My Writing Monster is a hungry one. She demands a type of selfishness, a devotion that requires me to shut out the rest of the world and all the other things I 'should be' doing. She devours my most valuable resource, time. She needles me when I'm driving, throwing images and ideas in my head when I can't stop to record them. And then other times, when I sit in front of the screen, ready to unleash her, she sleeps. She has an illicit love affair with adverbs. I know they're wrong, but she just keeps forcing them on me. She's a hard one to tame, my Monster.

Following through on the commitment to write is the hardest part for me. Some people say you have to treat it like a job, but I don't think that's true. I think you have to treat it like a relationship. Sometimes you have to work at a relationship, but you do it because you love the other person. Ay, there's the rub, though. The struggle is working at your relationships with people and your relationship with your writing when both demand so much time.

This week my goal is balance between my regular life and my writing life.


Playing now: The Weight, Thrice

I had all planned out in my head what I wanted to talk about this week, but I just finished an awesome book this morning, and I have to talk about it instead!

Clockwork Angel is the latest from Cassandra Clare. Now, I love her first series, The Mortal Instruments. I've recommended them and found that they are not everyone else's cup of tea. But this new book, a prequel of sorts, just gives testament to the fact that writers get better with practice. Clockwork Angel is amazing. The prose is beautiful, the plotting and pacing are eloquent, and the characters jump off the page.

Set in London in the late 1800's, Tessa Gray's search for her missing brother takes her into the world of the Shadowhunters, a race of part angel, part humans, who protect the world from demons. On her journey Tessa learns that she is a part of the Downworld with a strange gift of her own and that her brother is in terrible danger, all while she's falling in love with two very different Shadowhunters.

This series promises to have something for everyone; the refinement of the classics, plenty of action, adventure, and mystery, a well-constructed supernatural world, and of course a complicated love triangle. The only bad thing about it is waiting a whole year until the next one comes out!

A while ago I heard about a service that would type out your tweets (on a typewriter) and mail them to you. At first glance it seems like a kitchy fad, but lately I've pondered how this translates to other social media. Bloggers have been doing it for a while; most blogs are essentially public diaries anyway. But what about Facebook? Imagine one year of your life in Facebook; your statues, pictures, wall-posts, etc. Printed out and bound together, it would be like your own personal scrapbook and diary wrapped up together. So the question is, what would your year in Facebook say about you?



I imagine mine would be a fair distribution of comments about music, books, and events. (By events I mean get-togethers with friends, birthdays, or silly things my kids have done, or silly things that I've done, and of course, concerts.) I know I do my fair share of complaining, but I hope not too much.



With all my thoughts about what my Facebook status says about me as a person, yesterday was one of those days when I didn't know what my status was. I erred on the side of no status update. (And I'm using this as my day late, dollar short forum instead.)

On the one hand, I was flooded with memories of where I was nine years ago on September 11. It was second period, my most well-behaved class. My coworker Jerry knocked on my door and pulled me out into the hall. "Do you know what happened?" he asked. I expected some school gossip. Instead he said, "We've been attacked." During planning the next period, when the kids were off at PE, we watched the news in the library. We called loved ones. And then we went back to teach and act normal for the rest of the day- we'd been instructed not to turn on the tvs or talk about it in the classroom.

On the other hand, yesterday was a fantastic day for college football. Several pairs of highly ranked teams played each other, and my Gators managed to pull out another win, thank you very much. (Here's hoping I get to say that next week, too.) My kids had fun at a friend's birthday party, too. What could beat jumping into a foam pit and ice-cream cake? It was an all-around, great fall Saturday.

I couldn't condense my thoughts into a few hundred characters yesterday, but I think it's really cool that we have these forums that allow us to try. It's important to remember, but it's equally important to be thankful for our blessings today, for the great time and place in which we live.

On the drive home last night, my husband asked me if I'd ever been to a concert I didn't like. I had to think about that, but I guess the answer is no. I love concerts, and I go see bands that I love- so it pretty much follows that I'm going to love every one that I see.

Biased or not, Paramore was awesome!

They played a great setlist, with a little acoustic break in the middle, and the encore was fantastic. (They shut down the house with Misery Business, and even pulled a fan onstage to sing :) You could literally feel the music- the speakers created a pulse of wind with every beat. Pyrotechnics amped things up at the end, and the guys even turned flips while they were playing.

Finally I have to say a little something about Hayley Williams. I admire her so much-- call me a tween girl, but she is so talented, full of emotion, beautiful, humble, and just cool. (And the guys aren't bad, either.) Much love to the rockers from Tennessee! Come back soon!