A Road Map

Sometimes it is easier to find your way when you already know where you are going.  These questions are from Julia Cameron's book The Vein of Gold on pages 105-106.  I think they are useful when I need a reminder about what things move and motivate me.  Think of them as a useful compass...


1.  Name five favorite films.
2.  Name your favorite childhood book.
3.  Name three characters you loved.
4.  Name three characters you would love to play.
5.  Name three topics you think about.
6.  Name three topics you read about.
7.  What was your childhood book about?
8.  What are your movies about?
9.  Do your movies and books have anything in common?
10.  Do your characters, your reading, and your thinking connect up somehow with your movies and your childhood book?


Other helpful sites
The Happiness Project Toolbox
Authentic Happiness
The Last Lecture of Randy Pausch


Moon Report:  95% of full.  Waning gibbous.
Outside the Window:  Cold.  Partly cloudy complete with muted snow glare.

The Lists

We all have our lists of things to do.  These are a few of mine...


Books


1.  The Time Traveler's Wife by Audrey Niffenegger
2.  Everything is Illuminated by Jonathan Safran Foer
3.  Vanity Fair by William Makepeace Thackeray
4.  Shades of Grey by Jasper Fforde
5.  The Story of Edgar Sawtelle by David Wroblewski  
6.  The Children's Book by A. S. Byatt
7.  The Emperor of Scent by Chandler Burr


Music


1.  Hyms to the Darkness by Jeff Zentner
2.  Chasing Locusts by Strawfoot
3.  Furr by Blitzen Trapper
4.  Ghost Dance by The Pine Hill Haints
5.  Regard the End by Willard Grant Conspiracy
6.  Miss Halfway by Anya Marina
7.  Elysium for the Brave by Azam Ali


Vegetables


1.  Beans:  Mayflower, Good Mother Stallard, Lazy Housewife
2.  Carrots:  Dragon, St. Valery
3.  Lettuce:  Cracoviensis, Amish Deer Tongue, Tango
4.  Hot Peppers:  Black Hungarian, Rooster Spur
5.  Sweet Pepper:  Chervena Chushka, Napoleon Sweet
6.  Peas:  Amish Snap
7.  Tomatoes:  Crnkovic Yugoslavian, Black Krim


I'm still debating whether I want to tangle with squash vines and cucumbers.  Not that I don't love both, but they take up soooooooo much space.


Heirloom Seed Banks:  Seed Saver's Exchange, Baker Creek Seeds, Heirloom Seeds


Moon Report:  100% of full.  Full Moon.  
Outside the Window:  Wet snow.  Coldish.  Overcast.

It's that time of year again, folks

New Year.

What the hell?  Where did the old one go?

What did I do this year?  Taught school.  Subbed for schools.  Wrote the majority of my novel...still not finished.  So there really hasn't been much to report.

What do I hope to accomplish this year?  A finished novel.  A literary agent.  A book contract with a major publisher.  Oh, yeah, and a garden with more than tomatoes and peppers...

Yes, that will happen.

Moon Report:  98% of full.  Waxing gibbous.
Outside the window:  Snow.  Coldish.
 

Confession

This is not about confession as in "Bless me, Father, for I have sinned...", but the kind of writing that allows for the expression of emotions--even the ones we keep hidden from just about everyone (including ourselves).

I am perpetually fascinated by the masks people wear. Some people are distant. Some people are smart. Some people are slackers or lovers or garbage collectors. Most of us wear masks even when in the arms of the most intimate company.

We do our best to "keep up appearances"--to maintain our facade through the daily routine. But sometimes we crack. Sometimes the mask slips and we are on full display in our rage and fear and sadness and hope and love. We can be glorious. Even if only for a moment.

Occasionally, we allow these slips to be channeled into a written format. It can be as horrific as a slap in the face. It can be easy and small. But it makes us real. It gives us shape--even long after we are gone.


Letters of Note: Correspondence Deserving of a Wider Audience
PostSecret
The Secret Postcards
The Assassin's Cloak: An Anthology of the World's Greatest Diarists


Dear XYZ--

We've lived separated lives over years, centuries, eons...who can tell? In the too short moment crossing I...(insert phrase of your choice here). Did you know you still live under my skin? I never imagined this would be so wrenching.

Words take too long.

Moon Report: 80% of full. Waning gibbous.

Ketchup

Music

I am rediscovering how much I appreciate music. I now have a taste for bands that aren't the highly polished glam turned out for top 40 or MTV. Maybe I appreciate the truly creative? Anyway...here are a few on my playlists at the moment.

Rootsy Americana: Pine Hill Haints, Mischief Brew, Slim Cessna's Auto Club, Strawfoot, and Willard Grant Conspiracy, Drag the River
Songwriters: Annie Humphrey, Jackie Greene, Jeff Zentner, Ben Weaver
Miscellany: Stellamara, Azam Ali, Arcana


Books

Castle: A Novel by J. Robert Lennon

Very much a psychological drama, but without much in the way of feeling. It left me a little cold and without a satisfactory reason for having completed reading it.

The Magicians by Lev Grossman

A very interesting coming-of-age novel that doesn't provide easy answers. There is no magical solution to actually living and surviving your choices.


I'm such a slacker reader!


Other Stuff

There's been things. There's been stuff. We'll just leave it at that.


Moon: Waning Gibbous. 88% of full.