Howdy folks. Let’s order a hot chocolate with dark cherry (my new favorite drink from the cafe) and let me tell you about my week. Then, maybe, when I’m done, you can tell me about yours.
Reading
This week was a very reading light week which, of course, leaves me feeling out of sorts. Since I was 4, I have always been an avid reader or even more accurately, a bookworm. If my nose isn’t in a book, on vacation or at work or school, then something is wrong. I have to fix that this week.
I bring up the topic of reading though for a very specific purpose. I checked out Shadow Prowler by Alexey Pehov this week for two reasons. The first reason is that it is about a rogue and we all know how I love those skulking-in-the-shadows, lockpicking, sticky fingered dwellers of the night-shrouded city streets. The second reason is that every since I discovered my Russian ancestry while working on my geneology several years ago, I have had a fascination with every thing Russian. This book was originally published in Russian and is only recently released in English for American audiences.
I started this book very excited to discover the adventures awaiting within. Very quickly I was derailed and not because the book was bad or boring or confusing but for the opposite reason. This book reminded me of everything that I want to write about. I became more excited about my own stories while reading this than I have been in a long time. I didn’t want to finish it because I didn’t want to know how Mr. Pehov wrote the story, I want to write my own.
I will get back to the book when I can check it out again but for now I will keep working on my own stories and hopefully get as excited about them as I did while reading the first 100 pages of Shadow Prowler.
Writing
It was my turn to submit some manuscript pages to the writing group this week. And as usual I procrastinated. Sorta.
I wanted to write a short story for an anthology with an open call for submissions and I wanted to use the group as my beta readers. I started the story very excited for the protagonist and his situation and every word I wrote made me more uncomfortable. It became harder and harder to continue. A thousand words in and I realized I didn’t want this to be a short story.
I didn’t and don’t know where this story is going or where it will end but I didn’t want to straight jacket myself into ending it in a couple thousand words. There is so much more to explore and discover and to end the story early would be a crime against this character. So I decided not to fence my story in without seeing where it went.
But I still needed a story to turn in for group.
Last fall I had written a short story and set it aside without looking at it again. I had been trying something new and it felt awkward and strange and frankly, I thought the writing sucked. I got out my draft and did a quick rewrite and turned it in. While rereading it, I realized that the story was actually good. Time and distance had removed the patina of grime and dirt and I enjoyed the story again.
So how was your week? You should try the dark cherry hot chocolate. Tastes like cherry cordials.
