September Debrief

So, In many ways, I've gotten my reading habit back on track. However, I'm still having a hard time getting the writing back on the rails. I guess that will be my big focus for October.

1. A Great and Terrible Beauty by Libba Bray (Gemma Doyle)
2. Rebel Angels by Libba Bray (Gemma Doyle)
3. The Sweet Far Thing by Libba Bray (Gemma Doyle)
4. The Outcast by Kathryn Lasky (Guardians of Ga'Hoole)
5. The First Collier by Kathryn Lasky (Guardians of Ga'Hoole)
6. The Coming of Hoole by Kathryn Lasky (Guardians of Ga'Hoole)
7. To Be a King by Kathryn Lasky (Guardians of Ga'Hoole)
8. The Golden Tree by Kathryn Lasky (Guardians of Ga'Hoole)
9. The River of Wind by Kathryn Lasky (Guardians of Ga'Hoole)
10. Exile by Kathryn Lasky (Guardians of Ga'Hoole)
11. Reading Ladders by Teri S. Lesesne
12. The Case against Tomorrow by Frederik Pohl
13. Pyramids by Terry Pratchett (Discworld)
14. Guards! Guards! by Terry Pratchett (Discworld)
15. Eric by Terry Pratchett (Discworld)
16. Moving Pictures by Terry Pratchett (Discworld)
17. Reaper Man by Terry Pratchett (Discworld)
18. Our Children's Children by Clifford D. Simak
19. Shiver by Maggie Stiefvater (Wolves of Mercy Falls)
20. Linger by Maggie Stiefvater (Wolves of Mercy Falls)
21. Forever by Maggie Stiefvater (Wolves of Mercy Falls)
22. Sinner by Maggie Stiefvater (Wolves of Mercy Falls)
23. Proust and the Squid by Maryanne Wolf

Llama Llama, so Long Now

It is such a sad thing when a beloved author dies. Sometimes they die and, in reading the bio, I find that they are old and have lived long full lives. It is sad because even though I've never met them, favored authors are like good friends. It's hard to say good bye but they've earned their rest and I wish them well.

Sometimes though, they die too young. Authors are not always the healthiest people after all. Writing is a sedentary profession and it is "art" which attracts all sorts. Anna Dewdney just died. She was, at least as far as I can tell, not suffering from unhealthy life choices. Yet, she was just 50 when she passed. She died of brain cancer and somehow it seems worse that she will never produce anymore children's books.

I admit that I only discovered her a year ago but, since I have a toddler, I've spent a lot of time reading her books over and over. Good children's books don't grow stale with re-reading and the Llama Llama books were some of the best. She will be missed.

Deltora Quest by Emily Rodda

This is one of the series I read in the unaccounted for time during the summer. I discovered it quite by accident when I picked up an omnibus sampler containing the first book of the Guardians of Ga'Hoole Series. Irritatingly, the Deltora book included was the first book of the third series, Deltora Dragons. I made it all the way through the Deltora Dragons series before I realized that there were earlier books. I hate reading things like that out of order.

In any case, this is a decent little series that follows the trials of Lief on his journey to restore the jewels to the powerful Belt of Deltora for the true heir and thus save the kingdom from the Shadow Lord.  All young Lief has to go on is a hand-drawn map of likely locations and his parent's friend Barda. Barda, of course being an adult, really would prefer going on his own to retrieve the magic jewels but soon sees the value of his young companion. Soon they are joined by Jasmine, a wild and tough girl from the wilderness, and their little band is complete.

The series features a rich fantasy setting with multiple sentient races and richly described magical features. Rodda seems to favor word puzzles in her writing as their are quite a few. Story follows the standard quest pattern across eight books that could probably stand to be three as they are very short. While the protagonist leans the series appeal toward males, Jasmine means there is plenty for young female readers too. This is probably good for most middle school readers. Because each book is short and has short chapters it's a good series for high school struggling readers.

The eight books are:
1. The Forests of Silence
2. The Lake of Tears
3. City of the Rats
4. The Shifting Sands
5. Dread Mountain
6. The Maze of the Beast
7. The Valley of the Lost
8. Return to Del

Goal Met

Sometime mid August, I made my reading goal for the year of 100 books. I've cruised on through and am about to hit 110. This early success has taught me two things: 1. I really love reading 2. I need more guidelines for next year.

Much of my reading this year has been in the form of YA novels and Middle Readers. This has been immensely helpful in my quest to get the right book in the hands of the right kid at the right time. However this reading material is also artificially inflating my count of books. I can blast through a middle reader in 2 or 3 hours, I can read most YA titles in about a day, but a book intended for an adult audience can take me anywhere from 2 days to 2 weeks.

So clearly, my current reading habits make it much easier to hit a goal of 100 than if I were limiting myself to books intended for adults. I don't mean to diminish my achievement. I'm completely stoked to have met my goal this year. I worry though that I will get a little lopsided in my reading habits. So next year I think I will have to come up with some ratios or somesuch.

Anyway. Yay!

A Meditation on Routine

I have often noted that it feels like I get so much more done when it feels like I have no time then when I'm off school and have plenty of time. This observation came again this past summer. While I was in school with very limited discretionary time, I had very little trouble writing a daily blog. The minute summer hit every post became a struggle.

This summer was unusually busy. We hosted both my parents at various points, we went on a family trip to South Carolina, and various other unusual situations kept us hopping to support friends and family during their own trials. Busy. However, it would be a stretch to say we were as busy as the school year. So, what happens to my writing then?

My routine radically changes. During the school year, my weekdays and much of my weekends is rigidly planned out. Rigid in the sense that certain things must happen so everything else get squished into the gaps like mortar in a brick wall. Last year I got into a very comfortable evening routine of home, food, read to/play with Thomas, (optional evening movie for super worn out days), Thomas goes to sleep, I write a post or two. Each activity is pretty variable in how much time it takes, but the order is consistent. There is a similar progression to the weekends. During the summer there is no dictated order to the days....which I like, but it means that writing kept getting squeezed out somehow.

All this underscores how important routine is to meeting goals. It's easier to build a routine when time is short because it's a process of prioritization. To build a routine outside of a time crunch seems to require enormous discipline. The siren call of "let's do it later" is all the more seductive when it feels like there is tons of later out there to use. Before I know it, later is all used up and I'm back to my time crunch.

So long term goal for the post academic year is to build a writing routine that I maintain through school holidays and breaks. There, I said it. Feel free to heckle me if I fall behind.

September: A Fiesta of Literature

The weird thing about being the school's "book lady" is that suddenly a lot of my pleasure reading is becoming professional reading. I'm in a situation now of actively seeking out YA literature to read and preview for my students. This is not a bad thing, but it's a shift in thinking. Some series that grow stale to me and that I would put down given my own devices I find myself pushing to finish. I'm currently working my way through three YA series.

The Wolves of Mercy Falls series by Stiefvater is a teen romance series that takes a twist on the werewolf idea. The Gemma Doyle series by Bray is another supernatural YA series centered around witchcraft and victorian era England. Both are heavy on the love angle and are aimed pretty squarely at highschool girls. The Guardians of Ga'Hoole series by Lasky is, by contrast, aimed at a middle school or even younger set and would possibly appeal more to boys although I suspect either gender could get into them.

1. A Great and Terrible Beauty by Libba Bray (Gemma Doyle)
2. Rebel Angels by Libba Bray (Gemma Doyle)
3. The Sweet Far Thing by Libba Bray (Gemma Doyle)
4. The Outcast by Kathryn Lasky (Guardians of Ga'Hoole)
5. The First Collier by Kathryn Lasky (Guardians of Ga'Hoole)
6. The Coming of Hoole by Kathryn Lasky (Guardians of Ga'Hoole)
7. To Be a King by Kathryn Lasky (Guardians of Ga'Hoole)
8. The Golden Tree by Kathryn Lasky (Guardians of Ga'Hoole)
9. The River of Wind by Kathryn Lasky (Guardians of Ga'Hoole)
10. Exile by Kathryn Lasky (Guardians of Ga'Hoole)
11. Reading Ladders by Teri S. Lesesne
12. The Case against Tomorrow by Frederik Pohl
13. Pyramids by Terry Pratchett (Discworld)
14. Guards! Guards! by Terry Pratchett (Discworld)
15. Eric by Terry Pratchett (Discworld)
16. Moving Pictures by Terry Pratchett (Discworld)
17. Reaper Man by Terry Pratchett (Discworld)
18. Our Children's Children by Clifford D. Simak
19. Shiver by Maggie Stiefvater (Wolves of Mercy Falls)
20. Linger by Maggie Stiefvater (Wolves of Mercy Falls)
21. Forever by Maggie Stiefvater (Wolves of Mercy Falls)
22. Sinner by Maggie Stiefvater (Wolves of Mercy Falls)
23. Proust and the Squid by Maryanne Wolf