K.M. Updike's Blog, page 7

Why the World Needs Differences | Mundane Monday

I think about differences a lot.
Differences are constantly thrown in our faces.
From Extroverts to Introverts, men to women, poor to rich. Black to white.
The stark differences and then the sub differences to each difference.

Upper class poor, middle class rich.
Celebrity men and women to common men and women, and everyone in between.
Introverted extroverts, extroverted introverts.

And we are even further divided.
Artists who use their right brain to mathematicians who use their left brain.
Moms and dads.
Corporate business men and women to those who work a nine to five.
Farmers to ranchers.




If you took each one of these subjects you could further divide them into individual classes and subs. Then those individual classes and subs could be even further divided, and so on and so on.

In front of me I have tacked up on my cork board a simple square of paper. With my purple pen in my messy-handed font I have written this:

Differences should not divide, differences should connect.
Yeah, and I'm the girl who just wishes she could have smarts and vivacity, to just be brave enough to talk to people already.

My mama, sister and I went to hear Temple Grandin speak. The place was packed. And through her whole talk this was her theme. We need differences.

On the way through a cold January night back to our car, clear across campus, I was just giddy with excitement because this was what I had been thinking for a long, long time. To hear someone else confirm my beliefs was just awe-inspiring.

My sister said to me as we shivered in the cold, "The dreamers and the artists can dream of flying, but we need the mathematicians and inventors to show us how."

Differences should not divide, differences should connect.

All throughout history you can see how our differences have connected us. You can also see how we've let it divide us. But it's because of our differences that we have all the technology and all the art we have today. And it's because of our differences we've found someone, something to help us cope with our fears, our troubles, our heartaches.

I still cannot fathom how someone's brain pieces worked just right to come up with the idea of a computer. Or why do some people cope better with trauma than others? How can someone know just what to say to soothe someone's hurting heart?

What would we do without any of these things?




If you stand back and take a look at the many varieties of people and places, the ones you understand or just don't get, if you take a moment to really see what good these things produce, then all the dividing lines start to blur, and like "pearls on a string" everything starts slowly slipping into place.

Feelers who live by their emotions NEED the thinkers to balance them out and the thinkers need feelers to show them the softer side and the needs of others. We need the artists to see the most mundane of tasks, to capture in words, in a lens, in a painting, in a song and show us how beautiful it is. Introverts NEED extroverts to stir the wild, to bolster courage, and drag them out of their comfort zones. Extroverts need Introverts to show them the quiet, the introspective.
And not one of these people think exactly alike. No one thinks exactly alike. But the things that occur to you may never occur to me. And that's why I need you.
Can you not see that though our brains work and function at many different levels, everything we do may seem like a rebellion to each other, but ultimately--there it is. It's all for each other. Because of each other we're who we are.

Humans are the business of humans.


We're made of the same dirt and stardust.
Yeah, and there will be people who keep those lines drawn even when you have learned to see past them. You might laugh at me because I'm just an optimistic INFP who has a hard time facing reality and you're an Extrovert who knows the harder faces of life and I just don't know what I'm talking about. I know, and lines will keep being drawn over and over again, but the difference between you and me is just this:

When you choose to a see a line instead of a human.
When you cross the line of human sacredness and take what is not yours to take.
That's when you and me--we're divided.

I'm drawing no line. Because who ever you are, you're my business. You are why I'm here. And there really are no lines but the lines we draw between ourselves.

The world is full of opposites and contradictions, differences and contrasts.
Our differences are the most amazing things about us.
And the thing of it is, we're all made up of curves and corners, edges and points, and we all fit into the same great, immaculate puzzle. These are the only lines that should be drawn, the lines that show how we fit into the shape of this world.

Love, Kayla

Meet The Life and Death of Terry Dodd's Cast of Characters + Giveaway

Terry Dodd has a new cover! 
Hurray! I'm so excited to release this new cover. It's been an absolute bomb to create and I really am loving the whole new design, the colors, the interior format, everything. 

To celebrate, I thought I'd give you a little insight into the story and the characters, and I'm holding a Goodreads Giveaway. Three weeks, three copies of the Terry Dodd. And if you don't have a Goodreads account, you should. Scroll down to enter Giveaway!

All my favorite actors are pretty much . . . dead. They no longer exist in Hollywood and they are certainly not making any more movies. So this narrows down the list of potential actors considerably. But it also made it much harder to choose. 


Who I'd cast today if Terry Dodd ever made it to Hollywood:
Terry Dodd
Hugh Jackman. Think a more solemn, dreamless, foreboding version of Charlie from Real Steel and you'd be pretty close to Terry Dodd. Terry Dodd looks like a shady character on the outside, and by his outward appearance he looks as if all he likes to do is drink and fix cars. But did anyone ever ask him?

From the book:
    Terry Dodd wore blue jeans and a white t-shirt most days and sometimes a white straw cowboy hat with aviator sunglasses pulled down to the end of his nose. And Bambi kept telling me how old he looked.
     It wasn’t how he looked. It was the way he just plain did things and never needed to say a word while doing it. 

Joann Shea
Joey King. I was pretty picky when it came to Joann. But Joey King made it. She's cute, but unique, and has just enough sweetness for shy Joann Shea.

From the book:
     And one day he knocked on the door. Just walked up and knocked, and I thought—I grabbed Michael to hold onto because I didn't know what I thought. Maybe he wouldn’t do anything if he saw Michael. Maybe he wouldn’t want to come in. Maybe he wouldn’t ask.
      Mom said I’d look just like Trixie Belden if my hair were blonde and short. Right then I hoped I didn’t look like anybody. Just a shadow behind a screen.

Wanda Shea
Julia Ormond is just what I imagined Mom would look like, thin and dark haired, but still has that classy and sophisticated spark needed for Mom's background as the daughter of a wealthy businessman. Mom is a very tortured character, but she has a certain strength about her which proves true in the climax of the story. 

From the book:
     Mom stood up from bending in front of the washer. “Hang these clothes up for me, will you? I’ll be out in a minute.” She plopped the basket into my arms and I trucked out the back door. The clothesline stood between our house and Terry Dodd’s.
     I set the basket on the ground, pulling one of Dad’s white t-shirts out of the mess.
     The wind blew a breeze around, and Mom came out humming “The Great White Horse” by Buck Owens.
She pulled a few clothes out and hung them over her shoulder, starting a little way down the line. I sang the chorus, smiling at her.
     Mom joined in again, too.
     We grinned big at each other and reached for more clothes.
     “I love that song,” I said. “Reminds me somehow of you and Dad.”
     “Oh, it does?” Mom laughed.
     “How he swept you away from all your dragons, and Uncle Barry, when you most needed him, when he most needed you.”

Jim Shea
Dad was hard. And I still don't think I've settled on him completely. There's got to be someone who's a mix between Bruce Greenwood, Dennis Quaid and John Corbett. But in the end  Robert Taylor won out, even though Dad in the book has way less hair and is a bit younger. Dad's quiet and studious, but he's a jack-of-all-trades and holds the family together. I'd peg him as an ISFJ.

From the book:
     “You do watch him a lot, Joann,” Daddy said, turning a page without looking up. “He’s old as I am.”
     “I’ve never liked him,” Mom said through the screen door. She held her arms crossed in front of her. “Thought he was strange. He drinks and he smokes and he never goes to church. Sleeps in his hammock all Sunday afternoon. I’ve always been afraid for you when he’s around, Joann. And now more that you’re older, and you’ve nothing to do this summer.” 
     Dad smiled as he read his book.“Going to church doesn’t make you anything any more than not going to church does, Wanda. You don’t have to be afraid of him. He won’t hurt our kids.”
     “Well, I worry,” Mom said, rubbing her arm. “When you’re gone for days trucking, I worry.”

Uncle Barry 
Michael Shannon completely personifies Uncle Barry. He fit the bill as the villainous, cruel uncle just from his looks. The money and control is all he cares about.
  
From the book:
     “Uncle Barry’s worse than him. Drinking makes him mad,” Julie said, her pigtails flowing over Dad's knee. “But—he’s the only uncle we’ve got!”

Aunt El 
 Especially Rachel Weisz with blonde hair. She is a high society rich girl who married Barry Roberts for his money. But she never fit into that world and always knew life was something more than money, connections, and beauty.

From the book:
     “Why did you call him?” I whispered.
     Aunt Elizabeth came up behind us. She rested a hand on my shoulder.
     “Come, children. Let’s go find something to eat, shall we? Barry and your mom probably have lots to talk about.” She turned us away, but she looked down the hall after Mom, her brow furrowed.



 

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An Unholy Beauty | Mundane Monday

This is the moment when I really see,‭ ‬for truly and honestly,‭ ‬that moments—they are these unholy,‭ ‬precious things.‭ ‬Unholy moments, the moments that just rush by unaccounted for, the ones we don't "set apart" a moment to really see.

The night sister and I sit around a cold basement with yogurt and tea,‭ ‬our feet propped up on lawn chairs in the middle of winter—it's the light shining in the darkness that always catches me—creating a hole,‭ ‬a way to see through.‭ ‬Like a light bulb clicking on inside my head.

Even when sister and I just want to get away from work and money,‭ ‬and this never ending stream of restlessness and discontent.‭ 



This ugly light from a clip-on lamp,‭ ‬tea cups and spoons on a plastic file cabinet.‭ ‬Cold toes and movies that make you cry—it's this marvelous moment turned good when you look at it right.‭ 

These times when you're actively seeking something good when all the world is just this pressing ice cube of depression—you have to stop and you have to choose to see the good.‭ To make something unholy—holy.

‬Because seeing those ugly moments as portals—that's how you see how good this life really is.‭ ‬This is the place where we can see God through God's eyes.

Love, Kayla

5 Things I'm Inspired by This Week

Miracle
February 22nd marked the thirty-six year anniversary of the 1980 U.S. men's Olympic hockey team win over Russia. So guess what I was doing three nights ago? Feeding my face with chocolate, watching one of my favorite sports movies, screaming, and loving every minute of it. Gavin O'Connor really did all he could to relive every moment of this story in true and authentic ways, right down to the voice of the actual announcer. Watch replays of the actual game and you'll see startling similarities everywhere! Favorite moment: Mike Eruzione running up the boards after he scores the shot he could never make in practice.

Merrell Pace Glove 2
So Merrell has since come out with Pace Glove 3, but I just love my Merrells. They don't pinch my toes, they feel good on my feet, and I don't feel any after effects in my knees or legs for having walked in them. They have a slight arch, which is good enough for my feet, but some people may feel the need for a bigger arch. In that case, Merrell has plenty to offer. My shoes are just now showing signs of wear, they've kept up pretty well after two years. Every time they get dirty, pop them the wash with your jeans and hang them out to dry. Good as new.

Fairy Lights

In love with fairy lights? Me too! They're warm and comforting and I love them hanging over my bed at night. The link above is to the ones I bought. They took awhile to get here, but it was worth it.

5 Secrets of Story Structure - K.M. Weiland

K.M. Weiland's book Structuring Your Novel pretty much changed story writing for me forever. I read it knowing I needed a change, I needed something else, a step up from where I was in creating stories. I'm still a pantser and enjoy working out the nitty-gritty details as they come. This smaller, more detailed take on 5 key moments has been a huge help with my work-in-progress, The Atlantis Game. I've been skipping around to meet the needs of my story, but K.M. Weiland just makes everything so easy with this book.


Healthy No Bake Double Chocolate Fudge

Unfortunately, I didn't think to get a picture, but these were sooooo good. I, however, did not make them as healthy as the recipe suggests. Still, it was really nice to know I was enjoying some sweet and chocolate and it wasn't ruining my body in some way. Sounds a bit drastic, but really, I like eating a healthy stuff. Makes me feel nice.

So tell me, what were some of your favorite things this week?

Announcing The Quiet Writers' Desk | A Blog for Writers

I want to thank everyone who took my Blog Survey this past December. Your input was very helpful in some important decision making. The results of your spent time is as follows:

A Brand New Blog 
Yay!! I've put this off for years. But I'm trying out new things and I've decided to start a new blog centered entirely around writing and helping shy, quiet young people find a way to be their true selves on paper in a loud and boisterous world.

I'm moving all my writing posts over there and returning The Song of My Soul/K.M. Updike back to posts about life and love, books, and my writing. I'm very happy to be keeping this blog as another creative outlet and putting all the technical, platform-ish stuff on The Quiet Writers' Desk.

So welcome to the world, new blog!


I'll be posting updates from both my blogs on all my social media accounts so you can keep track of what's happening on both of them.

Everything with Outlining Your Book for NaNoWriMo has been moved over to The Quiet Writers' Desk. Including the sign-up form. There will be a Quiet Writer newsletter, and a new newsletter for K.M. Updike will take its place. Stay tuned for news on my new Newsletter and link changes!

But the Quiet Writers' Desk isn't just for quiet writers. There will also be something for all writers to take away. Writing articles and how-tos are only two of the things happening over there. So don't feel left out!

Hop on over to The Quiet Writers' Desk  and check it out!

A Collection of Light

The sun breaks through the clouds, turning all in its path to gold, like a pocket from heaven broke open because it could not contain all the glory hidden within. I believe that's what sunsets must be. I believe that's what light must be.

Each dawn is a promise.

Every morning you rise to see the sun, or even the dim gray light of overcast skies, it is a promised manifested.

He uncovers the deeps out of darkness and brings deep darkness to light.

I've lived in a basement room without windows for the last twelve years. And you'll never find a photographer who says they aren't in love with light. So maybe I'm not a bit light hungry.

But you can't deny this:

Light gets in. There isn't a morning it doesn't rise, there isn't a night it does not pierce. There isn't a crack it does not find,

It can burn and it can heal, it can take and it can give, and there isn't a life that can grow without it.

He dawns on them like the morning light, like the sun shining forth on a cloudless morning . . .

The sun is there because it is a promise. Some days it is hard to find, hard to believe it will come out again.

But what you look for, that will you find.

Love, Kayla

Classic Books & Poetry Your Daughter Should Be Reading

Femininity is fast becoming a thing of the past. It's becoming seen as weakness, that feminine women are merely doormats for men. Little girls are not being taught to cherish girlhood, to cherish being a woman. That being kind and caring and the gentler sex is not important any more.


The Little White Horse
Read to be captured by classic fantasy, imagination, self-sacrifice, and the meaning of true love.

Persuasion
 Read to find empathy with one who understands what it means to wait for your one true love, what happens when one is easily persuaded, and that waiting is all worth it in the end.

Pride & Prejudice
Read to learn that love is not measured in riches and connections, that a woman is worth far more than fortunate marriage, about loyalty of family during tragedy, and that no matter your first impression, people are always more than what you first thought.

Sense and Sensibility
Read to understand the heartbreak of losing something dear to you, the bond between two opposite sisters, how to become a woman and rise from the ashes of your heart.

Christina Rossetti Poetry

To see Christ and love in a way you've never seen them before.

Little House on the Prairie

Read to escape back into a world of Indians and covered wagons, with lessons learned when the world was new and thriving, to learn that the world is not an easy place, and that the first women to travel the west were not weak and incapable, but endured hardships with strength and perseverance.

Tuck Everlasting
Read to understand that life and death are both great and amazing gifts, that love above all should be the first thought, the first sharing, the first showing of any and all who are blessed to find it.

Little Women
Read to show your daughters what growing up is like, that it is sometimes messy and confused, but how to handle it with the grace and intelligence of a woman.

Anne of Green Gables
Read to teach your girls about the endurance of friendship, and the power and freedom we give one another when spare the room to let those we love be who they are.

Fill your daughters with authenticity, bravery, femininity, and strength. Show them what truth looks like and teach them care for it, gently and tenderly, as we were meant to.

Love, Kayla

A List of Good Things + plus Free printable

1. Tea and books and comfy, pillowy blankets, and owl mugs

2. Windchimes

3. Sunshine

4. Birds on wires

5. Hot chocolate with marshmallows 

6. Afternoon light
7. Towels on the clothesline 

8. Pink clocks

9. Holes. In jeans.

10. Fresh basil from the garden

11. Memories

12. Winter sunsets

13. Hope

Extra list of Good Things Free printable CLICK HERE TO DOWNLOAD
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5 Things I'm Inspired by This Week

First of all, sorry about the mess around here the last few days. New blog designs are such pains. Second of all, there's a new blog design coming! Just so you know. New year, new face lift. I'm hoping to make this place a little prettier, a little easier to navigate, so if you have any suggestions for improvement leave me a comment below!

Book Hug Book Holder

Okay. So it's not REALLY mine. My brother brought it home from one of his adventures and while he's away for the week, I snuck it from his room and am screaming with delight every time I use it.
Birthday wishlist object.

My Face - Dodie Clark


Dodie is a new discovery of mine. This twenty-year-old London based youtuber writes and sings her own songs. She's always been clear how insecure she is about her looks, she's been real with her audience. And I really love this song. She's saying yes, my face isn't the most spectacular face in the world, but it's my face, and "I secretly like it here." Well, done, Dodie. Plus she's wonderfully quirky and makes me laugh.

Shampoo & Conditioner
My hair hates the cold winter. I love cold winter, but my hair doesn't. It's been a terribly dry, windy new year, and OGX's Vitamin E shampoo and conditioner have been helping keep my hair moisturized. I also like to put my wet hair up in a hat to keep it warm until it dries. Drying does take longer, but the results are much happier with less split ends. 

The High and the Mighty Soundtrack



I love this story. I love Dimitri Tiomkin's haunting melody in the soundtrack, it's my favorite tune to whistle. Brave and wounded souls with tragic backstories just rip my heart up, and I secretly like that. When everyone else found a loving end to their stories(almost) Dan still goes walking off with his limp, whistling this haunting tune.

Caddie Woodlawn, Carol Ryrie Brink

I really think Caddie Woodlawn had something with me turning out to be the tom boy of the family, and my love of red hair. I picked this book up again a few weeks ago. I am hopefully going to visit a friend this spring who lives only half an hour from Caddie Woodlawn's original house. Caddie Woodlawn is pure childhood for me. Daddy read it to us kids and I can remember reliving every single moment of the story. Re-reading it brings back so many memories and why did I grow up again? I hope I can write stories that make others feel the same way Caddie Woodlawn makes me feel.

That's all for this week!

Love, Kayla

Where I'm From (Writer Version)

I am from tea mugs and spoons scattered across a messy desk. From inky, colored pens and marked up, dog earred books on writing.

I am from the dark little corner of the house with fairy lights strung up because there's no window, from the smallish, cluttered bookshelves that feel like everything I've ever wanted. From the sign outside the door that says it plain, "Mole End".

I'm from the nights Daddy gathered us kids together and read books, from big sister and summer days in the loft reading Trixie Belden, where all this love really started. I'm from noisy dinners where the parents just sit and listen and smile, and from bonfire evenings beneath the stars.

I'm from "arists don't get paid very much" and "most artists starve anyway", but God "has made everything beautiful in its time." I'm from scattered, elusive dreams, an awakened blindness and a groping for something in darkness. From nights of scribbled messes and days of "never being good enough."



I'm from too many books from the library and soft pillowy blankets and days you never want to get out of bed, and from books you never want to reach the end of. I'm from moments of sheer inspiration and days of black failure. From chocolate to ease the torture of uncreated things, to lure inspiration in, to forget, to write again.

I'm from boxes of half written story pages, slips of paper with a word, a sentence, a name, stuffed everywhere but my head. From the piles of notebooks where I never reached the last page. Yeah, and I'm from finished messes of stories that will never see the light of day.

But I'm from seeing possibilities where others see walls, from ordinary, every-day things and recreating them in ways everyone can see. I'm from recording, preserving, and keeping for remembrance, from bringing something new into the world. From keeping the darkness at bay.

And I'm from a long past of writers and artists who dotted history with their struggle: from the hope of leaving the world a little bit better than before.

Are you an artist?

"Art is the bringing of something new and beautiful into the world. Something genuine and good, something that does not darken the world, but leaves it a better place than it was before."

By that definition many things would be considered art, and rightly so. Your mechanic is an artist. Your hairdresser is an artist. YOU are an artist.If you enjoyed this post share it with someone you love by clicking the social media buttons below