Laura Benedict's Blog, page 31

Making Home

 

(My dream home is a secret garden. Shhhhh–don’t tell.)

 

I am a homebody. No two ways about it. Thank goodness I have a job that is means I get to spend lots of time in the place where I love.

Okay. That was totally a Freudian typo. I meant to type “the place where I live,” but see how it came out? This blog could end right here because you already know the punchline.

It’s become a greeting card cliché: My home is wherever you are. “You” being the beloved, singular or plural. That is true f...

Sunday, 29 January 2017

 

 

(I met this butterfly at the Butterfly House in St. Louis. I felt blessed to see it fly.)

 

January 28th Words

Journal: 340  words

Long fiction: 2026 words

Short fiction: 0

Non-fiction: 0 words

Blogging: 33 words

Exercise: A smoke alarm fell off the ceiling, setting off the house alarm, an event that lasted for ten agonizing minutes during which I sprinted frequently from one end of the house to the other. Definitely cardio.

Saturday Serendipity 1/28/17

 

What a strange week it’s been. After last weekend’s writing retreat, I came home pretty tired, anxious to get the last 20K words done on the novel. I didn’t get as many words done as I hoped, but I’m on track to write the epilogue over the next few days. The other thing I didn’t get done was to revamp my Bullet Journal. I started keeping one last August, and I used it religiously. But when I went to re-do this year’s I decided I needed a ginormous Leuchtturm notebook instead of a medium-si...

51 Little Things That Make Me Ridiculously Happy

I wake up to find the dishwasher is already unloaded. All my clothes clean at once. Honey in my tea. My mechanical pencil runs out of lead, but there’s another one in the chamber. When someone else changes the toilet paper roll. My keys are already in my purse when I’m about to run out the door. Cheese and crackers. Sweeping my front porch. Realizing that I downloaded all the pics from my camera card and remembered to put the card back in my camera. Cloth napkins folded into interesting...

Mary Tyler Moore and This Girl’s Life

Mary Tyler Moore was certainly old enough to be my mother, but when I was a preteen, I looked at her as the big sister I always wanted.

How could I not identify with her character in The Dick Van Dyke Show, Laura Petrie, who shared my first name? I only saw the series in reruns, since it began before I was born, but she was my favorite character in the whole show–only Millie Helper even came close. I loved that Laura was dark-haired and slender like my mom. I loved that she would sometimes...

What I’m Reading This Week, 1/25/17

One of my writing role models is Margaret Atwood. Did I say “writing role model?” That seems such a trivial phrase compared to the actual influence she’s had on my life and writing. From poems to essays to short stories to novels and children’s books. She’s done it all. And that’s where she’s had her biggest influence on me: I’m learning (slowly) that my work needn’t be bound up in one category. She makes me dream big, and want to push the boundaries of my own work.

I’ve started listening to...

After the Storm #2

I had a bit of a writing hangover this morning after my big weekend, so I wasn’t sure if I was going to be able to make words today. But after some journaling, breakfast, and a bit of yoga, I revived. Lots of business things to catch up on during the daylight hours, but after filling the (very empty) feeders this afternoon, I got back to work. I can feel the end of this book coming. It’s getting exciting.

Last week we had two storms. It feels hard to believe now that the weather is so mild, b...

Anatomy of a Weekend Writing Retreat: 13K Words and All the Shrimp You Can Eat

(I promise I was looking at the road. That’s why it’s a terrible picture.)

I tried to slip out of town with as little notice as possible on Friday to get a chunk of writing done on my WIP. Last year in January I booked an AirBnB in St. Louis near Lafayette Park. It’s a sweet part of town. But, frankly, it felt a bit weird, being in someone’s apartment. I learned that it was a full-time rental, but it had been the owner’s apartment at one point, and it felt like it. Also, she used scented de...

Sunday, 22 January 2017

Remember to breathe.

“Worrying does not take away tomorrow’s troubles, but takes away today’s peace.”

— Anonymous

(Though Miss Nina is happy to claim that she is actually Anonymous. She can’t think of anyone who might be better at it.)

January 21st Words

Journal: 110 words

Long fiction: 9011 words

Short fiction: 0

Non-fiction: 0 words

Blogging: 277 words

Exercise:20 minutes yoga, 2386 steps–not too bad considering I haven’t been out of this room in 30 hours

Saturday Serendipity, 21 January 2017

A quick post because I’m at a top-secret writing retreat for the weekend. (Okay, I’m in St. Louis. It’s not such a big secret.)

This was an exciting week for me, with my first Edgar nomination. Also, I unveiled a new website design. I’m so delighted with the new look. Let me know what you think!

Why is it that sometimes time seems to fly by, but at other times it drags. Science explains.

Isaac Asimov wrote over 500 books during his lifetime. Whoa. Here’s how he did it.(Great advice for wri...