Jennifer Crusie's Blog, page 244

Plenty of Time

The thing about another year rolling around is that everything’s a year older. In the span of the cosmos, this is nothing. For human beings, it’s a sobering reminder that time is running out. (If you think it’s bad being a human, try being a dog. Or a fruit fly.) So it’s not unusual for people to think, “I wish I’d done that, but it’s too late now.” No, it’s not. Jeez.

I’ve lost some weight, and as I looked in the mirror the other day, I thought, “Too bad I’m too old to wear a bikini; about ten more pounds and I could rock one again.” And then I thought, “That’s dumb. I can wear a bikini now if I want. I can wear anything I want.” (It helps tremendously that Helen Mirren looks great in a bikini and she’s four years older than I am.) Along the same lines, I’ve been struggling to finish a book, and I actually had the thought, “Maybe I’m too old to write.” Then I remembered I’m Jennifer Crusie, so fuck that. Age is not a barrier unless you want to be the youngest in something. No thank you, I’m good where I am.

I think any time after mid-life is the perfect time to try something new and daring. You’ve got a lot of experience under your belt and you have a pretty good grasp on what you like and don’t like. You’ve probably made peace with most of the stuff that made you crazy before forty, and if you’re smart, you’ve offloaded the people who were garbaging up your life to concentrate on the people you want to share it with. You’re in prime creative territory. You should go for it.

! decided to be a writer when I was 40. I’d dabbled in it before, but never took it seriously. I went to a couple of writer’s conferences because a friend, Sandy Focht, wanted to go, but I couldn’t quite connect. Maybe later, I thought. I got a masters in feminist criticism because I was more interested in talking about what somebody had written than in writing myself, and a dual concentration in technical writing because the tech writing prof, Mary Beth Pringle, was my mentor. (She once suggested that I try fiction and I said, “Me? Not possible.”) And then in 1990, I thought, Huh. I think I’ll write a book, and I sat down and started to write. I sold my first book in 1991 and then my career ate my life, but it’s been an amazing second act.

Turns out, I’m not unusual. There’s something about the midlife-and-after that opens up possibilities. Take the people in this Cracked.com essay: 5 Famous People Who Succeeded Long After They Should’ve Quit. According to Cracked:

• Alan Rickman got his first movie role at 46. (In Die Hard.)

• Roget invented the thesaurus at 73.

• Joseph Conrad was a sailor, drifter and part-time criminal until 37.

• Kathryn Joosten got her first acting role at 56. (She won two Emmys.)

• Colonel Sanders started Kentucky Fried Chicken at 65.

Wallace Stevens was in his forties when he finished his first book of poetry; he won the Pulitzer twice (and my heart with “A Jar in Tennessee), and he punched Hemingway in the jaw when he was 47. But my particular fave is Anna Mary Robertson Moses who started painting at 76 when her arthritis made embroidery too painful. Whenever I think about my lost art career, I remember Grandma Moses. Plenty of time.

Malcolm Gladwell had an interesting essay called Late Bloomers in The New Yorker. In it he cites the research of economist David Galenson who argued that the difference between prodigies (those whippersnappers like Mozart) and late bloomers is in the difference between their approaches. Prodigies are conceptual, according to Galenson: “They start out with a clear idea of where they want to go and then they execute it.”

But late bloomers work the other way around. (In this context a late bloomer may have started young but only achieves greatness later in life, after many years.) Galen calls them “experimental innovators,” people who have to research and understand and hone their skills in order to figure out what they want to do. They don’t start knowing, they search and learn in order to find out what they want to do. As Gladwell puts it, “The Cézannes of the world bloom late not as a result of some defect in character, or distraction, or lack of ambition, but because the kind of creativity that proceeds through trial and error necessarily takes a long time to come to fruition.”

I’d thought of myself as a late bloomer because I didn’t start writing seriously until I was 40, but put in the context of experimental innovation, I could see that I’d been unconsciously researching story from the time I could read. My music collection as I was growing up was show tunes (STORY!), the strict librarian at our small town library let me go into the adult stacks early because I’d read everything in the kids’ library, I wrote satirical stories about my high school that my best friend passed around during classes. My big dream was to be a journalist, but my mother put paid to that when she insisted I become a teacher so I’d always have a good job and then when I got married and had kids, I could quit. (The old “my mother didn’t understand me” is glaringly true in my case.) So I became an art teacher because art is telling a story, insisting that my students be able to explain the art they made, tell me the story of making it. And when I went back for my masters and became an English teacher, I taught by telling stories. “This is what the writer was trying to do, this is how it can be read, what story do you read into this, what does it mean to you?” My whole life was about story, and I had to spend the first part of my life doing what I did to understand it so that I could begin to write at 40.

I think that’s the most important thing about living a full life: embracing what’s happening to you, learning new things, doing new things, thinking about things, not so that you’ll acquire a skill or achieve a success, but so that you’ll understand how the things that are important to you work. It’s a liberal arts education spread out over a lifetime. I could never have looked back over my life at 40 and said, “Of course, I’ve been preparing all my life to be a writer of fiction.” I just needed to have lived that life in order to grow into what I needed to be. And it’s entirely possible that I’m growing into a different life now, that everything that has gone before is coalescing into something new. That’s incredibly exciting. Thank god I’m old enough to have so much to draw on.

So it’s a new year, and you’re standing on top of a collection of life experiences, some more extensive than others (whippersnappers). You don’t know where you’re going and you’re not sure of everywhere you’ve been, but you’re relentlessly moving toward where you need to be. Enjoy the trip, accept that everything will become part of you and who you’re going to be, and for the love of god, don’t tell yourself you’re too old to go where you need to go. It’s time to bloom.

(I don’t want this to depress anybody under thirty. This is your time to gather experience, and I’m sure you can do great things, too.)

(Later.)

Happy New Year, Argh People! Embrace the future, it’s coming at you anyway.

The post Plenty of Time appeared first on Argh Ink.

Part Three: There’s A Draft in Here. 97 of Them.

And I’m done. I winnowed eight pages of drafts down to two and a half pages, 156 down to 57, forty-four to think about and twelve to finish plus five scheduled to post (and thus no longer in the draft count). The plan is to finish the twelve and then go through the remaining forty-four on a case by case basis. And then maybe ask for more Questionables. Or something. Anyway, I’m proud that I just trashed ninety-nine unnecessary drafts.

Now on to my closet.

DELETE

Cherry Saturday 4-13-13: Uh, I think its time has passed.

And Now I’m Back: Apology for disappearing from the blog with some praise for Pink Martini. Nope.

? The post was even less understandable than the title.

Saturdays Are the Cherries On Top: Post announcing the beginning of Cherry Saturdays.

Flow: Just a URL.

Books, Clothes, Yarn, Paper: About my move. Three years ago.

The New Simple: Simplification in design. Went nowhere.

Focus. It’s a Good Thing. Title pretty much says it all.

And Now For Something More 2012. Its time has passed.

Reasons to Love America: So much harder to do these days, but the three I cited were Carhenge, Free Libraries, and The Center for Disease Control because they have a disaster plan for the Zombie Apocalypse.

Vitamin R: Krissie swears by it, I’ve never tried it.

Your Back, I’ve Got It: The importance of friends to creative people. (Isn’t that everybody?)

Cheerful All the Time: A post about being chipperish. Not good.

So. The iPad. My review of my first iPad. No longer timely.

Three Things. Three things that made me happy. Three years ago.

Full Fathom Fraud: Ambition and Bad Contracts: A rant about James Frey’s bogus publishing company. Whatever happened with that?

Madeleines: They’re good cookies, but they’re not a blog post.

The New York Times on Romantic Comedy. Again. A rant about something the NYT said about romantic comedy in 2008. Let it go, Jenny.

Min and Agnes in Germany: Foreigh book cover. Never mind.

Acres of Diamonds: A Good Blog post. Well, tumblr: http://acresofdiamonds.tumblr.com

Good Blog: Overheard in New York: The quotes I had in the post were funny so I went to see what the latest ones were. Not funny.

Monday Ticker. Remember when I put the word count ticker up? Yeah, I’d forgotten it, too.

I’m Worried About Brittany: From back when I was watching Glee and they started to ruin the heretofore perfect comic character, Brittany. Time moves on . . .

The Ones and Me: Post about reading the One reviews on Amazon.

Why Most Writers Are Not Rich: A post analyzing the finances of being a writer; completely out of date.

Sittin and Thinkin: A post about thinking about your story. Not good.

iCrochet: About as interesting as it sounds.

Irony the Blog: Which is now gone.

In the Future, Everyone Will Be Published: And now everyone is.

Moments: A random thought, not a blog post.

Time: A Problem: Incoherent post about time in fiction.

Summer Hummin’: A post about summer songs. Not great.

I Am What I Do: A post about “funemployment” and identity. Not worth saving.

Those Tarot Cards: A post about the tarot cards in a now defunct blog header.

The High Cost of Hating Our Bodies: Not a great entry.

Random Sunday: The Practical Edition: Nothing of interest except this video from 2011 about 100 years of fashion:

RETHINK

Making Things: Chaos theory and the Tower and creativity. Needs a lot of work, so maybe not.

Cracked Is My Life Coach: Possible, but needs work.

Self-Edit for You Again: Maybe keep the self-edit part, ditch the You Again stuff.

The Vanilla Protagonist: This is an old post about the Vanilla Protagonist in general and Nick on Grimm in particular and my ideas for fixing him. The reason this might still work is that it was written a couple of years ago and Nick is no longer so vanilla, so it might be interesting to compare the old stuff I wrote to what’s going on now. Maybe.

Supernatural Sacrifice: About the stakes in supernatural fiction and the end of the Ninth Doctor. Maybe.

Humor. Har. Comedy and tragedy and time and other stuff. Needs a lot of work.

Writer’s Brick: A variation of Writer’s Block.

Trickster Heroines Revisited: Old response post to a Trickster discussion (Lyle was still with us). Probably worth updating.

No Stupid Teasers: Just an intro but destined to be a rant of biblical proportions.

The Dogs: A Guide. No idea if people want to know about the dogs. Needs pictures and updated.

Bad Sex 2012: Discussion of the Bad Sex Award for 2015 (in fiction). Maybe update with some commentary?

Bubble Shoot: Post about different realities colliding. Not sure.

Random Sunday: It’s not bad but it’s from 2011. I’m thinking it goes.

Things I Should Get Rid Of: Very old post, but topic might work updated.

Maybe This Time: Archer House: A post about the house in MTT; since I’m working on a book where Alice goes back there, I’ll hang onto this one.

Random Sunday: Really old with broken links, but funny. Can I do Historical Random Sundays?

Do Not Post This One, Joelle: That title is a note to Joelle who was working on the website at the time. The post is about a difficult weekend I spent at a conference, trying to figure out why it was so upsetting. I’d just delete it except I’ve been thinking about it since May of 2009.

THE TWELVE I’M GOING TO FINISH FOR SURE

1. Review: RED. I really want to compare RED and RED II so I’ll hang onto this.

2. Premise: An Idea Is Not a Story. This one is really good, but it needs more research and more thought.

3. The Sleeping Ninja Trope: Blindspot and The Long Kiss Goodnight. Another good one that needs more research and more thought.

4. Questionable: Making the Protagonist Come Alive on the Page

5. Questionable: Character Chemistry

6. Questionable: How-To-Write Books

7. Questionable: Starting a Story


8. Questionable: Focus for Writers


* Questionable: Patterned Structure
: I’ll do this over on Writing/Romance.

9. The Leverage Final: Schmuck Bait and Chaos I hated the Leverage series finale which is probably why I couldn’t bring myself to finish

this (I loved the series so much and then THIS?). But it’s a good topic so I need to cowgirl up.

Schmuck Bait: Fold this one into the Leverage Final post.

10. Ordinary Guy: This is a great topic and a good start. Definitely finish this one.

11. Bonini’s Paradox: Great topic, must finish

12. This Is How Critiques Should Be Done Critique of one my scenes by Jill, one of the McD students. Needs more commentary, but really a good example of thorough critiquing.

SCHEDULED:

Of Course There’s Still Time January 1

Cherry Saturday 1-2-1016 January 2

The Nopefish Is Your Friend January 3

A Rant About Endings January 4

Rules for Golden Age Mystery Writing: Thank God It’s Not 1928 Anymore: January 5

The post Part Three: There’s A Draft in Here. 97 of Them. appeared first on Argh Ink.

Part Two: There’s A Draft in Here. 132 of Them.

I started out with eight pages of drafts. I now have five pages, and two of them are keepers. Stay tuned for Part Three: There’s A Draft in Here. 97 of Them. (But forty of those are already Rethink or Finish, so PROGRESS.)

DELETE

Yarn Lust. Inane.

The Girl in the Twenty-first Century. Did this in a different post.

Sisterhood: The Necklace. Krissie gave me a great necklace for my birthday. Not a blog post.

Contemplating Argh: Thinking about what the blog should be again. Just write the damn thing, Jenny, it’s your blog.

Two ReFab posts I’d moved here. No idea why.

Building a Romance Heroine and Hero. That was it. Just the title.

New Who: Loved Capaldi, bitched about everything else. Nope.

Leverage Post Links. I think that ship has sailed.

Animation: Just had a URL.

Right Now, In This Moment: Nope.

Sleep and Play and Brene Brown:The idea is fine, the post is not.

Supporting Characters: Good topic, bad post.

Blast from the Past: Haunting Alice: Opening scene from Haunting Alice. Nah.

Sunday 1: Pilot by Protagonist: Huh?

Subsequently on Leverage: Nope.

Leverage Sunday: Villainous Antagonists: Good topic but the post was just the URL: http://io9.gizmodo.com/whats-the-sick...

Sharp Soap: Why I’m An Arrow Fangirl: Published then pulled when I thought this was the post that had been hacked.

The Poll That Wouldn’t Die: About the e-book pricing poll that used to be up here. Nah.

Work Ethic: A bit about leaving things to last minute and Russell T. Davies.

The Frog Principle: The After Beta Draft: Nope.

The Frog Principle: The Beta Critiques: No critiques. Huh.

The Hero’s Journey in Puppets: Not that accurate, not that good, not worth writing about: http://io9.gizmodo.com/joseph-campbel...

What Peace There Maybe Be in Silence: Blurry picture of sleeping dogs. Huh?

It’s Time for a Change, But Not That Much: Incoherent musing on the demands publishing makes on story.

The Twelve Days of Emmeline: So old, it’s before I changed “Emmeline” to “Andromeda.”

This Is the New Normal. Life change stuff. Nah.

Juice vs. Craft: Inane.

MPDG: A broken link to an article on the Manic Pixie Dream Girl.

The Visual Soundtrack: AKA collage. No.

Frozen, the Honest Trailer: which is just a link to the Honest Trailer which is pretty damn funny:

RETHINK

Plotkillers: Just notes but good ones.

Quantum Storytelling: An idea from Toni that I did a lot of word salad on. Good idea, though.

Internuts: Why you shouldn’t argue on the internet even if other people are abusive idiots. Hmmm.

Romance Discovery. This is all over the place, but there might be something salvageable in there. Maybe.

The Monday Street Collage, Week By Week. I think I’ve done plenty on the Monday Street Collage, but I’ll hold onto this one until I can check.

Good Characters, Bad Choices: How the choices characters make shape their characters. Needs work.

Leverage Season Five: The Epilogue: Mostly about ending a story when it’s time. Not sure about this one.

This Post is a Time Sink. I went to TV Tropes for the Evil Overlord list and found Roger Ebert’s “Cooter Rule” and other brilliant things he said. I should look at Roger Ebert again; the man is brilliant even if he hated Trenchcoat (worst production values in the history of moviemaking but a fun story).

Setting Up Characters: Good idea but only intro and outline.

E-Book Pricing: A Review: This really needs to be updated because there’s so much interesting stuff out on there on e-book reading now.

Homage, Plagiarism, Referencing and Appropriating: Good topic, just the intro done.

Don’t Bogart That Story: Terrible title, good idea about never saving anything for later in storytelling.

Translating Wilder: 10 Rules for Good Storywriting. Billy Wilder’s rules which I was going to adapt. Not sure if I want to bother, but I’ll look at it again.

You Again: Rules for Golden Age Mystery Writing: This really needs cut and focused and a closer look at how hundred-year-old writing rules might apply.

So Why Was That Good For You? The start of a post on why some lines/details resonate. Needs work.

Design, Creativity, Craftsmanship: A post about evaluating creative work. Needs work.

Comfort Zone: Just a URL but a good topic.

The Image Rant, Not: Talking about getting angry about the way romance is treated. Not sure it’s still timely, but talking about public expression of anger probably is.

Why Are These People Having Sex? Motivation for sex scenes.

Charlie Jane Anders’ Ten Qualities for an Escapist Protagonist: Good list from Anders, must think about it.

FINISH

Questionable: Character Chemistry

Questionable: How-To-Write Books

The Leverage Final: Schmuck Bait and Chaos I hated the Leverage series finale which is probably why I couldn’t bring myself to finish

this (I loved the series so much and then THIS?). But it’s a good topic so I need to cowgirl up.

Schmuck Bait: A topic that must be addressed, probably combined with the one before this.

Questionable: Starting a Story

Questionable: Patterned Structure

Questionable: Focus for Writers

The Ordinary Guy: This is a great topic and a good start. Definitely finish this one.

Bonini’s Paradox: Great topic, must finish

SCHEDULED

The Nopefish Is Your Friend: Jan. 4, 2016

The post Part Two: There’s A Draft in Here. 132 of Them. appeared first on Argh Ink.

There’s A Draft in Here. 156 of Them.

This is the blog post version of talking to myself as I clean out the Argh draft folder:

DELETE:

I Suck As a Blogger. Totally worthless post.

Arrow Thursday: Five Pounds of Story in Two Ten Pound Bags. Bitching about bad story-telling on Arrow. Nah.

Sense8: It’s About the Relationships. I covered this is a different post. It goes.

Sense8: Not an Eight Man Band. Analysis of group dynamic in Sense8. Too much of a straw man argument.

Sense8: Let’s Talk About Structure. Covered in a different post.

New Trees. I moved into a new house. Three years ago.

I’m Easily Amused. LOL Cats. I must have been drunk.

Maybe This Time: The Soundtrack. That book was out five years ago. Who cares?

Good Blog: If Shoes Could Kill. From April of 2010. Here’s the entire post:

“It’s probably no surprise to anybody who’s read Bet Me that I am crazy about shoes. I can’t wear most of them because anything over a kitten hell makes me fall over, but I love them anyway, the more off-the-wall, the better. And now there’s a blog that loves them, too:

If Shoes Could Kill.



Weird Shoes. Huh. Whole post:

“Sometimes I think about shoes. I can’t wear high heels–I trip in flats–but I yearn really fabulous high heels. Like these:



See FashionVictim101 for more.”

Do We Need Another Buffy? Entire post was this link: http://io9.com/5700871/we-need-more-v.... I probably parked it there so I could think about it.

522. The curriculum for McDaniel 522. No idea why it’s a blog post.

The Office Day 12: Done At Last. Entire text is “Link to Houzz.” No idea what was going on there. (Where’s one through eleven?)

The Office Day 11: One More Shelf. Evidently I planning a 12 Days of Office for the cottage. That went nowhere.

The Office Day X: More Clipboards, Cool Lights, and One Big Shelf. Oh, this was when I was making that little room off the kitchen my office. Yeah, that didn’t work out. Never mind.

Random Sunday: The Fixer-Upper Edition.” From 2011. Mostly dreck except for this:

“Grandchildren: Mine are perfect in every way. And staying close enough to see them twice in one trip east was wonderful. After I move, I can see them every week; it’s going to be fabulous. I remember the first time somebody whispered “That’s Jennifer Crusie” when I went past, but it was nothing compared to hearing “That’s Callie’s grandma” when I walked into the nursery school. My daughter and son-in-law are excellent, too, but my granddaughters . . . oh, my. Not allowed to show pictures for very sensible reasons, but you should see my girls. [And now there’s a boy, too. Amazing people.]

Best Gawker headline ever. If I ever start a rock band, I’m going to call it Massively Hung Squirrel.”

Random Sunday. Completely inane.

Random Sunday: The WTF Editiom. More inane.

Rant: Lazy, Bad, Selfish Storytellers. The whole thing is talking about how good Shakespeare Retold’s version of Taming of the Shrew is. No idea what the title means.

Early Ink. About a website that’s now defunct.

Portraits of Wolfie: This one was a real post with comments until the site got hacked and we lost all the photos.

Character?Ending. Some blather that goes nowhere.

RETHINK:

Random December. I think this one is awful, but I’ll look at it again.

“You Should Watch Person of Interest.” This has to be more than fan service, so I need to think about what I’m saying more.

Not Fade Away: Why Do Some Authors Last? I’m not sure I have anything to say on this; definitely needs more thought.

Lavender’s Blue: The Soundtrack. I should probably keep this one until I finish the book, at least.

Sense8: The Dangerous Power of Big Ideas. Basically, “If you have a message, use Western Union.” Or Fed Ex. Whatever. Maybe delete the Sense8 stuff and turn this into a post about theme?

The Argh Sub-Genre Reading List. This starts out “sorry this took me so long” in 2012. I’ll need to look at it again.

The Bechdel Test. This is just a bunch of notes, so it needs a lot more thinking.

Leverage Post Out Groups. That is, this was going to be a Leverage post on out-groups. It’s a good topic that needs more thinking and probably is more about community in general than Leverage in particular.

Mystery Mistakes: Starts out “You’d think that somebody who’d read mostly mysteries for the first forty years of her life would have a better understanding of the genre, and yet I’m realizing I’ve made some really dumb assumptions, assumptions I’d be annoyed if anybody made about romance.” Needs a lot more thought.

Madagascar: Evidently I decided to do movie reviews. It’s not a bad idea, but it needs a lot more thought.

Review: RED. I really want to compare RED and RED II so I’ll hang onto this.

Titles. Mostly notes and a link. Might be good with a lot more thought.

FINISH:

Premise: An Idea Is Not a Story. This one is really good, but it needs more research and more thought.

The Sleeping Ninja Trope: Blindspot and The Long Kiss Goodnight. Another good one that needs more research and more thought.

Questionable: Making the Protagonist Come Alive on the Page. Good question, need to think the answer through some more.

So that’s 22 in the trash, one republished, 12 to think about and three to definitely finish.

One hundred and eighteen more titles to wade through. Stay tune for Part Two: “There’s A Draft in Here. 132 of Them.”

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Screw Resolutions. Got Any Plans for 2016?

I’m anti-resolution, but that’s no surprise to anybody. I do, however, have plans.

I’m going to keep a journal. Not a “Dear Diary” kind of thing where I put my hopes and fears. I don’t have hopes and fears. I have cravings and exasperations. Just a book that I write something in every day, even if all I say is “Screw Thursdays, they never turn out well for me.” I used to try this every year when I’d get one of those faux leather jobs with the lock and key that kids in the sixties got all the time, and I never made it past January before I quit, but I was twelve. I’m pretty sure I can make to February this time.

I’m going to rearrange my office which has never worked right. This will mean tearing out stuff I built, but since I built it, it’ll probably fall off the wall the minute I start taking screws out, so that’s a plus. Also, I’m putting casters on all my furniture. I like furniture that rolls. So much easier to clean under.

I’m going to clean, too.

I’m going to write a book on art fraud. I’m doing the research now and it’s helping tremendously on two different books–Courtney”s and Nadine’s–so that’s fun. I wish I hadn’t named Courtney “Courtney.” For some reason, I’m having a hard time getting her right in my head which is death because I’m a heroine-centric writer. Both of those books hit a wall because I couldn’t figure out the plots. Turns out, I just needed a refresher on art crime.

I’m going to take Milton for walks. He needs them desperately and so do I, no matter how much I don’t like them. I used to like running five miles a day, so I figure I can get hooked on walking again. Then do short walks with Mona (no kneecaps) and Veronica (shortest legs in the history of dog) and we’ll all feel better. I’ve been thinking I couldn’t because it’s just too cold in the winter (asthma) but it was 65 on Christmas Day here, so that argument’s pretty feeble. Also, Milton really, really, really needs the exercise. He’s so thrilled every time I go near the front door and he damn near has a heart attack every time I put a leash on him. Then he goes to the vet. It’s just not fair. He’s a good little dog and he should be allowed to pee up and down the road at will. Also there’s a lifesize statue of a deer about twelve houses down that fools him every time, and he has a marvelous time barking at it. Simple pleasures.

I’m going to blog about premise, the Sleeping Ninja trope, structure for the Writing/Romance blog, and Disney princesses. And I’m going to clear out the Argh draft folder. I have 157 draft posts, most of which are completely inane and worthless or I’d have posted them.

Speaking of clearing out drafts, I have fifty-four unfinished crochet projects. It’s definitely Frog or Finish time. My plan is to either finish or frog (unravel and reclaim the yarn) one a week. Also, I need to use up some of this yarn, so I’m going Cold Sheepish, which means I’m going to stop buying yarn, mostly. I’ve tried going completely Cold Sheep, but that’s too much of a resolution. Also impossible. I’m not giving up chocolate, either. Are you insane? Why would you completely give up something you love? Jeez.

Speaking of unfinished, I have six unfinished novels. Pick a lane, Jenny.

And then there’s the house. I’d really like a ceiling in my bedroom. And a new septic system. Finish a book, Jenny.

The important thing about all of this stuff is that none of it is a resolution. A resolution is “I will.” A plan is “This is what I think I might do, but that could change.” Resolutions are orders, plans are directions to head in. Resolutions hang over your head, heavy and dull like the stones they’re set in; plans flit about the room on wings of possibilities, morphing in flight. There’s a reason “Change of plans” is a common phrase and “Change of resolutions” is not.

So my goal for 2016 is to stay fluid and unpredictable, changing my plans as life shifts and billows. Change is good, resolutions are bad, nothing but good times ahead.

So what are your fluid, changeable, exciting plans for 2016? I don’t want to hear any crap about losing weight or working harder; tell us the stuff you’re looking forward to, all of which is subject to change because you, too, are fluid and unpredictable and free from self-flagellation over ridiculous goals that seem like a good idea in January but stink after three days.

Also, don’t join a gym.

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I Haven’t Mailed My Christmas Cards Yet, Either

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Cherry Saturday 12 – 26 – 15

Today is Boxing Day.

I never get this. You guys open presents the day after Christmas? I can’t even wait until Christmas morning.

The post Cherry Saturday 12 – 26 – 15 appeared first on Argh Ink.

Cherry Saturday 12 – 19 – 15

Today is Oatmeal Muffin Day.

For the purposes of Argh, you may have any kind of muffin you want, including stud.

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You Should Read: The Whisper by Pamela Zagarenski

Tis the season to buy gifts, so I bought my very talented granddaughter, Calliope, a book called The Whisper by Pamela Zagarenski. Her teacher says that she’s the best writer in her class (her father, also a writer, and I are very proud), and this book as it was described sounded like a great book for a girl with an imagination. It came today, and I sat down to whizz through it as I got the Christmas stuff together.

Then I slowed down and read it again.

It’s about a little girl who borrows a book from her teacher, but on her way home from school, the words escape (been there) so when she gets home, there are only pictures and she has to imagine . . .

The pictures are glorious, but it’s the gentleness and freedom and good heart behind the story and the artwork that moved me so much. If you have a child to buy for, or if you’re a writer, or if you’re a childish writer, you really need to find this book.

Zagarenski also sells her artwork as card and glicee prints . Cards like this:

And this:

Just lovely.

The post You Should Read: The Whisper by Pamela Zagarenski appeared first on Argh Ink.

Cherry Saturday 12 – 12 – 15

Today is Gingerbread House Day.

I have no snark for Gingerbread Houses. Mollie and I used to make them every Christmas when she was a kid and now she makes them with her kids. Gingerbread houses are serious business.

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