Currently: Month of May
I stole this meme from A Peek at Karen’s World, a great writing blog. I love how we share many of the same answers. Here’s what I’m into for May:
Current Book
Stuff that Christians Like by Jon Acuff (again) for BookLinks
My own book, Dismantling Spider Webs, on my Nook, before I hand it over to the BookLink girls
Left Neglected by Lisa Genova (I loved Still Alice!)
Current Album
Sigh No More, Mumford & Sons
Current Shame-Inducing Guilty Pleasure
The Stumble button. Don’t say I didn’t warn you.
Current Drink
Current Songs
“Dog Days are Over”, Florence and the Machine
“Hannah”, Freelance Whales
Current Wish-List
Confidence that I am supposed to be writing and that my work is not drivel.
Current Needs
Sun therapy
A decision
Current Triumph
I finished Zone Trippers on Monday and I am handing out Dismantling Spider Webs at the end of this month. Sharing my work is a big hurdle for me! So is typing “The End.”
Current Favorite Film
I saw Water for Elephants in the theater opening weekend. Gorgeous! I am still trying to see Inception and The Social Network. I am so behind the times.
Current TV Show
Big Bang Theory, which I always love. Better With You is one of my new favorites.
Current Celebrity Crush
Nathan Fillion, who needs to play the lead in my current book, so my friend Laurel can meet and marry him. (Isn’t this
t-shirt awesome?)
Current Indulgence
Copious amounts of Jelly Belly jelly beans, especially pomegranate and honey ones.
Current Outfit
Gardening pants, t-shirt and cardigan sweater. I can’t wait for sundress days!
Current Banes of My Existence
Osteoarthritis and a torn rotator cuff. Oh joy!
Current Excitement
The sun is currently shining! First time in weeks and the only day for the foreseeable future.
Current Mood
Still firmly mired in winter depression, so I am going outside to play!
Current Picture
Family portraits and new head shots are being taken next week by my awesome friend, Dawn Alicea. The awesome part about having friends who are photographers is that my kids are always their models. And almost all of my friends are photographers!
So what are you currently into?
A to Z Recap
I heard about the A to Z Blogging Challenge about a week before it launched. It was the worst time for me to participate because:
- I was finishing large scale revisions to my work in progress, Zone Trippers
- I had to buy a new car which required research, spreadsheets and boat loads of money
- I had to put on an elaborate Harry Potter birthday party for my son, and
- My knuckles were swollen 3x their normal size
But I jumped in with both feet and didn’t miss a day!
What I Learned
- The key to success for me is public motivation. I never would have blogged 26 times in a month if I hadn’t publicly promised.
- I am capable of writing 500-600 words of copy a day ready for immediate consumption.
- I don’t have that much to say.
- My most popular blog posts were: Must Reads, Editing, Sexy, Cry and Doubt.
- I didn’t get to visit every one of the 1,200+ blogs that participated. But I did add several new blogs to my RSS feed.
- Finding something to say in the Comments section is harder than I thought. I don’t blame anyone who doesn’t comment.
- I will never give up my RSS feed. Mostly I followed the #atozchallenge hashtag on Twitter but I would conservatively guess that only 1/10th of the bloggers used Twitter regularly.
- Once again, I wish people understood that readability is important. Use headers, subheads, bullet points, etc. Large blocks of text are hard to read.
- My Mom read every day and often called me to see what the blog post was going to be about.
Takeaway
Gimmicks are my thing. NaNoWriMo, A to Z Blogging Challenge, the 3 Day Novel…. these things surround me with cheerleaders and accountability, which guarantees I will succeed.
I learned a lot and found some new friends. I still have a hard time seeing the automatic connection between blogging and growing a platform for a fiction book. So many bloggers write about the process of writing, which is interesting to me.. as a writer.
But as a reader, I just want to know more about the author’s world, their insight or occasionally their process. I am unsure how or if blogging will fit into my fiction writing.