Permission to Whine...

The always fun Luisa tagged me with this meme this morning...and I'll take her up on it. It's not often that we have permission to voice disgruntled feelings. And as my mother says - when it's your mud puddle, sometimes it's okay to wallow in it. (As long as you eventually get out and shower, of course.)

5 people who will be annoyed that I tagged them:

Betsy
Carrie
Eva
Hannah (because it's about time that you started your own blog!)
Amy Jane (I know you don't usually do the meme thing, but maybe this will serve to inspire some future post.)

4 things that should go into Room 101 to be banished from the earth forever:

Child abuse. All forms.

Realistic horror movies that just serve to perpetuate fear and violence. They give me nightmares and make me afraid to be in my own backyard. I don't like 'em.

Barbie Girl by Aqua. I don't know why. I just have detested this song from the first time I heard it.

The last season of 7th Heaven. So. Many. Reasons.

3 things people do that make you want to shake them violently:

Calling other people any variation on the word 'stupid'.

Scraping silverware on plates. (My siblings still do this on purpose just to make me crazy.)

Grabbing a book out of my hands while I'm reading it. Not a good idea. Ever.

2 things you find yourself moaning about:

Writing anything 'official' about my fiction - a query, a synopsis, an outline....the bane of my scribbling fun.

Potty training. Will it ever end?

1 thing the above answers tell you about yourself:

That I have lots of pet peeves? Because I really had so many answers - I had to pick and choose...I think I'm an idealist. I have pictures in my head of how things should be (probably all picked up from sources such as Little House on the Prairie and L.M. Montgomery...) and it stresses me out when reality interferes. For instance - would Anne and Gilbert ever through Saw? I think not. The imagination is meant for creating works that are beautiful and reflect something important about life and faith - okay, so the dark stuff comes into play (and I realize that this is in my own work)....but the important thing is that it has a point. The bad stuff works into good stuff - or at least shows that there's hope. (And the 7th Heaven thing? That just has to do with aspiring for quality and not quantity. Another whole post.)

In a Fairy-Tale-ish Sort of Mood

During a recent trip to the movies, I saw a preview for Philip Pullman's The Golden Compass. This was a book I received as a gift waaaaay back in 1997 (I know this for sure from the inscription, which begins 'to the girl who always has her nose in a book'. Apparently a decade hasn't changed me all that much). It's fantasy and is the first book in Pullman's trilogy - which, unfortunately, I never finished reading.

I pulled the book out and reread it last night. There are things I didn't know to catch as a thirteen year old, such as the fact that these books are drawn from Milton's Paradise Lost and the controversial subject matter of the Dust, which is supposedly related to original sin. I can't elaborate on that without finishing the books - many mysteries were left unsolved in the first installment. But The Golden Compass is full of adventure and it was fun getting caught up in it again...

As I read it, I realized that it has been a long time since I have read a novel that is purely fantasy. I've reread Tolkien's Lord of the Rings trilogy and Lewis' Narnian books in the past couple of years, but that's about it. It's odd, because as a kid I loved Madeleine L'Engle's science fiction books and I remember devouring Ursela Le Guin's Earthsea series...I think that I have this idea of grown-up fantasy/sci-fi books as books filled with vampires and werewolves and badly written cliches, which doesn't make me want to read them.

I'm hoping that I have misinformed myself...because I enjoy stepping into worlds different from my own and I'm sure that children's literature doesn't have a complete monopoly on good literary fantasy.

So I'm hoping to expand my reading list - if you have any suggestions, please let me know!

Looking Forward To...

Becoming Jane, starring Anne Hathaway, is going to be released August tenth...and I cannot wait to see it.

Here's the link to check out the trailers and other film related items - www.becomingjane-themovie.com...

If you like Jane Austen's novels (I do!) and Anne Hathaway's acting (I do!), then you'll be as excited about this movie as I am...

Why Didn't Ben Franklin Think of This One?

The newest proverb around our house, courtesy of Sean's newest try to convince me that I should really wake up before seven am:

"Get up! It's morning! I need breakfast! Mommy, don't sleep on the sun!"

I'll definitely be turning that one against him when he's fifteen and convinced that ten-thirty on a Saturday is soooo early...

A Beautiful Thing

If I were Julie Andrews in a swirly skirt and musically gifted children in my charge, singing of my favorite things during a thunderstorm - this, dear friends, would be one of the first items I'd melodically appreciate...

Love This.

Basically, it's like Netflix for books...though the company has been around for a while, I just discovered it via a mention on the Publisher's Weekly website. The cheapest package is $9.99 a month - and for that, you can have two books sent to you as many times as you can fit in during thirty days...free shipping, no late charges, and a large inventory from which to choose. I love knowing that new books are heading towards me...and since it's so easy to browse, I found myself looking at authors I've never heard of before. With one easy click, I can add them to my list and poof! Broadened horizons.

If you're a book lover (especially if you're a book lover with kids who don't exactly have the patience for long, leisurely trips through the grown-up sections of the library), this could be just the thing for you.

A Letter

Dear Blog,

It must be said. You, dearest Blog, are covered with dust and layers of loneliness. You're not meeting my eyes right now - could it be that you feel abandoned? Do you resent that you've been left to fend for yourself in cyberspace?
I take full responsibility and I offer my deepest apology. I do, however, have a rather wonderful excuse.
The novel is finished. It is, of course, still in need of lots of reviews and edits - but I finally wrote the end. In order to get to that point, I had to put all of my concentration into writing....which resulted in my absence from you. But it's done - and now, during the ensuing search for an agent (yikes!), I will have more quality time for you.

Thanks for hanging in there with me.

Love, Christie