A Garden Day

I hear the breeze sighing through the marbled parts of my garden. I want to sit out on the wet grass, cup the white roses, close my eyes and imagine.

Literary Odds and Ends

Marjorie Liu has a great blog post up at Babel Clash, the Borders sci fi blog, about loving all challenges. It's a great reminder not just for writing, but for life too. My favorite lines:

"You never stop learning. You never let yourself grow complacent. Love the challenge of trying new things, of taking opportunities that are a risk — but a lovely risk that will feed you, and teach you, and expand your view of what is possible."

And, if you haven't discovered Slush Pile Hell, go forth! It's a hilarious glimpse at a literary agent's take on failed query letters and well worth the travel time.

Life's Changes

 "Life's challenges are not supposed to paralyze you, they're supposed to help you discover who you are." ~Bernice Johnson Reagon



There are those moments you come to in life -- the make or break moments -- where you can't truly appreciate how terrifying they are unless you're living it. Moments such as now. My Captain is out of a job, let go last Friday after seventeen years with his company. After the WTF? moment, it was hard for both of us to breathe. Two kids in college, two in high school and one week later, we're still swimming in the WTF moment.

And today, as I'm finally seeing the horizon after months and months (years) of writing and editing my first novel, I hear this from Dorchester -- yes, they're going digital with barely any notice to the authors expecting release dates in the next few months. Which begs the questions: what is happening to the publishing industry? Can authors make as much in e-book sales as in the traditional way?

I have to wonder if pursuing a writing career is really the wisest thing to do right now, especially in my circumstance. Is it even lucrative anymore, or semi-lucrative at least? Yes, it's been my dream since before I started college. Yes, I put it off to raise the kids. And yes, it's still my biggest dream, even beyond traveling to exotic lands and suddenly finding myself able to eat dairy without breaking out in hives.

But at what point should the dream stay a dream for awhile so you can get your ducks in order? Guarantee things such as food on the table, mortgage paid, bills done?

My dream is so near. I won't give it up yet because I've invested a lot in my novel. And I finally almost have it to the point where I'm comfortable shopping it. But in the meantime, I'm at a terrifying place in my life. I hope, as Bernice Reagon said above, I discover who I really am. And what I discover will be good.

National Geography's Best Wallpapers of the Year

Two of my favorites:

 Courtesy Daily Pictures For Fun

Visit here to see the rest. They're beautiful!