More Reading and Writing (Seeking)

This post was going to be a book review, but I got a bit (ha!) off track and so, since it's my blog, I'm just gonna keep on babbling about reading and writing.

I'll get to the book review eventually.

If you read my last post, you know that I have little patience for reading crappy novels. After I gave up 'Free' as a reason for reading a book, I started to comb through yard sale boxes and library sales for classics. If the truth be told, 'Free' was still (still is) a good reason to take it home with me, but well worn paperbacks often cost as much as 10¢ or 25¢ (it adds up quick).

I spent several years reading everything of value from the last century. I've been through quite a few stages of reading progression (don't worry - I won't get into all of them today), but this period of reading the classics was slowed dramatically (now mind you, 'slowed' -not stopped) when a good friend with way more education than me caught me reading The Scarlet Letter.

S, who is not only an astute reader, but also has a highly functioning brain, a sharp wit, and a degree in English (not to mention the post-graduate degree), asked me, "Why are you reading that?"

"Why wouldn't I read that?" was the first response that popped into my head. However, I must admit I was embarrassed. Not necessarily because I was reading that particular book, but more probably by the fact that I felt she was implying that I was wasting my time. Again.

(Remember that's what I was trying to avoid by reading the classics in the first place. I may have been better off - hell, I would probably still be better off- if I invested my money in some formal education. However, that comes with a price tag far bigger than the few nickels and dimes I was spending on my fumbling self-education. I feel a tangent coming on, but I will try and get back to the topic at hand....)

S, as usual, cut right to it with her next question: "What do you hope to learn from reading that?"

And, really, this was the million dollar question, wasn't it? Isn't it still? Because that's what it's about for me. That's what it's still about: What can I learn from reading this?

Don't write me off as a total book-snob, though, because I still read every book Stephen King publishes and truly believe in the value (and, yes, necessity) of entertainment. I don't like to read boring books and isn't that what entertainment is - the opposite of boredom?

**(I have to allow a small tangent here to say I've been very disappointed in your last two publications, Steve. At what point can you publish without slashing a third of what you write [I could be wrong -I'm not going to go look it up right now- but didn't you repeat {somewhere in On Writing} the sage advice of hacking a bunch of shit out of the way to get to the real, page-turning, keep-you-up-at-night story? What happened to that?] and just leave all the crap in there because your publishers know that you're gonna sell a million-gajillion copies no matter what's between the covers? Perhaps a part of it is all that crap makes the book bigger? Bigger book = higher retail price? Hell, I always buy one, but write a few more time-wasters and that'll be the end of my support.)**

Another important aspect of reading is identification. Personal connection. Yep, we're still talking entertainment here, but we're also talking education. Isn't that how we learn? Or maybe the question should be 'Isn't that how we learn the best (the fastest, the most efficiently)?' or maybe 'Isn't that the information we seek out?'

If we connect to a topic - if there is something personal, some connection to us as a real, multi-dimensional person, then doesn't that give us some extra tie to the topic at hand and, therefore, a 'want' of the subject?

Kids always are asking, 'Why do I have to do this?' They SHOULD ask. Who gives a shit about sentence diagramming (To all of you grammarians: sorry, but I HATED diagramming sentences and I still find no use for the minutiae of sentence destruction and labeling in my life, even the writing part of my life.) when you can dive into a whole story and rip it apart?

But, for the record: Yep, all that math has come in handy. Even some of that geometry crap comes into use every once in a while. a² + b² = c² really does help when you have to square a building to lay it out right, or to build a wall or a window or whatever.

But the point is -before I lose it in another digression- finding a personal connection to the subject matter not only makes things more interesting, but also more worthwhile and valuable because they're meaningful.

I suspect good teachers already know this, but again, with my awkward, groping, fits-and-starts education, I just realized this about 4 or 5 years ago. Being away from West Virginia played a big part in that (that's a-whole-nother post or two or three...) realization, but without going into details (right now), that brings us to my current mode of reading (seeking): Anything about West Virginia, fiction or non-fiction. West Virginia can be the setting, the topic, or the home state of the author, as long as it is connected to home.

I just got started (relatively) with this method of seeking (reading, learning) and I'm pleased to find I have a lot of work ahead of me to even begin to feel like I'm making a dent into the works of West Virginia writers and writings. There are years worth of personal connections just sitting and waiting on me. (Yay!)

All this brings me to what I originally intended to do today: A book review.

I'm going to start another post, though, so I don't have to fight with the pictures....

Reading and Writing

When I was younger I would read anything I could get my hands on. Yep, I did read a lot of crap that way, but it caused me to pick stuff apart and figure out what made it crap (or not). What makes this one take me two weeks to read (and read three other better books at the same time) when this one over here I couldn't put down and stayed up all night to finish? Why do these characters live on in my head for a couple of weeks when these others never even took a deep breath? What is it about that scene that makes me remember it every time the wind blows whistly around that paint-flaking window pane in the basement? What gave this a sleek polished feeling while this one has rough-edges? Was that the intent? Does it add to or take away from the whole?
Anyway, you get the idea. And if you're a reader, you're probably nodding your head, maybe sucking in your bottom lip, and thinking about the first book you put down and never finished because it wasn't worth your time. I remember mine. I was working the night shift and, while that probably was partly to blame for my short attention span, for the first time ever I put a book down and didn't pick it back up.
I had no interest in reading another schlocky novel that didn't have something to say or, at the least, some entertainment value. I don't remember the book or the author, but what I do remember is getting to Chapter 2 and I'd just walked down a street with too many adjectives and walked with a fancy-shmancily dressed lady with a flowery umbrella. I walked up the steps to her porch and into her house and nothing had happened and I just didn't give a shit about the lady or about where she lived or what she did or anything else.
Plus, I was wet because she didn't share her umbrella. Okay, not really, but I just didn't give a shit. I was sick of reading shit and I remember thinking that if I was going to learn what made a good book, then I'd better set the shit aside and seek out the good stuff.
This realization, plus the fact I had a tracheotomy to clean, a couple of stomach tubes to replace, an order to insert a urinary catheter, a serious case of sleep deprivation, morning meds and report to get through all combined to make me realize I didn't have time to waste - especially not on an uninteresting, crappy novel.
That was the beginning. I've become even more (nit)picky since then (hard to believe, huh?).

The point in all this?
I'm feeling rather bloggity today and I have some time this morning (time created through procrastination, mainly). So, if you've a mind to stick it out with me a bit, we'll see where this is going....

I need to add, too, that I have very little patience for formatting pictures into posts. Usually I just deal with it and do it anyway, but not today. Today I'll just make multiple posts. Patience may be required. :)

No Need to Worry!

"No need to worry! You will always have everything that you need."

This is my fortune. How great is that?

I went out to eat on Friday afternoon with one of the greatest people in the world and this is my fortune. I even ate the cookie to make sure it's true.

Eyeballs

During my bout with the flu, my two youngest kids left this on the kitchen table for me when they left for school. I took a picture and forgot about it until I uploaded my pics yesterday.

Easter Snow

My grandmother always said there had to be an Easter snow, either on Easter or close to it. It rained hard yesterday afternoon and switched over to snow about the time it got dark.
I woke up to this:




Not much snow, just a dusting. And look how beautiful the sky is!


It's only about 50 degrees out now, but the sky has been this unbelievable blue all day; I'm going out for a walk now.

Triathlon cancelled!

The Adventure Pursuit Triathlon has been cancelled!
Ack.
I went over there to look this morning because I hadn't heard anything recently and because I'm going for a run today. The cancellation was posted on March 3rd. There's no explanation, just a short blurb about a mountain bike ride.

What month is it?

Okay, maybe it's not that bad, but it was getting there. I still felt horrible yesterday and PC made me go with him to eat sushi. I didn't want to, but I'm glad I did because after I ate a ping-pong ball sized blob of wasabi and a small mountain of ginger (not to mention the tuna and salmon I ate it with) I did feel better. Not good, but better, which is way more than I've been able to say for two weeks (Two weeks! Yikes!).
I actually went to the gym this morning. I certainly wasn't setting any personal records and I felt like a total weakling, but the important thing is I went and I broke a sweat on purpose (as opposed to all the sweat I've been losing from the flu ague). And right now, post-gym and pre-shower, I think I can see my way clear to being well again! Yay!
I like to think I don't take my health for granted, but being sick for two weeks really puts a different spin on things. My health is constantly on my gratitude list. It's something I think about and something I work for with both exercise and healthy eating; my health is very important to me. But even being consciously grateful, having the (killer) flu for two weeks really had me freaked out. I am very grateful it's just about over and I will continue to remind myself of just how blessed I am to have good health.
Now I have to go rearrange my calendar - which means I have to move the to-do list from the first week of March to this week. Nothing like being 2-3 weeks behind.

What week is it?

On Friday I was feeling better, so I assumed I was getting better.
I was wrong.

What day is it?

The flu got me. Usually I don't get the flu, but this time it got me pretty good. I haven't said anything coherent since Tuesday (have I?) and I'm thinking anything I said Tuesday may be up for debate, too. Maybe today, too, but at least I'm able to maintain a seated position for more than two minutes.
Normally, if I get sick at all, it's a sniffle or sore throat or something irritating but tolerable. This did not fall in that category. This was some bad stuff.
So, being the geek that I am, I checked out the CDC's website for the flu report (did you even know there was such a thing?) and saw that "The proportion of deaths attributed to pneumonia and influenza was above the epidemic threshold for the eighth consecutive week." Go here for summary reports of the last 10 years or so.
I'm getting back to normal. I think.

Cabin Fever & Bio

Perhaps it was the cabin fever (though yesterday I soaked up as much sun as I could, knowing it was going to rain/snow again), but I queried a literary agency about Vultures.
This is the first time I've done it since the whole Amazon ABNA contest and, even though I said I wasn't going to, I think the winter blahs got the best of me and it seemed like a good idea. We'll see....

Anyway, the main point is not the query, but the bio. It's always a challenge to come up with a short, catchy bio (the irony here is that a blogger would have a hard time finding something to say about herself). For this particular query, I wrote a new two-paragraph bio. Usually, I stick with one or, at the most, two sentences, but it was probably the cabin fever and resulting 'screw-it' attitude that pushed me to ramble on. My finger hovered over the 'Send' button as I debated the pros and cons. Finally, the 'screw-it' attitude won when I figured worse-case-scenario would be a total lack of response. (At least I hope that's worst case scenario - I have a long way to go before I establish enough of a reputation even for black-listing. I hope.)

So, here's my new bio (probably short-lived):

"MK Stover is a native West Virginian who finally moved back home. She is a wife, mother, and writer, though not always in that order. Her writing includes small mountains of unsubmitted fiction, a smattering of published non-fiction (though she finds sticking to the facts to be rather confining), ad copy, and small town newspaper columns, articles, and opinions.
Unable to find a decent cup of cappuccino, she and her husband are in the process of converting the first floor of a 118 year old brick building into her hometown’s central site for caffeine consumption and assemblage. The second floor houses her writing studio which is in dire need of organization. Currently, she is working on humorous recollections of her redneck upbringing and feels that her office mess is a symbolic representation of the mental health of her many relatives and, therefore, is a necessary aid to her work-in-progress."


According to Spell Check, 'unsubmitted' is not a word. I use a lot of those not-a-words, so that's not really a concern. What is a concern, though, is that Spell Check's suggestion for correction is 'uncommitted.'
I suppose I should be happy for the 'un.'