| Vierte Juli |
[Jul. 3rd, 2009|10:27 pm] |
Did you know that the Declaration of Independence was also published in German? There were huge numbers of German colonists--in New York, Pennsylvania, North Carolina, Maryland, to name a few areas of high concentration. Apparently there was even a question over which should be the official language of the new United States, German or English. A quarter of all Americans today are of German descent. So, ein froehlicher Tag der Unabhängigkeit!
P.S. And I hope you all enjoy your fireworks. A little poking around confirmed the strange gap in the newspaper: due to lack of funds, our (not so tiny) town is not having a fireworks display at all. And the sale of and the setting off of any fireworks that go into the air are prohibited within city limits. (Of course, I'm listening to fireworks outside at this very moment, so I suspect there will be some illegal ones regardless...) Still, this is totally the weekend we should be visiting my parents, whose small town has a huge display and who live out in the country where you can set off anything you want.
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| for those who like a shot at free books |
[Jul. 3rd, 2009|03:04 pm] |
Here's a contest from Lauren Barnholdt.
It is TIME for the CATCHING FIRE contest!!! I am giving away a signed ARC of CATCHING FIRE, the sequel to THE HUNGER GAMES. AND you will also get an audio sampler of the book as a SPECIAL BONUS. I thought I was going to do something fancy, but in the end, decided to just keep it simple. To enter, just link back to this post, and then comment and tell me where you did so. If you link in multiple places, you will get multiple entries, but please leave separate comments so that I can keep track.Also, for even MORE entries, follow me on twitter, because if you retweet when I say, you will be entered again. You can find me at www.twitter.com/laurenbarnholdt Contest will run through Wednesday July 8th . Good luck
The link back to post on your own blog if you enter is here: http://laurenbarnholdt.com/2009/06/30/catching-fire-arc-giveaway/trackback/
And don't forget to comment on her blog to enter (not mine).
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| my novels in pictures |
[Jul. 2nd, 2009|09:26 pm] |
The Heron, the Snake, and Anubis
So thoughtful of those ancient Egyptians to provide this picture for me, don't you think?
(from the Egyptian Museum in Berlin) |
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| Random literary occurrences |
[Jun. 29th, 2009|01:01 pm] |
1. DH picked up some books related to his profession while on our trip. The best one? How to Slay a Dragon. I am so not kidding.
2. When we were driving home the other night in the dark something ran across the road right in front of us and we just missed it. It was too small to be a deer and too big to be a dog. Plus, the body was too big and the legs too small, and it didn't run the way a dog is supposed to. DH says it was a pig. I say it was Ammit.
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| I'm back! |
[Jun. 28th, 2009|11:08 am] |
And whoo-ee, is it hot!! It's after midnight and the AC has been on for an hour and it's still 89 degrees inside. The west has not been having the heatwave of the central part of the US, that's for sure.
We had a great visit with my sister, and also with DH's family. I thought of many of you as I drove through your states--I wish we could have stopped and visited with you all! Maybe when we're not doing 4400 miles in two weeks. The past couple days, though, have taken us from Utah to Arkansas and from 4000 feet to 11,000 and back down to 1400, though, so it's been kind of extreme. We had this bright idea to take I-70 instead of I-80 this time--google said it only would take an extra 2 minutes, and we'd never done it (at least, not the Utah-Denver part), and thought we'd give it a whirl. Well, it WAS very scenic. It was also rather white-knuckley! There is a section between Grand Junction and Denver that follows the Colorado River through a narrow gorge. It is so narrow that they built the freeway by stacking the lanes one on top of each other. Do NOT go too fast on those curves!
( Read more... )
It was a great trip, but I'm glad to be home where it smells of cedars and water. Good night!
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| Utah (nearly at the end...) |
[Jun. 26th, 2009|10:56 am] |
We're in Utah now, getting ready to pull out in the morning to go back to Arkansas. We met a nephew we'd never met before (he and Lap Boy have had some interesting conversations consisting of Da! Da? Da!), went to another nephew's baptism, and enjoyed mountains. Some day the kids will be old enough that we can do more serious hikes (like Timpanogos), but not quite yet. Anyway, we didn't see all of the people or places we could have (I know some of you live in the area--er, waves across the valley?), but we did get to reconnect with my sister who we haven't seen in four years, and the kids had a great time with their cousins. Which is sort of the point of family reunions. Anyway, a few pictures for you so you can admire what a cool planet we live on:
( Read more... )
Anyway, this is way too long, but don't worry, I'll be traveling pretty intensely soon and I'll be once again absent. Hopefully great things happen to everyone in the meantime. See you at the other end!
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| (no subject) |
[Jun. 21st, 2009|12:25 am] |
This morning was family photo day. It will be interesting to see the outcome. Sixteen children, 13 adults (well, my youngest SIL is the single, childless aunt everyone likes to play with, and all the kids insist she's a kid, not an adult). We walked up the hill behind the house and did a big group picture, then one of my inlaws and their kids, and then all the adults. The kids were kind of losing it so we went back to the house to take one of just the kids. I am fairly confident that if you put your ear to the page you will be able to hear the kids still screaming.
In the meantime between standing around and waiting their turn, my nephews caught this:
Yes, it really is as big as it looks (3").
I guess it's better than the rattler they found on the doorstep one morning. (Its skin now resides staked to a board to show off to unsuspecting visitors.) |
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| On the NV/CA border |
[Jun. 20th, 2009|01:01 am] |
I definitely think the awesome smell is yellow pines (jeffrey pines). When we went out today I realized that there is only one line of hills between this:
and this:
We may be staying in the same place, but yesterday we drove a few miles to visit Virginia City:
and today we spent the day at Lake Tahoe:
Tahoe, might I add, is gorgeous. I didn't think Lap Boy would have fun because he can't exactly swim, but he liked playing in (and tasting) the gritty sand, and there was a breeze and it wasn't too hot, yet it was sunny, and he discovered how to eat strawberries like a lamprey, so he was happy. The other kids all played in the FREEZING cold water (glacier runoff) and swam and had a fantastic time.
Anyway, the reason I think the smell is jeffery pines (aside from smelling like, well, jeffrey pines) is because I took Lap Boy over to experience the sap while at the lake, and we came away sticky but satisfied with the smell.
Someday if I ever own property, I want a jeffrey pine (requirements of nature: 6000-7000 foot elevation, found in the Sierra Nevada mountains of California) and a Virginia live oak (requirement: lives near salt on the Atlantic coast). Is this a problem? |
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| There's this smell... |
[Jun. 18th, 2009|10:12 pm] |
...and it's good. I first smelled it in Yosemite when my roommates all but had me kidnapped one summer and shipped off to Yosemite for a couple weeks. Their mom was a park ranger naturalist, so they LIVED there every summer. (!!) Anyhow. Most. Sensory. Vacation. EVER.
So we're driving across I-80 today and stop somewhere between Sacramento and the state line (NV) to get gas, and wow, there was that smell again! And what a fantastically beautiful place. Drop me anywhere in that area and I will be VERY HAPPY, thanks. Mountains, rivers, tall pines, yes, thank you, I'm moving in NOW.
So now we're in Carson City and it's the wrong side of those mountains because it's all deserty and scrubby (I am not a desert girl at all). But the people we're visiting have this house up on the hill and breezes blow from all across the valley, and it's that smell again. I assumed it was yellow pines, but it can't be because um, there is a lot of sagebrush, but no trees. (And I know what sagebrush smells like--it isn't that.) What is it? Because I like it! |
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| mid-trip |
[Jun. 18th, 2009|01:34 am] |
We are clocking in at around 2000 miles so far? We have driven from Arkansas to the Pacific Ocean, and up the central valley of California. Tomorrow is Nevada, in which we meet the rest of the cousins on my husband's side. (My inlaws have 16 grandchildren.) We've seen some pretty stuff, and some pretty desolate, horrid stuff as well. (![[info]](http://l-stat.livejournal.com/img/userinfo.gif) angie_frazier , while we didn't go to San Francisco, we did pass near it on interstate 5, and I'm pretty sure Oscar and Andy were visiting there.)
At some point I'll post some pictures, but not until I have some time. Happy summering!
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| And I'm outta here! |
[Jun. 11th, 2009|12:00 am] |
Well, first I'm going to bed. But as soon as we're all dressed, we're hopping in the car for the annual (or at least biannual) Green Family Road Trip. This year we aren't going coast to coast. (You can imagine how sad we feel about that!) We will see a huge chunk of I-40, though--and 70 or 80, I'm not sure which way we're coming home. Twelve hours tomorrow, another twelve on Friday, and a few days' rest in California at my in-laws', then up to Nevada for a reunion, over to Utah to see my sister, and then trekking back. I'll have limited internet access but I'm sure I'll check in now and then. But hey--both DH and I finished our books, and it's time to get out of town and empty our heads.
Speaking of books, I did tell my MC to go take a tour of the US and get out of my head for a while back when I was getting sick of revising--I'm half expecting to see him out there on I-40. He'll be in an old muscle car he got suckered into that looks cool and vintage--and whose motor is pretty vintage, too. And he's taking the trip with his bud Oscar (his author, angie_frazier, also sent him on a hike...). They're out there having their epic summer road trip experience. If I see them, I'll wave or take a picture or something.
Anyway, imagination aside, I hope that you all have fantastic news in the next couple of weeks and that I come back to great stuff from all of you!
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| On the inexplicability of writing |
[Jun. 9th, 2009|02:22 pm] |
I know it's been around the internet already, but I really love Elizabeth Gilbert's talk here. (She is the author of Eat, Pray, Love, and the sister of Catherine Gilbert Murdock of Dairy Queen fame.) Look, I know that I make stuff up when I write. But there is something about the process of creation that is more than just me. Like Gilbert says, I show up to write, but the thing that makes the writing alive? That spark is not me. I just try to write it down when it comes. I'm not a god, a guy, or a football player, so my MC has actually nothing in common with me. But now that I'm done with this book, I have been driving around doing errands with the most peculiar sensation, as if Andy is glad that I've told his story. Like he's been talking to me all this time and we've sort of met and become friends, enough that he's trusted me to tell the things he maybe wouldn't open up and tell just anybody. And that he's glad this has happened.
Crazy? Um, maybe don't answer that....
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| In which I feel confused about where I am on the planet |
[Jun. 6th, 2009|10:43 pm] |
I do have these days less and less, but every so often a weird feeling comes over me and I realize how odd it is that I happen to be walking down the sidewalk in the United States of America. It has been a bizarrely international day in NW Arkansas--first I went to a baby shower for a woman from Tonga (due tomorrow--I hope all goes well!). It was held at the house of another Tongan American, very cool family--and when we moved here and met them, I freaked out a bit because her husband is a minor character in the book I just finished, only grown up, married, and with six children. (Jarom, for those of you reading.) I swear I wrote the character first--and there is a lot about him that doesn't come into the story at all, but which I just know about--and it's just freaky the way life intersects with imagination sometimes.
( In which I keep going and going )
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| books |
[Jun. 6th, 2009|02:11 pm] |
Recently read and liked:
It's about a girl whose bad-boy brother died in a car accident, and how (against her parents' wishes) she becomes friends with the guy who was in the car with him when he died, and how she gets her family to start to come alive again. And there's art. I’d like to write something with the kind of weight this book carries, only set in a fantasy world full of interesting plot twists as well (I have been moved by specific contemporary books, but everything I write has a fantasy element somehow.)
What I would really, really like to read:
What are you looking forward to?
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| School is out! |
[Jun. 5th, 2009|01:07 pm] |
No one has really gotten dressed today and we are doing a lot of nothing. It's great. :) Son 1 is reading my book and I haven't seen a trace of him since he disappeared with it into his room an hour ago. He usually has good feedback, so I'm looking forward to (and a little nervous about) what he has to say when he's done.
Actually, this is supposed to be cleanup day while DH takes the car in for a tuneup--the university is closed because of Worldwide Walmart Worship. I've got stacks of school papers to go through and a nasty floor to mop and haircuts to arrange--but mostly, I'm just glad to have a rest from trying to get my kids all to the same place at the same time. It will get old at some point, but for now--hooray! We're done!
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| one day left |
[Jun. 3rd, 2009|10:07 pm] |
So everyone was healthy this morning--whew! And son 1 had a nice 5th grade graduation, came home wearing a number of pins for various things (awards), and is now, in his words, a "summergrader." The other kids have an awards ceremony in the morning and then we are welcome to check them out. Everyone is excited to be out of school. It's been a long time since having a real break! (17 days last summer, part of which was moving from Germany to Michigan and Michigan to Arkansas, back to back.) Of course, this won't stop them from being bored in two days. :) I hope they remember the days of nothing once we are on our way this summer. We'll be driving to CA, NV, UT, and (maybe) ID (depends on how people are doing by then). Family reunions, people to see who we haven't seen since our departure out of the US, and hey, it's been a while since we did a cross-country drive. I-40, here we come!
For those of you with kids, how about you? Is school out? For those with OR without kids, have any fun summer plans ahead? |
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| more progress |
[Jun. 2nd, 2009|10:25 pm] |
Two days left of school. Three of the seven of us have had the stomach flu now. Son 2 went to bed complaining his stomach hurt. Man, he just cannot get sick now! Son 1 has his 5th grade graduation tomorrow, and then we have a full evening. And who wants to miss the last day of school? (Not that there's much going on--but you miss out on the celebrations, plus bringing anything home that's left.) And Lap Boy's stomach seems okay, but he's been clingier and fussier than usual (and he is kind of a wired kid). I just hope everybody sleeps well tonight, and feels good tomorrow!
When I wasn't carrying Lap Boy around, I finished messing with the football scenes. This brings me to a completed hard copy to read aloud for words and consistency and all. The small stuff. It's also only 82K. It would be nice to go smaller--but it's the shortest novel I've ever written--hooray!! (Um, you can see why me and Twitter are allergic to each other, can't you?) |
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| Thanks to YouTube... |
[Jun. 1st, 2009|05:39 pm] |
...I now know the proper way to hold a football so nobody can take it from you. I also know four practice drills for running backs (two kinds of running over small barriers, one plant-and-change-direction thing with orange cones, and a stiff arm move to push off tackles). What I don't know is how to keep that ball in that breastplated position while you are attempting a 4.4 40-yard dash (try running without swinging your arms and you'll see what I mean). Surely the internet will provide all knowledge, however. I should have listened to my character to start off with--English is not his native language and reading is work for him, so he watches clips on line instead of reading about them (in his spare time when he's not practicing). Well, reading about football is about as exciting as reading about Monopoly. So I'm with Andy on this one.
Yes, I has skillz now... |
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| Football |
[May. 31st, 2009|09:28 pm] |
Okay, so I am monumentally dense when it comes to reading or hearing the rules of a game. I get far more out of it when I actually just play the game and have the rules explained to me along the way. The problem is, it's time for me to fill in those lorem ipsum football scenes in the book. Which means the best way to do this would be to go outside and play this game. Alas, my boys, who have spent formative years in Germany, have no clue how a pointy American football is supposed to work. I do have a copy of Football for Dummies checked out. Um.
Somehow I feel like Hermione trying to figure out which end of the broomstick she's supposed to sit on, and feeling bereft of a proper instruction book.
If you see a 38-year-old woman running around the park with a football and making a total fool of herself, please don't laugh too loud, okay? |
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| Productive Saturday |
[May. 31st, 2009|12:03 am] |
Three scenes added.
Two different pairs of chapters combined and/or rearranged.
4000 words deleted.
Football scenes sent off for expert opinion.
It's amazing what an hour of uninterrupted planning (ie, waiting for DD at a swim party) can do for you. Plus an afternoon when you are not the Only Responsible Adult around.
I think my book is shorter than DH's now. Yay! (His is academic research--we are both trying to finish before school lets out.)
I think I have the bones now. If I do, then it's mostly a matter of tidying up the text on the page (as opposed to moving things around and large changes).
I'm exhausted and ready to take a break tomorrow. My house is messy and I need to practice the organ. But today was definitely productive!
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