What's Up Wednesday: Ton of Pictures* Edition!

What's Up Wednesday is a meme started by Jaime Morrow and Erin Funk to bring reading and writing bloggers together once a week. Go to Jaime's blog to add your link and check out posts from other writers!

What I'm Reading

Suddenly, I'm reading ALL THE BOOKS again!  Over the weekend I read the four Jean Little books I blogged about on Monday, plus I read My Life After Now by Jessica Verdi (which some of you already know because I liked it so much I actually used the Goodreads recommend feature!  I try to do so very sparingly but this is one I want people to read.  I'll include it in my next Monday Love post but my review is up on Goodreads (and if we're not Goodreads friends, feel free to add me!)

Also, I devoured Ghenet's MS in one sitting today--it was so good that, when I was writing up my notes in an email to her, I kept reaching for my desk like it was already a published book that I could pick up and flip through.  So that felt more like "reading" than "betaing."

As for what I'll read next...well, friends, I have an embarrassment of riches.  I've had a streak of good luck with giveaways--I've won four separate times lately, and two of those were for multiple-book giveaways (from awesome blogs The Lucky 13s and OneFour KidLit, both group blogs for authors with books coming out this year and next, respectively.)  My kitty, Willow, decided to play Vanna White and show off what I've gotten in the mail lately:

Charm and Strange by Steph Kuehn, from Goodreads First Reads

Intuition by C.J. Omololu, from Malinda Lo

 The Art of Wishing by Lindsay Ribar, The Nightmare Affair by Mindee Arnett, Riptide by Lindsey Scheibe, My Life After Now by Jessica Verdi, Hooked by Liz Fichera, and How My Summer Went Up In Flames by Jennifer Salvato Doktorski, from The Lucky 13s

The Lost Sun by Tessa Gratton and The Testing and Independent Study by Joelle Charboneau from One Four Kid Lit

A huge, huge thank-you to everyone who's sent me these awesome books!

What I'm Writing

So last Wednesday, I wound up spending my writing time outlining rather than actually adding words.  I'm pushing toward the end of my story--there's still a little ways to go, but I'm getting there, and I was finding that it was like when you hold a book an inch away from your face--everything was out of focus.  So now I have a nice tidy list of scenes and important beats I want to hit.  I can add things to the list, or change it (outlines make me panicky--we had these Very Important Research Papers every year in HS, and our teachers made us turn in our outlines for approval.  I dreaded that more than I dreaded actually writing the paper) but now I have a map.  It's pretty awesome being able to sit down every day and consult my list, rather than wondering where to start.  I got my four days/1K each in (although technically I did 2K Monday so I could take yesterday off...for more cherries.  It's an addiction.) 

This week, I'm hoping to stick to my 750 word min/1000 word stretch goal every weekday, but I've also chopped that list of scenes up into what I would like to try to accomplish each day.  The way I've chopped it up seems pretty ambitious, so I may not get through it at anywhere near the pace I've set, but I do better with high goals that I'll push toward (because if it's not on the list, it's like I've given myself permission not to do it.)  So out of thirteen bullets on my list, I'd like to be done with eight of them by this time next week (the ambitious goal) but definitely at least five (a more realistic goal.)  

What Else I've Been Up To

Sweating, mostly!  Buffalo is cool enough in the summer that we don't need an air conditioner (I know air conditioners are usually not literal needs, but without one I would not have made it five years in New York City), so we don't have one in right now.  But it's still definitely, definitely summer, so by midday I'm usually pretty warm even if it's a relatively sedentary day.  (Thank goodness for the cool mornings when I can get my running in!)  I'm starting to get used to it--lots of ice water, and endless bobby pins since I cut my hair short a month ago and can't really pull it into a ponytail anymore.  I'm almost starting to enjoy it!

What Inspires Me Right Now
 

A few weeks ago, my answer to this was "my office"--which continues to be true.  I work all over the house, trying to catch a breeze, but it is definitely the case that my attention span when I work in my office is much longer than when I work anywhere else!  Anyway, I promised pictures, so here they are:

My desk--and at long last, my office chair!  Actually buying one felt weirdly daunting--I mean, I know that office chairs don't just come with office buildings, but I never contemplated the logistics of it before, you know?  Also, T-Rex over there in the corner is joined by Lil' Sebastian and Pigeon.

The weird-looking square in the corner is my reading chair; it's made of elastic bands so when you sit on it it becomes a chair underneath you.  I love it, and I'm not usually wild about weird-shaped chairs.  Plus, it matches my rug!

My bookshelves are getting out of control.  The shelved books, as well as many of the ones stacked on top, are my signed book collection.  (Oh, Books of Wonder, how I miss you!)  I've discovered that a lot of authors will sign their books at their local indies, especially when they have new books coming out, so I've actually done ok finding signed copies even far away from my favorite favorite place. 

The top shelf of the smaller bookshelf is one of several TBR piles around my house (see also: top of my dresser, my sewing table.)  The painting of the door is by my dad--when I was four, he sold a larger version of the same painting and I got upset because it was my favorite one of his paintings then (blue is my favorite color).  So every day, while I took my nap, he worked on making me a small one of my own and gave it to me for Christmas.  How many four-year-olds can say they commissioned their own oil painting, huh?

My workstudy job, all four years, was in my college's costume shop.  It was awesome, and I learned a lot, but then I moved to New York and had neither money nor space for a sewing machine.  Finally, when I realized I had to costume ten orphans out of thin air during our school production of Annie last year, I caved and bought a machine anyway.  I love that I have an actual space to use it...now I just have to make the time to start a project (ha!)

*About the title of this post: "Ton of Pictures" was our family name for Richard Scarry's Best Word Book Ever.  It was appropriate.  Also, that book is awesome, so if you have or know little little kids, I highly recommend it.

What's up with you?