What's Up Wednesday

I'm back to What's Up Wednesday for 2014!

What's Up Wednesday is a weekly blog hop with other folks on this writing journey. With that aim in mind, if you want to join, visit a few other WUW blogs each week, get to know other writers, and spread some writerly love.

Please note: I now have links to tumblr and Pinterest in my sidebar!








What I'm Reading

image: Goodreads

I've been slow reading given my time has been taken with edits. I finished Fangirl by Rainbow Rowell, which I still need to review. Rowell is so great at writing introverted characters. They are often infuriating to me (Cath in particular, as well as Eleanor in Eleanor and Park), but infuriating in a way that the author has done her job well. Her characters are nuanced and rich. Both of her books rely far less on plot which I suppose can be a drawback depending on your reading preference.

I actually tagged lines with post-it flags. I never do this but I tagged a bunch of pages and flipped through them later. Her writing inspired me to go back through my manuscript and add more character detail. Her character observations are so thorough and unique!



I'm wrapping up with this (below). Stay tuned for a review tomorrow!

Image:Goodreads

What I'm Writing

I finished another round of edits for AMELIA, my summer writing project. My patient and thoughtful agent had suggestions we discussed a month or so ago. Now I'm in that fun little place to wait to hear how well I did on the test :)

One great thing about having a regular, in-person critique group is that we meet once a month. This means I need to produce material to submit. I pulled up my NaNoWriMo novel I haven't looked at since November 28 and read through the first chapter. After a few minor tweaks, I sent it off to the group for review this week. I ended up reading through half of the novel after that and I'm pretty happy with it. (Though to be honest, the second half is where the plot sort of falls apart). So I guess I'm right on to the next while I wait on the other.

ABW, kids. Always. Be. Writing!

What Inspires Me

Good books.
Fangirl was a big inspiration. Tagging those well-written lines, I went back through to see why they caught my attention. What writing devices is the author using that is working? I have a rather sorted TBR list right now, all kinds of books demanding to be read next. I think I'm going with a favorite author, a book I know I'm going to love, to keep that inspiration going.

What Else I've Been Up To

Thanks to the arctic deep freeze last week, I shut myself in for days at a time and worked on edits. I was in the house from Friday night 1/3 until Tuesday afternoon (left the house to resolve a car issue and for a haircut). Then, in the house all day again Wednesday and Thursday. I did actually have to work the day job most of that time, and I'm fortunate I can work from home during severe weather. Cutting out my commute means more writing time. Plus: PJs ALL DAY.

The tag #ChiBeria trended on twitter (that's Chi for Chicago + Siberia) and some really cool (uh, frozen) pictures were posted of frozen Lake Michigan and glimpses of the city in sub-zero temperatures. More polar vortex pics from around the country here on the Instagram Blog.

I was not one of the many who rushed the grocery store for bread and milk before the freeze hit. We had sufficient food, and I can't handle the panic-mode people work up to for two days of potential bad weather. By the time I visited the store Tuesday night, the shelves were ransacked apocalypse-style. Seriously, why bread and milk? Are people just eating cereal and sandwiches when it snows?


OK everybody, what's up for your Wednesday?