Coffee and Blogs: No. 17

April is here, which means Camp NaNoWriMo, The Lady Project Summit, another Be Your Own Book Club pick, and ICE CREAM.  The dairy bars around town are opening back up, so it's dessert for dinner at least once a week until October.  Amen.

I have some really lovely links saved up for you, and this rainy morning is a perfect time to curl up and check out what's going on in the world. Coming this week I have the questions about the #beyourownbookclub March pick, Never Let Me Go, and an update on my word of the year: write.  For now, though, let's see what other lovely people wrote.

START HERE: Theme for April 2015: Expect the Unexpected.  Even if you aren't big into horoscopes, this is more of a pump it up motivational talk about how to rock it this month.  For awhile, I've been reading horoscopes cautioning people to move slowly and act rationally, but this month the message is get out of that comfort zone, dude!  I actually found myself writing notes on stickys while reading.

For the past decade, I've tiptoed around the lie that I can't be both a writer and a mother.  That I have to choose between the two or everyone suffers. The truth is we can be as many or as few things as we want to be. Wife, mother, writer, helper, friend, artist, shop owner, acrobat, singer, restaurant hostess, teacher, lawyer, wanderer, 30-year-old mom shaking it to Beyonce at the club.

The question shouldn't be "Will this make life harder?" but "Will this make life richer?"

Kate wrote about her 30th birthday and I loved it.

There is a big controversy in the writing/publishing/reading/caring about censorship world about a new app that replaces swear words in ebooks.  This article lays out the facts and some great quotes from authors who are, in some cases, "fucking horrified."

More political news from the writing world: Chuck Wendig, author and blogger and 1000 other things, is not attending the Midwest Writers Workshop in Indiana after they failed to condemn the new (fucking horrifying) Religious Freedom Rights Act.  I've felt very proud of all the different individuals and state governments who refuse to accept this insanity as anything other than archaic bullshit.

I read the title of this article, 10 Things Not To Say At Work, and instantly got mad because I'm a brat and I despise when people tell me what to do.  Then I read it, and it's actually ways to remove common qualifiers from your language.  Stop with the "I just want a minute of your time..." or "I think maybe..."  Speak your mind, your words matter, and quit apologizing.  (Quit apologizing, Ashlie.)

1:15 pm: You drink a ton of coffee and experience a sugar/caffeine-induced mania and decide you’re going to start writing a book. A tech tells you to calm down and makes you drink a glass of water.

2:00 pm: Recreational therapy. You watch the movie “The Karate Kid” and popcorn is served. You don’t eat it, which gets noted in your chart by a tech.

2:30 pm: Education group. A short, older lady who claims to have once been a backup singer for Aerosmith preaches on bipolar disorder and the evils of not being compliant with medication

I'm writing some scenes set in a mental hospital, and came across this article while researching (Googling "what's it like in a mental hospital?").  It's a very interesting and humanizing read.

I'm currently reading The Night Circus by Erin Morganstern.  Amazingly, that's all I'm working on right now.  I just finished rereading a secret book that I can share in a few months (it's a present and I want it to be a surprise) and When You Reach Me by Rebecca Stead, a middle-grade book loosely based on A Wrinkle in Time.  I highly suggest all titles I just mentioned.

What are you reading?  What should I read next?  Thanks to the lovelies who share links, you're the best.  

(image credit, text added by me)