72nd ROW80 Check-In

A Round of Words in 80 Days
Round 4 2012
The writing challenge that knows you have a life

My goals are all time investment and are detailed on the  ROW80 page   I keep track of the time invested with a Google Doc spreadsheet linked on the goals page and also in each check-in along with a screenshot of the most recent days.

These check-in posts will contain any commentary I have about encounters with the goals since the previous check-in and any relevant links.

Below the commentary is my current reading list for the READ CRAFT goal.

View the spreadsheet Google Doc directly

View the goals list

I lost a few Ys this week in READ CRAFT and FICTION FILES but to a good cause I think.  On Thursday my sister drove me down to Phoenix OR for an overnight visit with my husband and to pick up stuff I anticipate needing in the next three to six months--ARCs, reference books, notes and research for my storyworld, important papers, fiber art misc, and my spring/summer wardrobe.

This 600 odd mile round trip made in under 40 hours was the latest episode in the personal crisis I'm calling a lifequake which I touched on in the last three check-ins and detailed in the ROW80 #69 check-in.  I won't keep reiterating the story in these check-ins just link back to #69 whenever the background is needed to understand the particular context of a current check-in.

The essence is that we lost medical benefits through my husband's work and it's life threatening for me to be off my meds so I'm staying here at my Mom's in Longview WA where the resources are better and my sister who knows the system from using it for herself and Mom the last several years can be my advocate.  There's a bit more to it but that's all that's necessary to understand why I thought it fitting to let a few Ys collapse into Ns for a couple of days.  I still got the N in FICTION FILES today though because I spent so much time getting the new load of my stuff integrated with the original load.

But I spent 30 minutes on the mini-tramp.  Double the minimum to get the Y in Move.  Not to mention all the moving involved in shuffling boxes and bags from here to there and elsewhere.

I refuse to feel too bad about the Ns in FICTION FILES tho as Wednesday night I finished the edit for Blow Me A Candy Kiss, the short story I'm planning to use as the experiment in self publishing.  It is now ready for beta readers.   Anyone interested can say so in a comment or email me at the email in the sidebar.  A link to an earlier draft can be found in the ROW80 Goals page linked under the spreadsheet above.

I need to take another picture of my workstation now as I've tripled the number of books I brought from home among other things.

My extended stay here has ramifications for my fiction writing which I went into in great detail in the last two check-ins coming away from them with the plan to dedicate late evenings and part of the weekends Mom spends at my brother's to FICTION FILES.  Doing the former resulted in finishing the revision/edit of Candy Kiss this week.  I've yet had no chance to do the latter as this weekend was dedicated to getting my stuff unpacked and organized before Mom comes home tomorrow.


READ CRAFT:

Currently Reading

What to Do When There's Too Much to Do by Laura Stack (Part of my attempt to organize my life around my priorities. So part of my ROW80 reading list)
Hooked: Write Fiction That Grabs Readers at Page One and Never Lets Go by Les Edgerton
Write Good or Die! edited by Scott Nicholson (a collection of essays by inde authors.  many of them self-published)  
The Act of Creation by Arthur Koestler
What Matters in Jane Austen? by John Muller  Net Galley a NF that purports to answer many puzzles in the Austen novels. Since this discusses writing and techniques of fiction
Trust the Process: An Artist's Guide to Letting Go by Shaun McNiff  I just lifted the strikethru I put on this the week I left home in January as I brought it back with me this week
Jung and the Tarot: An Archetypal Journey by Sallie Nichols Since I'm reading this for an understanding of character type and the language of symbol understood by our unconscious as well as research for a character who is a Tarot reader
13 Ways of Looking at a Novel by Jane Smiley  This was one of the 24 items I checked out of the Longview library on my sister's card last Thursday.
The Exegesis of Philip K. Dick.  Found this while spelunking the stacks looking for the Smiley book.  Who knew.  Dick was a mystic.  I've only read one of his novels and a few short stories but now I've got to try to find and read everything!
Mystery and Manners by Flannery O'Connor  This is a reread for me and has had significant impact on the development of my storyworld in the early months of its inception.  My Friday post was about my current encounter with it after checking it out of the Longview library again for the first time in over a decade.


Recently Read:

A Cheap and Easy Guide to Self-publishing eBooks by Tom Hua read this online
Imagine: How Creativity Works by Jonah Leher
The Power of Habit by Charles Duhigg  Just finished this last fall and wrote an overview of it for that check-in along with my musings on how to apply what I learned..  This is where I've been getting the most help with learning how to recognize a habit, determine if it is desirable and if so maximize it but if not change it.