I can't believe it's been over a month since I last posted. The weird thing is, I have written blogs. I just haven't posted them. Sometimes I feel like my words don't express the emotion I was trying to convey. But this one's going out there, no matter what!

I've been on a bit of a computer hiatus. Of course I'm checking my email, but I've been trying to avoid extended periods of web-surfing, game-playing, etc. The holidays swallow up plenty of time anyway, so I really haven't felt the loss of it. Well, maybe a little loss. My writing has taken a hit, but I'm determined to get back on track.

After wrapping a few presents tonight, I sat down to catch up with my usual list of sites and blogs. I mostly read writers' blogs; some are personal, others not. When I came to the last one on my list, it struck me in a strange, emotional way. The writer in question does write very personal blogs, and by the time I'd finished her posts from the last month, I wanted to give her a hug. I wanted to say, "I've missed you, old friend."

How weird is that? I don't really know this woman, and she certainly doesn't know me. But I feel like I know her, because I've followed her life and success for years now. Being a writer, she's a different kind of celebrity. She can probably go to the grocery store without having to sign autographs. But what about all the other celebrities? We see these strangers on television, in movies, and in magazines. We read about them and follow their tweets. We feel like we know them, but we don't.

Is this a recent phenomenon? I wonder if random people walked around London in 1601 saying, "I heard Will Shakespeare had a few too many at the tavern last night."

If you're reading this, it's probably because you actually do know me in real life. As much as I like reading about people I admire from afar, I am grateful for all the real, special people who I have in my life. I wish you all a Merry Christmas. Imagine me giving you a hug through the Inter webs and saying, "I've missed you, friend!"

Music for the week: Boots, The Killers (I love that they do an original Christmas song every year!)

Instead of a real, coherent blog this week, I'd like to share a few random thoughts.

1. I resist books when they are overly hyped, but most of the time, I end up jumping on the bandwagon full force. The Stieg Larsson phenomenon is no exception. I just finished The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo. (Literally, five minutes ago.) All I can say is wow. If they had to break the last Harry Potter into two movies, how many will this story take? I'm resisting the urge to drive to the nearest bookseller and get the next one tonight.

2. How about those Gators? I'm so glad we finally made it to a Florida-Georgia game, with twelve solid hours of friends and fun.

3. The boys had a wonderful Halloween. Not only do they have all the candy they collected from the neighbors, but we also have five bags of candy left over. Now, to keep my hands out of the candy baskets. Anyone need a sugar fix?

4. I hope everyone voted this week. Voting is more than your right as an American; it's your responsibility. And now that the mid-term elections are over, is there any chance we can stop talking about politics for a while?

5. I'm excited to be a Nielsen family starting tomorrow!

Until next week...

Today's musical highlight: Local Natives, Gorilla Manor

I haven't posted in while, but I'm back! I've had a busy couple of weeks, and I've actually written several blogs that I didn't post because I couldn't get the words just right. I'll give you the short, sweet version of those, then I'll move on to the topic that got me on here rearing to blog!

This month I went to Disney World, turned a year older, partied with Vampire Weekend (in case you were wondering, yes they can and do recreate their signature sound live, and it was awesome!) and have had lots of fun with friends. Those are all the good things; of course, bad things happen, too. I have a tendency to have my feelings hurt too easily, but that's a topic for another day.

I am worried about my writing. I am loving my characters, and they certainly have minds of their own. I am a solid six chapters into this book, but I've had to take too many breaks from writing with all the busyness going on. But worse than falling short of my self-imposed deadlines, I've been worried about plotting.

Yesterday, while searching for the next book I want to read, I came across the blog of Kristen Cashore. If you haven't read Graceling and Fire, you should. Her next book isn't due out any time soon, but I'm so glad that I stumbled upon her site. Why? Because not only does she write amazing, complex characters with beautiful prose, she is a master of plotting and pacing. Reading her blog and website gave me hope, because her process is very similar to mine. She's a "pantser," too! (That's a writer's term that means writing by the seat of your pants, rather than complex plotting before hand.)

Knowing how brilliantly it worked out for Ms. Cashore, now I at least know that it's possible for a plot to work it's way out. Taking some of the anxiety away makes me excited about writing again, and that is exactly what I needed.

Music I'm rocking this week: LCD Soundsystem

This weekend we had company at our house. It's always fun to visit with old friends, especially ones who see the world differently from how you see it. You learn from those kinds of friends. I could go on about how our friend never meets a stranger, or any number of things, but this morning I was reminded of an off-handed comment he made when we were picking up our kids from school. He said, "You guys care way too much about what goes on in the carpool line."

I'm sure he was right. He hasn't yet experienced the joy of school pick up and drop off lines, so he sees these situations differently from me. I was reminded of this when I found myself agitated this morning at son #1's school. You see, we have two lines. The line on the right, and the line on the left. The school added the line on the left to get the traffic off the streets when it backs up. The left line eventually merges into the right again, so all of the people on the left end up getting in front of the people on the right, which is fine. We are all aware of this, and we make our choices.

But this morning, there was no back-up. The right line was moving steadily, with no stopping. We, on the right, were all going the school speed limit, which is 5 mph. There was no need for the line on the left. And yet, in front of my very eyes, three cars sped past everyone on the right, taking the speed bumps at around twenty five or so, just to scoot in and cut some other cars off. Just to kick their child out of the car 5 seconds faster.

And there you have it. I care way too much about what happens in the carpool line. I care too much because life and values and the big picture are reflected there. In the carpool line you have me, and most of the other moms and dads, over on the right, going the speed limit because we don't want to run over a child. And then you have those other people. The ones who just want to get ahead. The ones who don't care who they might run over, or who they cut off.

The good news is that for the most part, I only have to deal with those people in the carpool lane. I'm so grateful for all the good people my family has in our life. I'm grateful for friends we've known for years, who come to visit and bring different points of view, and for friends who support us and love us and have fun with us. I'm fine staying over here in the right lane.

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.