A Christmas Blizzard

Since listening to Lake Wobegon Days on tape I have been looking into more of Garrison Keillor's works. I picked up A Christmas Blizzard last week and am reading it on my lunches. Every page has me laughing. It isn't a very long book and is supposed to be similar to A Christmas Carol by Dickens. I shall keep reading and will let you know what I think about the book when I finish.

H.P. Lovecraft

The other day I picked up the book Great Tales of Horror. It is a collection of stories by Lovecraft. I had never read any of his stories before now. There is a creepiness in his works tat give chills. Poe is one of my favorite authors so isn't surprising that I enjoy Lovecraft. I read the short story 'The Statement of Randolph Carter' and immediately began another story 'The Thing on the Doorstep.' If you enjoy horror stories then I would pick up one of Lovecraft's pieces.

Keeping a Journal

I found some excellent resources for getting started writing a journal. I know with myself sometimes I can sit down and just write whatever comes to my mind. Other times it is more difficult to keep the pen moving. The first is a book titled Room to Write: daily invitations to a writer's life by Bonni Goldberg. Each page contains a new scenario or idea to write about. I usually find one I want to use that day and title my journal entry with the name of the scenario/idea and page number. Then I write until I can't. I find it good to set apart a specific time period in the day and stick to it. Let's say you save thirty minutes for journaling - you keep the pen moving even if it's the same word. Eventually others will join it. I find it's easier to keep a separate blog or word document because typing is faster and the muscles are more active. We sadly don't write by hand as much. The next resource is a webpage with links to different topics. 'Creative Writing Now' (http://www.creative-writing-now.com/writing-journal.html) provides tips on how to write, what to write about, how to go about your daily life to soak in as much information as possible to help you with the content of your entries. In high school I took a creative writing class and loved it. At the beginning of the class we had to write for ten minutes and couldn't stop. He didn't care if half the page held the same sentence. It was a way to keep the mind thinking and to build up the wrist and forearm muscles. It was one of my favorite classes. The last resource is just a list of benefits to journaling (http://www.appleseeds.org/100_journaling.htm) things you may not think about. Stress relief, creative outlook, life outlook, etc.

Journaling isn't something I do often enough because life gets away from me and I stop for a few weeks but then start up again. But I plan on making it a daily thing from now on. I do have a work journal going right now and will pick up my creative writing journal again. It is a stress reliever; plus I always have all this stuff going on in my head that I might as well write it down!

If you want more about journaling all you have to do is Google it and you will be bombarded with more tips.

'every soul a star'

This was another book that just caught my eye when walking by it. The author is Wendy Mass. I hadn't heard about her until this book. After reading 'every soul has a star' I will probably check out some more of hers. It is a young adult book that is about life changes and how to accept and grow with them. The three main characters Ally, Bree, and Jack get to know each other during a two-week period in the summer that centers around a total eclipse of the sun. Ally has always lived at the campground Moon Shadow where everyone is coming to look at the eclipse. Bree is the popular kid who is all about fashion and makeup and plans to be the next top model. The third is Jack who is a pudgy, awkward kid who is into scifi, art, and being by himself. He fails science which creates this opening to go on a field trip. All three of these teenagers are so different; yet they find that they are more alike than they would have thought. This book actually reminds me of the movie The Breakfast Club in how at the beginning they are from different cliques and at the end of detention they are friends. Teenagers could relate to the three characters and learn how to handle situations when your life gets flip-flopped. This is also a quick, cute read that you can finish it a couple days and move on to more.

'endless universe'

endless universe by Marion Zimmer Bradley is a science fiction work written in 1975. Bradley is known for the Darkover novels which I will be looking into soon. This book is about the explorers on the spaceship Gyspy Moth. The time is the future where there are explorers that discover new planets, set up transmitters, and move on to the next planet never really returning to previously discovered planets. To be an explorer you are taken at birth and grow up on the spaceship you'll spend your life on. It is interesting because you learn how they age differently from non-explorers because of space travel as well how they are a family unit yet not a family by blood ties. You also feel the contempt of non-explorers towards them for how they get new explorers. The book takes you through the discovery of a few planets and the development of Gildoran, the main character's, views as an adult and explorer. He is challenged with life and death decisions as captain and it makes him think. It is an interesting take on space travel and how humans and other beings would exist if there were transmitters to step into and a few minutes later you'd walk out onto a different planet. The transmitter reminds me of the stargate from the television show; just another way for humans to travel through space.