What's Up Wednesday

What's Up Wednesday is a weekly meme geared toward readers and writers, allowing us to touch base with blog friends and let them know what's up. Should you wish to join us, you will find the link widget at the bottom of this post. We really hope you will take part!

WHAT I'M READING
I FINALLY finished Wuthering Heights, and I have to say it ranks in the top five books I'm glad to be done with. It is my opinion that there is nothing even remotely romantic about this book. Unless you consider bat shiz obsession romantic. I don't. So not my favourite Brontë sister offering. (Charlotte gets my vote.) Anyway, I think I'll return to Dickens' Great Expectations and finally finish that one (almost a year after I started).

Feet...ewww.

I'm also reading The Unwritten Rule by Elizabeth Scott and it's all right so far. There's an abundance of 'said' tags and I have an overwhelming urge to shake the best friend, Brianna, but all that aside I'm finding it enjoyable. And the love interest is sweet so...

WHAT I'M WRITING
Speaking of overwhelming urges to shake someone/thing... If I'm being 100% honest, the deeper I get into this rewrite, the worse I feel about how it's going. I just keep adding more and more words (that I don't have room for) and still haven't addressed everything I want to. Not going to lie, it's beyond frustrating. Last week at this time was a high point. This week? Definitely a valley. :/



WHAT INSPIRES ME RIGHT NOW
My wonderful writer friends on Twitter. I mentioned my frustration with my rewrite and in under five minutes I had three people respond with encouragement and support. It's stuff like this that keeps me from going crazy or giving up altogether.

WHAT ELSE I'VE BEEN UP TO
Besides being a Debbie Downer? Lots of fun stuff:

• The 30-Day Squat Challenge! (I'm using 'fun' lightly here.) Special thanks goes out from my saddlebags to Katy Upperman for bringing this torturous delightful challenge to my attention. All jokes aside, it has actually gotten a lot easier, and I think I can see/feel a difference already. I'm at the 135 squats in one day benchmark, which I never thought I'd be able to do.

• I'm beta-reading another really great YA story. This one is absolutely hilarious and there have been many laugh out loud moments. Bonus points to this writer for a Menudo* reference that nearly made me spew coffee all over my computer.

• Trying to freshen up my home office with a new look. Turns out finding curtains in the pattern/colour scheme I want is next to impossible. I know what I'm looking for, but I'm starting to think it doesn't exist. Since I spend an awful lot of time in this room, I'd like it to be the kind of place that feels inviting and where creativity can thrive (as opposed to going to die).

So, what have you been up to lately?

* A Puerto Rican boy band that was first formed in the 1970s. A young Ricky Martin was a member at one point. My exposure to this band was through an episode of the 1980s sit-com Silver Spoons. And yes, I know I'm totally dating myself.

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What's Up Wednesday

What's Up Wednesday is a weekly meme geared toward readers and writers, allowing us to touch base with blog friends and let them know what's up. Should you wish to join us, you will find the link widget at the bottom of this post. We really hope you will take part!

What I'm Reading
While I was reading Seraphina last week, Katy Upperman was reading (and raving about) Finnikin of the Rock by Melina Marchetta. I recently read Jellicoe Road and really enjoyed it, so Marchetta + fantasy + a Katy fave felt like exactly the kind of book I wanted to read next. So far I have not been disappointed.

...And I'm still slogging through Wuthering Heights. The good news: I only have ten more chapters to go. Done in ten days!


What I'm Writing

I'm about 2/3 of the way through this round of revisions. It's kind of nuts how making one big (or even kind of small) change unravels a bunch of other things in the story. I find myself having to flip back through and make all sorts of tweaks I hadn't anticipated just because of one alteration that I thought would be simple enough. It's really kind of crazy-making sometimes.

What Inspires Me Right Now
I'm inspired by the progress that I've made thus far on my rewrite. Does that sound weird? Self-centred? Hope not. When you look back and see where you came from and where you are now, that's great incentive to keep going, to push even harder toward the goal of finishing. I feel like the end is not so far off anymore, and that's a wonderful thing.

What Else I've Been Up To

Beta reading

This week I had the privilege of beta reading a YA contemporary for a friend, and aside from being completely and utterly enjoyable, it was a lesson in how to write well. The characters, the prose, the dialogue, the romance...it was all fantastic! ♥

Remembrance
This past weekend my husband and I drove to a nearby lake town for the Veterans Voices of Canada exhibit. The pipe and drum band I joined was asked to play (I'm not playing publicly with them yet), so I wanted to check it out. Plus, we're both big supporters of the troops and vets. We got to speak with World War II, Korea, and Afghanistan vets and hear some of their stories which were fascinating, inspiring, and sometimes horrifying. One vet in particular, Master Corporal Paul Franklin, is a double amputee who lost his legs in a roadside bombing incident in Afghanistan. I'm fairly certain I have never met someone as upbeat and positive as this man. Truly an inspiration. We also got to meet a WWII vet who recently received all new medals when a group of Alberta junior high kids petitioned to have them replaced. (They'd been thrown out accidentally some time back.) Some of the kids and Mr. Pennington were in attendance, and hearing their story was so heartwarming.

{For Band of Brothers fans: Hubby and I managed to acquire photos of some of the Easy Company fellas, one of which had the actual Bill Guarnere's autograph on it. (Through the silent auction at the exhibit.) Very, very cool!}

It was a good week all around, made even better by the gorgeous weather we've been having. ☼

So, what have you been up to lately?

What's Up Wednesday

What's Up Wednesday is a weekly meme geared toward readers and writers, allowing us to touch base with blog friends and let them know what's up. Should you wish to join us, you will find the link widget at the bottom of this post. We really hope you will take part!


What I'm Reading
I'm still reading the same two books I was reading last week at this time: Wuthering Heights and Seraphina. The former is starting to get a little crazy (and by crazy, I mean What the heck is wrong with these people?) and the latter took some time to get into. Now that I'm invested in the story, I'm enjoying the world, the characters, and everything that makes this book so different from other books I've read. 

What I'm Writing
No big surprises here → I'm still in the middle of a rewrite. One of the flaws in my story before the rewrite was the central romance. It (unfortunately) turned into an InstaLove kind of situation, which was never my intention. It always bothered me, but I failed to address the problem and it got out of hand, dominating everything. The central romance was too central to the story. Gah! Anyway, I'm fixing the problem and the slow burn romance that is emerging is SO much better than that InstaLove crap that weaselled its way in. There are sparks a-plenty now, good and bad.

What Inspires Me Right Now
This quote might be familiar to some of you. It comes from one of the greatest movies of all-time, Dead Poets Society:

Kinda makes you want to carpe diem, "gather ye rosebuds while ye may", and do something big with your writing, doesn't it?

What Else I've Been Up To
I'm enjoying the gorgeous weather we've been having. Yesterday it was 28C (82F), which is just bonkers for the month of May where I live. While I was sitting outside reading Wuthering Heights in the blazing hot sun, it occurred to me that in the last year we've only had two seasons: winter and summer. Fall was non-existent—summer bled into winter with the arrival of snow in October (and lingered for 6+ months). The trees are still sporting dead crunchy leaves that never ended up falling. And Spring up and decided to play hooky while Summer arrived with bells on. I do miss those transitional seasons, though.

I've also been taking part in the May Photo A Day Challenge, which is tons of fun. Last month I totally tanked, so I'm hoping May is better. Yesterday's topic was "something beginning with F". This was the photo I used with its caption:

Fun Fact: My married name is Fink, which is kind of

funny when you consider my sister married a Funk.

#somethingbeginningwithF #FMSPhotoADay

What's Up Wednesday

What's Up Wednesday is a weekly meme geared toward readers and writers, allowing us to touch base with blog friends and let them know what's up. Should you wish to join us, you will find the link widget at the bottom of this post. We really hope you will take part!

What I'm Reading
I'm partway into Wuthering Heights, my Chapter A Day classic, and I'm surprised that I don't hate it just yet. Colour me shocked. That could change, but so far, so good.

I'm also just about to start reading Seraphina by Rachel Hartman, which I'm kind of excited about. I've heard only good things, so that's always a major plus when starting a book.



What I'm Writing
I've made some really good strides with my rewrite, so that's certainly a plus. I'm discovering how fun it can be to rework what I've got. Really, it's kind of like a giant patchwork quilt made up of stuff I already had, new material I'm sewing in, and parts that have been snipped apart, switched around, and stitched back together again. It's exciting to watch this thing evolve.

What Inspires Me Right Now
This "practice makes perfect" notion that has been pounded into our brains since infancy actually might have merit. I've given up on a good many things in my life because I wasn't seeing progress quickly enough. There are two things in recent months that I haven't ditched—learning to drum and writing—and, lo and behold, I've gotten much, much better. The progression to this point is noticeable. I remember thinking I was never going to get the hang of drumming, but I've somehow managed it. The same goes with writing. Who knew I'd be able to write a whole book? But I did. Two, actually. I thought my writing would be complete crap. It (mostly) isn't. It still needs work, sure, but knowing that I'm improving is all the inspiration I need to keep at it. Practice makes progress and eventually proficiency. (Because perfection is one of those unattainable goals.)

What Else I've Been Up To
• I've been watching Battlestar Galactica with my husband, trying to get all the way through to the end this time around. We've always enjoyed it, but for whatever reason we got sidetracked and never finished the series.

• I'm no longer just practising the side drum on a drum pad, I've moved on to playing on the real deal. Holy cannoli, is that thing loud. Seriously, my ears ring forever after playing it, especially when you throw the bagpipes into the mix at practice. Oh, and it weighs 20 lbs. It's kind of a workout wearing that thing strapped to your chest and concentrating on playing it right.

• Speaking of workouts...After a long winter of sitting on my butt (reading and writing, of course), I thought it was high time I got some exercise. I've started using the treadmill for 42 minutes a day → the exact amount of time it takes to watch a Veronica Mars episode. That's right, I'm getting my marshmallow on while becoming a little less marshmallow-y.

So what have you been up to lately?

And the Winner Is...

From the 1977 movie adaptation of The Island of Dr. Moreau

The winner of THE MADMAN'S DAUGHTER GIVEAWAY is:

Valerie Cole!

Please send me a quick email with your mailing address and I'll get the book, the nail polish, and the journal shipped off to you promptly.

Thank you to everyone who entered. And thank you for following!