When I started this blog, I intended to write something here everyday. Now, I try to check in a few times a week. But, as of today, it's been two weeks since I stopped by.
The good news is that I've been reading and writing like crazy. I finished reading my completed novel, but I need to go back and make some cuts in the first half, I think. For my other big work in progress, I've been writing like mad, so I'm about two-thirds or maybe three-fifths of the way through the story. I know how it will end and how I'm going to get there. When I do, that's when I'll go back and fix all of the big glaring problems that I didn't notice the first time through.
I've been reading lots of other things too. I finished Carrie Ryan's "The Forest of Hands and Teeth," which was extremely well written, but very dark and depressing. It's almost hard to believe it's a YA novel. I can't imagine a 14-year-old girl reading it.
I've also been slowly reading Anne Lamott's "Traveling Mercies," which is basically a series of essays about her non-traditional path in the Christian faith. It's not the kind of book I would typically read -- I was baptized Methodist, confirmed Lutheran and now probably would describe myself as an agnostic -- but I do appreciate her often touching and frequently funny prose, as I did in her book on writing, "Bird by Bird." Now I want to read one of her novels to see what she does with fiction as opposed to memoir.
And then, this weekend, I got lucky when I went to the library and found the novel that my book club is reading, Helen Simonson's "Major Pettigrew's Last Stand." It's one of those books that I can only check out for a week and can't renew, so I'm rushing to read it by next Saturday. I also picked out "A Visit From the Goon Squad," by Jennifer Egan, which is due on Saturday as well. I don't think I'm going to read be able to read both books before they're due, unless I don't work on writing my own, but I'm going to try.
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