Saturday, May 9, 2015

Coffee and Blogs No. 18

I have writer's block, and it's bugging me.  I am about two chapters away from the end of my novel.  I have been happily putting most of my time to this project since November of last year.  The whole thing needs to be rewritten (maybe just heavily edited), and I really really REALLY want to print it out on paper and start making notes and get ready to polish this baby up.  But two chapters away from the end, I have this writer's block that is punishing. So let's distract ourselves!

I've been hoarding links for you lovelies, and I made a commitment to add at least one lovely article for every downer topic I bring up.  Balancing social justice awareness with cute gifs, you know?  So get cozy.  

Geekrotica is a thing, and you're welcome. The Lumberfox is written by one of the young adult authors I've been following on Twitter (Delilah S Dawson).  I haven't read this yet because I think I may need some alone time, but it's short and well-reviewed. It's about a bearded beer-brewer with tattoos and flannel shirts who takes in a stranded motorist during a terrible snow storm.  There are Star Wars jokes.  AGAIN, you're welcome.   

This post from Kate Baer includes the titles of all the essays we need in our 30s.  It was inspired by this similar post from Avidly. You should read them both.  My favorites include "Separately Scrolling Through iPhones with Your Partner on the Couch as Erotic Practice" and "My Instagram Feed Looks Like a White Supremacist's Tea Party" (And Other Millennial Problems)

I love Glennon Melton.  Sometimes I have to stop reading her blog for awhile because she makes me feel all the feelings and I creepily try to feel as little as possible.  Glennon makes that hard.  This is a beautiful article where she reconciles her strong Christianty and her strong support of marriage rights for gay people.  Reconciles is really the wrong word because she eloquently explains how confused she is when people use religion as a framework to remove rights from any group.  

My wonderful friend Emily (seriously, get a friend like Emily.  Cheerleader, Earth-lover, sweet spirit) sent me these literary tattoos.  I want Matilda on my bod.  Seriously.

Cheryl Strayed is someone I need to read more of.  The Art of Motherfuckitude: Cheryl Strayed's Advice to An Aspiring Writer on Faith and Humility is perfect.  The essay is lovely, but even if you read it for the direct quotes (set as images throughout), you will be a winner.  I cannot pick one favorite, so here are two:

"I didn’t know if people would think my book was good or bad or horrible or beautiful and I didn’t care. I only knew I no longer had two hearts beating in my chest. I’d pulled one out with my own bare hands. I’d suffered. I’d given it everything I had."

"Writing is hard for every last one of us — straight white men included. Coal mining is harder. Do you think miners stand around all day talking about how hard it is to mine for coal? They do not. They simply dig."

Lately, I've been struggling with my feelings about J K Rowling.  I haven't been that into any of the follow up pieces she wrote to the series, she remarked that she doesn't think Ron and Hermione should have ended up together, and she "doesn't read chick lit, fantasy, or sci-fi."  Uh, you don't? Okay, crazy.  So I'm tentative on these 28 things that happen after the series ended, all revealed by Rowling in interviews over the past 8 or so years.  To this day I think After the End, a huge fanfiction piece from Sugarquill,net, is the best post-Hogwarts tale for me.

Chuck Wendig reminds us to NEVER READ THE COMMENTS.  And if you run a blog or site, to squelch the nasty shit right off the bat.  So often I really relate to an article, and the comments section will end up driving icky straight into my bone marrow until I can barely bear to look at myself in the mirror, let alone appreciate the article.  The sounds dramatic but it's eerily true.

Apparently this week was Children's Book Week, which was appropriate, because my students did a lot of work with picture books and Milo and Elliott were really into bedtime stories every night.  I'm reading my first graphic novel right now (Roller Girl, by Victoria Jamieson) so this list of books that graphic novelists found inspiring is perfect.  What book has stuck with you since childhood?


Don't forget to love on your Mamas this weekend, and all the other ladies who may have mothered you right.  Any of these gifts I posted last year are still WAY appropriate for any damn day of the week.

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1 Comments:

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