What's Up Weds and Final Ready. Set. Write!

What's Up Wednesday! Check Jaime's blog for more deets.

 

What I've Been Reading

 

I'm going through Once Upon a Quinceanera: Coming of Age in the USA as research for my current WIP. I was laughing about how 3 out of 4 book references the author made I've read on my own (Reviving Ophelia, The Warrior Woman, The Body Project. So basically, this is the type of book I'd read regardless of the research angle). Also reading Kody Keplinger's Shut Out which surely is on a banned list somewhere given the plot is the football team's girlfriends go on a hook-up strike to force an end to their endless feuds with the soccer team. Keplinger is really great at taking an edgy topic and showing real people behind it, along with consequences, humor, and shedding stereotypes. Go Kody! In the car I'm listening to Meg Cabot's Underworld.  

 

What I've Been Writing

So, it's the last check in for Ready. Set. Write! And... I wrote next to nothing this week. I might have written last Wednesday... BUT the good news is I wrote 2/3 of a first draft during the summer challenge, and I have this group to thank for the motivation! Thanks everybody. Looking forward to keeping up with you all on Wednesday posts.



 

What Inspires Me/ What I've Been Up To

 

Vacations! Just a long weekend, really, but it was so nice to get away to a rented house, hang out with the girls, go shopping, swim in the pool, and cruise the Mississippi. The only drawback is we weren't there long enough!



Girls Weekend!

Mississippi Riverboat

We ate fabulously; the first night we dined at a restaurant featuring local produce and regional wines and drinks. After the riverboat cruise, we started to eat at a diner next door, but one meek voice piped up--Are you sure you all want to eat here? She pointeed out that water was dripping onto the table from an ancient window-mounted A/C unit. I volunteered to tell the waitress we were leaving--we hadn't even gotten water yet, it wasn't like we'd been there long. A few girls felt bad, but why? We walked in, the place smelled kind of musty, and we determined to spend money elsewhere. A good reminder to speak up, especially since the place we found for lunch after that was phenomenal! (Everyone busted out their phones and looked for eateries with high ratings on Yelp, which took us through a curious tour of Dubuque but led to a gem with food we weren't going to find at that diner).

 

Check out other bloggers' final Ready. Set. Write! linked here. And then tell me how your week went!