What’s Up Wednesday is a weekly blog hop hosted by Jaime Morrow and Erin Funk. Please check out their blogs to join in the fun!
What I’m Reading
A few years overdue, I just finished Maggie Stiefvater’s Forever. I’ve said it before, but Stiefvater is an amazing writer. She has a talent for fleshing out characters and writing multi-sensory descriptions. But the highlight of this trilogy is the love story between Sam and Grace. I’m glad I finally crossed the ending to this series off my TBR list.
What I’m Writing
This week I’m polishing my query, short pitches, synopsis, and the opening chapters of my YA novel Perception. This whole process should have me anxious and nervous, but I’m actually just excited to get it out there and start work on my next project. These new characters won’t quit bugging me, and I’m ready to meet them on the page.
What Inspires Me Right Now
Speaking of those pesky new characters–on Monday I met with a lawyer friend to discuss a multitude of family law topics for research on my new manuscript. I didn’t want to hinge my plot on legal situations that weren’t plausible, and as it turns out, I have several different avenues to explore with my main gal. I am so ready to find out where she’ll go, and how she’ll get herself out of sticky situations!
What Else I’ve Been Up To
This weekend my nephew got married. My husband and my youngest son were both in the wedding, and it was beautiful. The bride is a wedding and event planner, so you can imagine just how spectacular it was. I was so grateful for the time to be together as a family, celebrating. But I also left with a secret emotion simmering below the surface. Weddings used to fill me with joy and hope for the future, but this time….I felt a little sad.
I’m hopeful and happy for the newlyweds, but I can’t help thinking about how time seems to speed up when we get older. My niece’s children are the young and wiggly kind who can’t sit still in church. Her husband asked, sarcastically, if I missed having children that age. I’m glad mine are older now, but I felt sad because that time of angelic faces and delightful squeals just doesn’t last, and I’ll never experience it as a parent again.
My sister-in-law has one in college and a junior in high school. The older one? She was the flower girl at my wedding. I’m happy and excited for both kids as they make that transition into adulthood, with all of the promise it holds. But they remind me that if I blink, my sons will be in those same places, and these days of loving Harry Potter and building Lego sets will vanish like the unpredictable smiles and wonder of the little ones.
Okay, okay, enough melancholy for one day. Back to the polishing trenches! I look forward to seeing what you fellow blog-hoppers have been up to!
Music for today: Wake Up by Arcade Fire
I know how you feel, Laurie. My oldest is 20, and my youngest turns 10 in a few months. I remember each of their birth-days, and seeing young mothers with babies reminds me of what they were like back then. One of the things my kids enjoy is hearing my wife and me talk about when they were born, and the things they used to say and do when they were little. Having those memories, and being able to share them with them when they're older, is perhaps one of the plus sides to growing up.
Have a wonderful polishing week! 😀
I know what you mean about time flying, Laurie. I don't have kids just yet, but I see myself getting older (I'll be 36 this summer) and it kind of fills me with this feeling of melancholy that you mention. Makes you really want to live in the moment and enjoy all of this stuff before it changes, you know?
I have the Wolves of Mercy Falls trilogy sitting on my shelf–have had for years now–and still haven't gotten to them. Must do that soon! Getting your story out there is definitely exciting even while it's nerve-racking. Best of luck as you finish things up to get it out there! 🙂
I love your blog. So clean and simple and inspiring. I so need to l earn more about the techie side of things so that I can fix up my own online space and make it better match who I want to be. I'm bookmarking yours to refer to as inspiration, and to check back with you. Congrats on getting your work polished up and ready for launch. And how exciting that you have another book already brewing. You're on fire! I can relate to your melancholy about time. I am really feeling it lately. My babies are 7 and 9 already and it happened in the blink of an eye. So bittersweet, all of it. I think that's one of the attractions of writing. It lets us re-create and linger wherever we need to be.
My oldest is 10. 🙂 I always tell the boys baby stories on their birthdays, too. I just can't believe it's gone by so fast.
Oh, I'd had them for a while, too, I didn't read them all back to back. They are kind of quiet books, especially for paranormal. But I really do recommend them. Thanks for the well wishes!
Mine are 8 and 10! I don't know how that happened. 🙂 Thanks so much for your kind comments; I love playing around with this stuff, and I'm constantly getting the itch to switch things up. Thanks for stopping by!
I absolutely love Stiefvater. Her writing is amazing and she's so funny to hear talk. Good luck with the querying process. I hope it goes AMAZING for you!
The Sam/Grace trilogy was the first Stiefvater I read and it hooked me on the author.
Good luck with polishing/finishing up of your MS!
Good luck in the query trenches, and with your shiny new idea!
Yes! I watched her video talking about the end of Forever, and she is even more fun to watch than to follow on twitter!
Thanks! And thank you for sharing about the WD contest!
Thanks, friend! I hope that email you're waiting for comes soon!