Yvette Keller's Blog, page 12

Plateaued at 5’8″

Sometimes, Yvette, life is like reading a book. Days, weeks, even years just repeat themselves… until you turn the page.

Tallyho,   
The Universe

theuniverse@tut.com

Collage for Maya

Dear Friends, Family, and Cheerleaders-at-Large,

It’s been a while since you’ve heard from me.
Sorry about that, but I trust you know why and had too much of your own life going on to miss my missives. Happy Friday!

I’m feeling ecstatic to have made it to the end of the week. Since my husband began working...

A Spate of Book Reviews: Uprooted

Uprooted Book Cover

You will enjoy this book if you like a lot of action and movement, folklore and mythology, and characters who grow despite themselves.

This review is based on my second reading of Uprooted. I dont often re-read newer novels, but this fantasy, drawing on the folktales of Eastern Europe, is re-read worthy for many reasons (and I wanted to remember it better before sending it off to my niece).

The main character, Agnieszka (who I called Agnes in my head), is the classic...

A Spate of Book Reviews: Revolution

Revolution Book Cover

Jennifer Donnelly is an incredibly talented writer who can make anything, no matter how far-fetched, feel utterly real. My niece first turned me on to this author with the Waterfire Saga, a highly recommended YA series about kick-ass, fighting, mermaid princesses. Yep.

Donnelly brings readers into the emotional present of her characters with such skill that it is difficult to remember who you are once you surface from the depths of her books. With that preface, I found...

A Spate of Book Reviews: The Iron Trial

The Iron Trial by Holly Black

My rating: 3 of 5 stars

The Iron Trial Book Cover

Magisterium Book One follows Callum Hunt, Call for short, into the mystical teaching world of the Magisterium. Initially, Call believes everything his father has told him: magic is horrible and learning it will be torture that will probably get him killed.

But once he has failed to fail the mandatory entry test, Call is ripped from his father and bussed away to the deep underground caverns of the Magisterium....

A Spate of Book Reviews: S.T.A.G.S

One of my favorite things to do with my niece is shop for books. She picks out a great big stack each time she visits, then we divide them in half. She takes one stack home, I keep the other.

We read our stacks and then swap so that weve each read the same books and we can discuss them together.

Due to the writing Ive been doing, Ive been on a general reading moratorium. The goal was to force myself to be completely immersed in nothing but Douglas Adams until I finish my bookan incentive of...

Risky & Safe

I just got home from helper-shopping for septuagenarian and mom-with-toddler-genarian friends. Im sharing a bit of reflection on that, and a potential tool with yall in case it helps.

TL;DR: Make a list of what feels safe and what feels risky to you right now. Share it with friends and loved ones if appropriate.

First, thanks to Hilary Rushford Collyer for the recent acknowledgment that it can get super hard to be creative (write a book) when the world suddenly threatens our safety...

Tour Planning

The reason they are called interesting times is because they are often a mix of exciting and terrifying. Thats where Ive been at, so far, for much of my quarantine.

On the one hand, a stranger in line at Gelsons might cough on me and I might get sick and die.

On the other hand, the first itineraries Ive received from companies in the UK have come in and they look BRILLIANT! It is beyond exciting to have several UK based, highly knowledgeable, professional organizations bidding to manage the...

Keeping Time

At the moment Im a little bit lax about keeping time. Im home, my pets and husband are with me, and all I have to do is write my book, be a good friend, and become a better writer by writing better, faster, and more words.

One thing I love is challenging myself with new information to spark my ongoing creativity. To that end, heres a prompt given by a creativity coach I was invited to check out this week (https://www.facebook.com/Juliadecodes).

Prompt: Write About Your Mothers Legs

When I...

Community in a Time of Pandemic

Oh no, not again

All over my feeds, my friends, my groups, my circles:

well cancel upshort distance sick loss home avoid income fear virtual layoff ends
NOT MET
DONT MEET

So we are staying home, working from home, not panicking at home.

But my sights are still turned outward.

Im doing things. Im emailing and letter writing to pen pals. Im urging online meetings, participating more in groups and forums. Every day Ill be sending Marco Polos (Marco Polo a great free App for communicating via...

Doubt

Why did I doubt that I could go on a trip and write a book? People do that all the time, right?

42 Somewhere in London

In my twenties, when I’d had quite enough of education, thank-you-very-much, and imagined that there was a lot worth seeing outside of California, an older friend told me about her idea to go on a trip of biblical length.

She took off for down under, touring Australia for 40 days and 40 nights for her 40th. I thought that was pretty cool. Secretly I was thinking, but what...