am dyslexic and the novel I currently have out on sub has a dyslexic main character. Most of the posts that I put up on my old dyslexia blog were funny, in a tongue in cheek self-deprecating way. A few months after I started blogging, one of my friends commented (in real life) that I hadn’t done a post of dyslexia jokes yet. Since all of my posts were kind of long self-incriminating dyslexia jokes, an official dyslexia jokes post seemed fitting.

So in June of 2009, I posted a list of dyslexia jokes. Except, I only know three semi-funny dyslexia jokes.

A dyslexic walked into a bra…

What do you get when you cross an agnostic, a dyslexic, and an insomniac? Someone who stays up all night wondering if there’s a dog.

And, Dyslexics of the world UNTIE.

I know, I know, even those aren’t that funny, but they’re the best dyslexia jokes I know. Still I managed to track down about a dozen other really bad dyslexia jokes and call it a blog post. Now, almost three years later that one blog post has received about 12,000 page views. As many people look at that one post on my old blog per day then look at all the posts on this blog put together. It should also be noted that nobody ever looks at any of the other posts on that old blog. Many of those old posts have had less than a dozen page views ever. But why? What is it about that one random blog post from three years ago that draws so many views?

When I do a google search for “dyslexia jokes”, my 2009 blog post isn’t even the first page to come up anymore. For a while it was the number one page, but it’s now dropped down to 3rd. But I guess third is still pretty good because lots of people are reading it, and after they read my three year old post of bad jokes, they leave comments.

I’ve never deleted any comments left on any of my blog posts, cause I’m anti-censorship. Still I find the comments my dyslexia jokes post get even more baffling than the high readership. At least 90% of the comments that post receives are from anonymous commenters and they contain lots of f-bombs telling me how evil I am for making fun of dyslexic people, who are very intelligent and should not be made fun of thank you very much. If these commenters read the rest of that blog, or even the about me sidebar they would know that I am dyslexic and was only making fun of myself. But as I said before, nobody is reading the rest of that blog they stop at the post full of bad jokes.

My assumption is that dyslexics with chips on their shoulders want to lash out at someone for making them feel bad about themselves, so they google dyslexia jokes and then swear at the people who dare to tell them. They never bother to look and see who’s telling these jokes, or even to worry about the fact that the jokes are seriously lame. Maybe they can’t read. Whatever the reason, I find the whole thing very funny. It’s a lot more entertaining than the bad jokes, at least for me.

Once Upon A Time...

For this week's Road Trip Wednesday, the good people over at YA Highway are asking the question

What Book Brings Back Memories?

When I was a kid, my parents read to me a lot. So many of the books that at as the strongest memory triggers for me are the ones that were read to me as a child. My family moved when I was in fifth grade. In order to help make our new house feel more like a home, my mom did a lot of reading.

I have very strong memories of sitting with my brother on the foot of my parents bed while my mom read Charles Dickens A TALE OF TWO CITIES. A TALE OF TWO CITIES isn't much of a kid book, but it is pretty long. By the time my mom reached the final page, I knew where I believed.

Even now more than twenty years later, I can't think about that Dickens classic without remember what if felt like to sit on the foot of my parents bed and listen.

What about you? What books stir up your memories?

How Did I Get Here?

Last week I said I was going to start doing weekend recaps every Monday. I don't have anything else to blog about today, so I guess I'll tell you about my weekend. But in order for it to make any sense, I need to step back a bit and let you in on a few details of my personal life, and more specifically my husband's personal life.


My husband collects rusty metal. Don't ask me why, but he loves antique machinery and our house and yard is totally overrun with 100 year old engines and gadgets. He doesn't like small machines nearly as much as the really big ones, and tractors have always been his personal favorite piece of machinery, the older and rustier the better.

I never actually got it in writing or anything, but when we got married I made him agree that we couldn't buy any tractors until we had land to tract. This seems like a very reasonable request to me, and it's not like I said no when he wanted to buy that antique cement mixer, so he shouldn't have any reason to complain. But somehow, after six years of marriage I've been acclimated, or brainwashed, into appreciating the finer qualities of antique machinery. And so now, without any land to tract we own two tractors.

This weekend we went to visit one of our tractors, because it not yet living at our house and I sincerely hope it never actually gets here. The tale of how we came to own said tractor is far more interesting then the events of the past weekend, so I'll share it with you today.

Like all niche hobbies, there is a small and well connected network of people who collect antique machinery. My husband and I are friends with most of the northwest residents who appreciate the finer qualities of rusty metal. One of our rusty metal enthusiast friends is Phil. Phil is a total redneck, but once you get to know him he is impossible not to love. He lives on about 50 acres of timber property in the middle of nowhere. For decades Phil has been claiming that he was going to cut down some of the trees on his property and build himself a log cabin, and for decades he has continued to live in a mobile home.

Last year, Phil got more serious about the whole building a log cabin thing and I agreed to help him out. Since I'm an engineer, I agreed to do all the design calculations for his house and stamp his construction drawings. And because Phil is a friend and has a very limited income, I agreed to accept payment in the form of rusty metal selected by my dear husband.

I hoped we'd end up with something small and manageable. But Phil had a Nickles and Shepard steam tractor, and well my husband really really wanted that fine piece of antique farm equipment. I mean this isn't a Case or a Russle, this is a Nickles and Shepard. In the world of steam powered farm equipment, it's a real treasure. And even if you cut down all the trees yourself and get a friend to be your engineer, building a log cabin is still a pretty expensive endeavor and Phil needed the money.

So without owning any land to tract, I said yes. I didn't just say yes, I designed the guys house. And in exchange, my dear husband got to buy Phil's Nickles and Shepard steam powered tractor at a discount. Oy vey? How did I get to this place? What ever the reason, this weekend we went to visit Phil so I could check out his log cabin construction and my husband could tinker with his tractor. There is a living history museum that's a bit of a haven for rusty metal collectors half way between Phil's house and ours. They've agreed to let us display the Nickles there for the summer, and then this fall we'll have to figure out where our steam powered farm equipment is going to live next. It's I kind of cute tractor, but I still hope it doesn't end up in my front yard.

Recent Reads

I enjoyed doing the five book recommendations per day thing in April, but I can't keep that up forever without constantly repeating books. Actually reading five books per day is a bit much. Still discussing five books at a time, instead of recapping all the books read in a given month seems like a more manageable number. So today, I'm going to talk about the last five books I've read. Once I finish reading five more, I'll do another similar post.

 The Summoning by Kelley Armstrong - This is a book about a teenage necromancer who is misdiagnosis with schizophrenia and sent to a group home for mentally ill teenagers. At the group home she realizes she isn't the only teen in residence with superhuman powers. It's a good story with interesting characters, but I doubt I'll bother to read the next two books in the trilogy. I'm kind of getting tired of the whole YA Urban Fantasy thing. Reading about a necromancer instead of a vampire was a nice change of pace, but still I feel like urban fantasy is on the way out, at least for me.

The Earth, My Butt, and Other Big Round Things by Carolyn Mackler - This was a great contemporary YA. I totally loved it and highly recommend it. It's about a fat girl living in New York and hating the way she's treated do to her weight. While this book has a very funny title, it is a serious book that deals with light topics like low self-esteem, eating disorders, self-mutilation, and date rape. These serious issues are dealt with in fresh new ways all through the eyes of a wonderful narrator who is strong and capable, even if she does have a big butt.

Heartless by Gail Carriger - This is the forth book in the Parasol Protectorate series (Soulless is the first). It's a fun steam-punk series that contains a cast of werewolves, vampires, ghosts, and preternatural in addition to the standard Victorian era mad scientists. Blameless, book three of the series, was probably my least favorite of the five and I almost didn't bother to read Heartless. I really enjoyed it and am glad I picked back up the series. The characters in this world really are very entertaining, and the Heartless installment has a wonderful bit of drama that kept me reading. 

Timeless by Gail Carriger - I really restrained myself and waited a whole eight hours between finishing Heartless and starting Timeless, a girl does have to sleep. I seriously loved this final installment in the Parasol Protectorate series. The first four books in the series are all third person close with Alexia as the POV character. I do love Alexia, but Timeless had several scenes written in third person close from Biffy's POV. And OMG, I totally love Biffy! I want Carriger to write a whole new spin-off series from Biffy's POV now. Normally having a dozen POV characters drives me bonkers, but this small glimpse into Biffy's head really made me wonder what all the other characters could have added to the story. Timeless was a great ending to a great series that left me wanting more.

Out of Sight, Out of Time by Ally Carter - This is the fifth book in the Galliger Girls series. I guess it proves that I'm currently on a finish series I've already started kick right now. If I'm being totally honest, I like the Heist Society series better than the Galliger Girl series, but do find all of Carter's writing entertaining. This book is a lot darker than the first four books in the Galliger Girl's series, and not what I was expecting. The story begins four months after book four ends, and Cammie has amnesia, so the last thing she remembers is the last page of the fourth book. The main story arc of this book is Cammie's mission to uncover her forgotten summer. But she didn't spend the summer lounging by a beach somewhere, this is a series about teenage spies, and Cammie spent her summer vacation captured, and possibly tortured, by terrorists. So yeah, it's a bit darker than the earlier books in the series.

What about you? Have you read any good books lately?

RTW: Book Uses

For today's Road Trip Wednesday, the good people over at YA Highway are asking the question

What's your favorite use for a book besides reading it?

Personally, I'm not the kind of person who cuts up books and turns them into artwork or anything like that. Reading is pretty much the only real use I see for books. Well, reading and decorating. So that is going to be my answer, decorating.
 
There were a LOT of books in my house growing up. My mother is a retired English teacher. But the books tended to be spread all over the house and there was never a clear home library. I always dreamed about having a library in my home when I got older, and now I kind of do.
 
On my last count, we have somewhere around 500 books in our house. Obviously, I've read more books than that but I'm a big e-reader and library user. Most of the books that we own have some value. My husband reads far less often than I, but he is the spawn of parents who collect rare books. So probably at least 200 of our 500 or so books are first additions of currently out of print books, and at least another hundred are books signed by the author.
 
We don't have any one room in our house dedicated solely to the purpose of book storage, so I guess there is still no library. But three of the four walls of our dinning room are covered with floor to ceiling bookcases. And I must say, I do like the way they make the room look. We also have at least one bookcase in every other room in the house. They are divided up so all our travel books our in the guest room, our cook books are in the kitchen and so forth. But I like the way they make those rooms look too.
 
So there is my answer. My favorite use for books besides reading is decorating, well I guess decorating and investing except I have no intention of ever selling any of the rare books currently in my possession.
 
What about you? What is your favorite use for books besides reading?

What Writing Process?

Last week I asked for questions from you, my dear readers, in hopes of drumming up some new blog topics. Kris Atkins was kind enough to suggest "You (I) should talk a little bit about your own process of writing. Do you have an inspiration-art you're using for your WIP?"


Thanks for your great question, Kris. Sadly I don't have a very great answer, seeing as how there has never been any method to my madness. Sorry, I know, very unhelpful. I tend to not follow any rules of writing discipline. I simply write when I feel like it and don't write when I don't. When I am struck by an idea that really speaks to me, I have been known to draft remarkably fast. I think my current record is 8,000 words in one day, and 30,000 words in one week.

While I definitely have the ability to write a draft in a month or less, that doesn't mean I write twelve books a year. Because when I don't feel like writing, I don't do it. I have tried in the past to force myself to write. But I never like the stuff I come up with when I'm writing out of obligation to a self-inflicted schedule and not simply typing as fast as I can in hopes of keeping up with my muse.

So currently, I do not have a WIP. I have a few ideas floating around in my head, but nothing I feel overly inspired to write down. I know I will write more books in my life, because enjoy following my various whims and know those whims at times involve frantic typing. But when I write those yet unknown future books, it will likely be rather manic event (as most of my past writing stints have been). Things like inspiration-art are far to logical to feed into the process.
 
If you have any other questions, I'll try to come up with a better question for the next one.

Clammy Weekend

This past weekend I went camping with a group of friends (10 adults and 4 kids). One of the kids is currently in first grade and every Monday she has to write a "weekend report" about what she did over the weekend. Since I've been at a bit of a loss regarding what to blog about lately, I decided to start doing a weekend report of my own each Monday. I don't think I have a single free weekend until at least September, so hopefully for the next few months I'll at least have something to blog about on Mondays. And you'll get to learn more about my real life (how scary).

Last weekend, I went camping at Fort Stevens State Park in Astoria, Oregon. I own a boat and a camping trailer and spend many weekends at Fort Stevens. One fun fact that I learned this weekend is that Fort Stevens is the largest campground west of the Mississippi. There are of course larger parks, like Yellowstone and Yosemite. But most of the large national parks have multiple campgrounds. While Fort Stevens is only a state park, all though technically I think it is now considered part of the Lewis and Clark National Historic Park, it has the largest campground.

It is a very large campground, more than 500 camp sites on more than 4,200 acres. Yet for some crazy reason it is ALWAYS booked months in advance during the summer. The KOA directly across the street is usually fully booked in the summer too. Fortunately, I'm the type of over enthusiastic camper who studies tied tables and fishing seasons and books my campsites the necessary 4-6 months ahead of time. So I know I'll be returning to Fort Stevens a couple more times this year.

The primary activity of this weekend was clamming. Between the 10 of us (none of the kids dug up clams seeing as they were all under the age of seven), we got more than 250 clams this weekend. I personally took home 84 clams. That's going to be a lot of chowder. I hope my husbands decides to make it so I don't have to. I wouldn't say that I where the pants in our relationship, but he definitely wears the apron. So there is at least a 98% chance that he will do all the chowder making. I don't even know the recipe.

Well I'm leaving on another sudo camping trip in less than a week, so I should probably stop typing and go clean out our camper.

Best and Worst Moments

Yesterday I invited you, my dear readers, to ask me questions in hopes of drumming up some future blog post ideas.


Lynn Proctor was kind enough to ask "What was your best moment this week and your worst?" Thank you for your question, Lynn. I'll do my best to come up with a suitable answer.

On Wednesday of this week, I took a kid that I mentor to a children's theater production of "El Zorrito" a play about the childhood Zorro. It was a very cute play that centered around Cinco de Mayo and the Mexican peoples fight for freedom. The boy who played El Zorrito was an amazingly talented singer. I enjoyed the play so much, I'm going to call it the best moment of the week.

The worst was last weekend. Nothing terrible happened last weekend, but I had a bit of a stomach ache. I ended up spending most of Saturday on the couch reading a book. It was a good book, so I have no reason to complain. But it's never fun having a stomach ache, so it's still the worst moment of the week.
 
If you have any other questions, please feel free to ask.

It's May - Now What?

Back in March, I was really bad about blogging. So in April, I decided to do the A to Z Blogger Challenge. I recommended 130 books from 26 alphabetically themed genres. But really, I recommended about 100 YA books and 30 others and pretended like they were from 26 different genres. That isn't the point of today's post though. The point of today's post is simple. It's May, and I don't know what to blog about next.

Seeing as how I just recommended 130 books, plus 5 more yesterday in my April Reads summary, I'm pretty much fresh out of books to recommend. So you tell me, dear readers, what would you like to hear me blather about?

If you have any questions, I'd be happy to answer them in the next few blog posts. If you don't have specific questions but just have general comments regarding topics for future blog posts that works too.

I don't want to lose all my blogging momentum, but now that it's May I'm feeling sort of out of things to say. So if you don't want me to slink back into the anti-social networking shadows, please pepper me with questions. They can be personal, reading, or writing related. But I may choose to give fictional answers if your questions are too personal.

April Reads

In April I recommended 130 books from 26 alphabetically themed genres in the name of the A to Z blogger challenge. Now that it's May, I have to find something new to blog about. I'm going to continue talking about all the great books I've read a little bit longer.

While I recommended 130 books last month, I didn't actually read that many books last month. I read eight books. Three of them made it into the 130 I recommended, but I read the other five after their genre's day so they didn't make it into my list. Today I'm going to tell you about all eight of my April reads, listed in the order I read them.

A Game of Thrones by George R.R. Martin - This is an epic fantasy, emphasis on the word epic. It's very long and complicated, but once you figure out who all the characters are (there are 9 POV characters just to give you an idea of scale) it's a very well written story. I just got the second book in this series from the library today, and I can't wait to find out what happens next. As a point of order, I will admit that if you don't want to read the 835 page volume the HBO series Game of Thrones follows Martin's story very closely.

In Defense of Food by Michael Polin - This is a non-fiction book about food. It reminds it's readers that as omnivores, humans are very well adapted to survive on a very wide range of diets without serious health risks. The one diet that humans are not adapted for is the standard American diet, referred to as the "western diet" in this book. Eating the western diet causes many western diseases such as heart failure, cancer, diabetes, obesity, and others. The solution to this problem, eat food, not chemicals. There are some very interesting case studies and scientific data in the book to back this claim. Even though I finished In Defense of Food almost a full month ago, I still find myself thinking about it almost every time I open my mouth to eat, so I guess that means it's a good book.

The Year of Living Biblically by A.J. Jacobs - This non-fiction book made it onto my N is for Non-Fiction list last month. It is a semi-humorous memoir about a man who tried to spend a year following all of the commandments. Not just the big ones like thou shall not murder, but the more obscure ones like thou shall stone adulterers too. So if you want to read about a guy not wearing mixed fibers and tossing pebbles at adulterers in central park, The Year of Living Biblically is an entertaining read. As an aside, A.J. Jacobs came to Portland to promote his newest book, Drop Dead Healthy last week and I went to hear him speak. I haven't read Drop Dead Healthy yet, but may do a post about Jacob's talk sometime in the next few days/weeks.

Saving Francesca by Melinda Marchetta - This contemporary YA made it onto my Y is for Young Adult list last month. It's a story about one of only 30 girls at a predominately boys prep-school's quest for friendship and acceptance. I was a total tom-boy as a teen and as a result tend to really enjoy reading boy books. So this "girl book" with more male than female characters was right up my ally.

As I Wake by Elizabeth Scott- This YA novel made my Z is for Zoink list last month. I classified Zoink as the name of the genre that isn't quiet contemporary YA but it isn't quiet anything else either. In As I Wake, Ava wakes up with sever amnesia, except as she tries to assimilate into her standard contemporary teenage life, she starts getting more and more "memories" from another far more dystopian parallel universe. Are these memories just dreams, or did Ava somehow travel through dimensions? And if Ava did come from another darker world, does she want to go back?

The Forest of Hands and Teeth by Carry Ryan - This Dystopian YA is really more of a zombie novel than anything else, even if the word zombie is never actually used. The Unconsecrated, aka zombies, have been living on earth for several generations. Mary lives in an isolated village that is protected from the unconsecrated by large fences and armed guards. But when the unconsecrated breach the fences and overtake her town, Mary and five of her friends venture out into the forest of hands and teeth in search of a new life and the hope that not all of humanity has been lost to the unconsecrated.

Okay For Now by Gary D. Schmidt - This coming of age take is marketed as contemporary YA, but I honestly think it's a book that will appeal to more adults than teens. It's about an eighth grade boy growing up in Upstate New York during the 1960's. One of Doug's brothers is in Vietnam and his other brother is a juvenile delinquent. His father is an abusive alcoholic and his principal thinks Doug is on the fast track for the state pen. But when Doug finds a book of drawings by John James Audubon he becomes inspired to learn how to draw. Somewhere along the way, he also learns how to hope. Even at the end of the book, Doug's life totally sucks, but you can't help but believe Doug's hope for a better future is justified. I'm not sure how many junior high school boys would like this book, but I think a lot of adults would enjoy it, I know I did.

Into the Wild Nerd Yonder by Julie Halpern - I recommended 130 books in April, obviously in real life I'm more than a little bit nerdy. So I always love good books that focus on the not-so-cool kids. Into the Wild Nerd Yonder did have a fairly geektastic cast of characters. But the main character starts the book well integrated in the popular crowd, or more specifically in the punk rock crowd, but definitely not among the nerds. The choice to give up her backstabbing frienamies for a life among the geek-squad is the big story arc of this book. I like Jessie's friends at the end of the book way more than her friends at the beginning of the book, but her deep moral dilemma about whether she wanted to "gasp" become a nerd did piss me off a little bit and I sort of felt like the nerds should have seen through her and not accepted her because she was sort of a bitch. But in fiction, nerds never reject cool kids so that didn't happen.

While I enjoyed all eight of these books, if I had to pick a favorite, it would probably be Okay for Now. What about you? What's the best book you read in April?