The Blogging from A-Z Challenge 2012

Here it is, the first day of February, and I'm sure all our New Year's resolutions are accomplished and completed, right? Right? Yeah, me, too.

So, why am I adding another goal, another challenge, to my already looooong list of to-dos? And why should you? Because this A-Z Challenge sounds like a lot of fun. Think about it - hundreds of bloggers (if not more!) all posting on the same day, about the same letter. The inspiration, the pure imagination of it all, is mind-blowing. The possibilities for posts are endless. Meeting other bloggers and finding new friends are practically guaranteed.

Since this is my first time participating, I don't have any actual advice on how to do it or what to write about, but here are some links to get you started:

What is Blogging from A-Z?
The Blogging from A-Z Challenge April 2012 Sign Up List
The Blogging from A-Z Challenge April 2012 Home Page

You can sign up now and start socializing and planning your posts but since the actual challenge doesn't start until April, that gives us plenty of time to cross a few of those old resolutions off our lists. (Keeping up with the housework? What was I thinking? Sheesh.)

Motivational Monday

SOMETIMES I'VE BELIEVED AS MANY AS

SIX IMPOSSIBLE THINGS BEFORE BREAKFAST.

(Lewis Carroll, from Through the Looking Glass)

To me, this is one of the greatest pleasures of being a writer, of having an imagination. What if...?

What if...I looked out the window and saw my Florida neighborhood was buried in snow drifts? And the snow was purple?

What if...the noises my husband dismissed as the house creaking was really an old lady sitting in a rocking chair in the attic? 

What if...instead of scrambling over to their food dish, the tortoises stood up on their hind legs and walked over to it, with Larry letting Mrs. Larry have first dibs? (We'd actually have a better chance of the walking part happening than of L being so polite.)

Now, you try. What if...?

Recommended Reading: A GROWN-UP KIND OF PRETTY by Joshilyn Jackson

I am a huge Joshilyn Jackson fan. Her novel, Backseat Saints, starts out with this line: "It was an airport gypsy who told me that I had to kill my husband." I mean, come on! How can you not want to read that?

After that book, I went back and read all her others. Then...nothing. I had to wait until this month for her newest - and probably her best so far - A Grown-Up Kind of Pretty. Was it worth the the wait? Well, considering I pretty much cried my way through the last part of the book, and then ended up smiling through my tears, yeah, I would say so.

The strong, Southern women who people this book are raw and fierce, and they wear their love for each other like bold, brazen tattoos marching across each of their foreheads. We could all use someone like "Big" in our lives, and some of us probably know/knew a "Liza," and I bet a lot of us were a little bit like "Mosey," when we were young.  

Go ahead and click on the above link for a plot summary but I'm going to leave you with a few lines from Big:

"So, the question was, would I let these corpse-cold bastards come after my granddaughter without a fight, without every bit of fight I ever had?...Standing outside that glass wall, I believed I had come to the awful end of everything. My family has long been familiar with that territory...That's when I understood that what I did today was a message. Even if I lost, if Mosey was being driven away from the only home she remembered in a sleek official car, it would absolutely matter. She'd be alone, afraid, and with good reason: she had to know, know down to the bone, that I had fought like hell. That I would always stand with her and fight like hell. That the second after that sleek car pulled away, I'd be in my Malibu, seeing where she landed, sitting outside. Law or no law, she was mine."

The Off The Shelf Challenge: January

Well, here we are, closing in on the end of January...and I have already stalled on the Off The Shelf Challenge.

For the challenge, I've read three books so far - two I own and one from my To Be Read list. 

However.

I started reading six other books that did not make me want to keep reading. So, I began nine books total but only three hooked me and held me until the end.

Two of the three that I read - The Silent Girl by Tess Gerritsen and A Killer's Essence by Dave Zeltserman - were gripping, peppered with humor and sarcasm, and peopled with great characters. (But this is no surprise to me as I'm already fans of both authors.) I won't name the third book because even though I finished it, I didn't really enjoy it. Why keep reading? Because I liked the writing style and the story just enough, I cared just enough, to see how it all turned out.

As for the other six? I just wasn't all that interested in the characters and/or invested in the story and I think the biggest reason for that was the writing itself didn't pull me in. Sometimes it was too literary and descriptive, other times it was too abrupt and clunky. I read about 100 slow going pages in one book, then stopped when I realized the book was over 400 pages long! No way was I going to drag myself through another 300 plus pages.

If I have to dig deep to find the story buried beneath the writing, it better be worth it. If I have to overlook "head hopping" and stiff dialogue, the story better be strong enough to pull me over that hump. If the story is long and meandering, that's fine but it better show me - sooner rather than later - some great scenery and introduce me to compelling characters along the way.

Now, of course, this is just my opinion. Someone else might read those same books and love them. That's what's so wonderful about books and reading and stories - there truly is something for everyone.

(I actually read four books this month. One wasn't on my shelf/list but I don't care because there was no way I was going to wait to read the new Joshilyn Jackson novel. But that's a post for another day.)

Motivational Monday

THE SECRET TO SUCCESS IN LIFE

IS TO MAKE YOUR VOCATION

YOUR VACATION.

(Mark Twain)

When was the last time you took a vacation from writing? Yeah, that's what I thought. Me, too. 

Even when I'm taking a "break," I'm not. I might leave my office - with all the poster boards and index cards and drafts of my latest novel spread around the place so walking is like picking your way through a minefield - but I don't really leave the work. And even if I do manage to put the novel story to bed and tuck the characters under the covers, I'm still not "done." There are flash stories to write and characters to meet and lines of description begging to be written down, even if it's only on the back of my hand. 

My "job" is my joy.

Call Out for Contest Entries: Writer Advice's 7th Flash Prose Contest

In 2011, my story, Hungry, won First Place in this contest. Now, I'm hoping you all will give it a try!

And don't let the fact that I'm one of the judges for the 2012 contest sway you either way. I'm objective. And I'm tough. (Really. I am. Stop laughing.) Besides, the judges don't get to see any author bios anyway.  

You can read the winning stories and find all the information here. You have until April 2012 but don't wait too long. The deadline will be here before you know it.

Good luck!

Motivational Monday

DREAMS ARE RENEWABLE.

NO MATTER WHAT OUR AGE OR CONDITION,

THERE ARE STILL UNTAPPED POSSIBILITIES 

WITHIN US AND NEW BEAUTY WAITING

TO BE BORN.

(Dr. Dale Turner)

I sometimes feel like the older I get, the more dreams I lose. And I suppose that's true to an extent - I'm not ever going to make any of those "30 Writers Under 30 to Watch" lists - but it also, well, doesn't matter so much anymore. Okay, to be honest, it did matter but I've already grieved over that particular dream and have since moved on. 

That's the key. We need to move on from dreams that are no longer possible or no longer work for us. We need to create new dreams or dig deep and "renew" some of the old ones, modify them a bit. I can't make that "Writers Under 30" list but I can make the "50 Writers Under 50 to Watch" list. And if that list doesn't exist, then I can go ahead and create one.

So, this week, let's grieve for some of those old, ill-fitting dreams, and then release them. Let's give ourselves room to grow new ones or rediscover some we'd forgotten about. Otherwise, we're going to be like those people who get stuck, mired in old dreams, who never raise their head and see how much more is still out there. And I don't know about you, but I don't want to become one of those people.