Thankful Thursday: A Special Tribute to Amanda

Amanda, (also known as Renaissance_Phoenix) started Thankful Thursday almost 2 years ago. Her act of gratitude inspired many of us to take note of our own blessings and even to blog about it.

So, in tribute and with gratitude, today we write about Amanda and how we are thankful for her.

1. She maintains a positive attitude no matter what. I am often inspired to lay aside my own negativity by her example

2. She loves books. I'm thankful I'm not the only one who has a booky-addiction.

3. She always brings it back to God.

4. She is a true example of faith in God, and the joy that comes from it.

5. Her honesty and positive outlook on her struggles moving from Texas to Virginia helped me deal with my out struggles moving from Florida to Virginia.

6. She always reminds me to take pleasure in the small things.

7. She has a smile that makes you smile back, no matter how you felt before.

8. She has great taste in reading material and I am thankful for so many of her recommendations

9. She is not afraid to be real, to show weakness and to be vulnerable, and that inspires me to open up more. I’m thankful for her trust.

10. She is an endless source of encouragement, always offering a word of wisdom or comfort regardless of what is happening in her own life.

I could go on. Instead, I would ask you to go to her site and leave a comment telling her how thankful you are for her. Go on, shoo, now!

NaNoWriMo Update Two: Halfway

I have almost 29,000 words; exactly where I should be.

I hit a snag last week. My characters went to a place I’ve never been, a small island in the Aegean Sea. It’s hard to write convincingly about a place you know nothing about. Thankfully, the internet came to the rescue and tied that snag up.

However, I have a few more snags that need wrangling. Ya'll are smart, so I’m asking you:

1. Character Consistency: Mine have a problem. Sometimes they don’t behave like themselves. How do you make them stay true to themselves?

2. Character Distinction: Sometimes, my characters all seem like the same person. How do you write them to be unique voices?

3. Villains: Mine is not scary; He’s…lame, so very cliche and....lame. How do you write a scary Villain?

4. Physical Intimacy: Should Christians have their characters slept together outside of marriage? Do you write the scene or just allude to it? There are sin-issues and literary-issues to consider, as well at target-audience (i.e. kids books should not have graphic sex scenes, but some allude to them.) Is that right or wrong? How do you decide?

What advice do you have for an amateur novelist?

NaNoWriMo Update One: The Black Hole

Per request, I planned to write small updates about how my participation in NaNoWriMo is going.

My first update was a stellar one too - all about my intro to the world of novel writing, how I find the process consuming, thrilling and challenging, how N has been my idea-bouncing-board and my untangler-of-plot-knots, how writing a story reminds me of pottery with words, the molding, kneeding, shaping, thinking...Oh,and how I got to almost 9,000 words by the end of today.

But it's not to be.

Somewhere around 2:47pm today, a virus invaded my computer, and ate my file and my entire novel disappeared into the vast reaches of netherspace.

Gone..the whole thing...just *poof* Gone.

So, yea...that sucks.

But, I'm not giving up. Thankfully most of the story is still fresh in my mind. I'm not certain I can make the deadline, but I intend to try. And thanks to a supportive hubby and loads of Mountain Dew, there is always hope.

I'm off to start again!

EDIT: HE SAVED IT! My Awesome Wonderful Brillant Amazing Husband Found It! He pulled it back from the brink of oblivion! He did something super smart and totally above my head and "restored the file"! I LOVE HIM SOOOOOO MUCH!!!!!!

Joining In: National Novel Writing Month

I read somewhere that most avid readers eventually become writers. I'm no exception. I have tried my hand at fiction, although I have yet to complete anything.

Therefore, I have decided to give myself a swift kick in the butt.
I signed up to participate in this years National Novel Writing Month.
The Challenge: Write an entire novel (or 50,000 words) in one month.

I blame JessicaAshley7 and Liv_Monkee entirely for exposing my impressionable mind to such an event. I only hope I can keep up with them. I am a newbie and all.....

If my blogging is sparse (or more so then recently, which has been bad enough) you know why.

Wish me Luck!

My Favorite Kind of Fail

The Booky Kind! ........but you knew that already

I went to another Library Book Sale. I spent a bit more then the last one, but had some great finds!

The Highlights:

The Avenel Dictionary of Saints by Donald Attwater: Not a week before, I mentioned to myself I should like a reference on the Saints, perhaps with short bios. I was certain one would be expensive, but then I found this for $1!

A Girl Named Disaster by Nancy Farmer (Newberry): I read this several months ago, borrowed from the library, and absolutely loved the story and the author. I wanted my own copy to read again. This one was only 10 cents!

What So Proudly We Hail: All About Our American Flag, Monuments and Symbols by Maymie R. Krythe: I notice I gravitate towards books on American history. This fits in nicely, and I look forward to reading it.

Because of Winn Dixie by Kate DiCamillo (Newberry): I bought this because it was 1. a Newberry book and 2. set in Florida. I enjoyed it immensely and highly recommend.

Hang a Thousand Trees with Ribbons: The Story of Phillis Wheatley by Ann Rinaldi: I read about Wheatley during my Revolutionary War phase. I was highly pleased to snag this small biography.

Additional Finds:

Dave at Night by Gail Carson Levine

Run Away Home by Patricia McKissack,

Silent to the Bone by E.L. Konigsburg

Flip-Flop Girl by Katherine Patterson

The Midwife's Apprentice by Karen Cushman, Karen (Newberry)

Ruby Holler by Sharon Creech

Ramona and Her Father by Beverly Cleary (Newberry)

When My Names was Keoko by Linda Sue Park Park

Straw into Gold by Gary D. Schmidt

Best-Loved Short Stories of Nineteenth-Century America ed. by Stefan Dziemianowicz

Witches and Warlocks: Tales of Black Magic, Old & New ed. by Marvin Keye

The Many Worlds of Literature by Stuart Hirschberg

Black Potatoes: The Story of the Great Irish Famine, 1845-1850 By Susan Campbell Bartoletti

Racism in America: Opposing Viewpoints by William Dudley

Yearning: Race, Gender and Cultural Politics by bell hooks

Harriet Tubman: Moses of the Underground Railroad By Anne Schraff

O Rugged Land of Gold by Martha Martin

The Other Civil War: American Women in the Nineteenth Century by Catherine Clinton

Age of Excess: The United States from 1887 to 1914 by Ray Ginger

Out of Many: A History of the American People (Brief 3rd Edition) by John Faragher et.al.

Knight of the Seas: The Adventurous Life of John Paul Jones by Valentine Thomson

The Life and Death of Mahatma Gandhi by Robert Payne

Messy Spirituality: God's Annoying Love for Imperfect People by Michael Yaconelli

Wake Up America! Answering God's Radical Call While Living in the Real World by Tony Campolo

A Time of Courage: The Suffragette Diary of Kathleen Bowen by Kathryn Lasky (The Dear America Series)

Across the Wide and Lonesome Prairie: The Oregon Trail Diary of Hattie Campbell by Kathleen Gregory (The Dear America Series)

Thought My Soul Would Rise and Fly: The Diary of Patsy, A Freed Girl by Joyce Hansen (The Dear America Series)

Esprit de l’escalier: “Listen... Opal... you cannot hold onto anything that wants to go. Do you understand what I'm sayin'? You just got to love it while you got it, and that's that.” ~ Because of Winn Dixie

Theading Roughts: This is interesting, although not as engaging as I assumed it would be. The writing is average, and the author relies more on sensational facts about historical figures then good prose. But it’s entertaining, and I’m sure will come in handy during a game of Trivial Pursuit.

Currently America's Hidden History: Untold Tales of the First Pilgrims, Fighting Women, and Forgotten Founders Who Shaped a Nation By Kenneth C. Davis see related