One of the things I loved about doing Morning Pages, during the eight or nine years that I did them, was their ability to clear my mind of so much of the stuff I carried around with me – not big stuff, no, not really. But loads of little things, things that I thought interesting – actually, things that I just thought.

It’s actually the kind of stuff one might Twitter. Only, if the object is to clear my mind so I can embrace the day ahead of me, I’d be writing up lots of tweets before I reached my objective.

And anyway, Twitter and tweets always feel so ephemeral to me – I write them and then I forget about them. The things I’m thinking about aren’t necessarily things I actually want to forget! I quite like the feeling of putting all these sometimes wonderful, sometimes mundane thoughts of mine into a little random list, one I can go back to occasionally if I want to. Choice is a fabulous thing, no?

• My orchid has five gorgeous big buds and one teeny tiny bud on it – so exciting. It didn’t bloom last year, but then I read an article on a blog somewhere about taking care of orchids, and applied what I learned (cut the stem on which the plant had blooms, that was about it) and voila! eight months later the plant is heavy with buds!
• I didn’t think my thoughts would be quite so long, quite so many sentences. Let’s see what else there’s rambling in my mind.
• It’s a gray day and I love it. It reminds me of Vancouver, that grayness. Dusk has always been a magical time for me.
• Why is it so difficult for me to stay committed to any one particular project? I know, without a doubt, that that kind of commitment can yield spectacular results. And yet …
• I am starting to fall in love with Facebook.
• When I do take the time to be still, even if it isn’t for very long, my whole day changes, for the better.
• So why is it so hard to find that time to be still?
• When I have work, I’m online a lot more. It’s because I get bored at the computer, and surfing around is so much more fun than working.
• I really want to learn how to bring that stillness with me as I go about my everyday life.
• It’s funny, but my closest friends are either purely online friends, or they live so far away that online is the only way to stay in touch. That part of my life is truly grounded in cyberspace.
• I have star lights hanging over my window. Why don’t I ever turn them on?

I feel better already! Clear of mind and loving the moment. I did practice stillness this morning, and now I intend to keep that feeling with me as I move through my day. I’ve got a whole lot of work in front of me, but I’m still going to go wherever my intuition points the way.

I didn’t even manage to pop in to say, Happy Holidays, and here’s to a wonderful new year!

(So I’m saying it now, a little belated.)

We welcomed in the New Year at Disney World in Orlando, Florida – it was a great trip, but being one of those excursion-oriented trips (theme park, theme park, and then more theme park) when we arrived back home, I felt in need of a vacation (I assume you’ve all been there, done that).

While we were away, I actually spent time pondering over what I would be doing with BelleEnchanted in 2009 – yes, that’s one of the many ways my mind likes to occupy me when I’m away on holiday. A few things occurred to me:

1. I am just not cut out for the whole journaling live online daily thing. I occasionally get into a nice blogging rhythm but I confess, nearly anything can distract me and steer me off course. And I mean, anything. Like a good book. Or a new blog idea (I don’t even want to go there. I’ll just say it happens. And happens.) Or a good dinner (and we have quite a few of those around here). Or deadlines (we have lots of those around here, too).
2. But when I fall out of blogging here, eventually I think about something I really really want to post about, and I find myself back here again. Because frankly, blogging here is fun. When I’m not distracted, that is.
3. And even though I just don’t have the disposition to blog consistently, I LOVE the thought of having done so. (It’s kind of like me and my writing, but let’s not go there, either, okay?)

These random thoughts lead me to something else: I’d like this blog to be about authenticity, inspiration and creativity. At the same time, I’d love for it to eventually resemble (somewhat) a journal (of sorts) – you know, a piece of me and my life for my kids and grandkids (if I have any) to enjoy (or not) at some vague future date (very future date, let’s hope).

All of which, I know, has nothing to do with the title of this post – yes, I’m back from Disney! And in subsequent posts, I will be putting together a little journal of our days, mainly for me and Ward, and for the kids. With pictures. Because yesterday I spent an hour uploading over 700 pictures from my digital camera to my computer. All of which I need to sort through.

But first, I felt like writing something here. And here it is.

Happy new year, everyone! Here’s to a great and fabulous 2009!

NaNoWriMo: I didn’t reach my 50,000 words on the one hand, but my initial goal was never to do that. It was to simply get myself sitting down and writing. So I must say, I’m looking at my official 32,532 words with great pride.

Here’s what I’ve discovered: for me, the biggest obstacle is the first step of sitting down and opening up my writing software. Once I place my fingers on the keys, the magic happens. I’m not sure why I have such a block about sitting down and just doing it, since I really enjoy the process so much. But one step at a time, right?

Starting tomorrow, I will have a new widget thingie on the sidebar, showing my word count for whichever novel I’ll be working on. I wasn’t able to keep going with the NaNoWriMo novel these past few days because of deadlines, and also because it suddenly seemed to me that I had to change the narrative from third person omniscient to first person, but only for the scenes involving the main protagonist. Who also wants a name change, too. (I’m not too sure about that one.)

NaBloPoMo: I was actually on track with blogging every day in November (despite what the dates on the posts tell you – I personally count a day as that period of time before I sleep and wake up to the next day. Blogging software has a more rigid, machine-driven view of “a day”.) And then I went and forgot to post yesterday!

So I very nearly posted every day here. Not too shabby, I think.

Art Every Day Month for November: I couldn’t keep up. Too many deadlines, and I also discovered that the writing took priority. I only did four pieces of work, and only posted three of them because I truly didn’t like the fourth one. I may do this challenge again, but probably not until the new year.

It’s been a good month. Ive still not had the time to check out all my favourite blogs regularly, but hopefully, because the deadlines are lighter in December, I’ll be able to get back to it. It’s one of the most enjoyable things about blogging, I’ve been discovering.

I was just over at Lynn’s blog, and she’s got a wonderful meme up. It looks like great fun, so here are my one word answers:

1. Where is your cell phone? Here
2. Where is your significant other? Kitchen
3. Your hair color? Black
4. Your mother? Toronto
5. Your father? uncertain
6. Your favorite thing? books
7. Your dream last night? running
8. Your dream/goal? published
9. The room you’re in? office
10. Your hobby? art
11. Your fear? Mice
12. Where do you want to be in six years? Vancouver
13. Where were you last night? Here
14. What you’re not? unhappy
15. One of your wish list items? oceanview
16. Where you grew up? Vancouver
17. The last thing you did? read
18. What are you wearing? Clothes
19. Your T.V.? off
20. Your pet? Cat
21. Your computer? yes
22. Your mood? happy
23. Missing someone? no
24. Your car? outside
25. Something you’re not wearing? glasses
26. Favorite store? books
27. Your Summer? maritimes
28. Love someone? lots
29. Your favorite color? Green
30. When is the last time you laughed? now
31. Last time you cried? yesterday

But I have to say, yesterday’s tears were tears of joy. These days, they usually are.

Thanks, Lynn! That was fun!

1. Field Center
2. My darling FC group.
3. My darling affiliate goddesses.
4. My kids and how they’re growing and learning
5. My husband the Sensei Chef (ssshhh … don’t tell him I used that term. He really really really doesn’t like it. But it’s true)
6. Eating so many lovely, delicious dishes.
7. Finding my way back to writing.
8. Finding my art again.
9. Finding a contractor and having the renovations start!
10. All the beautiful little glorious moments that make up my days – things like sipping coffee while nestled in the comfy armchair, sunlight splashing over me; hugs from Dylan; talking with Ward into the wee hours of the night; having wonderful, amazing conversations with Hayley and Sean; loving the colour of my manicure, of all things; emails from friends; and many, many more beautiful glorious little moments.

It’s been a tiring day today, and it occurred to me that the day after some deadline or other is met, finished, can be like that. You feel drained. But those words didn’t feel very good to me.

I like renewal better. I need this day, this bit of time when nothing is required, when nothing needs to be done. I need it to renew myself.

It’s been a good day, despite the tiredness. And it feels good, to have accomplished so much and to be back to a regular schedule.

I had a bazillion and one ideas all the while I was working to various deadlines. I felt motivated to make them all come true, too. But the day after, I don’t want to lift a finger.

Hot bath, glass of wine, and a good book beckons.

As soon as we finished taking pictures, he took the cape off. He liked the hat, though.

It was a gorgeous, warm night. We got out, and Dylan marvelled at our lit pumpkin. We started walking, and he was very interested in each house we went to. But after we hit five houses, he said, “I want to go to three more houses, and then I want to go home.”

He is a little boy who has very firm opinions. After we went to the sixth house, he said, “Now we’re going to go to two more houses, and then we’re going to go home.”

And then: “Now we’ll go to one more house, and then we go home.”

And finally: “Okay, let’s go home now.”

But he did have a good time. And he remembered to say “thank you” every time. Plus he really enjoyed ringing the doorbells.

Plus the Thomas the Tank train table is located in the children’s section, right by all the sale-priced children’s and young adult books.

So I came home with two bags full of sale-priced hardcover children’s and young adults’ books, including a number of children’s fantasy novels – one of my favorite genres. Since I just recently finished The Mysterious Benedict Society I’ve been hungering for similar books, including the sequel, of course (which I didn’t get yesterday, since I was too busy plowing through all the sale books).

Since these books were released as hardcovers some time ago, most of them are now available as paperbacks. But I figure these will sit nicely on my bookshelves.

My to-be-read pile now includes:

The Riddles of Epsilon, by Christine Morton-Shaw: Jessica has moved to a remote island with her parents, and encounters both a ghost-like energy as well as three locked boxes. The story involves a boy named Sebastian who lived 100 years ago; back then he unearthed dangers which now also threaten Jess and her family.

Excerpt from the jacket: “Jess has a talent for solving puzzles, riddles, and codes. She is confronted with a series of riddles that she must unlock in order to save her mother from a dark and ancient threat. Jess is guided by the creepy presence in the cottage. The mysterious guide is called Epsilon, but is he a guide from the bright side or the dark?”

I’m really looking forward to this one; it sounds like it has all the ingredients that I like in a children’s fantasy.

I Am the Messenger, by Markus Zusak: Ed Kennedy is a cab driver who inadvertently stops a bank robbery. He begins receiving aces in the mail:

Chosen to care, [Ed] makes his way through town helping and hurting (when necessary) until only one question remains.

Who’s behind Ed’s mission?

This plot alone was enough to make me add the book to my growing stack of books to buy yesterday.

Gideon the Cutpurse, by Linda Buckley-Archer: This is the first of the Gideon trilogy – I just checked Amazon and the other two in the trilogy are The Time Travelers and The Time Thief. I’ve actually seen the Time Thief around a few times but never felt drawn to it, so maybe after I read this first book, I may pick these other two up, too.

Here’s the excerpt from the jacket: “An encounter with an anti-gravity machine catapults Peter Schock and Kate Dyer back to the 18th century and sets in motion a calamitous chain of events. … Stranded in another time and forced to chase the Tar Man to his lair, Peter and Kate find a friend and guide in reformed cutpurse, Gideon Seymour …”

I’m not usually fond of historicals, but this is as much a fantasy as it is a historical. I’m pretty sure I’m going to enjoy this one.

Children Of The Lamp: The Akhenaten Adventure by P.B. Kerr: I wasn’t as sure of this one, but I couldn’t resist: two children, John and Philippa, discover that they are descendents of a long line of djinn. It’s an interesting premise, so I’m looking forward to seeing how the story reads. The sequel was also on sale – Blue Djinn of Babylon – and I couldn’t resist that one either. So hopefully the series is a good one!

Here’s an excerpt from the jacket blurb: Luckily (and luck does have something to do with it), the twins are introduced to their eccentric djinn-uncle Nimrod, who will teach them how to harness their newly found power. And not a moment too soon! Because John and Philippa are about to embark on a search to locate a monstrous looking (but supposed to be dead) pharoah named Akhenaten, and his tomb, which may hold seventy lost djinn.

So there’s much excitement promised. It will be interesting to see how this one goes.

Skulduggery Pleasant, by Derek Landy: Okay, so tell me, how on earth could I resist this one? “Meet Skulduggery Plesant, ace detective, snappy dresser, razor-tongued wit, crackerjack sorcerer and walking, talking, fire-throwing skeleton -
as well as ally, protector and mentor of Stephanie Edgley, a very unusual and darkly talented twelve-year-old.”

Checking Amazon just now, it looks like there are two sequels so far, so if I enjoy this one, there’s more to come.

The Game Of Sunken Places, by M.T. Anderson: This one looked like fun. Two boys, Brian and Gregory, receive an invitation to stay at their Uncle Max’s mansion. Uncle Max is a distant relation, and from the sounds of it, just plain weird. And the mansion is even weirder. Inside the attic, the boys find the Game of Sunken Places.

Jacket blurb excerpt (these things sway me to buy, all the time): “Is the Game of Sunken Places an ordinary board game? Hardly! The Game of Sunken Places looks like a board game. And most of the time it acts like a board game. But from the moment Brian and Gregory start playing, they are caught up in an adventure that goes far beyond the board. Soon the boys are dealing with attitudinal trolls, warring kingdoms, and some very starchy britches.”

So there you have it. This is actually only about half of the books I picked up – overnight, my to-be-read pile has swelled in size. Actually, though, that’s the way it always happens around here.

Of course, I’m in deadline crunch right now, so what I’ve just done is increase the temptation to procrastinate. I also have a tendency to do this, too …

Reviews will be forthcoming, some here, some at my new book review blog.

I’m just writing because I’m in need of a good dollop of fun right now.

It’s been incredibly busy around here – I’ve got deadlines coming out of my ears. I took a look at my schedule and realized I’m going to actually have to complete quite a few deadlines ahead of time if I’m going to stay sane over the next few weeks. I’m very good at procrastination, so this is a totally different direction for me.

The great news is that this year it looks like my “heavy crunch” time when it comes to work is happening in November, and not in December, which means I’ll have lots of time to really get into the holiday season. Christmas is my favorite holiday – I’m one of those smiley uplifted chirpy people who adores Christmas and am all set to plunge into the spirit around mid-November (it would be earlier but like I said, the deadlines are coming fast and heavy over the next two weeks!).

I finished up a couple of deadlines yesterday, and as you can tell, I didn’t procrastinate (no blog posts for two days, see?). But after all that single-minded focus – not to mention one of my projects involved linear algebra, something about which I know absolutely nothing (still), although it did have the effect of numbing my brain somewhat – I am in huge need of other things right now. Fun things. Anything other than work.

I’m promising myself the fun of writing this post before I plunge into the next project.

Reading

Now that I think about it, maybe my focus hasn’t been that single-minded. I did, after all, manage to start and finish The Mysterious Benedict Society yesterday morning.

It was another, much-needed, distraction. After I finished reading, I felt energized and renewed, and actually plunged back into my work easily and almost happily.

Not to mention, it was such a fabulous read. It was the kind of book I would have devoured as a kid (who am I kidding? It’s the kind of book I devour now, too!). Such a wonderfully fantastic adventure, with characters you can fall in love with, a nice strong plot that holds firm to the very end and a victorious resolution that ties up all those loose ends.

I’ve got the sequel on my to-buy list.

Halloween

Halloween has crept up on us. For the longest time, it felt like it was ages away. This morning we realized – hey! it’s Halloween tonight!

Dylan has changed his mind several times about his costume. He was going to be a train engineer (we bought the hat at Aberfoyle Junction)). Then he wanted to be a witch. Followed quickly by: a fairy, a pumpkin, a fire fighter, a fire engine. This morning (yes, we do like to leave things late) he decided, finally, on a witch again.

Luckily, since Hayley has been amassing props for her film-making for years, we already have a witch’s hat (every year we hit the after-Halloween sales to stock up on props, which get wrapped into a nice big prop bundle for Hayley at Christmas). And last year we bought a cape for Dylan (which he didn’t wear, because he ended up being a pumpkin). So we don’t have to go to the costume store and dig through all the left-over stuff!

(I love good news like that.)

Taking Dylan out trick-or-treating will be another much-needed distraction today. I’m looking forward to it very much.

Writing

Despite all the deadlines, I’m still trying to keep one part of my brain focused on writing. It’s pretty easy, actually. Every night before I fall asleep, I come up with a new scene or character for the novel that I’m going to write during NaNoWriMo.

I’m also jotting down all the scenes I plan on writing onto Post-it notes, which I will then be able to re-arrange to my heart’s content. I’ve also been developing a character mindmap form that I’m hoping will hold the most important information at a glance.

I really intend to get this novel written during November, deadlines or no deadlines.

The Big Draw

Dylan and I worked on another drawing together the day before yesterday (another much-needed distraction from work!). This was done, again, in our humungous sketch book (seriously, this book is something like 18 inches by 12 inches, I think), using our new gel pens. We decided to create a birthday party:

Birthday party. Gel pens.

Yesterday, Dylan drew an incredible drawing. He used Ed Emberley’s Make a World Book to jumpstart his imagination, and created an imaginary bedroom in which he gets to share a bunk bed with his big brother Sean (that’s Dylan in the lower bunk). In case you’re wondering, there’s coffee in the hot cup (Sean’s 17 and marked this very important year by becoming a member of the coffee-drinking population of the world), juice (for Dylan) in the other cup, and the plate holds gingerbread cookies.

Bedroom. Crayola markers.

Ed Emberley’s Make a World book is a fantastic drawing book for kids, by the way. When I was little, I used to borrow this book from the library all the time. I remember my delight when I managed to lay my hands on a large piece of poster board – I went wild and truly created a world. Dylan has loads of fun with this book, although it’s actually been a while since he’s used it, since he usually prefers to draw “from my imagination, Mommy”.

Blogging

Traditionally, at this time of the year when I’m at my busiest and going crazy with deadlines, I start seriously blogging. No, really, I do. So lately I’ve been thinking about reviving a spiritual blog I have, and I also decided to start a book review blog, because now that I’ve discovered the power of reading to ignite my urge to write, I intend to keep reading fiction all the time, even when it feels like I don’t have much time. I’ve gotten as far as purchasing a new domain name for it. If I get seriously bogged down in deadlines, I’ll probably have it up and running over the weekend.

(Before I discovered blogging, I would procrastinate by cleaning the house and doing laundry before Ward could get to it. He’d come home, look around, and say, “you’ve got a deadline, don’t you?”. I consider blogging a huge improvement on the whole house-cleaning-urge thing – it’s definitely a much nicer and far more fun procrastination tool.)

I think I proved to myself yesterday that reading what I love to read is beneficial even when I’m bogged down with deadlines. So time (or lack of) is no longer a detriment. If I make reading a priority, my writing will become a priority too. Which has nothing to do with blogging, I know. But everything to do with procrastination. Or rather, distractions.

That’s how my mind works.

Now, back to work. Because I feel refreshed again, after dipping in here. Which is such a wonderful thing.

Reading novels can actually be quite hazardous around here. One thing I’ve been keeping my eye on is not starting a book late in the day. When I do that, chances are good that I won’t get into bed until 3 a.m., which doesn’t work for me that well anymore.

This week has been a really good week for crime thrillers. I started the week off with Caro Ramsay’s Absolution, which is set in Glasgow, Scotland. This is Ramsay’s first novel, and I will definitely be keeping my eye out for more of her writing. Having said that, though, I enjoyed Absolution more for the writing – Ramsay writes in the literary crime tradition of PD James, Elizabeth George and Reginald Hill – than I did for the actual plot and characters. First of all – and this doesn’t happen to me very often – I knew who the murderer was from the moment he was introduced. In fact, I kept reading thinking it couldn’t possibly be this person, because it was just so obvious, so there must be some sort of tricky splendid twist waiting to surprise me at the end … only there wasn’t. I also didn’t like the main character at all. But the writing made up for these two negatives for me, so Ramsay is definitely a writer I will be keeping on my to-read list.

I moved from Absolution to another Scottish writer, Ian Rankin. The Naming of the Dead is the first Inspector Rebus novel I’ve read, and I found myself wondering why it took me so long to pick up a Rankin book. The Naming of the Dead is a thick twist-filled, suspenseful crime thriller of the type I particularly enjoy reading, and I liked both Rebus and his sidekick Siobhan Clarke very much. Which is nice, because there’s a long list of Rankin/Rebus books for me to catch-up on.

My final read this past week was Kathy Reichs’ Bones to Ashes. The plot, as is usual in a Reichs book, is wonderfully twisty and filled with surprises. I’m not as fond of the writing style, though. I find the “if only I had known” endings to the chapters just a little too old-style gothic heroine for my taste, and I don’t really like stories where the protaganist is threatened by the murderer, which is something that seems to happen a lot to Temperance Brennan.

This coming week? I’m juggling quite a few deadlines, so I probably won’t get as much reading done as I’d like. But I’m prepping for NaNoWriMo, and now that I’ve discovered that I get inspired to write after I read, I’m definitely going to keep hitting those books!