'To be very accomplished': Learning to draw

'It is amazing to me,' said Bingley, 'how young ladies can have the patience to be so very accomplished, as they all are.'

--Pride and Prejudice

I often joke that I was born in the wrong century. Not medically--in any other century I'd be dead--but socially. A lot of my skills are in the old-school definition of 'accomplishment', as Bingley talks about in Pride and Prejudice (and which we will be talking about on Thursday in the Jane Re-Read!). I can cook, knit, sew (cross-stitch and mend), play the piano, sing, etc.

'A woman must have a thorough knowledge of music, singing, drawing, dancing, and the modern languages, to deserve the word; and besides all this, she must possess a certain something in her air and manner of walking, the tone of her voice, her address and expressions, or the word will be but half deserved.'

'All this she must posses,' added Darcy, 'and to all this she must yet add something more substantial, in the improvement of her mind by extensive reading.'

--Pride and Prejudice

I certainly have the extensive reading down, but I've never been able to draw. Really. My brother could do it, and my grandfather, but not me. Art class in school was never a subject at which I excelled. As I got older, I thought I'd never be able to learn it.

But then Melissa turned me on to Sketchbook Skool. This is an online art school, taught by professional artists and teachers. It's video-based, and each class lasts six weeks. I enrolled in "beginnings," and I'm in my last week of the course.   I have definitely learned to draw!

(I don't know why the second one is wonky...sorry guys!)

Anyway, yes, I am really happy with the progress I'm making. The classes have been so informative and I love the teachers. I'm enrolling in another class next week, because in 'beginnings' we haven't covered everything. We've done watercolors, pen, pencil, colored pencil, and we've learned a bit about technique, but I really need to work on perspective and depth in my drawings.

There are times when it's really frustrating--don't get me wrong. Some of my drawings are much better than others. But I see something good in every piece I do, so that's definitely a step forward.

SBS is a great example of how the Internet can be awesome. I never would've tried to do this if I hadn't gotten the recommendation from Melissa, and I never would've found these great teachers. I can move through the classes at my own pace, right tin my house. It's not something I have to leave my house to do, which is nice.

Summer is a great time for experimentation and learning new things--are you doing anything this summer like this? Or can you draw much better than I can? :)

Getting to "it's a real book!": The checklist for July

So, if you read last week's post, you know that I've made some major decisions regarding the length and scope of the memoir manuscript. (If you haven't read it, go do that and come back.)

OK. So, I give a vague outline there, but here's more specifics of what I need to do:

• Write a new beginning/ending to the manuscript, reflecting the new scope and tone of the piece. Due date: July 9.
• Get out the drafted book proposal and print it out. There will be a Real Live Editor from a publishing house at the conference I'm attending in July, so I really hope to get to talk to her, and I'll need this to show her (I think. Maybe not. But it can't hurt to have it, right?) Due date: July 6.
• Go through my list of houses/agents and being to assemble the things I need for a query. This can be really complicated, actually. Some want them mailed, some want them emailed, and they all have a list of things they want in the "package." Some houses don't want to see the manuscript at all, and some want it completed (Hence item one on this list.) Due date: July 9.

These are the things I'm aiming to have done before I leave. When I come back, that will start the actual process of querying, which as I said before, is terrifying, but exciting ("excited and scared", anyone?)

Eureka--Manuscript breakthrough!

I feel a little sheepish about this. However, I'm sharing anyway!

I had thought, when I was writing, that I needed to write about the entire decade post-transplant. Everything that happened....every trip, every show, every everything. And I kept hitting blocks in my writing.

While I was trying to write what I kept calling "the last part", I had a brainstorm. What if....I didn't write everything? I mean, who says I need to write everything? This isn't War and Peace! You don't need to know all this stuff I'm writing!

It was ridiculously freeing. So I opened my scrap document (this is an idea I got from Elizabeth Gilbert--a Word/Pages doc that holds the big parts I cut from the manuscript, so I can use them later, if I need them), cut out about 5,000 words, and put them in there.

I feel so much better! And the manuscript is now a decent length! I've decided that it needs a new prologue and a new epilogue, but that's it.

So I'll be moving things around/fixing things for the next week or two, and when I get back from Charleston, I'll start sending out book queries.

Scary, scary thought. It sort of terrifies me to send out book queries. But hey, it has to be done. Seize the day, screw your courage to the sticking place, and all that.

Yarn Along No. 27

This is going to be a quick installment. :)

So I'm still working the same two projects, the scarf and the washcloth/dishcloth/dust rag (whatever you want to call it!). I've been knitting while I watch Outlander or Breaking Bad, and I can knit for about a half hour at a time during those. I did find another skein of yarn, called Chipmunk, that I think will be great for the next VA scarf project. It's the same type of yarn as the one I'm currently working with, which you can read about here.

As for reading: I'm saving The Girl on the Train and A God In Ruins for the Charleston trip, which is fast approaching. I want to have new books to read in the car. :) I just finished The Astronaut Wives Club, which was pretty good. There were a lot of wives to keep straight, eventually, but I think the writer did a good job giving us insight into their lives. The book I'm currently reading is Pride and Prejudice, for the Great Jane Re-Read. 

Starting the Ten Year Party

So far, the "official" markings of my 10 year transplant anniversary have been good. My tests all came back beautifully from clinic, so that's excellent news. We test not just the lungs, but all my vitamin levels, kidney function, bone density, and things like that, to make sure that the meds aren't causing problems in other areas of my body, and I'm glad to report that they are not. So that's fantastic. Yesterday, I went to Lifeline of Ohio's monthly staff meeting to talk briefly about my transplant experience. Lifeline of Ohio is my local organ procurement agency, and they're the people that do the "grunt" work, so to speak, of organ donation, for my area of Ohio. They promote and coordinate the donation of organs, and I've done a lot of volunteering with them since my transplant. Normally, I connect with the communications and education people, who organize talks and volunteer opportunities, but the meeting was for everyone who works for lifeline--about 60+ people, and includes nurses and medical staff and a host of people in other areas.

I didn't talk long--about five minutes or so--but it was great to share my story with them. They have a new person come in every month to talk about their experience and I think that's a great idea. It shows the staff the results of all their hard work! There were a few questions after:

Do I still have CF? Yes, I do. I'm very fortunate in that I don't have a lot of other CF problems. I don't have diabetes, my kidneys behave, and my sinuses are good. I am pancreatically sufficient, so I don't take enzymes and I'm not malnourished (hahaha, malnourished. Ha. Right. So far from that now.) Other people aren't quite that lucky, but for me, my CF problems were mostly confined to my lungs. But since CF is a genetic disease, I still have it--the transplant didn't change my genetic code. But my version (so to speak) of CF was helped enormously by the transplant.

How long was the wait and what was it like? The wait was about 40 days, give or take. It was hard to do everyday things like brush my teeth. Think about that. Brushing your teeth isn't exactly hard. But I couldn't do it and breathe at the same time. After, of course, totally different story.

I also talked about the advantage of having a center so close to me. In central Ohio, we're blessed to have two lung transplant centers within a few miles of each other! If I'd had gone to Cleveland, Pittsburgh, or St. Louis (the other centers that my CF team sent people for transplant), my mom and I would've had to relocate, for months, leaving my dad and my two siblings (who were both still in school at the time) to fend for themselves. It wouldn't have been pretty. It was so much easier to be twelve miles away from the center and to be able to go home right after my discharge, and not stay in an apartment or Ronald McDonald house sort of thing for months on end.

The anniversary, officially, is in about two weeks. We'll be in Charleston the day of, and I'm so excited for that!

If you're not an organ donor, please be one? Please please? You can find information and sign up here.

Writing Updates: June 22, 2015

• I've submitted my August Real Housekeeping piece to the editors, so I'm excited about that. My piece on books for babies will be going up sometime in July, and I'll post the link here when it goes live. My August piece is about how to create and keep a well-stocked pantry so you can make a variety of meals without having to run to the grocery store right before dinner time.
• The memoir is coming along. I feel like I keep writing that, but it's true! I'm working on the section about the Dominican nuns now (for those of you who don't know me, you're probably going, what? But all will be revealed....eventually). This section is proving to be the hardest to write, but it's also the last section that really needs written. The plan is to have this section done by the end of the month, so that when I'm back from vacation in July, I can start sending out queries and proposals. I'm on track with this plan.
• The Jane Re-Read continues with Northanger Abbey. 

Seven Quick Takes No. 79--A Trip to Pittsburgh

I.

We spent last weekend and part of this week in Pittsburgh celebrating my grandma's 85th birthday.

 We celebrated by taking a dinner cruise on the Gateway Clipper Fleet, which was a great meal and boat ride around the three rivers of Pittsburgh. We sailed by PNC Park, Heinz Field, the Point, and other Pittsburgh landmarks. Quite a bit of the family-- though not all--was there, and it was a fun way to celebrate.

II.

One of the best parts was seeing my cousin Diane, and especially meeting her newest baby (above with Dad). She has two older daughters, whom I'd met before, but I'd never met this little guy, who turns 1 in August.

III.

The next day we went to PNC Park to see the Pirates beat the Phillies in extra innings. I'd never been to a Pirates game where they won, so I was pretty excited about that! Dad taught me how to fill out the scorecard that was in the game program, so I feel very educated in the Ways of Baseball. (Sort of. I find baseball always has new ways to confuse me.)

Our seats were behind home plate and under the overhang of the upper deck, so we were in shade, which was great when it was 85+ degrees.

III.

 After the game we had another party at one of my aunt's houses. She has a pool and her husband grilled, and there was, of course, jello marshmallow salad, because it's not a family gathering on my mom's side without jello marshmallow salad.

Grandma received cards and presents, and then there was Bethel Bakery cake, which is the Best Cake in the Universe. Not kidding. Our swimming was curtailed because of a huge thunderstorm that opened up, but that didn't deter the youngest from having fun....

IV.

Diane's oldest girl (seen above, in the pink glasses) and I:

Me: So, Susie, what's your favorite movie? Susie: Frozen.

Me: OK. What's your favorite song? Susie: (As if I am deeply, deeply stupid) "Let it Go." Me: Well, there are other songs in the movie. Susie: No there aren't.

V.

Monday we went to Kennywood, where I hadn't been in over ten years, so it was nice to be back, and Diane's husband had never been there at all. Susie and I had fun riding rides, but when I took Bridget on the carousel, she seemed a bit wary, until the ride starting going. She also really enjoyed the ice cream cone.

 VI.

Kennywood really does have things for everyone, which makes it fun, but my grandpa's favorite ride was "The Restaurant", so we had dinner there. It's a large cafeteria style place and it has good food and, the real winning point, air conditioning. It was hot, so we got a lot of water rides under our belts, and then dried off with roller coasters.

VII.

Of course, some of us couldn't handle all the excitement:

The Great Jane Re-Read: Northanger Abbey

(If you're new here, read the beginning of this post to get the ground rules/ideas.)

I wrote this about Northanger Abbey last year.

My favorite movie version is this one, from the BBC (click the photo for details):

OK, so let's talk about the book:

I really like Catherine--do you? I mean yes, she has some silly moments, but generally, she's not a bad kid, especially for one who has never been away from home before and is thrown into social situations she's never been in before. She's much more sensible than, say, Lydia Bennet! (Whom we'll talk about in the next installment.)

I just wanted to throttle the Thorpes. I always feel that way, but this time it was with special vengeance. Isabella is just so silly and stupid! Not to mention money grubbing: "Oh, I love James! Oh, no I don't, his income is too small. Oh, wait, I love him again! Because no one else will have me, la!"

And John? How in the world does he think Catherine wants to marry him? He rivals Mr. Collins in his stupidity of women, but at least Mr. Collins was never as outright rude and coarse as John is.

General Tilney is a really interesting character, isn't he? He terrifies his daughter and obviously Henry has his own problems with him. He's not a model father, that's for sure, although I don't think any of the readers ascribe such villainous deeds to him as Catherine initially does. :)

Speaking of that, I love the scene when Catherine finds out that the papers are just laundry lists. It's sort of like Ralph in A Christmas Story: "Be sure to drink your Ovaltine? A crummy commercial?!"

Have you read The Mysteries of Udolpho? It's still in print, amazingly--Oxford World Classics has an edition that I'm pretty sure is only still in print because of Northanger Abbey. It's not a bad read, if you're interested in digging deeper into Catherine's favorite genre.

The next time Jane will set a book in Bath will be Persuasion, her last completed novel, and the novel isn't entirely set there (much like NA isn't entirely set in Bath--it's funny that we have to wait so long to get to the titular abbey, right?). Anne Elliott is not quite as sanguine as Catherine is about being in Bath, that's for sure.

Catherine's family seem so jolly, doesn't it? 10 children, but also her parents seem to be really down-to-earth, practical sort of people (Although I imagine you'd have to be, in order to have 10 children and not be completely nuts.). She might be--I'm just now considering this--the most practical mother in Jane's writing. Mrs. Bennet is not. Mrs. Dashwood sort of gets there by the end of the novel, but she has her moments of crazy. There is no Mrs. Woodhouse in Emma, nor is there a Mrs. Elliot in Persuasion, although Mrs. Elliot seemed to be a very lovely person, based on Anne's remembrances; but Sir Walter wasn't exactly a peach to live with. What do you think?

Filling the Well: Movies to Inspire Creativity

Last week, I talked about some writing books I've found inspiring and helpful; this week I thought I'd share some movies that always serve as a creativity jumpstart for me.

Shakespeare  In Love: (1998) This film, written by Tom Stoppard and directed by Mark Madden, won Best Picture in 1998, and gives the "back story" of the writing of Romeo and Juliet. With fantastic performances by Joseph Fiennes, Ben Affleck, Gwyneth Paltrow (she won her Oscar for this movie), Geoffrey Rush, Judi Dench (who also won an Oscar for this movie), and Colin Firth, it may not be based in reality, but it's a wonderfully funny film, especially if you're a Shakespeare fan. The costumes are sumptuous as well.

The reason it inspires creativity is because the basic premise of the movie is that Shakespeare (Fiennes)  has writer's block--and he solves it by falling in love with Lady Viola (Paltrow), who is, alas, already engaged, to Lord Wessex (Firth). The movie takes us into Will's world, both onstage and backstage, and demonstrates that writers can't just write good things at the drop of a hat. This is an excellent movie for when you're facing any sort of creative block.

The Hours: (2002): OK, guys. This movie is not for everyone. But if you're interested in the life of Virginia Woolf, this is a great movie. Nicole Kidman won her Oscar for her performance as Woolf, and the film was also nominated for Best Picture. Every time I watch this, I'm motivated to dive back into my writing and journaling. And the music, by Philip Glass, is incandescent. The novel is also on my list of favorite books.

The Red Shoes (1948): Not about writing, but about dance, and art in general. Nominated for Best Picture, the film is a retelling/adaptation of Hans Christian Andersen's story The Red Shoes, which compel the wearer to dance to death. In this case, the story revolves around an up and coming ballerina (Moira Shearer), the impresario who becomes infatuated with her talent, and the composer whom she loves. The film demonstrates the physical effort involved in creating beautiful art and the extremes that are to be avoided in its creation!

Babette's Feast (1987): This shows creativity in the kitchen. If you've never seen it, please do so, but eat first. This is the story two single sisters, who live quite lives stripped of luxury, until their devoted cook, Babette, wins the French lottery and wishes to cook a meal for the sisters and their friends. The film is based on Karen Blixen (Out of Africa)' s short story. A wonderful fable of hospitality and virtue, but also creativity: watch how carefully Babette prepares the course of her meal, in every stage of its development.

Becoming Jane (2007): Of course, this one. This biopic, based on Jon Spence's Becoming Jane Austen, focuses on Jane's (Anne Hathaway) relationship with the young lawyer Tom Lefroy (James McAvoy), and the writing of Pride and Prejudice.

Writing On Vacation

Summer is prime vacation time for most of us, and for me, it's also prime writing inspiration time.

There are the usual thoughts on this, that getting outside of your normal environment can help spark creativity, and exposure to new things does the same. But I find that any sort of travel, even if it's to places I know well, can be inspiring in multiple ways.

For example, a recent trip to Washington, D.C. familiarized me with a part of the town I hadn't really experienced before, and added new depth to my knowledge of the city, which is useful. Details--from coffee shops to what people are wearing, to traffic patterns--can make their way into future novels and pieces, making my imaginary store of places richer. (There was one restaurant in particular that I loved). This is also when keeping a journal comes in handy. I have an instant place to record my observations and details I want to keep in mind.

For new cities, of course, there's always much more that I've never seen before. When I go to Charleston in a month, I'm fully expecting that I'll be writing a lot in my journals about the city and details about the people and places we see.

I always get the itch to write when I travel. Usually it's in my journal but if I have my laptop with me, sometimes I'll do sketches or write the first few paragraphs of what I hope will be a larger piece. The larger piece may not appear, but just the practice of writing regularly can be reinvigorated by a new setting and new experiences.

Do you notice your creativity grows when you travel? Tell me about it in the comments!

Yarn Along No. 26

Let's talk yarn and book, shall we?

In the last Yarn Along, I was working on a lot: the scarf for the VA, and the last of the housekeeping gift of washcloths. I'm still working on both projects.

So the scarf is on the left and the newly started final washcloth is on the right. This yarn was sort of a bear to knit for the first few rows, and I don't know why this yarn (Comfy worsted from Knit Picks) can be so back and forth when it comes to starting projects.  It gets easier as I progress, but sometimes it's really smooth right off the bat, and sometimes it's not. This color is called blackberry, and it's on the harmony rainbow needles.

For my reading, I'm working on Fr. Michael Gaitley's The One Thing is Three, which is about the trinity and a lot of other theological things, namely the Summa Theologica (which I'm studying in a group at church right now, so yay!). I've previously read his Consoling the Heart of Jesus and I'm going to be reading his 33 Days to Morning Glory later this month.

Reading About Writing: My Favorite Writing Books

One of the most common tips writers give to want-to-be-writers is to read a lot. This isn't something I've ever had a problem with, but there are certain books about writing that I've found incredibly helpful to me over the years, so I thought I'd share them with you.

• Writing Down the Bones: Freeing the Writer Within, by Natalie Goldberg. The chapters are short essays that motivate and inspire writing; there's a list of prompts toward the front of the book if you're stuck on the what am I supposed to write? horse. I found her writing very accessible and almost like she was sitting across the table from me at a coffeeshop. Goldberg is a gifted writer and her writing always inspires me to take another crack at my current project.

• Escaping Into the Open: The Art of Writing True, by Elizabeth Berg. This is my favorite book about writing. Berg gives a ton of unusual prompts and activities to really inspire creativity, and she writes about her own writing process and inspirations. I've got this book post-it marked, underlined, and bookmarked in many different ways.

• Make it Happen, by Lara Casey. This isn't a writing book, per se, but it's a book about setting and achieving your goals. I love it!

• The Artist's Way, by Julia Cameron. The classic book on freeing your inner artist, this has helped a lot of writers I know, especially in the institution of Morning Pages. I'm working my way through this--very slowly. :)

These are my favorites. How about you? Do you have favorite books that inspire you to be creative?

Daybook No. 97

(it's back!)

Outside my window::

Sunny through thin white clouds. It's not going to be very warm today--well, warm for June--so swimming is probably out, but that's OK!

Wearing::

Jeans, a bright blue v-neck t-shirt, and flats.

Reading::

Working on Northanger Abbey. I finished Prodigal Summer yesterday, and man, I wish Barbara Kingsolver would write a sequel. It's that kind of novel where you want to stay with the characters for a long time, even after the book is finished. I'm reading The One Thing is Three for my spiritual reading. The rest of the fiction pile includes The Forsyte Saga and A God In Ruins, and then I've got What Matters In Jane Austen and Jane Austen's England. So a variety of things on the reading pile!

In the CD player::

The Light in the Piazza, celebrating Kelli O'Hara's Tony win.

Writing::

This week I'm doing something different with LA--I'm going back to doing the link-ups/weekly features that I've sort of been neglecting amidst the new writing plan. So tomorrow is the Yarn Along, Thursday I'm talking about Sketchbook Skool, and then Friday we'll have Quick Takes. I'm also going to get some things pre-written because I'll be in Pittsburgh until Tuesday.

The Dominican section of the memoir continues apace. It's sort of a complex section to write but the goal here is to get it down into a physical form on "paper" (or, in a Pages document). Then I can revise it. I'm hoping to have the section done by the end of the month so that in July, when I'm back from Charleston, I can start sending out queries and book proposals. (EEEEEK)

Creativity::

You'll have to come back tomorrow and Thursday to read about that. :) But really, it's been really interesting in this area lately.

Health stuff::

So yesterday was my Annual Clinic Day of Testing for Transplant Guys. :) Basically, all the yearly tests we do, I did yesterday. That involved lots of blood-letting, full PFTs (Pulmonary Function Tests--"full" meaning more than just the basic test I do every visit. We checked gas diffusions in my lungs and some other fun things), a CT scan of my lungs, bone density scan, and an abdominal ultrasound, which looks at my spleen, liver, kidneys, all that sort of stuff.

I lost five pounds "officially" in clinic (I told the dietician that I had lost 10 lbs at one point, but the loss doesn't want to stay there, sadly), and the PFTs went up four points. So win to that correlation. Everyone's happy with that. I haven't gotten the results back yet from the other tests. (Other than things like my regular chest X-ray, which looked fine and dandy--we saw that in clinic.)

Today I'm going to see my ENT so he can check out my sinuses. I see him about every six months, and about every two years, we do the sinus surgery. This is because even though my lungs don't have CF, the rest of my body does, so we still have to keep the sinuses happy. They tend to fill with the CF-quality mucus and that can be a huge breeding ground for infection. Fortunately, I don't have nearly as many sinus issues as some other CF folks I know.

Pondering::

I normally don't talk to many--if any--other patients when I'm at Children's. Part of that is because I don't really talk in waiting rooms, at all, and partially because a lot of the time, I'm alone. In clinic, I'm in my own room, and in radiology, the transplant/cancer patients sit in the radiology hallway itself, not in the general waiting room, because of concerns about sick people.

I'm really familiar with the radiology hallway. It used to be main radiology for the entire hospital, so I've come here as an ER patient, as a CF outpatient, and in the days after transplant, at 6 AM, before the hospital was really "up", so I the chances of me running into a sick person (or anyone else) were really slim. I know all the radiology techs really well, and know some of them by name.

There are three chairs set up outside the main waiting room door for transplant/oncology patients. Sometimes it's me and other transplant patients who are being seen that day (we all have the same routine--blood work, x-rays, clinic), but mostly it's just me.

Yesterday there was a small family: a boy, a girl, and the mother. The kids looked to be in high school. I knew the boy was a transplant patient because 1) he was wearing a Dash for Donation shirt (it's the annual Lifeline of Ohio race), and 2) he had a mask on. Most of us wear masks in the hospital. I hate wearing them so I generally don't. (yeah, I'm a rebel.)

But the boy looked so sick. I couldn't tell if he was pre or post-transplant. He was so thin I could see the ligaments in his legs around his knees, the tendons popping out. His shirt hung on his, and he was in a wheelchair. He didn't really look anywhere, other than vaguely at his lap. His sister was plugging away at Facebook on her phone, but he just sat there, vaguely thinking about something.

I knew that look. I'd been there. It's the look of not really having the brain power to do anything else but tend to the function of your body. Breathe, sit up. Breathe.

He went back for X-rays, and I talked briefly to his sister--small things, about the waiting area, her sparkly phone cover. Her brother came back quickly and they were gone, heading up to clinic.

The radiology technician called me to a room. "He's rejecting," she told me.

"How far out is he?"

"Five years."

Ah, five years. Five is a magical number. About half make it to five years--it's a little less than that, for girls. UNOS (United Network for Organ Sharing) doesn't even have 10 year stats on their website, yet, for lung transplant patients. At hitting 10 years, I'm sort of a statistical anomaly. Five years is becoming more common, but 10 is still out there, and the people I know who are 15+ years have had two transplants.

I am extremely, extremely lucky. And it could all change, but right now, the fact that I'm this far out, and that I'll be celebrating my 10 year mark in a month, is incredibly fortunate. I am incredibly fortunate.

Plans for the Week::

I have a Summa Theologica class at church on Wednesday--this just started last week--which means I have to read Question 2 of Part 1 today so I'm ready to talk about it tomorrow. :) On Friday I have another doctor appointment and then I leave for Pittsburgh on Saturday!

(note: that lovely photo of bluebells? Elizabeth Foss took that. :) I hope she doesn't mind that I borrowed it from her website! It's just so gorgeous.)

Writing Updates--June 8, 2015

• The first installment of the Jane Re-Read is up on the blog. A new post will go up every other week throughout the summer. First was Sense and Sensibility, and next is Northanger Abbey. Come join us!
• The Dominican Part of the Memoir is being written. The timeline is important here, and after this part is down I'll need to finesse how it works in the manuscript as a whole, but this is an important part that's been missing.
• Remember the NaNo novel I abandoned last year? I think I might have a new way into it, which excited me, but I need to play around with it. Right now it involves moving from a third person to first person narration, and possibly adding more points of view, instead of the limited third person I was going with before. But we'll see if that helps.
• Coming up on the blog this week: travel tips and Sketchbook Skool!

Seven Quick Takes No. 78

I.

mmmm. Summer Friday. Those are beautiful words in the English language, no? :)

II.

Since it's summer, more people read. You can, of course, join the Jane Re-Read (Sense and Sensibility is what we're talking right now). I'm still reading Prodigal Summer and Northanger Abbey. I just finished I Believe In Love, about St. Therese of Liseux and how she can lead us to a deeper spiritual life, and I really liked that one. There's a lot to ponder and I'll definitely be reading it again. (Who am I kidding. I read everything again....unless it's Moby Dick or Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man. Shudder!)

I keep debating if I should read Girl on a Train. Yes? No? Thoughts?

III.

My 10 year transplant testing appointment is on Monday. To put this in perspective: UNOS (the United Network for Organ Sharing, which "does" transplants in the U.S.) doesn't even have 10 year survival rates on their chart. The last one they have is 5 years out, and for women, that rate is 46.1%. I read somewhere that 10 year survival is around 30%, but I forget where. So, for ONCE, the odds have been playing nicely with me. I rejoice in this. The actual 10 year date is in July, but we do the testing in June, usually.

IV.

I've discovered that a lot of women don't know basic maintenance things. This sort of scares me, ladies. You should know to put gas in the car (and what kind of gas), how to jump a car battery, how to use tools, how to unclog a toilet. Even if you're married, your husband isn't aways around to fix things! I'm amazed at how many women I know who can't do any of these things and I want to be like, girls. Come on now!

V.

My brother's girlfriend sent me this photo of him at Disneyland, and I just love it:

As Br. H said, "How many Evil Empires can you fit in one picture?"

VI.

I've started swimming again--yay! But man, the muscles feel it when you swim hard for the first time in a season. They rebel the next day. But it's so good to be in swim season again, I do not mind at all.

VII.

Almost time for Edel 2015 in Charleston! I'm so excited!! I've never been to South Carolina and I can't wait to meet all the amazing women who will be there!

The Great Jane Re-Read: Sense and Sensibility

We're doing this slightly out of order--I read S&S first this year, so we're starting there.

Since this is the first post on the Jane Re-Read, let's do some basic ground rules:

1) Yes, she's Jane here. I can't call her "Austen" like I would "Dickens." Jane just seems like a friend to me. Hence, Jane.

2) Abbreviations: S&S--Sense and Sensibility; P&P--Pride and Prejudice; MP--Mansfield Park; E--Emma; P--Persuasion; NA--Northanger Abbey; JA--Juvenilia, (not her initials. :) )

3) In each entry--which will come up every two weeks--we can talk about anything related to the book. I'll post links to other things I've written about the particular book, and I'll also post my favorite movie version of each book (there are multiple versions of every book except NA, I think.)

4) I won't summarize the book. You can google it for that. I'm assuming you're going to read (or have read) the book. So it'll just be notes. So, if you haven't--spoilers, y'all.

Ready, y'all? Let's start with Jane's "darling child," S&S.

I wrote two pieces about S&S here and here, and my favorite version of the movie is the 1995 one, although the BBC's latest effort is more faithful to the book, overall.

S&S was originally titled Elinor and Marianne, and Jane took time off between the first draft and the published version we know as S&S. She wrote the first draft when she was younger, but it wasn't published until several years later. Her family relocation to Bath, the death of her father, and the fallout from that made for a peripatetic life. Finally, her brother Edward settled Jane, her mother, and her sister and best friend Cassandra , at Chawton Cottage in the village of Chawton. It was there that Jane revised S&S, P&P and NA, and wrote MP, E, and P. 

Much of S&S deals with a topic Jane was intimately familiar with--what happens to the wife and daughters of a man when he dies. The Dashwood women do not fare nearly as well as the Austen women did. Jane's brothers all pooled their resources to provide for Jane, Cassandra, and Mrs. Austen. (Cassandra was engaged, but her fiance died in a shipwreck.)  Regency society was very hard for unmarried and widowed women, and that's illustrated well in the novel. Without Sir John's easy rent terms for Barton Cottage, the family would've been very hard pressed to find anything near their former situation. While the Dashwood women now live in a cottage instead of handsome Norland Park, they still have at least one maid and a manservant, and are able to live in an approximation of their former life (none of the women have to work, for example, to earn money). But their lives could've been much easier if John Dashwood had kept his promise to his dying father.

The closeness of the two sisters is also true to life for Jane. Jane endowed Marianne with several of her qualities: Marianne adores Cowper (Jane's favorite poet), and shares some of Jane's personality; also, Jane was the younger sister (and second youngest child in the Austen family). It is easy to imagine Cassandra as Elinor, especially since Elinor is an artist, as Cassandra was. The closeness of sisters is examined in many of Jane's novels, but particularly here and in P&P (with Jane and Lizzie). In Persuasion, Anne Elliott isn't close to either of her sisters; Fanny Price in MP is close to one of her younger sisters, and Emma's older sister, Isabella, is a sort of non-entity since she is married and lives in London, not Highbury, with her husband and children.

It's interesting that only MP deals with brothers--Fanny is very attached to her brother William, who serves in the Royal Navy (as did almost all of Jane's brothers). Edmund Bertram treats Fanny like a sister for much of MP, but they're cousins. There are no "true" brothers in any of the other novels: In S&S, he's the girls half-brother, from their father's first marriage; there are no Bennet boys, which is a major plot point, and both the Woodhouse and Elliott families have only girls. (This is also a major plot point in Persuasion, not so much in MP.)

I have a lot in common with Marianne. We both love music and romance and poetry, but I also have a bit of Elinor in me. I would never act like Marianne does in the ballroom scene in London, for example. The old-fashioned girl part of me waits for the man to approach and to do the asking. Like Elinor, I'm aware of social norms and what's acceptable behavior, and 99% of the time, I follow it. (The other 1%...well, sometimes we all go nuts. :-)) But I also am fiercely loyal, like Marianne is, and don't take fools lightly, although I generally use my Elinor side to refrain from saying whatever I think. (See, Marianne and the Middletons.)

Am I the only one who wanted Edward to buck up? You are not in love with Lucy anymore--break off the engagement! I totally support him keeping his word, but come on, Edward! You were willing to spend your life with a woman who drove you crazy because when you were young you made a mistake and got engaged?! Boo.

I think every girl has her Willoughby--that man she falls head-over-heels for, the one that seems so perfect. And then you find out he's not. Maybe he's not a scoundrel, a la Wickham, but he's not perfect, and he's not the man for you.

It's a fine line between Marianne and Elinor. If you stay silent, like Elinor does, you could miss your chance. But if you're overly eager, as Marianne is, it can cause you problems later on. I always wondered what Margaret would end up like--more Elinor, or Marianne? Or a good mixture of both?

Like all of Jane's heroines, Marianne learns a lesson by the time she weds the Colonel (who, incidentally, is never given a first name in the books. He's just Colonel Brandon.), but I think she's happier for it. I think she and Elinor both have good, solid marriages, where both of them can love and esteem their husbands (as Mr. Bennet exhorts Lizzie to do in P&P). 

What do you think of S&S? Are you more a Marianne or an Elinor?

Goal Setting for Dummies: Using Power Sheets

"Goal setting."

Does that phrase give you shivers? I know it used to for me. It seems so grandiose, right? It takes me back to when I was in high school and everyone asked "what I was going to do" after school. Most of us sort of mumbled our major or shrugged. I knew what was my major was going to be, but until I figured it out, it was nerve wracking, right?

So many articles have been written about goal setting that I don't think what I'm going to write here is new. But if you're new to this, here's an article from lululemon's website that talks about it.

Anyway, I'd always liked the idea of goal setting, but I was never very good at it. That is, until I found Lara Casey's power sheets (And no, this isn't an add for her. It's a great tool I use in writing that I thought I'd share with you. :) )

Basically, the Power Sheets break goal setting down into manageable chunks: short-term and long term goals, and most importantly, why you want to achieve these goals. The set contains six months' worth of sheets, and a lot of detailed prep work. But they are magnificent, guys. Each goal gets broken down into daily, weekly, and monthly goals, which is so helpful for someone like me, who needs that step-by-step accountability. For example, for the past few months "write three blog posts a week" was a goal. Then there was "daily writing 30 minutes", and in the monthly section, it was manuscript goals. I also have prayer and fitness goals.

No matter what your goals are--climbing Everest, finishing your dissertation, learning to draw, whatever!--these sheets will be an enormous help. If you're like me and need accountability, then checking off the boxes every day will be a big help.

Do you have goals you're working towards? How do you push yourself to accomplish them?

Photo Essay: Franciscan Monastery, Washington D.C.

Using an Editorial Calendar (or: making sure readers have something to read!)

Before I used an editorial calendar, my blogging habits were pretty hit or miss. Some weeks you'd have content coming out of my ears, and some weeks, total radio silence. That's not helpful on a couple fronts--for you, the reader, I hope that you want regular content because you like to read what I write. (If you don't, don't tell me. ;-)) Second, writing, like anything else, requires regular practice and time devoted to it. If I only write when I feel like it, then I'm probably not really dedicated to the craft of writing. (You could say this about anything, really--prayer, gardening, sports, yoga, etc. If you only do it when you feel like it, it's probably going to be a sporadic practice.)

When I was doing my social media overhaul, Cristina had the brilliant suggestion of an editorial calendar, and I think it's changed my writing for the better. It's helpful in several ways:

• I can track outside writing projects (like my Real Housekeeping work) and make sure I don't miss deadlines.
• I can see, at a glance, what's coming up for the next few weeks, and schedule posts appropriately--if I'm going on vacation, I can still have content ready to go, if I want.
• I have to dedicate time to writing at least a few times a week, so I can have these posts ready to go.
• It helps me prevent feast or famine blogging--I can spread ideas out over a number of days, so there's not a glut of pieces on day and then nothing for days after.

I use trello, and I really like the format, because it's easy to use, clean, and very user-friendly.

So here's my current editorial calendar:

The left-most column is where I keep a running tally of ideas. These are either scheduled--as in, I think I have a place for them on the calendar--or not (just yet). Next is researching: this is for posts that might take longer (such as posts where I'm talking about theology) and need to look up necessary documents--hence, research.

Middle column is writing, and this is where things go into the hopper, if you will. I try to have two weeks' worth of material going at any one time. You can see, in fact, that this piece is at the bottom of the writing list, meaning it's in the on-deck circle, to steal from baseball. (I took the photo the day I wrote this.)

The colors mean different things: the blue means it's a post for this site, whereas the purple means it's going to the blog (which you follow, right?) Any other colors are indicative of the category of writing, which is really just for me.

After writing is editing and graphics. That means I make the pretty pictures that top these articles, and give all the pieces a read-through to scan for errors.

When all that is done, the card moves into the "completed" column--yay! I generally keep things here for a week, so I can get an overview of what went up where over the past week. Then the cards are archived.

Another great trello feature is the calendar page:

This is actually one of my favorite features, because I can see what's going up when in a big spread, and I can re-arrange cards at will. This is great for my future planning, especially for when I'm going on vacation, or I want to see things at a glance. The only problem I have here is that when a card is archived, it's also removed from this page, and that irritates me, but, such is life!

I also have a trello board for my big writing projects, but that's set up differently. Maybe I'll show you that one some other time.

So not only does my board provide organizational nirvana, but it also provides accountability. The content isn't going to write itself! Usually early in the week I do the calendar sorting and resorting, to figure out what's going up when, and then I work on blog posts throughout the week, along with my other writing.

Things that don't get scheduled are things like Yarn Alongs and Seven Quick Takes on the blog, because those are running features that don't need quite as much planning as from-scratch blogging does. I do keep certain features as cards, though, so I don't forget, like the biweekly writing updates--I'm also going to do those for the Jane Austen Re-Read. 

I know that the idea of editorial calendars is used in a lot of different industries--I know that IT guys use a version of this (not trello), but something like this to track their software development. Have you used an editorial calendar in your work? Would you like to?