Owl Surgery

Zoe called me in to tuck her into bed last night, and when I walked in I found her frozen and staring down at the sheets. Normally this means she’s discovered a spider or some other bug, or she’s just barfed, or something equally disgusting has just taken place. I steeled myself and asked, “What’s going on?”

• • •

Bad Habit

In an attempt to help myself find things to write about, because some days suck when it comes to generation of original ideas, I bought a little book at Target entitled 300 Writing Prompts. This was an impulse purchase, like 99% of what Target sells to consumers (damn you Target!) but I think it’ll be good, especially for this month when I’ve committed to posting something – anything – on the blog every day.

• • •

It’s not heavy. It’s my backpack.

Yesterday morning, in an effort to help my child who is still struggling with a Halloween hangover, I loaded her laptop and power cord into her backpack and went to move it to the door. I actually grunted when I picked up her pack. The thing has some heft. It’s all Vera Bradley bright flowers and quilted softness, but it’s stuffed to the gills with paper and tech. Then I remembered that she had band today and needed to haul her clarinet in, too. Out of curiosity, I toted everything back to my bathroom and set it all on the scale. Her load clocked in at 26 pounds.

• • •

National Write Something Somewhere Month

For the last two years, I’ve participated in NaNoWriMo, or National Novel Writing Month. The premise is easy: you write down 1,667 words every day for a month (the month of November) and then at the end of the month you have a 50,000-word book. While the premise is easy, the execution is hard. Some days it’s hard to write ten words, much less 1,667. However, I set myself up both years for success by doing a variety of things, not the least of which was going in with a solid idea of what I wanted to write. The first year I wrote about my experiences working at an all-boys school run by Benedictine monks. I will never publish those stories, but I wanted to get them down for myself and NaNoWriMo was a great motivator to actually do it.* I hit the goal easily and “won.” I was pretty pleased that I was able to say, “Yeah, I wrote a book.” Last year I completed the first draft of the middle-school adventure novel I had begun the year before. I knew where I needed to go with it and had a rough idea of chapters, which made it relatively easy in regards to direction. I’ve spent much of the last year editing and, once I get my changes moved from the hard copy to the electronic version I’ll be able to send it ’round to a select group of beta readers. NaNo was a great motivator to finally finish it. And then I was able to say, “Yeah, I have written two books.” I mean, no one has read them and they just hang out on my computer like petulant teenagers wondering if I’m ever going to let them out of their room again, but yeah, I have written two books.

• • •

Sick Day

I’ve come to the conclusion at the ripe old age of 44 that being sick can cause you to have irrational thoughts. The term “head cold” takes on new meaning when you realize that it’s not just a runny nose, sore throat, and popping ears…it’s a whole new adventure through the Land of Questionable Decisions.

• • •
1 6 7 8 9 10 281