38th ROW80 Check-In

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

I'm doing things quite differently this round.  Since I joined mid Round 2 this year I have been using a blog-within-a-blog format for these check-in posts with updates stacked atop previous updates and commentary added under each goals section including a string of Ns and Ys for the five time investment goals.  This got quite unwieldy by mid round.

So now I've created a Google Doc Spreadsheet to keep track of the Ns and Ys and have set up a ROW80 page to feature the goals sans commentary.  These check-in posts will now contain only the commentary relating to the previous half week, a screenshot of the relevant lines on the spreadsheet and link to the spreadsheet and goals page.

View the spreadsheet Google Doc directly
View the goals list

I still haven't managed to reintegrate the writing portions themselves into my days yet.  I don't know whether to be pleased that the other three time investment goals--MOVE, READ CRAFT, DAYDREAM STORY--have become woven into my days so as to seem effortless or to be chagrined that I still haven't written a word outside of blog posts and fb nine days into a writing challenge.  1 part of one and two parts of the other.  Take your pick.

The life events that got in the way last week are still active.  You can read about them in the last check-in or in Sunday's post--the very ill family friend who's been in ICU since a week ago Sunday.  Or rather she did get moved to a regular room on Tuesday but less than 24 hours later she coded again and is now back in ICU.

This is all happening over 500 miles north of me and only my sister's ability to access the net via her ipad from the waiting room to send updates via fb keeps me in the loop.  But it also keeps me glued to the open browser with the fb tab visible above whatever other application I might be working in and my eye wandering often to the fb tab watching for the telltale blinking alert that a message from my sister has arrived.

The situation is especially hard on my sister's whose best friend it is and who has to juggle her duties as Mom's caretaker in Longview WA and time at her friend's bedside in a hospital 40 miles away.  We've been planning for me to spend most of November up there so Mom can celebrate my birthday with me but I've offered to come sooner if it would help so I may end up having to pack on short notice for a six week or more visit so I'm trying to get organized for that.

Then the major Secret Santa crochet project had a major setback causing a major rethinking and reworking of two sections and now the carefully calculated pace of one  4x4 inch block per day which felt barely doable must now be stepped up to more than 1--not a full second one but an average of 1.25 probably tho I'd feel better if I could do an average of 2 per day between now and November 1 when NaNo starts to catch up even get a little ahead.

Also my husband has been sick for over a week with a virus and altho I've been taking food supplements faithfully--Airborne, Vita C, garlic, L-Lysine--I have the sense today I'm loosing the battle.  Just in time for Dewey's 24-hr Read-a-Thon on Saturday!!

So maybe I can be a little patient with myself about Ns for writing this week.  But only a little because there is always, ALWAYS, going to be something getting in the way and it does seem I'm too much of a pushover about it.  My life hasn't come to a halt.  Other things are getting done.  It is about the choices and for some reason I'm choosing to NOT write.  I'm choosing to not WRITE.  I'm CHOOSING to not write.

Wonder why that is?

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Book Review: Primal by D. A. Serra

Primal
by D. A. Serra
Publisher: Perry Street Pictures, Inc., May 13, 2012
Category: Crime Thriller
pages 250

This story got in the driver's seat on page one and sped around the twists and turns of a plot as convoluted as a pretzel.  Every time you start to think you know where it is going it takes another turn on two wheels.

Alison is a gentle 30 something suburban Mom, wife, elementary school teacher with the soul of a poet.  She knows she is going to be out of her element on this family vacation to a rustic fishing lodge with her husband and nine year old son whose birthday present had been the right to choose their destination.  But she is determined to defy their expectations.  She will not be categorized.  Especially as the wimpy, whiny, woman.  She will show them she can adapt.

But she has no idea how far out of her element she is about to be thrust nor how profoundly she will be required to adapt.

Ben B. has just been sprung from prison a month or so ahead of his date with the electric chair by his three brothers and they are fleeing to Canada when their boat breaks down near the island where the fishing lodge is and they take the dozen or so vacationers hostage.  Except Alison who had been busy vomiting her sea sickness into the toilet behind the kitchen when they arrived.

Having managed to slither out the bathroom window just ahead of one of the brother's inspection of the room she finds herself alone in the dark in the woods in a raging thunderstorm realizing that with no land line nor cell phone service she is on her own and the only hope for her son and husband and the other vacationers inside the lodge.

What will she be required to do to insure their survival?

Short answer: use her wits and her primal instincts and the element of surprise to lure the brother's out of the lodge one by one...

The breaking dawn finds her deep in the woods where she has led Ben, far from the lodge and far from her son when the sound of helicopters intrudes and the realization that help is arriving from the mainland interrupts the dance of predator and prey.  "This isn't over."  Ben mouths as he melts into the woods.

That is just the first third of the story.  Then it returns us to suburbia where Allison succumbs to PTSD, maintaining the same level of vigilance as on the island, refusing to be reassured even by the evidence Ben has died in an explosion during a shootout with the Canadian police.  Family and friends urge her to move on, remind her of her duties as a mother and wife, imply she is being irrational.

Their happy little family is falling apart.  After all she did to save them that night on the island is she going to loose all that was the core of who they were now?  Is this how Ben will win finally?

From the Publishers:

PRIMAL by D.A. Serra (screenplay originally purchased by James Cameron)

With everything at stake - what are you capable of? What if the worst happens and you're not a policeman, a soldier, or a spy with weapons training and an iron heart? What if you're a schoolteacher - a mom? In this gritty crime thriller a family vacation takes a vicious turn when a fishing camp is invaded by four armed men. With nothing except her brains, her will, and the element of surprise on her side, Alison must learn to kill or watch her family die.

And then, things get worse.

What they are saying: 

"To some, Minnesota's North Woods are a soothing antidote to the stresses of civilization. But to others, all that unpaved, unpeopled wilderness is just plain unnerving. And therein lies the seed of some very spooky storytelling."- Amy Goetzman, MinnPost

""Primal" the new book by D.A. Serra is a page turner. The story line and the characters engage you, and once you start you won't put it down until you are finished. The story reminds us that no matter how carefully we craft the "bubble" around our every day existence, no matter how safe and secure we make our environment and our lives, a chance encounter with evil can shatter that bubble and change our very persona forever. This is a great read."- Michael C Bertin, Amazon Reviewer

"Better than PD James. An astonishingly gripping tale, but more than that, it is full of insights, and wonderfully well written. The voice is unique, but it has that PD James quality."- Patricia S. Churchland "Neurophilosopher", Amazon Reviewer

"Mary Higgins Clark, watch out! I downloaded Primal and the new Mary Higgins Clark at the same time, and of the two, to my surprise, although I am a big MHC fan, I really enjoyed Primal best. If you love a good thriller, like I do, this is the book to read! A real page turner, riveting suspense, - well conceived and beautifully written - this author should to be on every thriller lover's 'to read' list!"- Lora, Amazon Reviewer

""Wow." It might be an hour or two before my breathing slows down and my stomach unwinds itself from a tight knot. I only put the book down twice since I started reading it. The book was so vivid. With confidence I can say Primal has brought out the most emotion of any book I have ever read. I have never been so consumed by a book before. The book is honestly one of the best I have ever read."- Laura, Amazon Reviewer

"I love a great story, one that is packed with explosive action. Primal is right on top when it comes to a suspenseful thriller. I was always anxious to get to the next chapter. I wanted to read fast, but the dialog was so good I didn't want to miss any of it. I was sad when I realized that I was coming to the end of the story. The characters in this thriller came to life for me. I couldn't help but put myself into the plot and to wonder what I would do if put into their same situation. If you love nail biting, explosive action that will not disappoint, Primal is it." Max- Amazon Reviewer

About D. A. Serra:

Deborah Serra was a screenwriter for twenty years and recognized by the Writer's Guild for her long term continuous employment. She has written ten TV movies, four feature films, and numerous TV episodes including two years as a staff writer for NBC. She worked for top producers, directors, and actors. She has taught writing at the University of California, San Diego, Wofford College and at writers' conferences nationwide. Serra has now turned her attention to novels, and she was honored as a recent recipient of the prestigious Hawthornden Literary Fellowship, and as a semi-finalist for the William Faulkner-William Wisdom Creative Writing Award given by the Faulkner Society in New Orleans, LA.


Deborah's Website.


Follow the blog tour to see more reviews, guest posts by the author and giveaways:

http://www.virtualauthorbooktours.com/

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Sunday Serenity #305 Prayer Request

praying4janetdickens.blogspot

It was one week ago today that Janet Dickens, a dear friend of the family, went into septic shock following a routine surgery, setting up a toxic storm of events in her system.  Nurses told the family she had a 30% chance of survival.  She has been in ICU every since.

Family and friends have been holding prayer vigil in the waiting room and taking turns for 5 minute visits.  The prayer chains across several state line and within multiple church communities have been vibrating with prayers.

The latest news I have was from early this morning and it was encouraging. Janet had come off the ventilator before noon Saturday.  She was responding to commands.  She recognized visitors and smiled.  Her white blood count was coming down.

All very encouraging but she is not free and clear yet.  If there are no setbacks the healing path will be long and arduous.  But setbacks are normal and in her case could be sudden and devastating.  So the prayer vigilance has not let up.

Prayers from any who are of a mind to are welcome.

If you have followed my blog for awhile you might recognize the name Dickens from these two posts:

Pray With Us for Josh and Emily
Josh and Emily Dickens Updates

That was Janet's recently wed son and daughter-in-law who'd just been in a terrible car accident in 2009.

The babies in the photo are grandchildren both born since January.  The crocheted baby toy I made last spring was for the little girl.

Janet has been my sister's best friend since elementary school when she lived two doors down and I would babysit her and her brother.  Her family is our family.

Read more...

37th ROW80 Check-In

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

I'm doing things quite differently this round.  Since I joined mid Round 2 this year I have been using a blog-within-a-blog format for these check-in posts with updates stacked atop previous updates and commentary added under each goals section including a string of Ns and Ys for the five time investment goals.  This got quite unwieldy by mid round.

So now I've created a Google Doc Spreadsheet to keep track of the Ns and Ys and have set up a ROW80 page to feature the goals sans commentary.  These check-in posts will now contain only the commentary relating to the previous half week, a screenshot of the relevant lines on the spreadsheet and link to the spreadsheet and goals page.

View the spreadsheet Google Doc directly
View the goals list

You will find I am still battling my two nemesis but apparently have the other three wrangled to the floor.

praying4janetdickens.blogspot

Life seriously got in the way this week.

Wednesday afternoon I found a message on my facebook from my sister saying that her best friend was in the hospital fighting for her life.  My days and nights since then have been focused on praying and watching my fb and the update blog created for Janet's loved ones for the latest news.

Janet has been my sister's closest friend since they were in elementary school and Janet's family lived two houses down from us.  During those years I occasionally babysat Janet and her little brother.

Ever since then Janet's family has been like family to our family.  She married straight out of high school in the mid 80s.  Had four kids whom she homeschooled and has become a grandma twice since January.  She is beloved of many.

There has been an abundance of good news today so we are all hopeful that she has come back to us.  But this was very serious.  One number given by the nursing staff Wednesday was 30% chance of survival.  I hope today's progress means that number has improved as well.

Prayers from any so inclined are welcome.

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Friday Forays in Fiction: Banned Book Week--Stifled Stories

Celebrating Banned Books Week

With so mush of the bookish web aswarm with Banned Book Week chatter and my own participation with a review (& giveaway for one of my crocheted bookmarks) of Judy Blume's Are You There God? It's Me Margaret which came out when I was in Junior High and yet I'd never read because I'd been scared off by the conservative freak out at that time, I have been contemplating the whys and wherefores of this urge to make certain stories taboo and wondering how much my own raising in an environment where this was common has affected my own storytelling.

More specifically I'm wondering how much the fact that the majority of the people in my daily life between birth and age 21 were of the opinion that only certain stories and certain ideas were safe or approved by God and everything else must be eschewed in the same way as germs, poison, and excrement has to do with my difficulty in completing the stories I start today.

Is there a part of me that continues to fear certain ideas so much that whenever I get close to them something in me shuts down?  Or is it that some aspect of my psyche still fears the disapproval of certain people from that era in my life who are still precious to me?  Or maybe it is that I fear offending them?  Or God?

Is the conditioning of childhood still so strong that I am still at 50 something stifling my own words even my thoughts?  If so, is there any way to stop that?

Read more...

Block Buster

The schedule for the big Secret Santa Crafter's Tote project has taken a big hit this week.  I had to give up on two of the chosen stitches after completing the first of their nine squares.

The broomstick lace was going to be too flimsy and the wavy puffs frustrated me too much but that was probably because it wasn't suited to the size of the square I needed and all my attempts to jigger the multiple of 17 stitch iteration counts to accommodate the 40 stitches to 4 inches gauge would not give me a fabric that would not pucker.

It may not be rocket science but it is math.

I wasted four days (read 20 hours) on it before giving up.  I could not imagine without heart palpitations working ten more squares of it.  Even if I could get the math right.

I was able to repurpose the broomstick square so did not have to take it out but there was nothing useful to be done with the puckered up wavy puff piece and I desperately needed the aqua thread on two more of the strips so I took it out.

So as of last Thursday I had 20 of the 99 squares and hoped for a square per day pace.  I lost two squares and ended up able to claim 22 as of this evening.  Not ideal at all.  That leaves me with 76 squares plus 9-11 inches in width on the  8ft Mobius and all the sewing together and finishing touches with 81 days available for working. Am going to have to increase the number of minutes per day I work on it.  But it helps that both of the stitches I chose to replace these two are going to work up quick.

Counting the brown bamboo thread used in the Mobius strip that will be the bottom/sides/strap I am going to run out of six of the colors within another three weeks or so.  Thus I made a Joanne.com order on Monday and am hoping I don't run out of one of the colors before it arrives.  Running out of one of the pastels can stall work on several of the 9 strips which is what having that aqua tied up on that one square for a week did.  But I can always switch over to the Mobius strip and get ahead on it if that happens.  Until I run out of the brown.

Am really looking forward to that thread order though as I got to order several 'just for fun' threads--new colors and variegated, including 4!! of the special Lizbeth size 20 Egyptian cotton to add to my palette.  But if I continue to fall behind on this project I won't get to play with the new thread before Christmas.  :(

Staying on schedule may have just gotten more complicated too as I may be needed to help my sister out with Mom later this month which means time out for packing and traveling.  If that happens it would be after next Monday and I would be staying through Thanksgiving at least.

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36th ROW80 Check-In

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

I'm doing things quite differently this round.  Since I joined mid Round 2 this year I have been using a blog-within-a-blog format for these check-in posts with updates stacked atop previous updates and commentary added under each goals section including a string of Ns and Ys for the five time investment goals.  This got quite unwieldy by mid round.

So now I've created a Google Doc Spreadsheet to keep track of the Ns and Ys and have set up a ROW80 page to feature the goals sans commentary.  These check-in posts will now contain only the commentary relating to the previous half week, a screenshot of the relevant lines on the spreadsheet and link to the spreadsheet and goals page.

View the spreadsheet Google Doc directly
View the goals list

I have to confess that after my marvelous accumulation of Ys in the last weeks of Round 3 I let it all slide after the final check-in.  Except for MOVE (ie exercise) and DAYDREAM STORYWORLD which seem to have become habitual I had pretty much all Ns for those two weeks until yesterday.  There would have been some scattered Ys for READ CRAFT if I'd been keeping track but they would have all been accidental due to landing on qualifying articles online by following inks in my fb and twitter newsfeeds, email and blog readers.  I never cracked open a single one of the books.

And the only writing has been blog posts and emails and 2do lists.

What I DID do though might mitigate the sound of that:

• a lot of catch-up housework
• three rearrangements of my desk corner in my office/craft room trying to eliminate productivity impediments.  I think I've almost got it.
• sorting of boxes and bags still unpacked from our move last December and my spring stay at mom's
• work on major crochet project for Xmas including calculating est time involved and establishing goals
• some prep for NaNo
• participation in Bloggiesta which focused on establishing goals and criteria for blogging that resemble those for writing that ROW80 has prompted
• read novels and posted reviews. hosted giveaways including the one posted yesterday for BBW

There were more but those are the ones I believe relate directly to creating a productivity friendly environment and so going forward I'll ease back into the ROW80 writing routines while trying to keep the other aspects of my life on a similar track.  I have to fight my inclination to hyper focus on one thing leaving all else to wither or worse.  

During last round I may have finally gotten my perfect strings of Ys but so much else fell by the wayside the ripple effects of their neglect were starting to backwash over the writing.  Apparently keeping care of ones self and ones environment is as important for creative productivity as is planting butt in seat to do the work.

My husband suggested tonight that I add SLEEP as one of the time investment goals.  But as I explained to him my struggle with sleep issues has been as epic as the battle between Jacob and the Angel and every time I've tried to address it with some sort of plan or schedule that depends on will power I fail abjectly.  I know that if I were to add this to the ROW80 goals it would only serve to inject that sense of failure into this endeavor and poison its roots.

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Are You There God? It’s Me Margaret by Judy Blume [Banned Books Week]

The giveaway drawing for one of my crocheted bookmarks is below the author bio.

Are You There God? It's Me Margaret.
by Judy Blume
c. 1970
p. 149

The week before starting sixth grade 11 year old Margaret moves from New York City to the suburbs of New Jersey.  Full of the angst of a tweener caught on the edge of childhood looking into the abyss of an approaching adulthood as dreaded as it is desired, Margaret finds comfort in discussing all the changes, quandaries, hopes, fears, and regrets with God, prefacing all such monologues with Are you there God? It's me Margaret.  This is itself an act of courage verging on defiance as she'd been purposely raised in no religion by her parents who'd defied their own parents by marrying outside their faiths--the mother a Christian and the Father a Jew--and had given Margret to understand she would be free to choose her own religion when she was grown.

Growing up was the primary thing on Margaret's mind and she constantly urges God to speed up the process, to please not make her be the lost one in her class to fill out her training bra, to menstruate or to be kissed by a boy.

Upon given an assignment at school for a year long project on a topic of her choice she chooses to research religion so she can be better prepared to choose when the time comes.  She attends Temple with her Jewish grandmother and several different Christian denomination's services with various friends but confesses she finds the color of the women's hats and the church architecture more interesting than the sermons.

Along the way she encounters the fallibility of her best friend, her parents and her self when they betray her expectations of them--she catches her friend in several lies and her parents renege on a promise.  As for her self, she mistreated another student and is consumed by shame over it.  These three events occur one right after the other leaving Margaret reeling with the emotional fallout.  At that point she begins to give God the silent treatment breaking it only on the very last page.

I chose a Judy Blume novel for BBW because although I was in Junior High when Are You There God? first came out, I had never read a Blume story.  This was due in part to my being raised in a strict, puritanical Christian home and the title alone of this book was considered sacrilegious.

I remember shelving this book as a library aide in High School and it was kept on a shelf in the back room with the periodicals along with several others--books that required a permission slip from a parent to check out.  I knew I needn't bother asking for permission.  I also realized I had access to it and could choose to read it right there in the library while manning the desk as I had done with several other books I'd know would not meet with my parents approval.  But I was equal parts intrigued and nervous at that prospect as the implication of the question 'Are You There?' in the title was nerve wracking to me at that time.

It would be nearly 20 years before I made my own exploration of religion and now I wish I'd had Margaret's story to help me on that path. 

Read Shelia's review and see a collection of all the covers this novel sported since 1970

Judy Blume was born in 19838 in New Jersey.  She began writing fiction for children while her own children were in preschool.  So many of her titles for children and young adults have been banned or challenged in schools and libraries over the years she has earned the distinction of being one of the most banned authors.  Like Are You There God the many other contested books have contained controversial subject matter considered not age appropriate. Among them sex, masturbation, menstruation, rape, bullying, divorce of parents, religion, racism.




Giveaway:

The winner of the drawing will have their choice between these two crocheted bookmarks.  The white and pastel is crocheted with size 10 bamboo thread.  The fudge brown and pastel is crocheted with size 10 cotton thread.  The crocheted section of the white one is six inches by 1 and 3/4.  The brown is 7 x 2 inches and sports a vintage button with a root beer sheen from the collection I inherited confiscated from my Mom which contains buttons dating from pre WWI through the 1990s.

The giveaway is open to U.S. and Canada only.

Deadline is October 7 at NOON Pacific Coast Time

Enter by leaving a comment expressing interest on this post along with your @ so I can contact you.

Extra entries can be had by:

• Following Joystory on Twitter  if you already do leave a separate comment saying so
• Like  Joystory's page on Facebook   if you already do leave a separate comment saying so
• Tweeting once per day (leave the tweet's url in a comment here)
• Add Joystory feed to your reader.   if you already do leave a separate comment saying so
• Following Joystory on Networked Blogs   if you already do leave a separate comment saying so

 Remember leave a separate comment for each task as the individual comments will be the entries that I assign numbers to in the order they are made and then use random.org to select the winner. The @ need only be in the first entry as long as the rest are easily attributed to the same entrant.

I will email the winner who must respond withing 48 hours or forfeit.

Hop on the BBW wagon at Bookjouney to see more reviews and giveaways all week:

Sheila's BBW Shindig

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It's Monday! What are You Reading?

It's Monday! What Are You Reading?

Share what you (are, have been, are about to, hope to be) reading or reviewing this week. Sign Mr Linky at Book Journey and visit other Monday reading roundups.


Reading took a hit this past week as I shifted focus to the big crochet project, reorganizing my office space, neglected housework, contemplation of goals and priorities, NaNo prep and Bloggiesta.

Actually 'focus' is probably not quite the right word.  ADD or even manic might fit better.

Now I'm supposed to have my Banned Book Week review posted in 8 hours or so and I've not yet finished the book: Judy Blume's Are You There, God? It's Me, Margaret

So why am I still here?

New Arrivals:

By Snail Mail:

The Adventures of Tilda Pinkerton by Angela Shelton

Our Harsh Logic: Israeli Soldiers' Testimonies from the Occupied Territories, 2000-2010 compiled by The Organization Breaking te Silence


Upcoming:

Sheila's BBW Shindig

For Banned Book Week I'm participating in Sheila's shindig and will be reviewing Are You There, God? It's Me, Margaret by Judy Blume

I will be posting my review Tuesday accompanied by a giveaway of one of my crocheted bookmarks.




Primal by Deborah Serra  A thriller about a mother defending the lives of her children from escaped convicts who invaded their camping site.  

My review for this blog tour is slated for October 8th




Hellfire & Damnation II by Connie Corcoran Wilson  a collection of short stories in the horror genre.

My review for this blog tour is slated for Oct 17th

and the author Interview with giveaway for Oct 18th

Also:

Posted my review of Ann Pattchet's Bel Canto for the September 13 Read-a-Long party at Bookjourney. 

I continue plugging away at the same several NF as I have for weeks or months now.  I'm creeping through most of them tho for a couple I'm closing on the finish line.

The Power of Habit by Charles Duhigg
Hooked: Write Fiction That Grabs Readers at Page One and Never Lets Go by Les Edgerton
Get Your Loved One Sober by Robert Meyers
Imagine: How Creativity Works by Jonah Leher.   I finished this one and am working on a review.
What to Do When There's Too Much to Do by Laura Stack

All of those are research for the writing side of my life.  The third one for a character tho I won't deny there are potential real life application for the info.

I am taking all five slow as that is my preferred way to read non-fic.  It sticks with me longer.

 I have continued reading the ebook I was reading aloud to my Mom while staying there in March and April: At Home in Mitford by Jan Karon.  The short little chapters are almost like stand-alone short stories with beloved characters.  This tends to be my bedtime read which is why I seldom read more than one chapter at a time and that not every day as my eyes are usually already fried by the time I am laying down.




These two NF which I began last winter and have posted a kind of reading journal for but need to get back to before I have to start over:


And So It Goes by Charles J. Sheilds a bio of Kurt Vonnegut.  Part of the fun I'm having reading this is in stopping to read the stories he wrote as the narrative reaches the point where he writes them.

This Mobius Strip of Ifs by Mathias Freese a collection of personal essays

And these nine ARC novels some of which I've had for weeks and in a few cases months:

The Land of Decoration by Grace McClean  I actually read this once already, months ago, but am in the midst of a careful reread.

The Variations by John Donatich

The Inquisitor by Mark Allen Smith   My husband read this and loved it and is after me to read it so he can talk about it.

The Hunger Angel by Herta Muller  Nobel winner!!

Skios by Michael Frayn

How Should a Person Be? by Sheila Heti

The Sadness of the Samurai by Victor del Arbo

Me, Who Dove into the Heart of the World by Sabina Berman

Winter Journal by Paul Auster a memoir from an American literary figure that really excites me.  This one arrived earlier this month or late in July

We Sinners by Hanna Pylvaine.  This one arrived about ten days ago.  It's another story exploring the impact on family life of a fundamentalist religion.  One of the themes I'm drawn to like Pooh to honey.

If anyone reading this states a preference I may let it weigh my decision as to what I begin next from the above list.

Read more...

Sunday Serenity #304

Fiesta Days @ art.com

Bloggiesta is over.  My list looks much the same as when I created it on Frida.  Only two items crossed off tho  I began many more of them and along the way also got sidetracked into tasks not originally on the list but blog improvement related.  But again, many begun and few finished.

Unfinished is my middle name.

Issues with connection made some tasks slow and tedious or interrupted altogether so I didn't complete any mini-challenges or visit many blogs or leave any comments.  Which kinda  put the fizzle in the fiesta for me leaving me just plugging away at a 2do list alone in my office like any other day.

But I don't mean to make it  sound like it was all fizzle and no zesta.  I enjoyed the learning and discovering of new things in the mini-challenge posts I did read and also on the sidebars of those blogs.  Probably the biggest accomplishment was the addition of many more 2dos onto my master task list for going forward--widgets to add, social media to join, blogs to follow, events to participate in, organizational tips to try....

Too bad Bloggiesta can't be once a month instead of twice a year.

I hear the next one is scheduled for the last weekend of March.

Read more...

Big and Little Fixes and Deep Sixes

print for sale @art.com

The theme of the last couple of days seems to be about revision.

I no sooner got my Bloggiesta goals posted on Friday and I was hit with the irresistible need for a siesta.  Probably because I'd already been awake over twenty hours.

While thinking about the crocheted crafter's tote as I was dozing off, I realized the broom stick stitch pattern I'd settled on for one of the strips was too lacy and did not play well with the others--it was too flimsy and would have required a lining which there is no extra time for.  So I spent an hour going over stitch patterns looking for a replacement and another hour thinking about how to repurpose the square already made.

While working on the Bloggiesta goal to create an embeddable spreadsheet for ROW80 goals I spent an extra hour after creating the spreadsheet trying to figure out how to embed it and had to give up and substitute a screenshot image and link to the spreadsheet for the ROW80 page I created for the goal list.

I spent a couple hours rewriting the goals from the last round, stripping them of the commentary from previous rounds, tweaking, reordering and clarifying.

That is at least two Bloggiesta goals complete.  Plus the work is done for tomorrow's first Round 4 check-in.

This afternoon when about to switch from the crochet back to Bloggiesta I suddenly got the urge to completely rearrange my desk corner again.  For the third time in a week!  This time I knew I'd tried all of the easy fixes and if I was going to do it I was going to have to go whole hog.  Meaning I would have to remove over a hundred books off of the shelves and move the shelves.

That project took over four hours.

I concluded it was necessary after all of the focus on goals for Bloggiesta, ROW80, NaNo, and the Tote project revealed to me the relationship between the poor setup and poor productivity.

Issues needing addressed: light coming from the wrong angle, no room to swivel the chair and little room to roll it, no space to spread out papers and open books, stuff blocking the shelves containing reference books, frequently used books and tools out of reach from the chair, putting items away was as difficult as getting them out.

Only time will tell if I've solved any or all of these issues.  Tho I'm fairly happy with the lighting situation at the moment.

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Bloggiesta September 2012 Goals

JOIN IN

This time I hope to put my major focus on considering and implementing options for making daily posts less onerous to complete and cut back the average time spent daily from over 3 to under 2 hours.

Organization of tools and information would be the main players here I think and maybe some post backlogs..

 The urgent:

• write author interview questions for an upcoming blog tour
• create an embedded spreadsheet to keep track of my ROW80 goals for the next round to replace the obnoxiously long posts I have been using.  I created the spreadsheet in Google Docs but could not figure out how to embed it.
• create a ROW80 page.  
• check out all of the mini-challenges and complete at least one.
• read/write blogging related email
• prepare a backlog of posts to see me through the the next three busy months.  These could be Sunday Serenity posts, Quote posts, and book reviews.
• collect book cover images for likely book reviews
• prepare a list of themes and concepts for Friday Forays in Fiction posts and a place to collect info and images for them.
• learn and apply at least one new traffic gaining trick.
• clean up the sidebars again.
• add commitments for next several weeks to calendar
• visit Blogiesta participants and leave comments

Less urgent: 

• pare down labels and add labels to old posts from the years before labels were available.
• fix image and video size in old posts created before the template change two years ago that are too big for the current post column.
• change icons for social network links in sidebar and add the missing ones.  I would like smaller icons and if possible a consistent size.
• work on about page
• clean out inbox pushing 7K

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Stitches in Time?

So A week after I settled the major stitch choices and made the calculations as to best pace to get this done by the Christmas deadline, how did I do?

Well good overall I think but still not keeping up the necessary pace.  Due in part to two days sick with nausea and headache but mostly because I was still fussing with stitches giving me fits.  But with 88 days until Christmas I now have 20 of the 99 squares complete.  And a full inch on the 2 chain mesh Mobius strip that will comprise the bottom, sides and shoulder strap for the bag.

I missed my major goal for the week of having all 9 of the starting squares for the strips complete by two squares but they at least are well begun.  They are the two stitch patterns giving me the most fits.  I've taken out nearly half as many stitches as I've put into them and one of them--the aqua second from right in top row--is riddled with mistakes in the first three rows which I chose to leave be after discovering them while working on row 6.

I decided that since those rows would be near the seam attaching the panel to the Mobius strip they would not ever be that closely observed so if I could fix the problems caused by building on those mistakes by increases and decreases in the spots still affected on the row I was working I would leave the goofs alone.  I think I managed to make the fixes.

The stitch pattern is a riff on the chevron with the use of bobbles and clusters and is called Wavy Puff Stitch Spray.  I had the square more than half done once and had to take it completely out after discovering a similar scattering of mistakes but in that case there was also the issue that the pattern had created a width over 4.5 inches which wasn't ideal considering all the rest of the strips are the intended 4 inches.

At that time I tried to select another wavy stitch but I'd grown attached to this one and decided instead to adjust the pattern to fit my needs by adding stitches to the middle and sides and then taking out one whole iteration of the wave.  That's the first time I've ever rewritten a pattern I was trying to follow.

The other unfinished square--seen to the left of the aqua square above--is the Loops pattern and the only two color pattern in the project.  This is a very simple stitch with a twelve chain loop added between every four single crochets on the first row of each color change but if you are not paying attention it is easy to goof it up.

My main goofs are to add or subtract a single crochet stitch between the loops. to add chain loops without any single crochet between them or to single crochet for an inch or two without adding the loops.  This makes for a lot of undoing and redoing of portions of that one row.  The three rows above the loops rows are straight single crochet and hard to mess up as long as I don't trap a portion of the loop into the stitches or trap it on the wrong side.

I had some trouble with the Lilac square's Broomstick Lace stitch--far right in top row-- in the beginning but got into the rhythm after awhile.  That isn't a new stitch for me as I made an afghan with it while in high school.  The 'stick' I'm using for working with crochet thread is a child's fat lead pencil.  This stitch is going to be more time consuming than many of the others.

The two remaining stitches in that top row--the Golden Yellow Wavy Shell and the Green Key Tab--are both a breeze once I got them down.

Those five in the top row are placed in the order in which the strips will be sewn together and as seen from the back of the bag.  They represent the panel that will be the back/top/front flap of the tote.

The squares and partial strip shown below them represent the panel that will wrap around the front of the bag creating pockets on each end.  The completed strip belonging on the bottom of this panel is not shown as it is finished and packed away.  It uses the same 2 chain mesh as the Mobius strip.

The bottom strip shown uses straight single crochet.  It needs to be sturdy to hold the buttons for attaching the flap to.

The strip above that represented by the pale pink square uses the Track stitch or a row of double triple crochet separated by three rows of single crochet.

The top strip--pale blue square--uses the fillet stitch.

I could have been further on the Mobius but had to take out more than a full 16 foot round after discovering a bunch of mistakes.  The worst mistake was having turned the work around and started working back the way I'd just come and discovering it only when I was less than two feet from working back over that spot.  After taking that all out I was looking closely at the row below and discovered a whole bunch of missed loops, loops with two instead of one single crochet in them, and three chain loops.  I took out more than half of that 8 foot row.  This fiasco caused me to loose most of three rows.

To clarify: a row is one side of the Mobius strip representing the original 8ft chain before its ends were connected while a round is the full length that works both sides of that chain and thus adds two rows.

I've discovered that ten rows of 2 chain mesh makes approximately one inch.  I'm aiming for a minimum of 10 inches but hoping for 12.

To sum up, it is still doable but I better not have to take more than two or three more full days off between now and December 24th.

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Loose Ends

While resting between spurts of effort on the cleanup discussed below I watched videos, including tutorials like the one heading this post for the Crocodile Stitch.  I'm really psyched to try some of the things I learned today but I know I shouldn't.  At least not until I've made up for the missed days on the tote.  And it would be wiser to wait until after Christmas.

With ROW80 being on hiatus this week I've been scrambling for those two extra posts per week to replace the check-ins.  I wish I could report that I've kept up all the goals since Round 3 ended but I haven't kept up any of them.  I switched the intensity of my focus to the huge crafter's tote I'm crocheting for my Secret Santa giftee.  I knew I was falling behind the ideal pace and still needed to solidify plans. So I spent one day calculating time estimates for various segments of the project and establishing a average pace.  Then I spent two days experimenting with stitches for the strips until I'd settled on all 9 and started the first square for each strip.

I discussed all of that last Thursday and hope to have pictures of my progress for tomorrows post so I won't go into any more details about it here.

I had to take a two day break from work on it after spending one day with nausea and headache and then today deciding I needed to put order back into my office before I continued as clutter was getting out of control in here and my upcoming week is full with blogging tasks--Bloggiesta this weekend and Banned Book Week all next week for which I'm going to be adding a giveaway of one of my crocheted bookmarks to my review of a Judy Blume book and then the following weekend is Dewey's 24 hour Read-a-Thon and the week after that I've got a blog tour review, interview and giveaway.  So it was imperative I get a grip on the mess.

After four hours of effort though I've only got one of the four corners in shape.  The desk area where I spent most of my time.  That's how bad it had gotten

The desk area was a conglomeration of crochet, writing, snacking, medicines, books and electronics.  The messes in the other three corners are all craft related and caused when I was looking for something and pulled stuff out of bags and boxes, shelves and drawers, still packed from either our move lost December or my trip to my Mom's last spring.

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Bloggiesta Fall 2012 -- September 28-30

SIGN UP

It is time again for the big blogging slumber party, the three day weekend that comes around twice a year in which bloggers gather to learn from one another,  do maintenance tasks on their blog templates, write a back log of posts for the future, learn new tricks, network, comment, teach, promote, and whatever other goals they might have towards improving their blogging experience.

Sign ups are happening now the event is this weekend.

Bring your appetite for fun, friends and fiendishly focused blogging.

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It's Monday! What are You Reading?

It's Monday! What Are You Reading?

Share what you (are, have been, are about to, hope to be) reading or reviewing this week. Sign Mr Linky at Book Journey and visit other Monday reading roundups.

Posted two reviews for blog tours last week.  One of them a giveaway:

Sulan by Camille Picott is a Cyberpunk YA.






Things Your Dog Doesn't Want You to Know by Hy Conrad and Jeff Johnson.

Review and Giveaway.  Giveaway open thru Sept 29

Howling funny! Did you know dogs actually love the leash because it makes it safe for them to bark and growl and pasture at the other dog on a leash in the comfort of knowing there can't really be any consequences such as having their throat ripped out or ear bitten off.




Upcoming:

Sheila's BBW Shindig

For Banned Book Week I'm participating in Sheila's shindig and will be reviewing something by Judy Blume

I will be posting my review Tuesday of that week accompanied by a giveaway of one of my crocheted bookmarks.




Primal by Deborah Serra  A thriller about a mother defending the lives of her children from escaped convicts who invaded their camping site.  

My review for this blog tour is slated for October 8th




Hellfire & Damnation II by Connie Corcoran Wilson  a collection of short stories in the horror genre.

My review for this blog tour is slated for Oct 17th

and the author Interview with giveaway for Oct 18th

Also since my last IMWAYR two weeks ago:

Posted my review of Ann Pattchet's Bel Canto for the September 13 Read-a-Long party at Bookjourney. 

I continue plugging away at the same several NF as I have for weeks or months now.  I'm creeping through most of them tho for a couple I'm closing on the finish line.

The Power of Habit by Charles Duhigg
Hooked: Write Fiction That Grabs Readers at Page One and Never Lets Go by Les Edgerton
Get Your Loved One Sober by Robert Meyers
Imagine: How Creativity Works by Jonah Leher.   I finished this one and am working on a review.
What to Do When There's Too Much to Do by Laura Stack

All of those are research for the writing side of my life.  The third one for a character tho I won't deny there are potential real life application for the info.

I am taking all five slow as that is my preferred way to read non-fic.  It sticks with me longer.

 I have continued reading the ebook I was reading aloud to my Mom while staying there in March and April: At Home in Mitford by Jan Karon.  The short little chapters are almost like stand-alone short stories with beloved characters.  This tends to be my bedtime read which is why I seldom read more than one chapter at a time and that not every day as my eyes are usually already fried by the time I am laying down.




These two NF which I began last winter and have posted a kind of reading journal for but need to get back to before I have to start over:


And So It Goes by Charles J. Sheilds a bio of Kurt Vonnegut.  Part of the fun I'm having reading this is in stopping to read the stories he wrote as the narrative reaches the point where he writes them.

This Mobius Strip of Ifs by Mathias Freese a collection of personal essays

And these nine ARC novels some of which I've had for weeks and in a few cases months:

The Land of Decoration by Grace McClean  I actually read this once already, months ago, but am in the midst of a careful reread.

The Variations by John Donatich

The Inquisitor by Mark Allen Smith   My husband read this and loved it and is after me to read it so he can talk about it.

The Hunger Angel by Herta Muller  Nobel winner!!

Skios by Michael Frayn

How Should a Person Be? by Sheila Heti

The Sadness of the Samurai by Victor del Arbo

Me, Who Dove into the Heart of the World by Sabina Berman

Winter Journal by Paul Auster a memoir from an American literary figure that really excites me.  This one arrived earlier this month or late in July

We Sinners by Hanna Pylvaine.  This one arrived about ten days ago.  It's another story exploring the impact on family life of a fundamentalist religion.  One of the themes I'm drawn to like Pooh to honey.

If anyone reading this states a preference I may let it weigh my decision as to what I begin next from the above list.

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Sunday Serenity #303

Strummed me some strings today.

Have now completed 20 of the 99 squares including all 11 in one of the 9 strips.  Have completed all but two of the first squares of each strip and those two are well begun which means I've settled on all 9 stitch patterns, tested them for gauge and doability.

This means the design stage of this project is nearly over and that seems to be a dangerous stage for projects I begin.  I tend to loose interest after all of the creative decisions are made and it starts to feel like a long stretch of tedious stitching 'by the book' even when as in this case 'the book' was 'written' by me.

I'm just going to have keep the vision of the finished bag fresh and living in my imagination to keep the desire to see it realized strong enough to keep me going for the next three months.

The last few days of work on it have been frustrating because so many stitches had to be taken out or as in one case reassigned to another project (I turned one partial square into a bow to decorated another project after deciding the stitch pattern wasn't gauging right and I needed to start it over.

In another case (the wavy aqua seen in the pic above) I had the square nearly to the halfway mark and had to take it completely out because not only was the gauge wrong but I'd made some egregious errors on the first and third rows that were being built on by the rows above and magnifying.  It was a mess.  I had to make adjustments in the pattern to get the gauge right and that took some math and a lot of trial and error.  Read ripping out stitches.

Yesterday while working on the strip that uses two colors (the coral and brown in the pic) I got a knot in the coral thread and in trying to get it out with a needle I split the thread and dropped the work and in picking it up somehow pulled the work through the split.  After spending three hours trying to untangle that, I gave up and pulled out all of the coral above the brown and then all of the brown in order to get the brown thread out of the snarl.  After that I was able to get the knot out of the coral and even repair the split thread which had not broken.

Those two squares are the only ones still not finished.  Later this week--probably Thursday, I hope to post a pic showing each of the 9 beginning squares complete to showcase the 9 stitches.

I may have to take it easy with the hook for a day or two as my right arm from wrist to neck feels like one giant toothache.  Not stop just pull back.  Keep the one square per day pace by doing one of the easy ones and maybe a couple of rounds on the Mobius strip which has been neglected the last three days.

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What's a Creative To Do?

TED Talk: Elisabeth Gilbert of Eat, Pray, Love talking about the relationship of the artist to the source of their creativity.

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Friday Forays in Fiction: Facts Feigning Fiction

I've just discovered and I confess been shanghaied by another one of those 'timewaster' sites.  At least that is how I first thought of cracked.com, lumping it in with cheezeburger.com and their ilk.  But the more I hung out here the more I realized there was more than just LOL jokes.  There is also much educational value. Which is the underpinning virtue of all story whether fact or fiction.

cracked.com messes with your head by playing in the interface between fact and fiction.  Facts hiding in old stories in like this article relating the original meanings behind several popular children's songs.  For example London Bridge is Falling down is about the ancient ritual of walling up children to die slowly of starvation and thirst in stone structures like castles, churches and bridges in order to insure the stability of the structure into the future.

I'll let you go read for yourself the facts hiding in Jimmy Cracked Corn, Here We Go Round the Mulberry Bush, Blow the Man Down and She'll Be Coming Round the Mountain.

Other articles on cracked.com feature facts deemed too unbelievable to be in a fictional story.  Fictions that fooled the whole world into believing they were facts.  Or wrap your head around this--disturbing 'facts' hidden in pop culture that aren't facts afterall but just the daymares of tinfoil hat wearers.

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Crafty Calculations

Last Thursday when posting my progress report on the super major Xmas crochet project, I said I felt I'd fallen behind the pace needed to complete but also admitted I had no idea what the pace needed to be since I'd not done the calculations.  At the time I didn't even know how many days there were left until Christmas.

Well I have now done the calculations and created a chart to mark progress.  There are 95 days until Christmas.

Colors in blocks: 

pale yellow, mint green,
pale pink, pale blue, sage, 

golden yellow, coral pink,
aqua, lilac, peach, blue

Last week, along with a detailed description of the project, I posted the picture of the first of 9 strips of 11 squares and the beginnings of the 8ft Mobius strip side/bottom/shoulder strap.  Since then I've completed four squares on the 2nd strip and one square on the 6th strip and begun the first squares of four more strips.

Beginning those squares was part of the process of finalizing my selections of stitch patterns for the strips and testing them for gauge etc.  I still need to do that for two more strips.

But I now have a better sense of how much time I need to invest in this project daily in order to finish in time.  Keeping in mind that I should leave several days for sewing the strips into panels and the panels to the Mobius strip, blocking, tucking tails and sewing on buttons and other finishing touches, my sense that I was falling behind on the pace was not an illusion.

There are 95 days until Christmas.

The Mobius strip: Takes me 70-90 minutes to make the full 16 foot round trip (= 2 rows of 2ch mesh).  4 round trips created 1/2 inch in width.  I'm aiming for a minimum of 10 inches wide. and hope to make it closer to 12.  10 inches = 80 round trips = 80x80 minutes or 106 hours.  Add another 10.6 hours to each inch added in width.

YIKES.  This means I need to average more than 2 hours per day just on the Mobius starting now.

The panels:  The 9 strips consisting of 99 squares of which 21 are complete leaves 83 squares to go.  There is no way to calculate the time on these as some of the stitch patterns are very simple and go as fast as 30 minutes per square while others are more complex and may end up averaging up to 3 hours per square.

Keeping in mind the need to block, stitching strips into panels and panels onto the Mobius and other finishing touches I should have the strips completed at least a week before Xmas.  That leaves me 87 days for these 83 squares.

So my guess that I needed to average one square per day was pretty spot on.

To be clear that is one square per day in addition to 2 hours on the Mobius!

What about all those other fiber art WIP? :(

I guess I did not comprehend the magnitude of this project as I was designing it.  This is on a par with the work required for a large afghan in terms of number of stitches but has way more complexity.

Watch for weekly progress reports.  I'll also be including mention of this project in the ROW80 check-ins when they start up again for round 4 in October.

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