Every year it happens.
Just when everybody else revs up in excitement over NaNoWriMo, NaBloPoMo, and all the other greatest things to do in and around cyberland, I start to chill out.
Or maybe it’s cozy up. Today our fire burned clear, strong, blithely, and glowingly throughout the hours, while chili simmered in the slow cooker. I’ve been reading through old journals, something I typically get a yen for this season. And I’ve got a novel going, but not one I or anyone penned recently. It’s Bram Stoker’s Dracula. Perfect for the yellowing light reflected by maple leaves nearly drifted off the front tree. Fun for Friday the thirteenth tomorrow. A tale about evil, but from the points of view of “innocents,” those wanting to do good. At least that’s how the story looks so far.
I wish each of you contentment in your pursuits this month. I think I’ll be around, but then again, maybe not. I’ll keep crafting an essay, reading journals and books, and seeing what blows by with the leaves, what skitters past in the shadows.
Dracula sounds absolutely horrid to me right now. You must be in a very different mood from me. I’m more into sweetness and light as the days grow darker and cooler. Chili sounds good though!
I’ll be waiting for whatever you decide to share.
I’m feeling overwhelmed these days. I feel like I have so much reading to catch up with, and it takes up so much of the day and night and I’m starting to feel guilty that I’m not accomplishing anything worthwhile. Yikes. Old habits die hard, but I’m determined to stick this out. Other than Dracula, can you suggest any life changing books? I’m currently reading Natalie Goldberg’s Old Friend From Far Away.
Hm. Yeah. I don’t find this time of year calls me to frenetic blogging but toward more inwardness—and I have been reading more than writing too.
After years of not reading much fiction, I’ve been enjoying it again.
I’m just starting to reread “Life of Pi, by Yann Martel–certainly for me a “life changing” kind of book.
Cherie, if I’d been through some of the emotions and roller coasters and so on that you have in the last while, I wouldn’t be reading Drac, either. The chili was good.
Deb, I know how it is with reading. My introverted ways, plus a lot of homeschooling classes for my kids that I sat in on as they were taught by others, plus a stint of donating plasma, let me finish long novels over the years. But nowadays I must make time for, not kill time with, books. I go from the classics to the more recent, and often I’m into three or four at once. But some take a long while to finish. I just received The Kite Runner from a friend (see Cherie, above :o)). I’m learning to love giving away stories, passing them around in our community, but then there are some I will always hold onto: To Kill a Mockingbird, Old Yeller, just about anything by Wendell Berry. Oh, and Natalie Goldberg writes wonderful stuff.
Fresca, I plan to read Life of Pi sometime. Your prolific posts are always worth reading for me; never really frenetic, because they flow from many angles of thought, which must arise from practicing inwardness, even while you’re writing and filmmaking! It’s amazing what one can do over time.
Thank you , Thank you… I knew I would find good advice here.
And I intend to check out your blog friends, this is how it goes it seems.
And making time, not killing time, therein I spin.
Life of Pi! Good one. Read is this summer. I have it, Deanna, if you want to read it. It’s really different, leaves you breathless at the end.
oh man. i just read dracula! (in pre-op, and then during recovery. *grin*)
i thought it was really great, and was surprised at the strength of the female lead.
interested to hear what you think!