Melora Johnson's Muse

I just read a book review so badly written that, though it seemed to be favorable, it may be doing the book reviewed a disservice in the end.  (I won’t point it out here for fear it would stop you from reading the book it was about.)  Where do you draw the line between writing beautifully and writing economically?  I find my own writing style tends toward the minimalistic.  I want to add more picturesque language but I certainly don’t want to go off the deep end.  I remember reading Winter Study by Nevada Barr.  She’s pretty straight forward and tells a fast reading story but there were a couple comparisons that were so lovely I had to stop a moment to savor them before reading on.   I admire that.

Received a shipment of books today, a couple to read to the baby in utero and one for me.  I got Guess How Much I Love You and Goodnight, Moon to read to the baby.   She has ears now and they say baby’s are soothed by things they hear repeatedly in the womb so the sooner I start, the better.

I’ve also been wanting my own copy of Writing the Breakout Novel by Donald Maass.  Finally got it.  I only read the first chapter when I got it out of the library but it was incredibly helpful in making me realizing why I felt my manuscript wasn’t what I wanted it to be.  Need to get one of these books published!

It’s the middle of the night and I’m sitting here on an ice pack.  New York winter snows have melted into ice and I found a patch I wasn’t looking for, sending me right on my ass.  Thankfully I’m well padded there and hoping that absorbed the shock.  So far it only hurts there.  The problem is that sitting back has been my most comfortable position while I’m pregnant and now that hurts more than I would have imagined.

Got myself a neat little netbook, secondhand, for typing and surfing the net this weekend.  I’m still getting used to it but I love it already.  It’s so portable and light.  Hoping this will inspire me to get back to work on the writing.

I can’t believe it’s been over three months since I posted anything on this blog!  Life has certainly kept moving.  I went to Niagara Falls, got the flu, started a novel for NaNoWriMo about a woman who unexpectedly finds out she’s pregnant, then found out at the end of the first week that I am pregnant and THAT has consumed my life ever since.

We found out today that it’s going to be a girl.  It was kind of surprising because so many little things had pointed toward a boy, like a dream my boss had before I even knew I was pregnant and my obstetrician had even said “it sounds like a boy.”  My brain had gone from thinking that I would have a girl to thinking I was having a boy and now it has to turn around again.  The ultrasound tech seemed pretty positive but I know there’s still a chance she could be wrong.  Crazy.  This kid is keeping us on our toes already.

Writer’s group tonight got me thinking about what I’ve accomplished in the past year as a writer and what I want for my writing in the coming year.  Basically, this past year, I journaled a lot, wrote a few poems, applied for a NYFA Fellowship, started a new novel for NaNoWriMo, started a writer’s group at my library and started this blog.  In one way it was some very good steps forward and in another way it doesn’t seem like very much.

My concrete goals for this year are to get blogging again, edit my middle grade mystery novel and start submitting it again, and write my Pumpkin Time novel.  My DREAM BIG goal is to become a stay at home Mommy novelist.  Maybe I won’t achieve that before the end of the year, but I’m sure going to take steps in that direction.  Hopefully some pretty big ones.