Summer Syllabus 2015

One of the huge perks of being a teacher is summer vacation, and I have reliably had one in my life since I started kindergarten in 1989. I've used this time to go on amazing trips, work on professional development, day drink, and, for one memorable summer, panic about the survival of two kids under the age of two who lived at my house.  Last year I created a Summer Syllabus of things I wanted to read/watch/listen to, and even though I didn't complete it, it was a good road map.  

This year, my kids need me less and I'm making even more time in my life for consumable media, so the syllabus is a little more structured. It's the summer of catching up on classics and pushing myself outside of my (YA-fantasy-trilogy) safe-zone. Ben and I have plans to watch more musicals, and after seeing the pure joy on his face after I willing sat through (and kind of enjoyed) Arachnophobia, I want to find some more low-grade horror to watch on a Friday night. I'm nervous about setting out writing goals, when I've been in a slump, but the July session of Camp NaNoWriMo might put a fire under me.

Without further ado, here are the picks.  Tell me of you know of something that would fit into one of the categories.  Peer pressure me into reading more!

To READ Summer 2015:

I almost never read books assigned to me in high school- The Great Gatsby is one of the exceptions, but I think summer is the perfect time to reread.  I have only read abridged, child-level editions of Pride and Prejudice, and this needs to be remedied.   The rest of the books are reccomendations from blogs/Twitter/friends, besides Fortune's Rocks, which I reread every summer. 

The Great Gatsby by F.Scott Fitzgerald

Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen

Pioneer Girl: The Annotated Biography by Laura Ingalls Wilder, Pam Smith Hill

Fortune's Rocks by Anita Shreve 

Under the Blade by Matt Serafini

The Boston Girl by Anita Diamant

Fake ID by Lamar Giles

The Awesome by Eva Darrows

Nimona by Noelle Stevenson

Lois Lane: Fallout by Gwenda Bond

Me Before You by Jojo Moyes (I'm thinking this will be the July #beyourownbookclub pick- there have been requests for something lighter!)

To WATCH Summer 2015:

Ben and I live a constant struggle to beat the 8pm "what should we watch?" quagmire.  Our tastes run separate, we're usually exhausted, and we have an endless list of options to choose from.  Right now we're working through The X Files together, and have also been spending some time with mutually pleasing Sci Fi action movies (X-Men, the new Star Trek films, etc.)  I'm watching Buffy on my own time, as a response to finishing Firefly and Sherlock earlier this year. This list needs fleshing out, I'd love movie recs in particular.

Buffy the Vampire Slayer (TV Series) (I'm through the first four seasons)

The X Files (TV Series) (with Ben)

Dracula 

The DaVinci Code (special request from Ben. "Maybe I'll like it this time.")

Les Miserables (musical version)

My Fair Lady

Kingsmen: The Secret Service 

X-Men: Days of Future Past

To LISTEN Summer 2015:

I discovered the Book Riot podcast earlier this year, and I liked the "insider" (to me at the very least) information about books and the publishing world.  They're great about hitting all different genres and really focus on book news rather than straight reviews.  What the Fangirl is a blog and podcast that I'm just discovering, so I want to dig in.  I've listened to the Anne audiobooks tons of times, and this (book #3) is the place in the story where I start to lose track, so it's where I'll pick up on my longer drives.

Book Riot Podcast

What the Fangirl Podcast 

Anne of the Island (audiobook)

EXTRA CREDIT:

25 Family Miles- Ben doesn't leave for work until mid-morning, so we've set a goal of doing a family walk as often as possible.  We have a mile loop around our neighborhood and try to get to it once a day.  Our goal is to hit at least 25 weekday mornings.

Camp NaNoWriMo, July Session- I'm at a standstill with work on my novel.  I've finished the first part, but feel nervous moving forward with revisions until I'm clear on where I want the story to go.

NaNoWriMo has been spectacular about keeping me on track with my goals and keeping me from abandoning my story.  I'm not sure it's wise to commit to a lofty goal during my busiest summer month, but I also haven't skipped a session yet...

So that's the plan.  A+ to me if I can hit it all, but I'm an easy grader, I will definitely pass.  I'll be talking about my reading/watching/listening using  #summersyllabus.  Let me know what you're going to perusing over the next few months, and if there is anything you think I should add. Happy Summer!'

(image credit, text added by me)

This is where I've been

I'm blasting these stats everywhere because I'm so damn proud:

50,000 words written in November

25,000 words written in April

103,000 words written overall (not counting scenes I've cut or the first two chapters that I already rewrote)

I have WORK to do.  Tons of editing.  A particular character who acts differently in EVERY SINGLE SCENE because I haven't nailed him down. And like...an ending to write.

But I've been working on this project for six months now that is seriously rad.

I need a little break from this material.  I have some articles for Be Your Own Lady that need to come to light- not in the least a write up of my Ladies Conference and a May book club pick (APRIL IS OVER WE MISSED IT I'M SORRY) and a backlog of good links for you.  I also might need to rewrite some of the fanfiction that I recently found.  My 14-year-old self peppered with too many Mary Sues and inflated vocabulary words, and I'm curious how it would come out if I wrote it today.  Only one way to tell.

Ladies, a reminder.  Find what makes you shine and dull it down for no one! Never stop shouting from the rooftops how good it feels to throw yourself into something you love.  Goodnight, lovelies. 

Word of the Year 2015: Write

Last year was a family year.  We wanted to move, houses, and our bodies, and we had lots of projects that centered around us as a unit.  When I needed to get myself in shape, my main motivator was my family, to get strong for my boys, to be healthy for Ben.  At the beginning of the year, the kids were so young and needed so much undivided attention from me.  Elliott was just weaning off of bottles, which I had not previously realized makes a HUGE difference in daily family life.  Both boys napped at different times, had different interests, and were too different to truly play together.  I was Mama (and teacher and student, hustling to finish out those last classes of my Masters degree), and I liked it, but I was a little burnt out.

Then something miraculous happened.  Elliott grew out of his morning nap and the boys started sleeping in the same room and the same time for several hours every afternoon. I finished graduate school. Ben took the lead on our biggest house project of the year.  Milo learned to share his cars (most times).  By the fall, for the first time in years, I had a lot more time for me.  I traveled solo twice.  I started a new blog.  I indulged my interest in tarot cards and moon phases and other slightly mystical things. I read a ton of books.  I met friends for drinks of all kinds.  I wrote 55,000 words of a fantasy story. I was killing it.

I've read a quote (does seeing something on pinterest count as reading it?) that says "There are years that ask questions, and there are years that give answers." Last year answered a ton of shit, but more than anything, it reminded me of some things I already knew.  That I love reading and writing.  That it's worth it to make the time for trips and meeting up with friends.  That I am more than just a mom.  I can truly say that by the end of 2014, I was feeling like a super cool version of myself, with tons of self confidence and excitement about what was ahead. I'm going to hang on to that feeling for dear, dear, life.

In this vein, I've chosen my word for 2015.  This year, it doesn't really represent a family view, but more what I'm going to prioritize as I move through these months.  The word is write.  It's okay if you need to roll your eyes- I know I've been talking nonstop about writing since November. But it woke something up in me.  I'm thinking of Eugene Levy in Waiting for Guffman when he gets the acting bug and he's chortling in the interview "I'm worried that I might have been wasting time!" I'm not about to give up my orthodontic practice.  I just want to continue with this hobby that has let me have so much fun.

So, yes, I'm going to keep writing my story about schizophrenia and alternate universes.  I'm going to keep writing here.  But I also want to get back into the habit of writing as a way to keep myself organized.  I've really fallen away from writing daily lists, keeping things organized on the calender.  I want to keep better notes at work and better track of things at home.  I'm still trying to keep healthy living as a focus, and one of my goals is to track what I eat- write it down.  I like when my word can branch to cover all my bases, and this one is able.  My word for the year is write.

Do you have a word for the year?  A resolution?  My favorite of all time is still: eat more bacon, have more sex.

(The lovely image is a print that you can find here. Text added by me.)

Lately

I feel like I'm starting another post by apologizing, and I don't want to do that.  Let's just say, I note my unusually long absence, and I can't put my finger on exactly why.  Getting up and writing here used to be one of my favorite things to do- something I looked forward to.  I fought to buy the time to spend putting together posts.  It was this huge, exciting privilege.  And in November, I fell out of the habit.

In all parts of my life, I'm feeling a little disconnected right now.  I keep using the word "floating" to describe the weird feeling, even though I'm very lucid and not exactly having trouble concentrating.  I'm just untethered. I feel like I have no time to do all of the things I need to do (original, I know) and at the same time, I'm a little bored.  I don't exactly feel Christmasy, but I'm not feeling hectic or annoyed.  It's a gentle funk.

I think it's because all of last month, I had one very clear, very measurable, very large goal.  It was the thing that I was doing, and I arranged the rest of my life neatly to make space for fifty thousand words.  Without that goal, I'm unmoored.  There is time for everything, so I'm doing nothing.  I want to pick at my story, I want to read other people's work, I want to make gift guides and plan out my attack of my birthday list.  I'm not even digging in that deep into the typical chores of this season.

Another thing I'm realizing is I just finished nine long novels by the same author in about a month and a week.  I loved the world she created and I loved always having another book, another chance to find out what would happen.  There are two different series within this world, and they crisscross, and I'm already rereading the one story where they overlap the most to try and make new connections, but in all honesty, I need something new to read.  I hadn't been so hungry for books in a long time, and I definitely redefined my priorities to disappear into an imaginary world more often.  It was wonderful, but it's different.

I'm liking who I am when reading and writing take up most of my free time, but I need some balance.  December is one of my favorite months- I love year-end reflections and imagining what I want the next 12 months to bring.  I'm hoping I can shake this case of the blues and get back into a routine that makes me proud.  

What do you do to break a funk?  Any book recommendations?  I need all the help I can get.  Love you all!

On the Other Side of November

I missed you.

I didn't know exactly what November would look like.  It's a full month, anyway, and I had this challenge I wanted to try.  It's even on my birthday list: 3. Participate in National Novel Writing Month.  I participated.

I referenced it a few times, but NaNoWriMo totally took over my life.  I did less chores, spent WAY less time watching TV (and consequently had to be more deliberate about spending time with my husband), did minimal blog reading & writing, and generally lived in my story world.  By the end of the month, even my three-year-old knew the drill.  "You going to work on your writing?"  He put a little chair and a cordless keyboard in the office next to me, and we worked together.

There were huge pros and minimal cons that came from a month of needing to write an average of 1667 words a day.  Next year, I will have some posts lined up so the blog doesn't go completely silent for a month.  I will also make sure that all Thank You cards from October birthdays are squared away well in advance...not that a stack of them are still sitting in a lonely pile in the office...never.  I also drank a ton of beer and coffee while sitting at my desk- next year, more water and chopped up fruit, less cookies and candy cane Hershey's kisses.

But I loved working on my story, hunting down weird names for characters, writing scenes just to get them out of my system, picking a word that means 'glare' but isn't 'glare' because I've already said 'glare' four times.  Ben, is great at dialogue and plot from his years of screenwriting, and he took such a flattering interest in the story, helping me hammer out tricky parts and talking me through big ideas.  I made some playlists of sad, mournful, pretty music (Ingrid Michaelson's Ghost featured prominently) to listen to while I created a spookyish world.  I had a freaking blast.

Most days I would get a chunk of writing done in the hour from 5:15-6:15 am, but this time was also eaten up by making coffee and eating breakfast and checking Facebook.  If any kids woke up while I was on a roll, I would lose steam.  I'd come back to writing around 8:30 pm or so, after I went to the gym for a half hour of reading time speed walking on the treadmill.  The website stats say my average was 1,672 words a day, but there would be days where I'd only get a few hundred, or even nothing at all, and then return on a weekend morning or holiday and pound out 3K-5K in one sitting.  On Sunday, November 30th, I woke up at 4 am and started clicking, with plans to stay planted all day.  Around 11:30 am, 4,567 words later, I validated my chunk of text and "won" National Novel Writing Month.

My story isn't finished.  I have about 2/3 of the action down, but I don't write in order, so I need to fill in some gaps.  It's also ROUGH.  One of the hardest things about NaNoWriMo is training yourself to leave it all on the paper, but that means you have to go back later and clean it up, and I need to seriously tweak most of what I wrote.  I'm stepping back from the whole thing in the month of December, but when I come back to it, I'm going to clean up one chapter at a time and I'd like to share it here.  Fiction Fridays, maybe?

Yesterday afternoon, I laid in the living room and read a novel by the light of the Christmas tree while Ben and the boys watched the Polar Express and did gymnastics on the couch cushions- no trying to squeeze 200 words in while the boys were occupied. This morning I woke up, made coffee, and browsed through some of the blogs I've been ignoring for a month- no pulling up my document and forcing myself not to waste time rereading my last chapter.  Tonight, at the gym, I am going to do the weight machines circuit that I really love.  There will be time to read when I get home.

Thank you so much to all you lovelies who have been cheering me on (or even just patiently tolerating my droning about this- I hear your words) for the past month.  It helped me give myself permission to take this silly challenge seriously, and I am grateful.

An excerpt from the beginning of my story, tentatively titled The Family Historian, can be found here.  

NaNoWriMo Is Eating My Soul and I Like It.

As I predicted, almost all of my time has been consumed with working on NaNoWriMo.  On one hand, it's a little crippling, because I've adjusted almost every part of my life to make this work: I've stopped running or doing a circut at the gym, because while I'm on the elliptical is my only chance to read.  I've stalled halfway through a big stack of adorable thank you cards I made after Milo's birthday.  We picked out a new dresser from Salvation Army a week ago, and I still have baskets of laundry surrounding empty furniture.  I think about reading and writing all the time.

Still, I'm loving this.  A big part of what makes it so exciting for me is how interested Ben is in the project, and how much he encourages me.  We were out to do some Christmas shopping and errands together last week, kid free, and we talked about my plot and characters and he gave me a tip that changed the structure of the story to something I felt much more comfortable bringing to life.  I remember sneaking his printed screenplays into class to reading during lectures in college and being so impressed with him.  I've always admired his writing style, especially his dialogue, so having him compliment me and talk about my story with true interest is super flattering.

I was thinking about how I'd like to do this every November from here on out (unless it gets torturous and painful near the end and I change my mind completely) and how lovely it is to add another tradition to month that's already full of it.  I'm into Thanksgiving.  My family doesn't travel, my sister always comes Black Friday shopping with me, and we get a tree that weekend.  But I also love some of the lower-profile happenings.  Small Business Saturday is a huge push for some of the holiday-season cash flow to get rerouted into smaller businesses in your community, and I love hunting down the best local places to pick up some gifts.  I'm also getting happy tingles about The National Day of Listening.  StoryCorps is one of my favorite things in existence, and I wish constantly that I asked more questions of people who are already gone.  Here is an instruction guide for recording your own interview, with some sample questions that are sure to get a deep convo going.

I'll leave you with some of my favorite pieces of writing from past Novembers:

This is the two part story of my first time hosting Thanksgiving at my house, when I ended up in the ER with poison ivy in my throat: Thanksgiving Nightmares, Part One & Part Two

Something I was grateful for every day in November 2011.  Milo was a month old and I was on maternity leave and it was a good time to be Ashlie.

Last year I did some more detailed notes about Small Business Saturday and The National Day of Listening.

This is some writing about my dad, who died in November 17 years ago.  Recently Milo has been asking lots of family tree questions ("Who is daddy's daddy?  Who is your mama?") and I'm trying to make Grandpa Kevin a big part of our conversations.  To All Who Said I'd Find Relief, You All Have Lied and Why Your Middle Name is Kevin

Lastly, here is a link to my homepage for National Novel Writing Month.  I have an excerpt of my story, with the working title The Family Historian.  I'm hoping to share much more very soon!

Thanks for being patient, lovelies!  Be your own lady!

Coffee and Blogs No. 14

Hello there.  We're headed into the second weekend of November, and I'm beginning to see that this month is going to slay me.  I'm trying to go the gym regularly, get ready for parent teacher conferences at work, plan for Thanksgiving and Christmas, and complete National Novel Writing Month, all while keeping my house a tiny bit clean and paying some attention to Ben and the boys.  I'm not actually succeeding at any of these things, but it's strengthening my balance practice.  

I'm sorry that posting will be lighter during the month of November, and that you're going to have to hear me blather about writing and plots and characters more than usual.  Doing NaNoWriMo is one of the things on my birthday list, and writing is definitely one of the ways that I'm able to be my own lady.  I'll be back to normal soon.  My long term goal with this story is actually to clean it up and share it one chapter at a time, so hopefully you get to see the end product, because if there's anything more annoying than listening to someone talk about their 'writing process,' it's probably someone making you read it ;)

In the meantime, here are some links.  A lot of them are about writing.  I'm obsessed focused.  Here we go!

NaNoWriMo was featured on an hour of On Point earlier this week.  It was so awesome to hear different authors talk about their experiences with the month, and hear from people who have published because of it.

Amy Poehler's new book came out last week, so I feel like she's popping up everywhere.  These are some of the best answers from her Reddit Ask Me Anything.  My favorite is the birthday advice to the girl who was turning 18: "Oh!  Happy 18th Birthday!  Exercise your right to vote.  Whenever you feel drunk, stop, because 18-year-olds have a hard time figuring out how much they can drink.  Be with a good friend who can get you home safe, and try one new thing on your birthday every year.

I've seen these storytelling rules from Pixar a lot over the past few years.  My favorites are no. 4 & no. 19.  Neil Gaiman's writing advice is simpler, but his no. 5 is one I'm going to need in December.

I'm using the beta version of Novlr to write my novel this month.  It's a very basic website that lets you add chapters as you go and helps you keep track of your word count.  My only worry is that I don't have a back up, because it's still on the website, but I think they're working on an export feature. They also have a great twitter account that has a lot of NaNoWriMo chatter this time of year.

I love all of Kelly's adulting advice (and her great book), and this little gem is one of my favorites.  It might a mantra for hard times, especially if you're a people pleaser. 

My friend Holly wrote a letter to the girl in the back of Zumba class, which is kind of like writing a letter to me.

A huge thank you to my cousin for pointing me in the direction of this Parks and Rec themed wedding.  If I had seen this before I was married, things may have been different.  I still want to have some sort of party just so I can use the phrase "apps and zerts."

That's all I've got for now.  I need to head back to my story, resist the urge to delete most of what I wrote last night, and keep pushing forward.  12,061 down, 37,939 left to go.  Wish me luck!

Unfolding November

We are big Halloween fans in this household, so the end of October is kind of chaotic.  We had three separate costumes for each boy this year: they went as a caterpillar and construction worker to a Halloween party last week, dressed up as Indiana Jones and Superman for daycare on Halloween, and then went trick or treating as Marty McFly and Doc Brown from Back to the Future.  Ben and I were George and Lorraine McFly (the 50s versions) and we trained Milo to tell people who he was after he said "Trick or treat!"  A lot of people got it! We ended up exhausted with a ton of candy.

I'm getting super excited for November.  I never realized how much I truly love this month.  I like all the grateful/thankful chatter on Facebook, hype for the parade and the delicious Thanksgiving meal, and the promise of Christmas hovering right around the corner.  This year I'm doing National Novel Writing Month (write a 50K novel in the month of November!) and I am challenging myself to interview my Papa (and possibly my stepdad's lovely mother) for The National Day of Listening, which takes place the day after Thanksgiving.  I also have the bittersweet joy of remembering my dad during November.  It used to be a really sad time, remembering the day he died and our first Thanksgiving without him.  I'm going to try to refocus it this year to remember him happily!

This chick popped up on the Pandora station I play at night for the boys, and I love love love her covers.  I've been seeking her out on YouTube and will probably download her album so I can make some more mix cds for the car.  She's also my writing playlist right now.  When I was in high school, I wrote a looonnng serial Harry Potter fanfiction and used to dash home after school and put on musical soundtracks and write for hours.  I had a COUCH balanced in front of my ancient desk top and I was so happy.  I'm feeling echos of that now, with a new writing spot in our new office, with songs making me think of my characters. A lot of times I hold back, because I want to write something LITERARY and deep but the truth is I mostly want to read about teenage girls falling in love and having advnetures, and I mostly want to write about it, too.  It's okay if everyone is doing it.

I'm also deep deep in reading another young adult series that has me hooked.  I held off for a long time because the author was actually a fanfiction writer before she was published professionally.  I used to follow HER serial series and was a huge fan, but also followed a lot of controversy about her writing and whether her lines were "borrowed" from other places.  The fact remained that I loved her story lines and her romance, and I love her series for the same reason.  It's The Mortal Instruments series by Cassandra Clare.  I'm devouring them the way I did the Twilight Books- rolling my eyes at obvious plot points, feeling a little annoyed that all the characters constantly do huge and selfless things without ever hesitating or acting like humans (most of them aren't), but feeling desperate to see what happens next, to read the subtle flirtations, to see if they'll finally get together.  I've read the first three novels over the past two weeks, the second two each in a day.  I'm headed to Barnes and Noble for the fourth today.

I have to be very careful with my reading material during NaNoWriMo, because I have a feeling that what I read and listen to will really influence my novel.   I'm trying to balance the pleasure reading of The Mortal Instruments with some of favorite authors like Madeline L'Engle and Anita Shreve to keep it from becoming a full-on fangirl Mary Sue extravaganza.

At any rate, I'm so pumped to have this month unfolding in front of me, with so many projects I'm interested in and so many things to read and enjoy.  It's been a long time since I've felt so good about the ways I spend my spare time.  I guess you really do just have to find what you love and do it for the rest of your life.  (For me, it's going to Rushmore.)

Let me know what you are reading, what you're writing, and what you're grateful for.  I send wishes for a fabulous November.