one little word report #4: intellect

Intellect

Goal: Read 4 books each month.

How it went: Pretty good. I think my mistake so far has been the type of book I'm reading. I purchased a large stash of parenting books in January and few through them. While they were good reads, and all great advice, I started to get really stressed out about all the things I wasn't doing "right." There just seemed to be so much to fix! So I'm taking a break from those and just focusing on one improvement at a time.

Going forward I'm going to limit myself to one parenting/self-improvement book per month. The rest need to be fiction! Also, I think page count needs to play in here somehow. In January I read Wool, which is 600 pages (it is technically 5 books combined into an omnibus), and I don't think it would make a lot of sense for me to try to read four 600 page books at this point in my life. :)

Books I've read in Jan/Feb:

Wool Omnibus (Wool #1-5) - Hugh Howey
Abel's Island - William Steig
Discipline Without Shouting or Spanking - Jerry L. Wyckoff
The Parenting Breakthrough - Merilee Boyack
Siblings Without Rivalry - Adele Faber
Shift Omnibus (Shift #1-5) - Hugh Howey (still reading this one)

NEW GOAL: I think this is all. I just want to keep reading. I need to get some books on hold at the library and go to town. Recommendations are welcome!

Colorworld

A few years ago I sent a facebook message to Rachel Kelly, a woman from church who I didn't really know all that well. I'd heard through the grapevine that she had written a couple of (unpublished) novels, and since I'd been working on my sweet (and seemingly endless? haha) book for a while at that point, I was curious how another mom was finding time to write. I asked her a couple of simple questions, she responded with some book recommendations and her thoughts about publishing (she would probably do it someday), and that was about it.

Fast forward to autumn of last year. Steve and I were traveling a lot as he enjoyed the simultaneously harried and relaxed schedule of a fourth year med student, and as we were preparing to leave for another looooong trip, I got a message from Rachel. She'd decided it was time to get her book out into people's hands, and she needed an editor. She'd read my blog. She liked my writing style. She wanted me. (!)

It was both a daunting and an exciting proposition. I've always loved editing papers (I did it freelance for other students in college, did critiques in round tables in all my upper division writing classes, and edited a magazine my father-in-law had for a short time) but oh man--to edit an entire book? AND be a mama! I wasn't sure I could do it. And, okay--what if her book wasn't good? How can you tell someone you know (but not well!) that you think their book needs a lot of work???

But Rachel sent me the first twenty pages so I could take a look. And (*phew!) they were very promising. Her story was was different than anything I'd read before. In fact, I was kind of excited to take the job just to see where her plot lines were going.

So we worked out the businessy stuff (deadline, fee, expectations) and she sent me the full manuscript of Colorworld. I was one of the first people to ever get to read it. Like, I got to read it before her husband did. (But he's cool with that, don't worry.) Still, that is a pretty cool thing, right? And then I was going to get to talk to the author about her book. In detail. In excruciating detail! I was a Lit/Writing major in college, so that is basically my version of heaven. :)

I printed it out (several hundred pages), picked out a red pen, and got to work.

 I helped make that manuscript into this book!!! Yay!!!

I can't tell you how much fun it was to read a book and then get to tell the author what I thought: what I liked, what I hated, what made sense, what was confusing. Yes, I made grammatical corrections, pointed out inconsistencies, and added punctuation suggestions. But as Rachel's editor I also got to go through her story line by line and help her cut out the fat, dig deeper into her characters, and basically play devil's advocate. When I boxed up her copy and mailed it out to North Dakota, I was relieved and exhilarated. I couldn't wait to hear back from her, to talk more about the talented/cursed Wendy, overbearingly educated Gabe, quirky Ezra (he's my favorite character), and the freaky-calm-yet-terrifying Louise.

Over the last year I've had the privilege of editing two more books in her Colorworld series (yes, I know what happens next! It just gets better from here--book 3 is my favorite so far!) I finished marking up the third installment in the series literally hours before I went to the hospital to deliver Juliette. (Since she was induced, it was an item on my last-day-of-pregnancy to-do list: Rachel's book!!!) We've written countless emails arguing the merits of comma placement, engaging in intense philosophical discussions about the realities of real-life relationships, and even going over potential changes in the structure of individual sentences. So I feel pretty confident in telling you that Rachel has written and rewritten, refined her stories and the way she tells them, until it is glaringly obvious that these books were a labor of love.

Colorworld was released on Amazon on December 24th! (SO EXCITED FOR RACHEL!) And guess what? She actually put my name on her title page, just below hers, with an editing credit. Not tucked in the acknowledgements at the back--on her title page. Isn't that the sweetest, most generous thing? I was floored. I am still kind of in shock. It was an amazing feeling to see my name in print like that! I've always wanted to have a book published--and eventually I will get my own out there--and Rachel gave me such a lovely, thoughtful gift in lending me such a prominent credit on something she worked so incredibly hard on.

My name! Is on! The title page! !!!   !!!!!

Rachel is self-published, which means word of mouth is incredibly important to help her book find its audience! So if you're looking for a new read--something fun and engaging, a paranormal/sci-fi-style love story that makes you ask questions--you should give Colorworld a look. It's available for Kindle here (it's only $2.99), and it will be out in paperback in late January 2014. (Or you can borrow it for free if you have a Kindle and Amazon Prime. Or I think I can lend it to you through Kindle...?) And if you read it, help my girl out by giving it a star rating and quick review on Amazon and/or here at Goodreads!

2011's Books

              

1. Austenland
2. Magic Under Glass
3. Before Midnight
4. Martha Stewart's Encyclopedia of Crafts: An A-to-Z Guide with Detailed Instructions and Endless Inspiration
5. Martha Stewart's Encyclopedia of Sewing and Fabric Crafts: Basic Techniques and 150 Inspired Ideas for Sewing, Embroidery, Applique, Quilting, Dyeing, and Printing
6. Babywise
7. Sleeping Through the Night
8. The Art of Eating In
9. SuperFoods Rx
10. The House at Riverton
11. A Sick Day for Amos McGee
12. The Forgotten Garden
13. Bedtime for Mommy
14. Don't Let the Pigeon Drive the Bus!

Read: The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society

One of the loveliest things about being sick (well, perhaps the only lovely thing about it) is the freedom to laze about on the couch for an afternoon, even though there are still dishes in the sink and the floor could use a good sweeping.

I started Guernsey a few weeks ago when Suzi lent it to me, and have been trying to get it read up (because I'm really supposed to be reading The Zookeeper's Wife for book club). But I couldn't move on to another book without first resolving that the characters on Guernsey would end up as I thought they should, so I've been plugging away at it, stealing a few pages here and there, until finally this afternoon I collapsed sniffling on the sofa and breezed through the last thirty pages.

Steve mentioned that he and I read differently. I thought that was fascinating, because honestly I'd never thought of that before. Who wouldn't read for what I read for? Steve reads for entertainment, sometimes a quick thrill via a mystery or a nice thought-provoking dramatic piece, occasionally something classic and humorous. I read, I think, for a lot of different reasons. To connect, and to be uplifted sometimes. To learn about far off places. To discover whether there are kindred spirits out there who I might never meet. Occasionally just for fun, I skim through a beach read. But my books, and the characters in them, become dear to me, like friends. There are several that I have read many times over. And I've always felt bad for people who only read a book once.

Guernsey satisfied the majority of my reading requirements, with charming, delightful characters and a plot that unfolded at just the perfect pace. It was like taking a walk while in deep conversation, the time passing by without your meaning it to. I loved learning about a tiny Channel Island, and coming to grips with what the German Occupation really meant in Europe. I think our continent being so far removed from the reality of the War has meant that even generations later we don't fully understand the heartbreak. I like to connect on that level, like maybe in some small way, I understand better than I did before. We are so lucky: no food stamps, no rations, no need to stay up all night to protect vegetable gardens from foragers, no threat of prison ever present.

Hope, youth, and light glowed through the pages--despite it's sometimes aching subject matter--and there was enough wit and humor to pull me through the more emotionally difficult passages. I appreciated that. No one wants to cry through a book, and this was more about life going on than about how it stops.

As a writer, I loved following Juliet's thought process through conceiving and writing her book. The only thing that frustrated me occasionally was the limited scope of being confined to letters as my only means of knowing the characters. Still, I think the authoresses did a nice job incorporating dialog and scenes.

In short, it was a charming initiation into the island lifestyle in post-war England, and I loved it.

If you liked this, try: 84, Charring Cross Road (click)

Another Bibliophile

With all the reading I've done (not to mention my own mama before me) Gracie was destined to be a bibliophile herself. We read her a book every night before bed, all three of us snuggled up on the couch, and she adores it. Her eyes get wide, her mouth drops open, and she is entirely enthralled by Winnie the Pooh's Opposites or The Nose Book (one of my personal faves).

And of course after we read a book she gets to chew on it for a minute, which she also loves.

The best part is seeing her recognize a book for herself. At church last week I pulled open the hymn book, and she flipped out. Her eyes got enormous and she started bouncing and cooing. A book!!! I know what that is!!! I love these things!!!

...can I eat it now?

:)