Bookworm

Just read a statistic from the American Library Association that the average number of books checked out each year by library card holders is seven.  I was shocked and a little horrified.  Seriously, seven books is like my monthly minimum.  I've read 22 library books since the start of this year, and that doesn't include things like cookbooks that I get just to browse or books I check out but don't like and so don't finish.  If I ever check out only seven library books in a year, someone probably needs to make sure I'm still breathing.

Plot in Need of Thickener

So I'm working on a novel I started in mid-February, a new novel that has now reached over 80 pages.  I'm trying to write it as fast as humanly possible, resisting the urge to revise and just plowing through.    The trick with this is that one of my biggest weaknesses as a writer is that I struggle with action/adventure/mystery style plots.  Now if I were a romance novelist or a literary fiction writer this probably wouldn't be quite so much of a problem, but the stories I like best have action and intrigue and well...story, and I want my novels to have the same thing.   Therefore I tend to spend a lot of time staring at blank notebook pages and scribbling ideas until something makes some sort of sense.   If the writing fairies could grant me a gift (besides making a living as a writer) I would ask for a natural talent for plot.

Final Draft - Dedication and Acknowledgements

I should probably warn my Mom and Grandma not to read this without Kleenex handy...

Tonight I put the last touches on my final draft of my PhD dissertation.  Yes, I still have the format review from the Thesis Office to go through, but this is the last draft that will deal with the content of the dissertation.

This was also the draft that allowed me to create the dedication and acknowledgements of the dissertation. 

I may have talked about this before, but my grandfather, Roy Logan, passed away shortly before I moved to Utah to attend graduate school.  Even though he himself didn't get a college education he was one of the most valiant and consistent supporters of my educational goals.  The same week I found out I had been accepted at the U was the same week we found out his cancer was terminal.  From that moment on I decided that if I actually managed to get a PhD my dissertation would be dedicated to him.   Today my dissertation dedication page reads, "To my grandfather, Roy Wallace Logan."

The acknowledgements also give me a chance to thank some important people, though these are mostly sources of funding and professors, I thought a couple of lines were worth posting here.

"I owe a great deal of gratitude to many people...for their help with this dissertation...my fellow graduate students, especially my friend Michaele Smith...Finally, I would like to express my heartfelt thanks to my friends and family for their patience and encouragement, especially my husband Tracy Cope who provided critical feedback and support and without whom this dissertation would not have been possible."

There wasn't room to list all of you by name, but chances are good that if you read this blog you are in fact amongst those friends and family I am so grateful to have.

As my mom mentioned just today, there really is starting to be a light at the end of the tunnel, and all of you at one time or another have helped me see it.

Thank you.

The Ankle of Doom

So I'm starting to feel a little cursed in the ankle department.   While standing to walk in to a church meeting today I managed to step wrong in my slightly high heeled shoes and turn over the same ankle I sprained last month.  Again felt the lovely pop and now it's swollen and difficult to walk on again.   I take heart from the fact that it's not as bad as last time, but still, it's a little frustrating. 

Forty-four Pages

It's been 13 days since I made my 1,000 word a day goal and I'm startled, honestly, by how effective that goal is.  Today I was really tired when I sat down to work, and at first I worried that this was the day that I wouldn't make it.   Still, I did manage to think of a scene I need to write for the novel that is a follow-up to Rell, and once I got started it was a bit easier than I expected.  Overall, the goal has led to forty-four pages of writing in less than two weeks.  Which is pretty exciting, considering that when the month started I was staring down the biggest case of writer's block I'd had in recent memory.  

I think there are a couple reasons for why this works:

First, 1000 words is a significant number of words, enough to feel like an accomplishment and yet not so large that it's impossible.

Second, I've done my very best to treat it almost like it's work hours that I need to put in.  Not a hobby, or something that would be nice to get to, but something that I truly must do every day.

Now, here's hoping I can keep it up. 

The Interesting Consequences of Being A Decent Cook

Ok, so I'm not claiming to be a chef or anything, but I'm finally to a place in my life where I can admit I'm a pretty good cook.  I can experiment and things come out well and I've gotten to the point that 80 percent of the time (unless I'm baking) I don't even use recipes anymore. 

However, there are some interesting consequences to being a decent cook.  For example, a couple of weeks ago some decent brand frozen dinners were on sale at the grocery store and so I bought a couple thinking they'd be good for lunches when I'm home.  Well, I had one today, and it wasn't awful by any means, but it wasn't really good either, and I unfortunately could picture what it would taste like if I'd made that dish myself.  Now granted it's a more complicated dish than I would make for lunch - ever - but still I couldn't help but make the comparison.  So, probably won't be buying those again.  

It also changes what I order at restaurants.  I never order pork chops, because Tracy's grilled ones are so amazing why would I bother, and I'm ordering steak less and less for the same reason.  (He made AMAZING steaks for Valentines Day.  I'm very lucky.) I do like ordering salads, because while I could make them, it's a lot of work to not only chop all that stuff, but also to buy it and keep it fresh enough that it's there when you actually want one.

I suppose it's good that I'm more inclined to eat stuff I've made myself, but I also think back to being a single girl and eating lots of frozen easy stuff, because, honestly it wasn't really that much worse than what I generally cooked.  Not as tasty, but occasionally easier :-)

1000 Word Goal Update

So first four days of the 1,000 word goal were amazing.  I worked on the two projects I was ideally supposed to work on and managed to write 18 pages.  Today though, it was pretty painful, I spent a lot of time staring at the computer and being extraordinarily frustrated and the last 300 words were mostly a bit of goofing off - an image I had in my head about two very brilliant but very different people meeting across a library study table.  Basically a random scene I have no current use for.  Still, I managed it.  There's hope for me yet.