This is a weekly meme sponsored by the lovely Jaime Morrow and Erin L. Funk. It's purpose? To help us writerly people keep in touch with each other and say 'What's Up?'
What I'm Reading:
Not much. I stopped by the library yesterday and picked up the first book in Rick Riordan's THE 39 CLUES series (THE MAZE OF BONES) and Donnie Lemke's first book in her TONY HAWK'S 900 REVOLUTION series (DROP IN). Both are middle grade. . .see if I get to them this week or not.
What I'm Writing:
I've had some new ideas for my WIP, so I'm pulling leaves off my tree, reshuffling and putting on fresh buds. That also means I'll have to flip things around in my first 10,000 words before I continue, but I always shove and push and erase and change a lot on the first chapters of a WIP before I really know where the book is headed and can dive into it full swing.
What Inspires Me:
Life. Nature. Everything. I love to go outside and breathe it all in. At the moment, everything is so vibrant and full of energy. It's wonderful.
What Else I'm Up To:
This last weekend was C.R.A.Z.Y!!! My brother and his new wife stopped by for a visit, which went really well. . .I guess. His wife is a huge animal person. We took them with us to the goat auction on Saturday (I need goats so desperately to eat all of our weeds!), where we ended up getting 11 goats. Ug! So many more than I planned!
1 mama with 2 babies (so cute!)
1 mama with 1 baby (he's handsome)
4 half-way bottle babies
1 pregnant goat
1 normal goat
I got carried away and now have more work than anticipated. . .especially since one had a cold and infected all the others now. So today, I have to figure out how to treat all of them.
AND another sister of mine pulled a surprise visit, which was really adventurous since she drives a 53 ft semi trailer. She honestly brought it down the dirt road to our house (took half the trees with her, I think). It was quite the sight (and she almost didn't make it out again). At least, the neighbors had something to gawk at.
And what about you? What are you up to?
Rick Riordan is one of my favorite authors. I love his Kane series. I have read the 39 clues book you're reading. It's good. I think it's one of the best of the series because Rick wrote it. (The others are written by other authors.)
ReplyDeleteSlammed with writing assignments, so I'm trying to find time to work on my novel! I gave 30-days notice to one of my clients and they loaded me down with 15 assignments before I went. I usually wrote 5-10 a month for them, so I'm not sure what that was all about!
ReplyDeleteYour life sounds so rich even if you have a lot to do with those new goats. These days I've also gone out and breathed in life. It's been a while since I've found the taste in the morning breeze after rainy nights. It's inspiring, I agree with you. Good luck with your goats!
ReplyDeleteI love hearing about your new animals...I'm sure it is insane sometimes learning how to handle each of them, but it sounds like so much fun, too!
ReplyDeleteGlad to hear your WIP is moving...shuffling can be very good!
Wow. Eleven goats? That's crazy cool. I tend to play around with my first chapter for weeks. As soon as I think it's perfect, I feel okay to write the rest of the book quickly. Good luck!
ReplyDeleteSherry - I'll admit, I've only read Rick's Lightening Thief so far. So it will be interesting to see how this one is.
ReplyDeleteStephanie - Ah! Sounds like they're using you. . .so mean. Good luck with that!
Al - After rainy nights, the air is wonderful. Thanks!
Mere Joyce - Lol! I just hope I'm not getting in over my head ;)
Ilima - Yeah, auctions get to be too much fun. Lol! Usually I give up on the first chapter and come back to it after the rest of the book is written. Now that I think about it, it normally gets scrapped altogether after that ;)
Eleven goats! I can't even imagine. Your shuffling around of your story sounds a lot like how I write.
ReplyDeleteWell, I never read about anyone going to a goat auction before ^_^ Eleven sounds like you've got your hands VERY full!
ReplyDeleteGood luck with the WiP reshuffle ^_^
Hi, Tonja! Your weekend sounds so crazy and fun! You have to put some of that in one of your wips! Nature inspires me too. I love this time of year when everything is blooming and smells so good!
ReplyDeleteHappy reading and writing! from Laura Marcella @ Wavy Lines
Ha! I love that you bought so many goats, but then I fancy myself a goat fan, so... ;-) Baby goats are just too darn cute. I read the first two books in the 39 CLUES series, but for whatever reason didn't read further. They were totally fun! Your story tree sounds like it's working well for you. I like this notion of clipping leaves and adding new buds. :-) Hope you have a wonderful week, Tonja!
ReplyDelete11 goats! Wow!
ReplyDeleteIt takes me a while to get into a new WIP, and the beginning's often the hardest part to get right! Good luck with it! :)
I love this: "I'm pulling leaves off my tree, reshuffling and putting on fresh buds." Your plot tree is such a fabulous idea. I really should do that with all my post-its when I plan my next WIP.
ReplyDeleteThe 39 CLUES books are so much fun and a really great way to incorporate some social studies into kids' reading diet. I read the first full series and my son continued on farther than that. There's a ton of them now though!
I think I could use a few goats to trim my lawn these days. I hope yours get over their colds soon! :)
Pulling leaves off. ^_^ I love that. The beginning is always the longest part of the process for me. It's true though, once I get a handle on things, I'm good to go.
ReplyDeleteGoats! 1 normal goat. Lol! How many kids do goats have at a time? You certainly have your hands full! Hope they're all 100% again soon.
I'm still so excited about your ballerina story, I can't stand it! ^_^ You have such great ideas. ^_^
I'm not reading anything right now. I started LEGEND by Marie Lu and Book 2 in THE YOUNG INVENTORS series by Eden Unger Bowditch, but I haven't had time to make progress in either. I just finished proof-reading a manuscript and mailed it back to the publisher, and while I wait for editorial notes on the next book, I'm playing with a Shiny New Idea.
ReplyDeleteThe rest of my life is taken up with the last month of school and preparing to leave the profession. (ie: cleaning out 25 years of stuff from my classroom) Plus, the daughters have countless activities they must be driven to, there's a 50th Anniversary party for my parents in July I have to plan, and people insist on holding retirement parties for me even though I am shy.
Would love to see pictures of your goats!
Those are a lot of goats, but they are cute.
ReplyDeleteI like your WIP analogy.
I don't know how you do it all!! My poor hubs wants to own goats, but we live in town...he'll have to get over it.
ReplyDeleteThat does sound like a crazy weekend! Good luck with your reshuffling :)
ReplyDeleteI have to laugh, because my daughter has this itty-bitty yard and wants to get a goat so she doesn't have to mow.
ReplyDeleteWow! 11 goats?! I don't know what I'd do with one goat, lol. :)
ReplyDeleteAnd 10K is awesome! I'm kind of at that point where I know I'll have tons of stuff to cut and add in, but they're not major fixes that affect the plot so I just leave myself tons of notes and press on.
Have a great week!
When you talk about your new WIP, I can't tell if you are actually pruning trees or not. These are metaphorical idea buds, yes?
ReplyDeleteI laughed so hard when I got to the end of your goal list . . . "1 normal goat." I hope their colds are doing okay, and that YOU are doing okay taking care of them. Esp. those poor little ones! Now I'm imagining baby goats sneezing.
Still laughing about Normal Goat. ;-)
Oh, and you seriously need to get some pics up of your house and farm. I have been waiting, but decided to give you a mandate. You keep describing how great it is--I want to see your living space!! Grrrr.
What I'm up to: will be posting the first chapter of HOUSE OF CARDS (my paranormal romance) on Wattpad today! Seriously, T--you should check it out. Such a cool community. Mostly YA'ers--very enthusiastic. More words on that to follow maybe on my FB, twitter, etc.
Hope this weekend is even better than the last one!