My Life in Books- Thus Far

I think that is fairly self evident that I have a love of books. In last years NaNoWriMo I wrote about how different books influenced my life. Some of these books influenced me by the contents held with with, and others by the circumstances to which they came into might life or triggered in my life.  As we draw closer and closer to the magical creative time of NaNoWriMo, I reflect on what I accomplished last year and what I learned about my self and on my writing.  

In the up an coming weeks I am going to share with you some of the books that made a difference to me in this adventure with a pulse. I am going to go back and look at last years NaNo for the first time in a year and contemplate my work and hopefully edit it and move forwards.  Below is a list of books that were mentioned in what I call "My Life in Books". As I go though this editing and rehashing adventure, and clean up some of the grammar mistakes that I don't want to admit that I ever made; I will share some of the my best and worst moments with some of the books on the list.  I encourage you to think about what books may have shaped you as a person. 


2012- My Life in Books list

1. Diary of Anne Frank by Anne Frank
2. I, Robot by Isaac Asimov
3. Oedipus by Sophocles
4. Animalia By Graham Base
5. Where’s Waldo by Martin Handford
6. Berenstain Bears By Jan and Stan Berenstain
7. Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs by Judi Barrett
8. Nanny Ogg’s Cookbook: A Useful and Improving Almanac of Information Including Astonishing Recipes from Terry Pratchett’s Discworld
9. Breakfast at TIffany’s by Truman Capote
10. A Treasure of Modern Fantasy edited by Terry Carr and Martin Harry Greenberg
11. Glory Lane by Alan Dean Foster
12. Quozl by Alan Dean Foster
13. Dragons of a Fallen Sun by Margaret Weis
14. The Years Best of Fantasy and Horror Anthology 
15. Hitchhiker Guide to the Galaxy by Douglas Adams
16. Harry Potter Series by J.K. Rowling
17. Breaking Dawn by Stephanie Meyers
18. Brisngr by Christopher Paolini
19. Growing Up Girl by Anne Greenawalt
20. Merchant Princes Series by Charles Stross
21. Summon the Keeper by Tanya Huff
22. American Gods by Neil Gaiman
23. Moss Gown by William H. Hooks
24. Dandelion Wine by Ray Bradbury
25. Veronika Decides to Die by Paulo Coelho
26. Taming of the Shrew by William Shakespeare
    
27. Othello by William Shakespeare
28. Hamlet by William Shakespeare
29. Macbeth by William Shakespeare
30. Interview with the Vampire by Anne Rice
31. Small Gods by Terry Pratchett
32. The Fifth Elephant by Terry Pratchett
33. Joy of Sex
34. Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austin
35. Pride and Prejudice and Zombies by Jane Austin and Seth Grahmen Smith
36. Wolfman by Jonathan Mayberry
37. Book of Mormon by Joseph Smith
38. Betty Crocker Cookbook
39. The Giving Tree by Shel Silverstein
40. Fifty Shades of Grey by E.L. James
41. Songs of the Lioness Quartet by Tamora Pierce 
42. Four Agreements by Don Miguel Ruiz
43. The Giver by Lois Lowry
44. Number the Stars by Lois Lowry
45. Old Man and the Sea by Ernest Hemingway
46. The Other Side of Midnight by Sidney Sheldon
47. Much Ado About Nothing by William Shakespeare
48. What Color is Your Parachute by Richard N Bolles
49. To Kill a Mocking Bird by Harper Lee
50. Calvin & Hobbes by Bill Watterson
51. Pippie Longstockings by Astrid Lindgren
52. My Side of the Mountain by Jean Craighead George
53. Ride the Wind by Lucia St. Clair Robson
54. The Grass is Always Greener Over the Septic Tank by Erma Bombeck
55. Clockwork Orange by Anthony Burgress
56. Wyrd Sisters by Terry Pratchett
57. Girl Interrupted by Susanna Kaysen
58. Alice in Wonderland by C.S.Lewis
59. Borley Rectory: Most Haunted Haunted House in England by Harry Price
60. Girl Genius by Phil Foglio
61. Intercourses by Martha Hopkins
62. 101 Things to Do with Ramen Noodles by Toni Patrick
63. The DIY Bride: 40 Fun Projects for your Ultimate One of a Kind Wedding by Khris Cochran
64. The DIY Bride Crafty Countdown: 40 Fabulous Projects to Make in the Months, Weeks & Hours before Your Special Day by Khris Cochran
65. The DIY Bride An Affair to Remember: 40 Fantastic Projects to Celebrate Your Unique Wedding Style by Khris Cochran
66. Beauty: A Retelling by Robin McKinley
67. Phantom  by Susan Kay
68. Game of Thrones by George R. R. Martin
69. Catfantastic, Nine lives and Fifteen Tales Edited by Martin H. Greenberg
70. Old Possum’s Book of Practical Cats by T.S. Eliot
71. Cat Who Series by Lillian Jackson Braun
72. Encyclopedia of the Cat by Angela Sayer
73. Chicks N Chained Males edited by Esther Freiser
74. Writers Block
75. Aesop’s Fabels
76. Canterbury Tales by Geoffrey Chaucer
77. The Essential Bartender Guide by Robert Hess
78. Dungeons & Dragons Player’s Handbook by Rob Heinson
79. Little House on the Prairie by Laura Ingalls Wilder
80. Anne of Green Gables by L. M. Montgomery
81. Sookie Stackhouse Series by Charlaine Harris
82. Phantom Tollbooth by Norton Juster
83. Dune by Frank Herbert
84. Catch 22  by Joseph Heller
85. The Hobbit by J. R.R. Tolkien

(Don't worry, I am not going to blog about every single one of these books. I could, but I won't. But good luck guessing which ones I am going to talk about first.)

Beginning and Middle of a Story

I am not a serious person most of the time. Anyone who reads this blog has probably realized that most of this is that is written is flights of fantasy and moments of whimsy. Sometimes a person needs moments of whimsy to get through the day, week, even next ten minutes. So, it is probably come as a great shock to many, that I do have moments of utter and complete seriousness and the thoughts of tyranny and terror do not constantly run through my mind.

We are about to experience one of those serious moments. If you want to skip this posting and perhaps read an old posting or wait for a new posting of something of utter whimsy, check back next week. I completely understand. I might just do the same later. Right now I want to talk to you about something very near and dear to my heart. I want to share with you NaNoWriMo.

A lot of people don’t know what NaNoWriMo is. For a long time I didn’t either and I had no idea what I was missing. The acronym is short for National Novel Writing Month. For those that participate, they just call it NaNo. Long and short story is that every November, from the 1st to the 30th you have the creative challenge of writing 50,000 words, which is equal to about 1,667 words a day, and are encouraged to do so through the non-profit NaNoWriMo website. The organization sends out encouraging emails, hosts lock in writing events and has a networking system to track information and promote companionship and goals.

Six years ago, I was part of a small writers group that was formed in the bookstore that the members had all worked at. We were official. We had a name. It was called The Bleeding Pens. We could write critique and edit. It was wonderful. My friend who writes for the Haveyoureadit blog introduced The Bleeding Pens to NaNoWriMo. I have no idea where she had heard about it from, but that is okay. We were The Bleeding Pens, we could do anything. We took up the challenge. Four intrepid young writers with nothing to lose discovered that 50,000 is not as easy as it sounds. With lots of encouraging, crying, drinking, and animated discussions, three out of four in our group finished.

Like all good things, they have to come to an end. The Bleeding Pens was not meant to last forever, but I learned a lot from them. Some of them I even still keep in touch with. From that time period of my life I discovered a lot about myself. I discovered that I love to challenge myself and I love every November with the anticipation of not Christmas or Thanksgiving, but the challenge of challenging myself. Doing something that feels impossible. Every year brings more challenges when it comes to novel writing time. Some of those challenges have been medical; some of those challenges have personal. I can honestly say that I have written four horrible novels that my never see the light of day much less a publishers desk, but I am good with that. I am a better person for that. I have learned important things about myself each and every time I take up this challenge. I strongly recommend for everyone to challenge themselves and to grow, either through taking up the challenge of NaNo this year, or any other challenge.

Lots of people put in a lot of hours to make NaNo possible and probably for very little thanks. They track down authors and beg and plead with them to write an encouraging letter to the participants of NaNo, while trying to keep the website running with hundreds of thousands of people using it, and probably a million other things that I am not even aware of. I have kept every single email of encouragement from every author that has taken the time to assist with this organization. It may mean a lot to the author or very little, I don’t know, but I know exactly how much their words have meant to me. When I have a bad day and I don’t know if I am going to make it through even the next ten minutes, sometimes I pull out one of those emails, or even a couple of emails and read the words of encouragement and it helps. It doesn’t make the bad day go away, but it does remind me of the personal challenges that I have succeeded in.

Go forth and challenge yourself and grow. Thank you NaNoWriMo for helping me challenge myself and find new directions to grow. Thank you authors that have taken the time to encourage me to grow,even if you didn’t know it was me.

NaNoWriMo on the Horizon

There are few things that I am truly passionate about. I am not good at show lots of excitement, and vary rarely am I one to have an attack of nerves, but one of the things that always gets my blood flowing is NaNoWriMo.  This is going to be my sixth year participating in this nerve racking, creativity draining, brain clogging, nail biting, tea drinking adventure. For those that don't know what NaNoWriMo is, I will give you a very brief explanation. It is a non-profit program that is an writing exercise tool. The goal is to write 50,000 words between November 1st and November 30th.  There is no prize for accomplishing this goal, other than the self satisfaction of knowing that you did it.  Many writer accomplished authors have used this to kick out out lines for books and countless students have used this as a spring board for writing a thesis.

I do NaNoWriMo for me.  I don't do it for any one else. It is the one time of the year that I challenge myself. It is a time that I purposely try to move outside of my comfort zone and stretch myself thin, because I have found that when I stretch myself a little thing, some really amazing things come out.

Last year I had wanted to write some sort of autobiography about my life. I don't think that I have lead an extraordinary life, but it isn't over yet. Thinking about my life, it struck me that books have shaped me in ways that I would have never expected and used that thought as a jumping board to move forward on.  Did I talk about my life thus far? Yes. Did I learn a lot about myself? Oh my golly gosh, Yes! Taking on something that I thought would be a little bit of a challenge turned into a lot of a challenge and forced me to re-examine some of my choices I have made. It also gave me a look at the people in my life and how I interact with them.

I am not completely sold on what I am going to be writing about this year, because I have two idea's roaming around in my head, but that doesn't matter. I am looking forward to this challenge and this moment of reflection and personal growth. I highly recommend anyone to step outside of their comfort zone and take up this challenge. You never know what you are going to learn about yourself until you do.