Letting it Soak

I am the queen of letting pots, pans, and sticky bowls soak. I get most of the dishes done, but then I reach the dirtiest pot I decide it will be easier to clean later. Lots of times it is, the hot water pulls the caked on grease off the sides, but sometimes it would have been easy just to wipe it clean right away and more often than not letting it soak makes it harder, especially if you don't cover all of it in hot water.

I feel this way with writing sometimes. I reach a hard part and instead of just writing it, I leave it soak thinking it will be easier when I go back to it. Sometimes it is, but lots of times I've lost momentum and it's a lot harder to get it back.

Tonight I washed all of the dishes, even the caked on pots and it was nice to have a clean kitchen when I went to bed. I think I need to apply this to my writing. Just keep going and don't put it off until tomorrow.

How about you? Do you leave your writing to soak?

The Age of the PVR

First of all I have to admit I'm not a huge football fan but last November my family went over to my a friend's house to watch the Canadian version of the Super Bowl. It's called the Grey Cup. Don't laugh, we did have Justin Beiber and Carly Rae Jepsen perform the half time show.

Anyway we got there expecting the game to be on, but instead our friend was PVRing it, so we could fast forward through the commercials. We don't have great commercials for the Grey Cup, so I thought okay, that's not a bad idea, but then we started watching the game. He'd fast forward the commercials, all the commentary, then eventually everything except the actually plays. So if you think about it, we watched the game in about twenty minutes. We went home and decided we didn't really like watching the game that way.

I don't like the commercials, but I like the commentary, I like the set up, the anticipation of the play. That's part of the game.

I have to admit I have skimmed a few books in my day. It's usually badly written books where I'm in a hurry to reach the end. But I've also skimmed popular books, because I'm so anxious to get to the end. I did this with the last Harry Potter book. Big mistake. I didn't enjoy it as much as I could have.  I've learned my lesson. If the book is good, I read every word, enjoy the build up, the anticipation. I've stopped reading my books, like I'm watching a show I've PVR'd.

How about you? Are you guilty of being a skimmer? Did you ever regret it?

Gone Gone Gone - I've been gone so long

Love that Chilliwack song. Although if you're not Canadian you might not know what I'm talking about.

Hey there fellow bloggers, it's been a long time. I've been away living in a Tiebetan hut with no access to the internet for four months.

I've learned a lot in that time. The locals here are crazy friendly.  Their momos are to die for and although tasty, the yak is a bit dry.

Actually, I've had no such adventure and have been sitting at home cooking, cleaning, working, dealing with kids, but that's not the reason I stopped blogging.

I wasn't writing. I wasn't reading. My whole literary life had stalled. I felt like I had nothing to say. So I took the break and decided to find my authentic self. (More on that in a different post.) It's an ongoing process, but I do feel like I made some progress.

First, I hate high heels. I've tried to like them, but they hurt my ankles every time I put them on. I can deal once in a while with a kitten heel or a wedge, but I will never be the girl who wears the three inch heels with the leopard print. I'm a flats girl and I've accepted that. (There are a few other things I've accepted but more on that later.)

Also I took the last four months and edited my first book one more time after reading a great editing book. (I'll save that for another post as well - can't give away everything at once). I am also close to putting the finishing touches on my second book and have been reading a great book to help me prepare for my third.

Starting this month I'm going to be working my actual paying job four days a week, so I'm only going to blog once a week - Mondays, because I'm also trying to learn that I can only do what I can do.

So that's part of what I did this summer, I'm sure I'll share more later. What did you do this summer.