For most people, November brings to mind images of family time, a chill in the air, football, and turkey. I have recently discovered that for the writing community, November means National Novel Writing Month: a totally insane writing frenzy during which both first-time and experienced authors take the plunge and attempt to write a novel (or 50,000 words of one, which really isn't enough words for anything but a children's novel) in one month. It's exhilarating, scary, and exhausting...or so I hear. Although I had heard of NaNo before, I had not participated because honestly, it was too scary. But then last month, the writer's chat that I have recently joined picked NaNo for a topic, and I was intrigued. Then I was excited. Then I was terrified. Then I was hooked.
I have been writing for years - mostly in secret, because apparently writing is not something that rational people do for a living - but I have never finished a novel. It's sad but true. Recently I've realized that starting in on a story, then setting it aside for a year or two, then coming back to it and deciding I have to rewrite it before I can continue, then setting it aside again, then starting back and rewriting it again was really not getting me anywhere. I got over that and decided to start a different story. Now I'm 30,000 words into it, which is more words than I've ever written in a single story before. So here's my confession: instead of starting again with a totally new story, like you're supposed to do in NaNo, I'm going to start from where I am in my story and finish it. 80,000 words should do nicely. When I first started thinking about doing NaNo, I was going to follow the rules and start fresh. But I like this story, and I really just want to finish one before I start on something new. I think in some ways it will make the challenge of writing 50,000 words in a month more difficult, because I'm already dealing with some plot hang-ups and wondering just exactly where I'm going to go from here. Still, 50,000 new words is 50,000 new words, and that's what I'm going to do. I wrote 1,000 this morning. Only 49,000 more to go. Wish me luck!
Tuesday, November 1, 2011
Tuesday, October 18, 2011
Beside Still Waters by Tricia Goyer
If you know me, you know that I often have little good to say about Christian fiction. You may also know that I'm way too picky for my own good and that I don't like to waste my time reading something I seriously doubt I'll enjoy. As a result, I don't read Christian fiction often, and I'm especially leery of authors that I haven't read before. Having read my share of "prairie romance" (think Janette Oke) as a teenager, I have avoided the Amish sub-genre entirely because there are so many of them for one thing, and for another the covers bring to mind such classics as Love Comes Softly and A Woman Named Damaris. Yikes.
That said, you can imagine my excitement when I opened a box of books to read for a project I've been working on and found Beside Still Waters, which pictures a girl in a kapp with a quilt on her lap. Still, it had to be a read, so I took a deep breath, asked for good wishes on Facebook, and dived in. What I found was a well-written and touching story that I was happy to have read.
Marianna Sommers has always felt that her life is shaped by the tragedy that took the lives of her two sisters on the night she was born. In an attempt to fill that void, she tried to be the perfect daughter, perfect sister, and perfect Amish girl. She also dreams to be the perfect Amish wife to Aaron, the good Amish boy she's adored forever. However, her parents have plans to change all that, moving the family from their established community in Indiana to the wild and sparsely-populated mountains of Montana. Although Marianna dreads leaving everything familiar and comfortable, her parents have grown weary of the way the close-knit community is so involved in - and critical of - the details and problems of their lives. Montana offers an opportunity for a fresh start.
In Montana, Marianna finds that while she must adjust to many changes, they are not all bad. In the remote West Kootenai area, people must help each other, both Amish and Englisch. Marianna finds it suprisingly easy to make friends with the Englisch restaurant owner, Annie, and the very helpful and attractive Ben. It is not long before she finds herself questioning all she has been taught about God and the ways we should relate to Him. In her own special spot beside still waters, and through the midst of unexpected circumstances, Marianna encounters the peace of God in a much more personal way than she ever would have imagined.
This book is a well-written and enchanting glimpse into the heart of a simple Amish girl who simply wants to live the best life she can, without knowing exactly how. I found my heart aching for Marianna at times, as she dealt with the pain of her family's past and the confusion of trying to live in one world while her heart was drawn to another. Having never experienced the genre before, I can't say whether it's a good Amish book, but I can definitely say that it is a good book, and I am looking forward to reading the sequel ... and learning which man Marianna chooses!
That said, you can imagine my excitement when I opened a box of books to read for a project I've been working on and found Beside Still Waters, which pictures a girl in a kapp with a quilt on her lap. Still, it had to be a read, so I took a deep breath, asked for good wishes on Facebook, and dived in. What I found was a well-written and touching story that I was happy to have read.
Marianna Sommers has always felt that her life is shaped by the tragedy that took the lives of her two sisters on the night she was born. In an attempt to fill that void, she tried to be the perfect daughter, perfect sister, and perfect Amish girl. She also dreams to be the perfect Amish wife to Aaron, the good Amish boy she's adored forever. However, her parents have plans to change all that, moving the family from their established community in Indiana to the wild and sparsely-populated mountains of Montana. Although Marianna dreads leaving everything familiar and comfortable, her parents have grown weary of the way the close-knit community is so involved in - and critical of - the details and problems of their lives. Montana offers an opportunity for a fresh start.
In Montana, Marianna finds that while she must adjust to many changes, they are not all bad. In the remote West Kootenai area, people must help each other, both Amish and Englisch. Marianna finds it suprisingly easy to make friends with the Englisch restaurant owner, Annie, and the very helpful and attractive Ben. It is not long before she finds herself questioning all she has been taught about God and the ways we should relate to Him. In her own special spot beside still waters, and through the midst of unexpected circumstances, Marianna encounters the peace of God in a much more personal way than she ever would have imagined.
This book is a well-written and enchanting glimpse into the heart of a simple Amish girl who simply wants to live the best life she can, without knowing exactly how. I found my heart aching for Marianna at times, as she dealt with the pain of her family's past and the confusion of trying to live in one world while her heart was drawn to another. Having never experienced the genre before, I can't say whether it's a good Amish book, but I can definitely say that it is a good book, and I am looking forward to reading the sequel ... and learning which man Marianna chooses!
Monday, October 10, 2011
Confessions of a Shopaholic - the movie
I decided to watch this movie on Friday evening while Greg was out of town. It had been sitting on our shelf for about a month and I figured I'd better watch it so that I could send it back to Netflix (or whatever they are now) and get something more interesting, like Thor or X-Men: First Class. So I popped it into the player and prepared myself for a slightly-lame, feel-good romantic comedy.
About 40 minutes into it, I was thinking, "I can totally see where this is going." I even posted that on Facebook, adding that romantic comedies are supposed to be cute, predictable, and awkward. This one was living up to expectations. The main character had woven such a tangled web of poor choices and deception that everything was going to unravel by the end of the movie, but somehow true love and the human spirit would prevail. And that's exactly what happened, but I was pleasantly surprised by the result.
In Confessions of a Shopaholic, Rebecca Bloomwood is a less-than-perfect heroine who (pretty much literally) stumbles into a job working for a mostly-perfect boss at a finance magazine. Rebecca, whose true ambition is to work for a fashion magazine owned by the same company, writes witty, down-to-earth financial advice from a fresh and vibrant perspective. Trouble is, she's up to her ears in debt and is being stalked by a collector because of her inability to pass by a clothing or shoe store without going in and buying something - or a lot of somethings. As her column grows in popularity and her working relationship with her editor (played by the charming Hugh Dancy) blooms into something more, Rebecca's double life becomes harder to maintain. Eventually, she must deal with the consequences of her lies and lack of self-control.
I liked this movie because I thought it had a great message. There are times when Rebecca is not a very likeable character, but there are other times when you have to ache for her because she clearly has no idea how to deal with the mess she creates for herself. In the end, she learns an important lesson that I think is often lacking in today's culture: personal responsibility. The film is rated PG and is very clean, so I would recommend watching it with preteen girls (and older), and using it as an opportunity to discuss how Rebecca's choices hurt herself and the people around her, and how she was able to turn things around and make it right.
One more note: This book is based on the Chick Lit novel of the same name, which I haven't read. I prefer to watch the movie before I read the book when possible, and now the book is on my "to read" list. I may review it in the near future. :)
About 40 minutes into it, I was thinking, "I can totally see where this is going." I even posted that on Facebook, adding that romantic comedies are supposed to be cute, predictable, and awkward. This one was living up to expectations. The main character had woven such a tangled web of poor choices and deception that everything was going to unravel by the end of the movie, but somehow true love and the human spirit would prevail. And that's exactly what happened, but I was pleasantly surprised by the result.
In Confessions of a Shopaholic, Rebecca Bloomwood is a less-than-perfect heroine who (pretty much literally) stumbles into a job working for a mostly-perfect boss at a finance magazine. Rebecca, whose true ambition is to work for a fashion magazine owned by the same company, writes witty, down-to-earth financial advice from a fresh and vibrant perspective. Trouble is, she's up to her ears in debt and is being stalked by a collector because of her inability to pass by a clothing or shoe store without going in and buying something - or a lot of somethings. As her column grows in popularity and her working relationship with her editor (played by the charming Hugh Dancy) blooms into something more, Rebecca's double life becomes harder to maintain. Eventually, she must deal with the consequences of her lies and lack of self-control.
I liked this movie because I thought it had a great message. There are times when Rebecca is not a very likeable character, but there are other times when you have to ache for her because she clearly has no idea how to deal with the mess she creates for herself. In the end, she learns an important lesson that I think is often lacking in today's culture: personal responsibility. The film is rated PG and is very clean, so I would recommend watching it with preteen girls (and older), and using it as an opportunity to discuss how Rebecca's choices hurt herself and the people around her, and how she was able to turn things around and make it right.
One more note: This book is based on the Chick Lit novel of the same name, which I haven't read. I prefer to watch the movie before I read the book when possible, and now the book is on my "to read" list. I may review it in the near future. :)
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