Reading Goals

I haven't ever set a reading goal, other than "Read as much as possible." Typically, this means between 125 - 175 books a year. This year, I am going to set a goal, in the opposite direction.

Read one book a week, plus one non-fiction book a month.

My total for 2008 shouldn't top 64 books total. The total number of pages might be interesting; I'm going to be picking some fat books.

With the extra time I'll now have, I'm starting two projects. One is my Etsy Craft shop Willow Bends. Right now I just have bracelets for sale, and I plan to expand for my other craft items. I'd love it if you'd check out my shop, as well as other art on Etsy. It's a great place to find unique, hand-crafted items.

My other project is writing. I need to get back to it after taking December off. I have the bare bones of my story, meaning that I have a dozen or so critical scenes and need to fill in the gaps. I'm not sure of my January goal, other than to work on it, five days out of seven. the first five scenes are good, and I have some writing to do. I'll probably keep track of my progress on a day by day sort of basis. I'm also responsible for one post a week at Starting Write Now. Gotta get back on track with that too.

What is your reading goal for the year? Do you have any "fat" books to recommend?

UPDATE: I'm starting a post to collect the titles and the subsequent reviews here.

Meme of Months

Judy and PJ Gardner had a lovely meme that I wanted to copy.

Rules: Paste the first line of the first post for each month, starting with January 2007. That's it. I decided to link, also, in case anyone was feeling nostalgic.

January -- Summary: A young lady has been sent pearls. Sherlock and Watson investigate their origin, along with a cryptic letter that promises to explain all. (a bookreview for The Sign of the Four)

February -- Word of the Day calendars, emails, websites, etc. seem like a good idea to increase vocabulary, but are they?

March -- Even though we've been buried in snow, I haven't been curled up with good books.

April -- Lovely that Spring is peeking her head around the corners.

May -- I love waking up to thunder storms.

June -- My allergies have kicked into high gear.

July -- LA Weekly got the scoop on the most mis-understood novel of the last century.

August -- This was a banner month of reading for me.

September -- No posts

October -- No posts

November -- Time to catch-up and start posting again.

December -- It is so cold here, that I'll I want to do is hibernate.

Whew, that's a lotta first lines. But fun (for me, at least) to look back over it.

If you decide to do the same, leave me a comment and I'll link to yours, just like Average Jane did.

Christmas Generosity

I cannot get over Holly Lisle's generous pay-it-forward philosophy. If you are new to writing, you must run, immediately, over to her website. There's tons of content, all yours for the reading.

Then she does this:

396 Books & Other Resources Writers Recommend to Kickstart Your Writing, Stand Your Thinking On Its Head, and Vastly Increase Your Ability to WRITE WHAT YOU KNOW

Available for you to download in zip format here:

http://www.hollylisle.com/cgi-bin/dada/mail.cgi/r/hollyupdates/h/20071208060303/hollylisle.com/pdf/396_books_writers_recommend.pdf/

Or in regular unzipped pdf format here:

http://www.hollylisle.com/cgi-bin/dada/mail.cgi/r/hollyupdates/h/20071208060303/hollylisle.com/pdf/396_books_writers_recommend.pdf.zip/

You can do more than use this yourself. You can give this enormous checklist away on your website, burn it on disks and pass it around at writers' meetings, or sell it, if you're so inclined, alone or with other e-books and resources that permit bundled use.

Don't alter it in any way. Other than that, have fun.

It's a nice 50-page list with explanations and what have you. It's also a great example of the quality you get if you order any of Holly's ebooks from her shop.

Have fun and pay it forward to your writing friends.

Sticking with the Series

After much soul-searching, er, reading, I decided to stick with the next set of trilogies for Jacqueline Carey's Kushiel series. Basically, this interview series answered some of my objections and made me believe that the next book was worth the commitment.

Part One
Part Two
Part Three

Thanks, Writer Unboxed, for posting this.

By the way, if that series wasn't enough to convince you to read WU, they have Donald Maass there this week. What are you still doing reading this? Get over there.
(By the by, his Breakout Novel Workshop is simply amazing. He really pushed my writing to a new level.)

Cross posted at Starting Write Now.

Assisted Suicide

Not the sort of thing you'd expect to see on my blog, huh? Tomorrow's book review covers this topic, however. Cheryl was gracious enough to provide a bio and I thought it would be a great to for my readers to get a sneak peek of tomorrow's controversial review.

Cheryl Kaye Tardif is the author of the 2007 bestselling, controversial, assisted suicide novel Whale Song. Booklist calls Whale Song “moving…perennially crowd-pleasing…sweet and sad”. Booklist raves, “Tardif, already a big hit in Canada…a name to reckon with south of the border”.

She is also the author of the 2005 action-packed conspiracy thriller The River--a “mile-a-minute pot-boiler myster[y]”, says the Edmonton Sun. The River is both thought provoking and terrifying. It is based loosely on legends about the Nahanni River area of Canada’s Northwest Territories, legends of headless corpses washing up on its shores. This area has often been called the ‘Bermuda Triangle of Canada’.

Her 2004 “sizzling psychic suspense” novel Divine Intervention is a thriller about a group of psychic government agents and their search for a deadly serial arsonist who is leaving behind a burning trail of corpses. This novel has been compared to shows like ‘Medium’ and ‘CSI’, and novels by Kay Hooper and J.D. Robb.

Cheryl has also had numerous short stories, articles and poetry published over the years, although her main passion is fiction with a twist of mystery, suspense or horror. All of her novels to date―Whale Song, in particular―have received inquiries from the film industry, including Hollywood interest.

Cheryl Kaye Tardif currently lives in Edmonton, Alberta, with her husband and daughter, and is working on three new novels of suspense. When asked about her work, she enjoys telling people, “I’m busy killing people off. You could call me a serial killer. But remember…I write suspense fiction.’ 

Tomorrow...my thoughts on the book.

I Wish He was Dead

Everyone who suffered through childhood has probably thought the above sentiment, typically directing the murderous thoughts towards a sibling. On This American Life, with Ira Glass, listeners are given the choice.

Radio Lab, from New York Public Radio, poses two scenarios to their listeners, asking them to make a moral decision. Five workers are working on a railroad. A trolley is headed to them. You are unable to alert them, but can flip a lever that will re-direct the trolley to another line. Only one worker is on that line. Would you do it?

Take a minute and think how you would decide.

Next scenario -- same five workers, only this time you are standing on a foot bridge above the trolley. A very large man is next to you. If you push him in front of the trolley, it will save the workers. Would you push him?

Again, take a minute.

Did you save the workers in the first scenario, and the large man in the second? If so, you answered just as 9 out of ten people would answer. Yet, think of this, if you had pushed the large man, you would have saved the same number of people.

Disturbing, isn't it, that that majority of us could sacrifice the sole worker through a flip of a lever, but couldn't save the same four lives with a direct action.

The implications are vast. Government applications, thriller novels, rampaging psycho paths and good Samaritans are affected by this. The question is, where do they stand?

I might wish someone dead, but I couldn't directly kill them.

The Art of Seduction

Do women send signals that indicate their intent to have sex? Scott Adams had a boss who believed so.

I once had a boss who shared his theory for seducing a woman. I’m not sure if it was genius or insanity. His theory is so simple it has to be one or the other. His two step secret to seduction:

1. Take her to your place.
2. Get her to take off her shoes.

That’s it.

In Scott's post -- Footwear Theory of Motivation -- he explains that his boss came up with the theory after years of playboy behavior. In typical Scott-fashion, he expands the theory and refers to some interesting back-up.

I was reminded, however, of the "crucial" date with my now husband. You know, the date where you decide if he is going to get further than just kissing. The shirt that I wanted to wear was a button down. I had a safety pin securing a gap. I recalling standing in front of my bathroom mirror, debating about whether or not to leave that pin in.

So, dear reader, do you have a similar type story? Or is Scott's boss washed up?

Frugal or Wrong?

Everyone bends the rules, right? Taking the cashier's pen from the grocery store or nicking a handful of candy from the receptionist's dish don't seem to bad. But are they?

Wisebread explores the topic further in the post "Frugal or Just Plain Wrong."

You know what I love? Getting something for nothing. Oh, it's rare. It's also sort of greedy and raises all kinds of ethical questions. How far would YOU go to save, or make, a dollar or two?

Here are some examples of 'something for nothing' that fall into a morally gray area. I'm not endorsing, advocating, recommending, encouraging, or promoting any of these, but I'm curious as to how our readers feel about them. Like taking an extra piece of candy from the porch bowl in Halloween, everyone probably has a different perception of what constitutes right or wrong.

Some of the scenarios include sneaking candy into a movie, keeping incorrect change, and taking office supplies for home use. There are 20 items total and loads of comments, confessions and condemnations.

The post made me pause. I've been very guilty of some of these crimes. And I've justified my way out of some of them. (Isn't a bigger crime that the movie theater forces you to buy the same Nerds rope for $3 that I can get at Festival Foods 3 for $1? I could have gotten nine of them at Festival.) Others I can't imagine doing. (Just set-up your own cable. It's less of a hassle.)

What about you? Do you have a line that you wouldn't cross?

My Next House Will Be a Tree House

But I can't decide which one. TreeHouse Workshops has some really great ones. I'm leaning to this one, because of the staircase.

It would make a great writer's retreat. Now I just need a tree...

via J-Walk

Goals

A couple of writing friends and I have an informal group called "The Chocolate Cake Club." We are mostly a goal setting group with critiques upon request, discussion at random meetings, and cheerleaders at all times.

My goal last month was three hand written pages per day, or a total of 93 pages. As you can see by the progress bar below, I didn't meet that goal.

But those 93 pages weren't just to fill pages with words that would need to be edited out. No, those 93 pages were meant develop enough scenes that I would have a basic outline and direction of my book.

Typically, I write in a linear fashion; start at the beginning and continue to the end. But this time, the story was coming to me in scenes. I knew the chunks would work, and I could fill-in the missing bits after the scenes I knew about were complete.

It was a refreshing change. I enjoyed it. But I didn't accomplish my quantitative goal, but the story goal. Depending on how you count it, I either failed miserably or passed with flying colors.

Setting goals is good. I probably could have pounded out the other pages, and (most likely) tossed them out later. I achieved my goal, I believe, by using the three pages a day to motivate me to get my butt in the chair.

The good news is, The Chocolate Cake club agrees with me. Adjusting goals as you go is fine. The story goal should always take precedence over the quantitative goal. It's that quantitative goal that keeps your butt in the chair.

And when your butt is in the chair, your writing gets done.

I want to Write about Oxygen and Nike Shoes

I have two posts of Clive Thompson's bookmarked that I desperately want to use in a story but haven't been able to work them in.

They are "These shoes were made for stalking" and "Resuscitation science." First, the shoes:

"Your shoes talk," as Apple boasts. "Your iPod nano listens."

And apparently, so does your creepy ex. A group of computer scientists at the University of Washington wondered if they could build a simple device to secretly track somebody by the signal emitted from their shoes. So they set up a laptop, and whaddya know: It turns out that each shoe broadcasts a unique identifier, and it took the scientists only a few hours to write computer code that would sniff it out and track it. They wrote a report summarizing the stalkertastic possibilities raised by the shoes, as their press release reports...

Clive's article goes on to describe this phenomenon and provide links to some really scary cool information.

Now, the science:

According a piece in Newsweek, Lance Becker -- another emergency-medicine expert -- has recently made headway in grappling with one of the biggest mysteries: Why do we die when our oxygen flow is cut off? Traditionally, doctors have assumed it's because our cells need oxygen to live, so they die when they're deprived. But that theory was dealt a big blow when scientists finally started looking at oxygen-starved cells under a microscope, only to find that they survived just fine for up to several hours when cut off from blood flow (and thus oxygen).

Becker, in contrast, discovered something really nuts: That when you deprive cells of oxygen for more than five minutes, they die not because of an immediate lack of oxygen. They die when the oxygen supply is resumed.

Wild, huh? Clive's posts are long, but interesting. Totally worth the time to read.

Trends

Google has a new search feature -- Hot Trends.

(Really, imagine that. One more way for Google to integrate themselves into our daily life.)

One of the features is to list the top ten trends on the front page, with the option to see up to 100. This might be a good thing for writers. You'd be able to see what's popular, track it, chart it, etc.

While I appreciate my Gmail account and customized Home page, I'm leery using one company for everything. I love competition in the market place. Maybe I've read too many sci-fi books where the world is run by a corporation. Maybe I'm paranoid. But someone else needs to be innovative like Google is.

Foodstamp Challenge

Don't forget -- I'm blogging at Starting Write Now today.

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I sort of like this -- Foodstamp Challenge.

From May 15-21, 2007, U.S. Members of Congress will live on a food stamp budget. According to the U.S. Department of Agriculture, the average food stamp benefit is approximately $3 a day. Spouses and staff of Members of Congress are invited to join the challenge, as well as advocates and local and state officials. Those participating will record their experiences in this Congressional Food Stamp Challenge blog.

It's good to walk in someone else's shoes -- or budget -- to see what it's really like. But it ends. It's only for a week. It's not reality.

Maybe some of those congresspeople need to try it for their term, instead of one week.

Business or Art?

Imagine that you are a brand new writer. Consider the following advice.

From JA Konrath:

The best advice I ever heard is from bestselling author David Morrell, who said: "Writing is a business. Treat it like one. As the business changes, you should too."

From David Morrell:

Writing is also an art. Rather than imitate or follow trends, we should write books that are uniquely our own. The goal is to be a first-rate version of ourselves rather than a second-rate version of another author.

In my head, these two piece of advice contradict one another. Either you are writing for the voice in your head, or you are writing for what sells. I know I tend to write what is in my head, but I have a friend who is definitely writing for the market, but making it her voice.

Neither of us is published. And there probably isn't a good way to measure who is right, even if we were published. But it does show how confusing it is to measure success.

And to find good advice to follow.

via The Writing Life

Visual DNA

All the cool kids are doing it -- or so I hear.

Imagini VisualDNA

Some filters block the results, but not the test pictures. I was thinking that this would be cool to do, from a protagonist's point of view.

One Man's Experience with Abortion

DBB, a 30-something, nerdy-looking, atheist, libertarian-leaning lawyer from Michigan had a thought-provoking post on abortion.

Then I had to wrestle with this issue in my own life. My wife was pregnant. No, it wasn't unexpected. It was about as planned as it gets without using a fertility doctor, though thankfully, we did it the old fashioned way (much cheaper). Things were fine, until about six weeks in. Then she started to have some bleeding. Obviously, this is a great concern. We thought we lost the baby.

Full article here.

This sound be required reading for both sides of the debate.

via Kottke.org

Running Late

ABC News ran a story about people running late and the expense. My gut response was "Duh."

A recent survey found 15 to 20 percent of the U.S. population is "consistently late," especially when it comes to work.

Chronic lateness isn't just annoying — it's expensive. American CEOs are late to eight out of every 10 meetings, according to a 2006 survey by Proudfoot Consulting. And when CEOs are late by 10 minutes every day, it costs the U.S. economy $90 billion in lost productivity.

Then I thought about a few of the meetings that I attend at my day job. I can't post what I'd like to say. It would be a "career limiting move" or CLM as one friend has dubbed them.

Then I thought, "holy crap. How much are these people making? Can't they afford an assistant like Van Wilder has in Taj?"

I need a life.

via J-Walk

Daylight Savings is a Rip-off

The following is an excerpt from Ars Technology.

As it turns out, the US Department of Energy (and almost everyone else except members of Congress) was correct when they predicted that there would be little energy savings. This echoed concerns voiced after a similar experiment was attempted in Australia. Critics pointed out a basic fact: the gains in the morning will be offset by the losses at night, and vice-versa, at both ends of the switch. That appears to be exactly what happened.

Full article here.

Basically, there's no reason to go through this every year.

via Kottke.org

Fair and Free Internet

I agree with Jason Kottke -- this is a great explanation of what Net Neutrality is and why it is important.

Newmark: Keep the Internet neutral, fair and free

Most Americans believe that if you play fair and work hard, you'll get ahead. But this notion is threatened by legislation passed Thursday night by the U.S. House of Representatives that would allow Internet service providers to play favorites among different Web sites.

Here's a real world example that shows how this would work. Let's say you call Joe's Pizza and the first thing you hear is a message saying you'll be connected in a minute or two, but if you want, you can be connected to Pizza Hut right away. That's not fair, right? You called Joe's and want some Joe's pizza. Well, that's how some telecommunications executives want the Internet to operate, with some Web sites easier to access than others. For them, this would be a money-making regime.

Full article.

Happy Easter! Mommy and Daddy Lied to You

How was your Easter?

I'm interrupting the book review schedule for a topic of some concern. Please, bear with me.

We did the Easter baskets and egg hunt on Saturday evening. Since we weren't joining any major family gathering on Sunday, it made since for Ollie to go with his mom to her family gathering.

But we wanted to have the fun of Easter baskets and the egg hunt. My mom obliged us by admiring the fixed bed in the boys' room (the one that she had already seen) while the hubby and I stashed plastic eggs in the living room, set out the baskets and made sure everything was out of the reach of the puppies.

When everything was ready, my husband opened the front door and called out, "Thanks, Easter Bunny! See you next year!"

At which point the kids came tumbling down the steps to check out their goodies.

As much fun as it was to watch their excited little bodies race through the living room, I felt a twinge of guilt.

We lied to them. Not a white lie to make them feel better like a Mommy's kiss makes it better. Or a lie of omission when you don't tell them the real reason about why you can't go to Disney World (it's too effing expense, kid. It has nothing to do with how long of a drive it is.)

No, this is the blatant, bold face lie that is told for Santa Claus, the Tooth Fairy and any other depositor of free goods. I hate doing it.

I do it because of peer pressure. How crappy would it be for my kids not participate in the day after sharing with their buddies? To return to school/day care and confess that the Easter Bunny didn't bring them anything? Truly awful, I believe.

Yet, what does it do to the parent/child relationship when the child discovers that all of those presents have been purchased by Mom and Dad? What did it do to you?

I remember what it did to my eight year old brain. I remembered thinking that I couldn't trust my parents. If they were lying about that, what else did they lie about? I don't recall any specifics, but I remember questioning other "facts" my parents told me.

I might have been the oddly precocious child, to apply this truth to more than the relevant situation. Other circumstances probably affected it as well. My father had passed away that October; I don't recall whether the revelation about Santa Claus came before or after that. But I do remember that the truth undermined my trust.

To compound the matter yesterday, Ollie, the seven year old, asked, "So what did the Easter Bunny look like?" I anticipated this question and had an answer sort of ready. Well, I didn't but one came anyway.

"He's really tall, with black and white fur and wears a bowtie."

"Cool."

At least he'll have a really good story to share about the Easter Bunny when he goes back to school. Even if I feel guilty.