Thursday Spaz Report

I'm sitting in my office, which looks a little more like the inside of a tornado than an office but we won't go there, yet. There's a squirrel climbing down the oak tree outside my window and another one sneaking up behind him. The cat's asleep. My bee sting of two days ago itches. And, I don't feel like writing. At least, not yet. So, you get an update on reading and writing (and possibly arithmetic).

I'm totally spazzed, today, because I lost my mind and decided to move the futon from our office to the den -- mostly to keep my husband from buying a new sofa. I want to use the available space to shift things around before filling up that room (which you may recall has been recently carpeted after two years of being down to concrete) and moving the futon gives us room to paint the office. Yeah! Starting yet another project when we have half a kitchen and 90% of a den. What more could a girl want than to end up with 2/3 of an office?

Normally, if I can't sleep because of the husband's snoring, I go to the futon. Last night, I couldn't sleep because of the husband's snoring. But, there's no curtain in the den window because we're still finishing up the trim painting and that freaks me out. So . . . no futon, long night. Yep, totally spazzed.

I'm on the verge of finishing The Church of Facebook by Jesse Rice and have both enjoyed and been horrified by the ideas it presents about the concept of "community" and how Facebook and other social media (including blogging) lack important aspects of true community. And, yet, at this point I think he's saying that there's a certain amount of contentment that one gets from blasting info about one's life on Facebook, conversations on Twitter, etc. The "church" aspect is losing me a little. I should maybe not have read bits of this when I was sleepy and might do a little rereading before I review, but in general the book is mostly psychology and quite fascinating.

Yesterday, I listened to and enjoyed BlogTalkRadio's interview with the authors of A Climate for Change and thought it was very well done. I sent in a question for this particular interview, so if you listen in you can hear my question and author Katharine Hayhoe's reply. And, if you can't fathom parting with the money to buy the book, A Climate for Change, is currently available in full, online, especially pertinent for those of you aren't North American and therefore can't sign up to win a copy. You can also purchase it as a download for a reader, if you're one of those people who have moved with technology in a way that makes my nose wrinkle.

I'm going to just do a quickie review of The Bible Salesman by Clyde Edgerton, right now, this very minute because I felt like the best descriptive term I can come up with is . . . nyeh. Disappointing to have such a pitiful grasp for the English language, but at this very moment you'll recall that I'm spazzed, frazzled and basically wiped out. So, you get what you get.

The Bible Salesman is about Henry, a fellow who acquires free Bibles, which he sells door-to-door. He meets a thieving, lying, dangerous man named Preston Clearwater, who convinces Henry he works for the FBI and hires Henry to help out with his car-theft ring. Henry likes the money and loves the idea that he's helping the FBI, but he falls in love along the way and the whole FBI thing starts to lose its fizz. Eventually he puts two and two together and comes up with 9, which leads to a pretty exciting and satisfying ending. It's just that . . . maybe it was me, but I kept falling asleep while reading this book. I think I can give it about a 3.5/5.

Nano-wise, the writing on my bad sci-fi has gone well for the first three days -- which, of course, were really days 9-11 of National Novel Writing Month. I skidded to a halt at a total of 9,271 words, last night. Not bad for 3 days' work, but the LOL cat, above, describes my sentiments at the end of the day.

This has really been a tremendously slow reading week, but I've read about 100 pages of The Foundling by Georgette Heyer and find myself besotted with the Duke, who was born a sickly baby and coddled to the point that he's getting tremendously feisty. I love Heyer's feisty characters.

And, my husband has now cooked 4 of the recipes in How to Lower Your Cholesterol with French Gourmet Food by Chef Alain Braux, (<---another Amazon link that doesn't benefit me, just in case you want to dash over to buy a copy). Kiddo gobbled up the pork chops, returning for seconds (moist, amazing, cooked in wine and topped with apples, celery and cheese) and I made my husband go back to the store to get more portobello mushroom caps to make a second round of stuffed mushrooms. Our pumpkin cheesecake is chilling.

The book is about 2/3 health book and it's the most interesting book on lowering cholesterol that I've read -- actually, I don't believe I've ever finished reading any of those I've attempted in the past. It's enjoyable to read at least in part because the author occasionally talks about his childhood in France. Those musings, along with fabulous recipes and very readable nutrition advice have made this book a 5-star for both myself and the husband. I hope to write a full review by this weekend and I'll add a favorite recipe when I do.

I think that's about all the news, for now. How are you doing? Still no blog-hopping for me. I'm feeling a tad lonely, but it's fun writing bad sci-fi. You should try it, sometime. Seriously.

Happy, Happy Thursday (or Friday, for those of you on the other side of the world)!

Bookfool: Reader, writer, counter of words

Oof! Nano update #3 is a horror!

Guess what I did, today, book fanatics? I started a whole new Nano story and set that other one aside to let it percolate a bit -- actually removed it from the word counter and replaced it. The more I pondered, the more I didn't want to write Story #1 quickly and felt it wasn't the right story to hammer out in 30 days. So, now I have 20 days to hammer out Story #2. Wish me luck. It's completely different. I went from a contemporary story about what might happen if life imitated art, with a religious bent, to a futuristic story that starts with the heroine taking a jump off a tower. But, it's okay. She's got these really cool wings, you see . . .

I know it's insane to start all over again, but I still want to write and I figured there was no point continuing to torment myself with the wrong story. If I don't crank out 50,000 words by the end of the month, it won't kill me. I did, however, whip out the little calculator accessory and did some division. Tick, tick, tick . . . 50,000 words divided by . . . uh, 20 days? I think it's 20. I came up with 2500 words per day. Of course, that means I'll have to either get cracking or type through Thanksgiving; but, trust me, everyone's used to seeing my back at holiday time. No biggie. So, I managed 2700 words before midnight in some other time zone (it's still 11:13 here) and I'm currently at 3010. Every muscle in my body is locked up, which means it's quitting time.

Here's my story art:

Because every now and then you have to stop typing or the fingers do weird jamming-up things, when you get old. I'm getting old, you know. Rising Flames is the working title. I made that little collage using a photo of the sun on top of a bit of light painting with autumn trees (which pretty much doesn't show up, except for some very faint lines in the background) and some handprints I found via Google images, source unknown (but the word "free" was in there, somewhere).

Well, what do you think? Can Bookfool succeed? Was all your cheerleading for naught? Do you like the flame-orange handprints?

In other news: I quickly read another book by Margaret Peterson Haddix, today, because I wanted to gobble up something short: Among the Hidden. It was good. I liked Found better, but I have a boxed set of four of this particular series (next up is Among the Imposters) and they're dystopian, so . . . you know. Nice brain break material.

I am missing the blog-hopping thing, so I hope I can zoom far enough ahead to do some visiting, tomorrow. If I don't, it's not for lack of desire to hang out with my book buddies.

I hope you're all having a marvelous week, so far.

Bookfool, feeling the butt-spread from a 3,000-word afternoon

A Climate for Change by K. Hayhoe and A. Farley (review)

A Climate for Change
by Katharine Hayhoe and Andrew Farley
Copyright 2009
Faith Words - Nonfiction/Science/Christian
206 pages, incl. discussion questions and nearly 40 pages of sources, plus numerous charts, graphs & photos

What do you mean you're not interested in global warming? If you're about to skip this review because global warming is a blow-off topic, an "I'm not really interested" thing, or you think Al Gore's trumpeting is a crock, then you're missing the point that changing climate (not weather -- climate . . . the authors explain the difference) affects all of us.

First things first. I loved A Climate for Change because it answered absolutely every question I had about global warming but the authors never resorted to politics, instead simply stating the facts. It's written from a Christian perspective, drawing on scripture and describing humans as the "stewards" of Earth, but I think anyone who either questions global warming or believes in it and just doesn't feel like they know enough about it to speak intelligently and answer questions would enjoy this book.

I fell into the latter camp and enjoyed A Climate for Change so much that it's going on my keeper shelf.

The most important thing I learned was the meaning of climate change versus weather change. It sounds intuitive, but we've all expressed dismay at how on earth one of our friends can be quoting record cold temperatures proving that her area is experiencing the coldest winter in decades when the entire planet is supposed to be warming up. Isn't that a contradiction? Nope, it's not. And, I can't possibly explain as well as the authors of A Climate for Change, but it boils down to this . . . weather changes day-to-day and it's chaotic. Climate changes over long time periods.

You can have a cold winter or a temperature-breaking week in either direction without it having anything at all to do with climate. Climate change generally happens over thousands of years. The fact that climate change over the entire planet has happened in a matter of a mere 200 years (since the Industrial Revolution) is not normal. And, it's happening faster than even scientists with predictive models anticipated -- enough so that your 15-year-old gardening guide may be out-of-date because the planting zones have changed.

And, how does climate change have anything to do with us? I think I'll refer you to the book for the answer to that question, but it's surprising. In the U.S., we have a tendency to feel uniquely protected or immune from happenings in the world at large and it's true that the poorer nations will suffer even more from changes in climate, but climate change does and will have an impact on everyone. It's worth reading the book to find out how global warming could touch your life.

Even the last holdout, the American Association of Petroleum Geologists, released a statement in 2008 acknowledging the effect humans are having on their environment.

Today, there is no legitimate national or international scientific organization that does not accept the fundamental role of humans as drivers of recent climate change.

These estimates are actually nothing new. Back in the 1960s, one of the earliest climate modelers in the Soviet Union, Mikhail Budyko, concluded that if the planet were to warm by several degrees, Canada and the Soviet Union would benefit. That's because much more of their land area would become useful. In the spirit of the Cold War that prevailed during those times, Budyko recommended to the Soviet government that they burn every piece of coal they could lay their hands on. His purpose? To deliberately enhance global warming so that the rest of the world, including the United States, would suffer and the Soviet Union would benefit.

Fortunately, no one took the idea seriously enough to actually carry it through. But today, we are nonetheless well on our way down Budyko's suggested pathway. And, at least in the area of agriculture, the results are much as he predicted.

Rising temperatures threaten the poor, the disadvantaged, the elderly, and our children--those whose health is most affected by extreme heat events. In 2000, the World Health Organization estimated that there had been, in that year alone, 150,000 deaths due to climate change. The estimate includes deaths as a result of extreme weather conditions that are occurring with increased frequency, changes in temperature and rainfall conditions that influence the transmission patterns for many diseases, and patterns of food production and supply.

5+++/5 - This is the kind of book I wish everyone would read and talk about. It's well-written, thorough, clear and succinct. Charts, graphs and photos add plenty of visuals. Additional reading suggestions and tons of scientific sources will give anyone who still isn't convinced plenty of material to make an informed decision. My only complaint--and obviously, it didn't bother me enough to take off a point--is that the conclusion sounds a little heavily Christian and preachy. So, some may not like those final few pages. I didn't find the rest of the book heavy-handed; it's worth reading, even if you feel like you have to skim the Christian portions.

Don't forget! I'm giving away 5 copies of A Climate for Change. This is a breezy book, not at all boring and heavy like a lot of non-fiction and hugely, highly recommended. You should definitely try to win a copy.

I'm off to run errands and then I've decided to continue with the Nano. Eeks. Wish me luck.

A Climate for Change by Katharine Hayhoe and Andrew Farley (sneak peek)

It is time for a FIRST Wild Card Tour book review! If you wish to join the FIRST blog alliance, just click the button. We are a group of reviewers who tour Christian books. A Wild Card post includes a brief bio of the author and a full chapter from each book toured. The reason it is called a FIRST Wild Card Tour is that you never know if the book will be fiction, non~fiction, for young, or for old...or for somewhere in between! Enjoy your free peek into the book!

You never know when I might play a wild card on you!

Today's Wild Card authors are:

Katharine Hayhoe

and

Andrew Farley

and the book:

A Climate for Change: Global Warming Facts for Faith-Based Decisions

FaithWords (October 29, 2009)

***Special thanks to Valerie M. Russo of the Hachette Book Group for sending me a review copy.***

ABOUT THE AUTHORs:

Katharine Hayhoe is a professor in the Department of Geosciences at Texas Tech University and CEO of ATMOS Research, a scientific consulting company. She contributed her research to and served as Expert Reviewer for the Nobel Prize-winning Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change. Katharine's work has been presented before the U.S. Congress, highlighted by state and federal agencies, and featured in over 200 newspapers and media outlets around the world.

Visit the author's website.

Andrew Farley is the lead teaching pastor of Ecclesia (www.EcclesiaOnline.com) and co-hosts Real Life in Christ, a 30-minute program that airs every week on ABC-TV in the West Texas area. Andrew served as a professor at the University of Notre Dame for five years and is now a tenured professor at Texas Tech University. Andrew has coauthored three textbooks and more than a dozen journal articles. He is also the author of The Naked Gospel: The Truth You May Never Hear in Church.

Visit the author's website.

Product Details:

List Price: $22.99
Hardcover: 224 pages
Publisher: FaithWords (October 29, 2009)
Language: English
ISBN-10: 0446549568
ISBN-13: 978-0446549561
Product Dimensions: 9 x 6 x 1 inches

AND NOW...THE FIRST CHAPTER:

No Idea by Greg Garrett

No Idea: Entrusting Your Journey to a God who Knows by Greg Garrett

Copyright 2009

David C. Cook - Memoir/Christian

220 pages, incl. notes

I read Greg Garrett's first memoir, Crossing Myself, because the promotional material for No Idea sounded fantastic but one book precedes the other and I wanted to understand where Garrett was coming from. Here's how he describes the two:

In my first spiritual autobiography, Crossing Myself, I wrote about my lifelong battle with life-threatening depression, how it almost got me, but how through faith and community, I came to a place where I decided I would go on living.

In this book . . . my editor wants me to write about what comes next.

Once you've decided that you're going to live--no mean feat for some of us--how do you figure out what you're supposed to do with that life?

I'm not sure this book actually helped me to discern any sense of direction for myself, but I enjoyed reading the second part of the author's journey. In the first book, Garrett came to the decision that he was being called to be a priest. Several years have passed; he's completed his studies at seminary (while teaching at Baylor) and, in spite of his conviction that he's received a calling, he has not been ordained -- he's done all the requirements for ordination, but he hasn't been through the laying on of hands that gives one the title "priest" or "minister". He can minister in every way except the giving of the sacraments.

But I have come to believe that, as God sees the world, there are no mistakes; everything that happens is a part of a larger plan.

That particular comment has to do with the fact that Garrett's three divorces have kept him from the final step to official priesthood, although he's able to minister. There were two parts of No Idea that I found particularly moving. In one section, Garrett describes his time working as a hospital chaplain. Part of his job as a hospital chaplain involved being with families as a loved one is dying and then praying with and comforting them after the death. Often, he was called to the hospital because the nurses knew someone wasn't going to make it, but it was not his place share that the doctors were expecting imminent death. Instead, he was called in to be present and pray with families after their loss.

I guess this part really moved me because I've been on the grieving end a few too many times, already. Garrett had not, at this point, ever experienced the loss of someone close, but he appeared to do his best to be sensitive and caring. I spent this entire chapter mopping up tears and found myself wishing I could tell him how much a chaplain's presence meant to me when my family and I had nothing else to do but hope and pray for a quick end to suffering. Every little word of encouragement and every offer to pray makes a difference.

I also found Garrett's anecdotes about a homeless person who occasionally dropped by for a handout very touching. But, what I love most about Greg Garrett's writing is his unflinching honestly about the Bible, religion, and the people of the church.

I've resisted letting the Scripture speak to me as insight into God on a regular basis. And I'll confess that I've done this mostly because I haven't liked the way Scripture has been used on and around me in my life, the way others have read it in bits and pieces that corresponded to their worldviews, the way they have read those particular bits literally and focused on the things with which they agreed and ignored the things they didn't.

How can people of faith make the Bible an important part of their lives despite all the ways it's been read and misread, used and misused over the centuries?

We have to start with an understanding that what the Bible has to say is not just what its primary advocates in our culture think it has to say. And reading it in a way that pulls those other things--peace, justice, love, forgiveness, reconciliation, radical faith, daily practice--back to the forefront.

That's the kind of comment Garrett frequently makes in both books. He talks about his frustrations with the church but, at the same time, you understand that the lack of perfection of the church is no longer enough to drive him away. It did so, at one point, and he returned. I think a lot of us can relate to those frustrations; in fact, it seems like the flaws of church bodies, the interpretation and misinterpretation of scripture, and other discomforts with the church are popping up in spiritual nonfiction quite a bit, these days. A lot of us are believers, but can't seem to find our place in the believing world, in other words.

I love Greg Garrett's writing. The subtitle sounds a little like it's a "how-to" and I don't think you can look at it that way; it's more of an autobiographical account of how one man has taken his faith and put it to work. I truly enjoy reading about his experiences, frustrations, and his thoughts on Christianity. Both books are fascinating, moving reads that I highly recommend. I do advise reading them in order and I'm glad I managed to get my hands on a copy of his first book.

Many thanks to Audra of B & B Media for my copy of No Idea.

Nano update: Stuck at 13,297 words. I don't like my story at all. While I do think the idea is great and has a lot of potential, it's just not the kind of book that lends itself to being pounded out quickly, in my humble opinion. So, I'm meditating on whether to continue or to go ahead and switch stories at Day 9. Rough decision. I'm going to sleep on it. Feel free to pummel me with opinions.

Reading update: I hastily read Found by Margaret Peterson Haddix on Friday and enjoyed it till the end, at which point I thought her explanation for the mystery was a little wanting. However, it's the first in a series and I'd like to continue on to the next book. So, I was rather horrified to find that the second book, Sent, will not be released in paperback until August of 2010. Argh! I don't want to mix hardbacks and paperbacks, so I'll wait.

Also just finished: $20 Per Gallon by Christopher Steiner. Having finished the review of No Idea, that means I'm still 5 reviews behind. The other 4 finished books: Found by Haddix, A Climate for Change by Hayhoe and Farley (I'll post a sneak peek chapter, tomorrow, just because I loved it so much), The Bible Salesman by Clyde Edgerton, and Pretties by Scott Westerfeld.

To be honest, I'd rather bury myself in books than write. Go ahead. Chew me out. I'm used to it. :)

Nano Nano - Report #2

Briefly . . . an update on my NaNoWriMo progress: I hit 10,006 words, last night. This morning I got a very late start, but then I managed to finish up the night with 11,288 words. Not huge progress, but at least it's something. I can still cram in something if I'm not completely wiped out with a migraine complicated by a backache (that would have been Tuesday's excuse).

I am very, very grateful to those of you who stopped by to nag, cheerlead, bully, nudge, shake, enthuse, threaten to kick my Nano butt, etc. It worked. I guess I needed the shove. I will not give up on this manuscript, rough as it is. The story is a hard one and definitely a departure from my normal writing style, so it's more difficult than most but . . . well, I can always stand a challenge. Keeps the neurons popping, doesn't it?

Posts will continue to be sparse, but I'll do my best to report in, now and then. You can follow my progress at Nano by clicking on the button in the sidebar.

Reading-wise: I'm about to finish A Climate For Change and I think it is absolutely wonderful. I challenge anyone to read that book and tell me you still don't believe in global warming.

I also read a little of The Blue Umbrella while I waited for Kiddo to get his teeth cleaned and then took him out for an early dinner (ulterior motive: to write uninterrupted, fill the teenager's belly, first).

If I can find the time, I'll write my review of No Idea by Greg Garrett, tomorrow. Other books I need to review are The Bible Salesman by Clyde Edgerton and Pretties by Scott Westerfeld. I've nipped into a couple of other books, but if I add any more images to my sidebar, I'm afraid it's going to slide off the monitor and into the bay. So, we'll just see if I can wrap a few up when I'm not writing. Hope everyone's having a terrific week!

Bookfool, satisfied with word count and not thrilled with day-long case of hiccups

Crossing Myself by Greg Garrett

Crossing Myself: A Story of Spiritual Rebirth
By Greg Garrett
Copyright 2006
Navpress - Nonfiction/Spiritual/Christian
239 pages, incl. notes

I read a blurb about No Idea by Greg Garrett via B & B Media and it sounded fantastic, but I got the impression that I needed to read Greg Garrett's first memoir, Crossing Myself: A Story of Spiritual Rebirth, first. So, I requested a review copy of No Idea and then ordered a copy of Crossing Myself, which arrived within days (sometimes I just want to smooch Paperback Swap).

Crossing Myself is a rather gut-wrenching read, in many ways, as it's the story of how Greg Garrett went from standing at the side of a busy road, preparing to step in front of a truck (because he felt he would be better off dead than living with chronic depression) to suddenly realizing there is a higher power and a reason to live. From there, he describes his journey.

Born into a Southern Baptist family, Greg Garrett found the religion of his youth was an angry, hell-fire and brimstone religion. He never was taught or believed in a loving God. This early experience drove Garrett away from church and into a life of atheism. For many years, he scoffed at religious people and was utterly convinced there was no God.

In his work life, Garrett thrived. He became a professor at Baylor University, was published numerous times, led writing retreats and traveled extensively to write, reflect, teach and explore. He was a "high functioning" depressive. His personal life, however, was a disaster. At his low point, he was on his third marriage when he considered suicide. He eventually divorced a third time and had to move into monk-like quarters in order to pay child support for his two sons by two different exes.

But, Greg had found something when he stood on that curb, considering the end of his life. A moment of revelation led him to take tentative steps into an Episcopal church, where he found himself slowly realizing he did, in fact, believe in a higher power. He took steps to deal with his depression (medication, therapy). Eventually, he was startled to find himself called to be a priest. At the end of Crossing Myself, Garrrett was balancing study at seminary with teaching at Baylor, writing, and leading workshops. He was a busy man and a happy one.

There's a little about writing and how he discovered he is a Christian writer, like it or not, and wrote with a certain spirituality in his stories, even during his time as "cultural Christian", one who was raised a Christian but not practicing and not actually even believing. There's so much more to this book than I can really describe in a brief review, but I think it's important to mention that Garrett is very opinionated but extremely down-to-earth. He has a tendency to beat up on himself for mistakes and he struggles with certain Biblical concepts, as we all do, and how they apply to real life. I'll close with a couple of quotes.

I wrestled a long time with this idea, with life and death, with all this heaven stuff.

Because frankly, I don't think the carrot and stick of the afterlife should have an effect on the faith we choose, or on our moral behavior in this life. When I became a Christian as a young person, it was because my pastor in Oklahoma had scared me witless about dying in my sin and going to hell. I became a Christian not because I really understood the gospel message or particularly wanted to be a good person. I just didn't want to go to hell and burn forever.

That would suck.

[p. 32, Crossing Myself]


On writing as a Christian:

Let me establish at the outset that I don't resist the label of Christian writer because I feel threatened in terms of my career or the acceptance of the reading public, for certainly that would be a reason, at least. But it's not a reason: More than any time in my life, there is a spiritual hunger everywhere I look, a hunger for connection, for some sort of ultimate meaning. Finally, our society seems to have grasped what Dr. King often said in sermons forty years ago: "The great problem facing modern man is that the means by which we live have outdistanced the spiritual ends for which we live."

[p. 94]

On being called to love:

If you think that gay people don't go to heaven -- you understand, by the way, that you're not the one in charge of that -- that's fine.

You still have to love them.

If you think the church down the block -- or across the ocean -- has got it all wrong, it doesn't mean the Devil has led them astray. And you know what?

You still have to love them.

If you think that somebody is a bigot , or a hypocrite, or a closed-minded fundamentalist, that's your opinion.

But you still have to love them.

[p. 192]

I can't even begin to tell you how much I loved this book. It was an emotional read. My life is not a ragged mess of broken families, but I've wrestled with how the church reacts to the outside world, how easy it is for believers to become a cliquish, insular group that doesn't react to societal change or reality in a loving, embracing way. And, I've been in that dark hole of depression a bit too often. It's hard reading about Garrett's pain but lovely reading about how he transitioned from deep pain to daily joy.

5/5 - Read this because you want to read a viewpoint of Christianity that is very down-to-earth, because you're depressed and confused about your spirituality, or just because you want to read a good memoir.

Next up will be my review of No Idea by the same author. Be patient with me. I'm a tired puppy, taking muscle relaxants for back pain and trying to write my Nano book (no, I haven't given up!).Happy Trails!

Bookfool

NaNoWriMo Update, such as it is, and What I'm Reading

I've been working on a book review that's a real head-banger (hard to decide what to say because there's so much to talk about!!) and because I had no focus whatsoever, today, I decided to toddle over to see if New Orleans Chris had posted anything about his NaNoWriMo progress. Sure enough, Chris is chugging right along. I had a super first day of Nano, in spite of the fact that I've always been nervous about the story I chose to work on -- which I've been mulling for something on the order of 4 or 5 years -- but I started late and still managed to crank out over 5,000 words.

This morning . . . ugh. I suspected something was wrong around 4,000 words, yesterday, so I was kind of hesitant when some of my Twitter buddies congratulated me on my first-day word count. At 6,000 I knew it was a dead end but tried to zig when I probably should have zagged in order to fix things. At 6,400, I stopped.

My beloved, half-blind kitty has been in an outdoorsy mood, so I abandoned the computer and spent most of the afternoon on the porch with her. On the porch, I broke open A Novel Idea: Best Advice on Writing Inspirational Fiction (<----link to bn.com, for a change of pace). Okay, let me just say this, first: If you are trying to write a novel of any kind at all, this book will be helpful. Inspiration is the theme, but there's some fantastic writing advice that has already helped me and which applies to all genres; it's just excellent, general information. I don't know if it'll save my fat Nano butt from doom, but we'll see.

While I'm not calling my story "inspirational," it definitely has some Christian elements and I've fretted so much because it's almost a burden being handed a story like this in a dream. It has built-in conflict -- huge, ridiculous, wonderful conflict -- and I have the option to make my heroine completely miserable, push her to the brink, nearly ruin her life and then . . . pull her back. That's good, right?

The problem, I discovered from reading the first chapter (by Angela Hunt) is that I didn't begin my story in media res, "in the middle of the action". I was nowhere near the inciting incident (not the big disaster, but the story starter); I was way back in the build-up to the inciting incident, which needs to be presumed rather than written because it is too freaking boring to read.

So, like Chris on his first day, I was thinking #Nanofail. At the regular time (only darker - stupid Daylight Savings Time), my husband walked in the door and he said, "You can't quit," when I told him That was it. I blew it. I replied that I can do anything I darn well please because it's my choice and he said, "You. Can. Not. Stop." Well, huh. Not sure where that came from, but I've spent the evening reading and snoozing and pondering. We'll see what happens, tomorrow.

Bookwise:

You'd think I'd slow down on my reading because of Nano, but no . . . I've actually picked up and started several books. I finished Pretties and started The Knife of Never Letting Go. I'm not sure what I think of The Knife of Never Letting Go, at this point, except that I think hearing a dog's thoughts can be pretty hilarious.

Of course, I started A Novel Idea -- the promo material says, "All of the proceeds go to Media Associates International, an international organization whose goal is to help fledging (I presume they mean "fledgling") writers and publishers produce Christian literature that is culturally relevant." Cool.

I've also read the intro and first chapter of The Church of Facebook by Jesse Rice and I am loving this book even more than I'd imagined. The author is a psychologist and he begins the book with a discussion about connectivity -- why people and monkeys and other critters need each other -- by describing an experiment with baby monkeys and a wire-monkey mother versus a soft, fake mother. Fascinating stuff. I only stopped after the first chapter because I'm in a group that is going to discuss the book and I don't want to move beyond the discussion points.

Hubby has made a salad from How to Roast a Lamb: New Greek Classic Cooking by Michael Psilakis and neither of us liked the dressing but the salad was so good that I asked for seconds. And, I am not a big salad eater; it's that good - with roasted almonds and dried fruit, mmm. This is truly a stunning book, by the way, with pictures of not only the recipes but everyday life in Greece.


And, I'm reading a book in PDF, which is very unusual for me, but I chatted with the author and his book sounded so fantastic that I told him I'm willing to make an exception: How to Lower Your Cholesterol With French Gourmet Cooking by Alain Braux (<-----Amazon link that does not benefit me because I'm too lazy).

My husband sat down to read part of it off the screen. He is by far the pickiest person I've ever met, when it comes to cookbooks so it was surprising, to say the least, when he said, "I'm sold." Whoa. He read aloud (another thing he never does) Alain's opinion on fresh-caught versus farm-raised salmon, an opinion with which we already strongly agreed.

The recipes look fabulous at a glance and what little I've read of the text has been pretty amazing. We'll try some recipes, soon, and report back to you.

All right. I've gotten my babble fix over with. I guess I'll be up early to give Nano a second attempt, tomorrow. Cross your fingers, say your prayers and send positive thoughts, please!!!

Happy Writing to those who are also Nanoing and Happy Reading to everyone else!!

Bookfool, not particularly jazzed but willing to give it a second go

Cross My Heart and Hope to Spy by Ally Carter

Cross My Heart and Hope to Spy by Ally Carter
Copyright 2007
Hyperion DBG - Young Adult
236 pages
(2nd in a series)
Ally Carter's website

I bought Cross My Heart and Hope to Spy on impulse at Borders, last week, and whipped through it almost immediately. It's the second in the "Gallagher Girls" series, which are set at Gallagher Academy, a spy school for girls. The heroine is a student at Gallagher and the daughter of the headmistress.

The first book in the series is entitled I'd Tell You I Love You But Then I'd Have to Kill You. I haven't read that introductory novel but references to the first novel filled in the background sufficiently; there was never a sense that I was lost or missing something. Cross My Heart and Hope to Spy stands well on its own.

In Cross My Heart and Hope to Spy, heroine Cameron (Cammie) Morgan begins her sophomore year with a visit to Washington, D.C., where she's interrogated about her relationship with Josh, a former boyfriend who is not a spy (bad idea) and with whom she has been forced to break up. Obviously, her relationship with Josh was the focus of the first book, which Bookfool is now very, very anxious to read. Cammie still misses Josh but promises not to cause any more trouble. In addition to getting in trouble for her relationship with Josh, Cammie's known for having explored every crevice of Gallagher Mansion and one can presume that's gotten her into a bit of hot water in the past.

At school, Cammie and her friends arrive to find a section of the Academy blocked off, making it slightly difficult and time-consuming to navigate the Gallagher Hall (an old stone mansion). Cammie has made a commitment to behave, of course, but the realization that the staff's explanation for the closing of that portion of the school can't possibly be true and an overheard conversation between her mother and a favorite teacher have Cammie burning with curiosity. Cammie and friends decide there's no harm in a little investigation -- that's what they're training for, after all. When a group of students from a spy school for boys show up, the girls are perplexed. What is their purpose? Are they really from a similar school or is there more to those boys than meets the eye?

All becomes apparent in an exciting conclusion that I can't tell you about because it would be a big, bad spoiler. But, let me tell you this . . . I found the final scenes so exciting, adventurous and surprising that I can't part with the book. I'm going to have to reread. There is nothing I love more than fast-moving intrigue.

Another 5/5 - Entertaining, lively, intelligent and humorous. I love Ally Carter's writing. I do advise reading the books in order, as Cammie reflects on an important plot point in Book #1. I'll still read it, but I think it would be much more fun and surprising not knowing what Josh did that exposed their relationship and led to their break-up.

Bonus: Ally Carter has a degree from my alma mater, Oklahoma State University. Wahoo for Ally and Go Cowboys!

Too Cute for Words