So What's Everyone Doing?

Well, I'm reading and probably should be writing but I found a good book and I can't stop reading.

This is Roald Dahl on steroids for adults. Honestly, I had no idea the book existed. And did you know he's Norwegian? Really....now that I should have known. I'm half Norwegian after all.

But seriously, the guy really knows how to write. I discovered 'Going Solo' in a Roald Dahl children's collection I had purchased to divide up among my grandchildren.

I'm embarrassed to admit I have never read the children's books he's most known for. Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, The BFG, James and the Giant Peach, to name some.

But if you like memoirs with a sense of humor that focus on the WWII period, flying airplanes, and living in Africa, Going Solo is for you!

Well, I have been typing too.... Not my own work, but my mother's memoir. I love the little miner sitting on the keyboard. He's 'panning for gold' and that's exactly what writing about a life history feels like. Mother is 93 so you can imagine there's quite a bit of life to glean from there.

But I'm back to thinking about writing for myself too, and will use this miner for inspiration. Just 500 words a day someone on Instagram posted today. Now that feels doable. My current novel is around 22k, so I have a ways to go if I'm going to reach 60k.

How about you. What have you been up to?

Sharon M. Himsl

Writer/Author. Blogging since 2011. 
Published with Evernight Teen: 
~~The Shells of Mersing

Celebrate the Small Things: Gathering Together

--Christmas Dinner at the Community Center last evening. A drawing, some good jokes, conversation, shared food, and bring your own wine. What's not to like? We are about five minutes away from the center. With a population under 5000, no one has far to travel. The Community Center is unofficially the Senior Center (according to some). Members are in their fifties on up, but we are all young at heart, so we downplay the "senior" part.

--Exercise Group. We meet twice a week for stretching, aerobic dance (hey, I'm John Trivolta!), and weight lifting. We follow Jane Fonda's Fit and Firm videos. Boy do I ever sweat. I have exercised on my own all my life, but it's more fun as a group. We recently topped it off, by going out to lunch together.

--Blog gatherings where you encourage me and boost my self-esteem as a writer, and I try to do the same for you. What would I do without your kind words when I need them most?

--Book Club next week at my home.  We are discussing The Midnight Plan of the Repo Man by W. Bruce Cameron. Suspense, romance and humor all tied into one. I highly recommend this novel. I can't seem to put it down, it's that good. It's been a fun break from the YA and Middle grade books I'm reading. As a writer, I am enjoying the author's humorous language and character development. Attention Dog lovers: this one's for you!

--Cozy Comforts, a group that meets to make blankets for the needy. I recently pulled out my crochet needles, tired of saying "someday" when I have time again. I can always find time in the evening when Vince and I watch TV. Why wait?

--Bible Study: we are studying the book of Ephesians, one of my favorite books. We pray for each other and share our life stories.

--Church on Sunday. Small is the key word with churches in Desert Aire, although I run into attendees everywhere I go. Attendance varies (we do our best). I consider myself a Christian first and a Lutheran at heart. I come from a long line of German and Norwegian Lutherans. One German ancestor (a great uncle) evangelized half the state of Missouri in the late 1800s.  

--Finally, a family gathering for Christmas dinner on Christmas day. There will be eleven of us this year. Prime rib, last I heard.

What are some of your 

favorite gatherings?

Celebrate the Small Things: To join, visit Lexa's Blog for the rules. We post every Friday about something we are grateful for that week. It can be about writing, family, school, general life or whatever. Originated by VikLit, co-hosts are: L.G. Keltner @ Writing Off The Edge and Katie @ TheCyborgMom

Sharon M. Himsl

Writer/Author. Blogging since 2011. 
Published with Evernight Teen: 
~~The Shells of Mersing

The Classics - Opening Lines: "The Marry Month of May" by O. Henry

"Prithee, smite the poet in the eye when he would sing to you praises of the month of May. It is a month presided over by the spirits of mischief and madness. Pixies and flibbertigibbets haunt the budding woods; Puck and his train of midgets are busy in town and country."    (Published 1905)



I love the classics and plan to share some "opening lines" over the coming months. Comment if you like, or read for inspiration. Writing styles were different then, but were they really?
 

The Classics - Opening Lines: For Whom the Bell Tolls by Ernest Hemingway

"He lay flat on the brown, pine-needled floor of the forest, his chin on his folded arms, and high overhead the wind blew in the tops of the pine trees. The mountainside sloped gently where he lay; but below it was steep and he could see the dark of the oiled road winding through the pass." 
(Published 1940)


I love the classics and plan to share some "opening lines" over the coming months. Comment if you like, or read for inspiration. Writing styles were different then, but were they really?
 

The Classics - Opening Lines: Alice's Adventures in Wonderland by Lewis Carroll

"Alice was beginning to get very tired of sitting by her sister on the bank, and of having nothing to do. Once or twice she had peeped into the book her sister was reading, but it had no pictures or conversations in it, 'and what is the use of a book,' thought Alice, 'without pictures or conversations?'" (Published 1865)

I love the classics and plan to share some "opening lines" over the coming months. Comment if you like, or read for inspiration. Writing styles were different then, but were they really?
 

“Native American Life”
Native American Medicine
Author: Tamra Orr
Publisher: 2014, Mason Crest 
Ages 10-up, Middle Grade
Pages: 64



 
Throughout history religion has been an important part of Native American life, Orr explains, which varied a lot, but there were some shared characteristics. For one, religious leaders were mostly men, rarely women. A leader’s main responsibility was to heal the sick, ward off evil, prophetize, and bring good fortune to the tribe. 

They were generally known as medicine men, but sometimes called shamans, or Sacred Helpers (Crow) and Buffalo Doctors (Omaha). All shared a belief in the Great Spirit and had a vast knowledge of nature and the earth. Because of this knowledge, they learned how to treat wounds and illnesses with all kinds of plants, including dance rituals and special ceremonies. They believed in a natural remedy for all physical, mental and spiritual conditions. 

Orr describes the philosophy behind Native American medicine and the different practices among the tribes, as well as the legends that fostered such beliefs. For instance in the Pacific Northwest, the tribes believed that babies came from a special place called “Babyland.” Readers learn about actual rituals and the importance of dreams and visions, and how a person became a medicine man. It was not an easy process, nor was their life as one. Some even lost their lives when failing to bring positive results. 

Other means of healing are also described, such as the sweat lodges used for cleansing the body and soul. Orr lists the various herbs that medicine men used, many of which are used in some form today, such as cherry bark for cough medicine and willow bark for aspirin. Traditional medicine is slowly regaining importance and respect today and reservations are growing. Native American Medicine is a good general source for young researchers, complete with photos, illustrations, glossary, chronology and index.

The Classics - Opening Lines: The Hobbit by J.R.R. Tolkien

"In a hole in the ground there lived a hobbit. Not a nasty, dirty, wet hole, filled with the ends of worms and an oozy smell, nor yet a dry, bare, sandy hole with nothing in it to sit down on or to eat: it was a hobbit-hole, and that means comfort." 
(Published 1937) 

I love the classics and plan to share some "opening lines" over the coming months. Comment if you like, or read for inspiration. Writing styles were different then, but were they really?

Celebrate the Small Things: Old Letters and Postcards

 
Letters and postcards are such a thing of the past, that I find it refreshing to come across old correspondence tucked in a drawer or in the cover of an old book.
 

Does anyone remember the Griffin and Sabine books by Nick Bantock? He wrote a love/friendship story using only the couple's correspondence. It's beautiful to read if you've never read the series. You turn the pages and one by one each page has a pasted letter, an envelope with one inside, or a postcard stamped "Air Mail Par Avion." It's clever of the writer, but truly effective because the text is so engaging and on the adjacent page the art is gorgeous (Bantock is also the illustrator). 

My daughter-in-law from Singapore shared the series with me and I'm so glad she did. Check out the opening lines (Griffin is in London and Sabine is in the Simon Islands, South Pacific):

Postcard 1:

Griffin Moss, 

 It's good to get to touch

with you at last.

Could I have one of your 

fish postcards?

I think you were right--

the wine glass has more impact

than the cup.

Sabine Strohem

Post card 2:

Sabine,

Thank you for your exotic

postcard. Forgive me if

it's a memory lapse on my

part. But should I know

you?

I can't fathom out how you

were aware of my first

broken cup sketch for this

card. I don't remember

showing it to anyone.

Please enlighten me.

Yours,

Griffin Moss

 
Anyway, was looking for something to post, and thought of this old favorite. Here's the full title:
Griffin & Sabine: An Extraordinary Correspondence by Nick Bantock (1991, 1992, 1993 Chronicle Books)

Have a Nice Weekend Everyone!

The Classics - Opening Lines: Moby-Dick by Herman Melville

"Call me Ishmael. Some years ago--never mind how long precisely--having little or no money in my purse, and nothing in particular to interest me on shore, I thought I would sail about a little and see the watery part of the world." (Published 1851)



  I love the classics and plan to share some "opening lines" over the coming months. Comment if you like, or read for inspiration. Writing styles were different then, but were they really?
 

The Classics - Opening Lines: Journey to the Center of the Earth by Jules Verne

"MY UNCLE MAKES A GREAT DISCOVERY"

"Looking back to all that has occurred to me since that eventful day, I am scarcely able to believe in the reality of my adventures. They were truly so wonderful that even now I am bewildered when I think of them." (Published 1871)


I love the classics and plan to share some "opening lines" over the coming months. Comment if you like, or read for inspiration. Writing styles were different then, but were they really?
 

The Classics - Opening Lines: The Age of Innocence by Edith Wharton

"On a January evening of the early seventies, Christine Nilsson was singing in Faust at the Academy of Music in New York. 
Though there was already talk of the erection, in remote metropolitan distances "above the Forties," of a new Opera House which should compete in costliness and splendour with those of the great European capitals, the world of fashion was still content to reassemble every winter in the shabby red and gold boxes of the sociable old Academy."
(Published 1920) 

I love the classics and plan to share some "opening lines" over the coming months. Comment if you like, or read for inspiration. Writing styles were different then, but were they really?
 

The Classics - Opening Lines: The Pilgrim's Progress by John Bunyan

"As I walked through the wilderness of this world, I lighted on a certain place where was a Den, and I laid me down in that place to sleep: and, as I slept, I dreamed a dream. I dreamed, and behold, I saw a man clothed with rags, standing in a certain place, with his face from his own house, a book in his hand, and a great burden upon his back." 
(First Published 1678)


I love the classics and plan to share some "opening lines" over the coming months. Comment if you like, or read for inspiration. Writing styles were different then, but were they really?
 

The Classics - Opening Lines: The Strange Case of Dr. Jeckyll and Mr. Hyde by Robert Louis Stevenson

"Mr. Utterson the lawyer was a man of a rugged countenance, that was never lighted by a smile; cold, scanty and embarrassed in discourse; backward in sentiment; lean, long, dusty, dreary, and yet somehow lovable."    Published 1886


I love the classics and plan to share some "opening lines" over the coming months. Comment if you like, or read for inspiration. Writing styles were different then, but were they really?
 

Very Inspiring Blogger Award: Thanks! And Here Are My Nominees

 
My thanks to Deanie Humphrys-Dunne for nominating me for the Very Inspiring Blogger Award. 

Deanie is a published children's author and you can learn more about Deanie at her blog, where she writes about her books and recent events, and gives writing hints. Her website lists her books and I urge all horse lovers out there to check it out. Her Tails of Sweetbrier (yes, the book jacket is illustrated) was winner of the Silver Medal in the Feathered Quill Book Awards! (2014). 

Deanie asked that I mention three things that inspired me during the past few weeks.

• I've been reading IWSG Guide to Publishing and Beyond and was inspired to try Flash Fiction after reading one of the chapters. I had been editing my WIP for so long I wasn't sure if there was a creative bone left in me. To my surprise out came a scene for a new book I had been mulling over. Now that's inspiration!
• My husband built a Scottish wall! We had a large rock pile that we had recently inherited with the purchase of our new home. Now for a guy who hates outdoor yard work I thought that's pretty amazing. If he can do that, I thought..........I can do (?????). Inspiring.
• A small furry friend comes to my door almost daily. She's white and black all over and purrs lovingly whenever I pick her up. I do not have a pet, but this sweet little cat is the next best thing. She's one of three hangar cats that live in the neighborhood, and she wanders freely from home to home (or hangar to hangar). I admit she's been in my home from time to time and I heard recently that another neighbor gave her a ham bone. We all love her and she's brought me a lot of joy lately, as I sorely desire a pet. So I guess if there is such a thing as an animal giving inspiration, she is definitely it!

 So....here are my nominees:

http://dcrelief.blogspot.com/ (Dixie)
http://createdbybb.blogspot.com/ (Birgit)
http://suzannefurness.blogspot.com/ (Suzanne)
https://eclecticali.wordpress.com/ (Eclectic Alli)
http://dbmcnicol.blogspot.com/ (Donna)
http://tyreanswritingspot.blogspot.com/ (Tyrean)
http://catherineensley.com/blog/ (Catherine)
http://crystalcollier.blogspot.com/ (Crystal)

These bloggers have been an inspiration to me. I have enjoyed their insights, encouragement, humor, and shared stories.


Rules for the Nominees:
1. Thank the person who nominated you, and link to their blog.
2. Display the award logo.
3. Nominate 15 other bloggers (more or less) and provide a link where they may be found.
4. Go to their blog, leave a comment to let them know they have been nominated.
5. Mention three things that inspired you the most during the past few weeks.

National Book Awards: Young People's Literature 2014

(WINNER) 

Brown Girl Dreaming by Jacqueline Woodson. Publisher, Nancy Paulsen Books, 2014. Ages: 10 up

  (FINALISTS)

--Threatened by Eliot Schrefer. Publisher, Scholastic Press, 2014. Ages: 12 up

  

--The Port Chicago 50 by Steve Sheinkin. Publisher, Roaring Brook Press, 2014. Ages: 10-14

--Noggin by John Corey Whaley. Publisher, Atheneum Books for 

Young Readers, 2014. 
Ages: 14-17

 

 

--Revolution by Deborah Wiles. Publisher, Scholastic Press, 2014. 

The Sixties Trilogy. Ages: 8-12

The Classics - Opening Lines: White Fang by Jack London

"Dark Spruce frowned on either side of the frozen waterway. The trees had been stripped by a recent wind of their white covering of frost, and they seemed to lean toward each other, black and ominous, in the fading light. A vast silence reigned over the land."      Published 1906


I love the classics and plan to share some "opening lines" over the coming months. Comment if you like, or read for inspiration. Writing styles were different then, but were they really?
 

The Classics - Opening Lines: A Tale of Two Cities by Charles Dickens

"It was the best of times, it was the worst of times, it was the age of wisdom, it was the age of foolishness, it was the epoch of belief, it was the epoch of incredulity, it was the season of Light, it was the season of Darkness, it was the spring of hope it was the winter of despair, we had everything before us, we had nothing before us, we were all going direct to Heaven, we were all going direct the other way--in short, the period was so far like the present period, that some of its noisiest authorities insisted on its being received, for good or for evil, in the superlative degree of comparison only."     Published 1859


I love the classics and plan to share some "opening lines" over the coming months. Comment if you like, or read for inspiration. Writing styles were different then, but were they really?
 

Young Reader's Choice Awards: 2014

The YRCA is the oldest children's choice award in the U.S. and Canada. Sponsored by the Pacific Northwest Library Association (rep. Alaska, Idaho, Montana, Washington; Alberta and British Columbia), the award was first established in 1940 by Harry Hartman, a book seller in Seattle. He believed that every child deserved the opportunity to read a book that gave them pleasure. Award nominations come from children, teachers, parents and librarians. 

(WINNERS)


--Cabin Fever by Jeff Kinney, series "Diary of a Wimpy Kid." (Harry N. Abrams, 2011) 

--The Son of Neptune by Rick Riordan, series "Heroes of Olympus." (Disney-Hyperion, reprint, 2013) 



 

--Divergent by Veronica Roth, Book 1.
(Katherine Tegen Books, 2011)

 
(NOMINEES)

Junior Division (12 under)

--Cabin Fever - Jeff Kinney (Harry N. Abrams, 2011) 

--Wonderstruck - Brian Selznick (Scholastic Press, 2011)

--13 Gifts - Wendy Mass (Scholastic Inc., 2013) 

--Middle School: The Worst Years of My Life - James Patterson (Little, Brown and Company; Reprint, 2012)

--Darth Paper Strikes Back - Tom Angleberger (Harry N. Abrams, 2011)

--The Last Council - Kazu Kibuishi ("Amulet" series, GRAPHIX, 2011)

--Big Nate Out Loud - Lincoln Peirce (Andrews McMeel Publishing, 2011)

--The Medusa Plot - Gordon Korman ("The 39 Clues" series, Scholastic Incl, 2011)

 
Middle Division (mostly 12 up) 

--The Son of Neptune - Rick Riordan ("Heroes of Olympus" series, (Disney-Hyperion, reprint, 2013)
  
--Between Shades of Gray - Ruta Sepetys (Speak, 2012)

--Scorpio Races - Maggie Stiefvater (Scholastic Press, 2011)

--Okay for Now - Gary D. Schmidt (HMH Books for Young Readers; Reprint, 2013)

--The Outcasts - John Flanagan ("Brotherband Chronicles." Puffin; Reprint, 2012)

--Legend - Marie Lu (Speak; reprint, 2013)

--Michael Vey: the Prisoner of Cell 25 - Richard Paul Evans (Simon Pulse/Mercury Ink; Reprint, 2012)

--This Dark Endeavor - Kenneth Oppel (Simon & Schuster Books for Young Readers; Reprint, 2012)

Senior Division (teen)

--Divergent - Veronica Roth (Katherine Tegen Books, 2011)
  
--Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children - Ransom Riggs (Quirk Books; Reprint, 2013)

--Angel: a Maximum Ride Novel - James Patterson (Little, Brown and Company, 2012)

--Tiger's Curse - Colleen Houck (CreateSpace Independent Publishing Platform, 2014)

--What Happened to Goodbye - Sarah Dessen (Speak (April 9, 2013)

--Ruby Red - Kerstin Gier (Trilogy-Book 1; Square Fish, Reprint,  2012)

--Ready Player One - Ernest Cline (Broadway Books, 2012)

--Karma - Cathy Ostlere (Razorbill; Reprint, 2012)

The Classics - Opening Lines: Jane Eyre by Charlotte Bronte

"There was no possibility of taking a walk that day. We had been wandering, indeed, in the leafless shrubbery an hour in the morning; but since dinner (Mrs. Reed, when there was no company, dined early) the cold winter wind had brought with it clouds so sombre, and a rain so penetrating, that further outdoor exercise was now out of the question."      Published 1847


I love the classics and plan to share some "opening lines" over the coming months. Comment if you like, or read for inspiration. Writing styles were different then, but were they really?

Sharon M. Himsl

Writer/Author. Blogging since 2011. 
Published with Evernight Teen: 
~~The Shells of Mersing
 

The Classics - Opening Lines: The Red Badge of Courage, by Stephen Crane

"The cold passed reluctantly from the earth, and the retiring fogs revealed an army stretched out on the hills, resting. As the landscape changed from brown to green, the army awakened, and began to tremble with eagerness at the noise of rumors."      Published 1895 



I love the classics and plan to share some "opening lines" over the coming months. Comment if you like, or read for inspiration. Writing styles were different then, but were they really?