storyfires

I'm tired of my old blog design, and on an unrelated note, here's some usage trivia for you. I just got back from Alabama, where they knock the hat off your head if you're rude enough to wear one indoors. No shirt, no shoes, no take-off-hat, no service. Also, people apparently don't do anything fun there. Us: What is there to see or do around here? Any good trails or museums or historical sites? Hotel concierge: I have no idea. Gas station guy: Well, you could look at that billboard over there.It might say something. That was all right, because we were too busy driving around getting lost to have time to do anything other than run, watch other people run, and take pictures of runners. Thank goodness for GPS. While there, I ate grits for the first time, and would have liked them, except for the artificial butter swimming all over the top. Also, I learned the correct way to use y'all. I think. Disclaimer: I heard this from someone who is not a southern...

This is the year I set a goal to read 100 books. By Christmas I was going to have all kinds of book recommendations. Which I do. I just don't have time to talk about them. I still have (ack!) eleven more books to read in the next three weeks. Plus Christmas stuff. No problem. But people have been asking what books to buy for Christmas, and there's not much time left, so, okay, here's the short version of my 2010 book recommendations (not all published in 2010, but all read by me this year). Keep in mind I have a literary bias. I mean, my true favorites are always the books I feel have a real sense of the beauty and wonder of language. They must tell a great story. I have to love the characters--or hate them and then grow to love them. The character progression has to interest me. The book has to have something worthwhile to say, but never, ever beats me over the head with its ideas. And in books for kids, they have to carry a sense of hope and possibility. Because...

It has been so long since I blogged, I think I forgot how. I have writer's blog-block. Let me think of an excuse, quick. Um...huh. Maybe a top-ten list: 10. Didn't feel like it. 9. I was writing. As opposed to what is happening here. 8. Plans for my next post way too big. I was intimidated. 7. My house was dirty (not posting didn't change anything there). 6. Too busy being thankful. 5. Working on a freaking novel in verse. You think I have extra brain-waves left over? 4. My kids hog the internet. They claim it's homework. 3. It snowed. 2. It rained. 1. Uh....I went for a run? 10 REALLY good reasons. Actually, what I should be posting about are the good books I've read lately that I want you to read, too, but first I have to fly to Alabama and back to watch my daughter run a race. Newsflash: I am not worried about this trip. I am over my travel anxiety/panic/freak-out tendencies. I promise I'll be back soon. Unless my plane gets hijacked...

Albert Einstein on his Theory of Relativity: "I thought of that while riding my bicycle." It happened again. I didn't want to exercise because my head was in my book and I wanted to be writing, and...because I was feeling lazy. But when I finally forced myself to get on the bike,  and the canyon breeze was blowing through the hair on my legs (probably should have shaved),  and the smell of maple was in my nose,  something unjammed inside my head. The mind-wheels got turning and the story fires got burning and suddenly I knew what to do with that one character in my book that had been stuck.  I love my bicycle. :)

Ok, so only two people like free books. Or (more likely) only two people read my blog. That's ok. I'm not whining. Er, maybe I am. But what these two people have figured out that the rest of you haven't, is that when a few people enter my drawings frequently, those few frequently win free books. But I wax alliterative. And I will shut up now. So, the winner of September's book drawing is....are both of you ready? Alyosha! Congratulations, Alyosha. Send me your address and I'll send you a book.