Rambling

So Friday is my assigned day to blog and my mind's been blank. All day. I am participating in a twelve week writer workshop but I don't want to blog about that or my new crit partners just yet because I might give the url to my new crit partners down the road, and we all know impressions change over time. They may not like it that I start out referring to them as Sci Fi Nerd, Prissy Girl and so on.

Other things on my mind? Well, I haven't cut or colored my hair all winter and I'm finally doing something about it tomorrow but who really wants to hear about my quandary over color. I'm sick of the blonde highlights which keep getting lighter and lighter over time. A little auburn perhaps? I like Kate Walsh's color . . .

Speaking of Kate Walsh ( who plays Addison on Grey's Anatomy), what in the heck is up with Grey's Anatomy? I'm totally over it. Still into Lost, however. John Locke blew up the submarine.What a dumb a#s, but then again, it keeps my beloved Jack on the island. I recently saw a Thursday Thirteen about must-see television programs. Thirteen? Wow. I watch Lost and Dancing With the Stars (early faves? The boys with the cute blondes --Fat One and the skater-- and Ali. ). I used to watch Grey's Anatomy and still catch an occasional episode -- caught the whole George sleeps with Izzie thing. Give me a break. All the rest of my thirteen would have to be kids shows, courtesy of my son's taste-- Wonder Pets, Diego, Zaboomifoo, Harry and the Dinosaurs . . .

On a completely different note, Macy's friend of the bed and dinner lists, let's call her Mimi Dish, posted an interesting blog this week which turned into a popular topic on a chick lit list serv to which I subscribe. Basically the question posed was What have you chosen NOT to read that everyone assures you that you SHOULD? Interesting answers on the chick lit list serv-- Life of Pi, anything recommended by Oprah (too depressing), erotica, anything to do with vampires, anything with too much sex and not enough plot, Memoirs of a Geisha. Mimi Dish lists a bunch of books I actually love --Russian lit, Wuthering Heights, The Awakening-- but she lists others that are on my list, too. I have lots of unfinished books, that I've tried to read a few times. More on that on Sunday for our six -- things that make you set a book down and never pick it back up again. I've never actually thrown a book, but apparently Macy has. More on that on Sunday.

I thought about jumping off from some of the responses to Mimi Dish's question to write a damning condemnation of summary dismissal of genres including lit but plenty of other bloggers have covered the topic. Let's just say that I think both literary snobbery and genre reverse-snobbery are so ridiculous. Sure, everyone is entitled to their opinion and some things just won't be your cuppa, but let's take sci fi as an example. I'm not attracted to it. When I walk into a bookstore and see a sea of books, sci fi doesn't attract me -- but if someone recommends a book, I give it a shot. Sometimes I end up enjoying the read and sometimes I don't. Sci Fi Nerd-- oops, I mean Sci Fi Guy-- has recommended a couple of titles. I'll check them out. I don't just say, " I hate sci fi and it sucks," for example. I've also added Ender's Game to my "to read" list based on things Macy has written about it.

Incidentally, I didn't initially call my new workshop friend Sci Fi Nerd simply because he likes sci fi but rather because he writes sci fi and also happens to walk, talk and act like a nerd. On purpose. It's his thing. He says, literally, "I'm a sci fi nerd." I figure who am I to argue-- the whole "if it quacks like a duck" thing. He's befriended me now cuz he thinks I'm a nerd, too. For the record, I'm not. I've always been really, really cool. I may start saying, literally, "I'm an ultra cool, edgy romance writer chick diva" just to clear things up.

Ha! This is the type of rambling blog you get when no topic -- no topic-- comes to you.

I thought about writing about goals. Recently, I've set new goals to finish my novel before the RWA conference. Others in my writing group have set similar goals. A couple have mentioned our old 10k plan -- back in the fall, we were going to write 10k a month with set deadlines and monthly crits. I've since come to the conclusion that good goals have to belong exclusively to you without the added worry of what everyone else wants, unless it's some sort of team effort. Motivation has to come from within, too. My new motto is that to become serious, you have to become serious. It really is that simple. For me.

Saturday is our very last official chat for our Girls in the Basement class. I can't say enough about the workshop. I'm sad about it ending. Thankfully, I'm swamped with the new workshop and we're going to continue on with our gmail group so I may have met another little bit of my tribe. I actually have a made up tribe now in addition to my Girls and AoTP- it includes -- oh, wait-- I'm supposed to be ultra cool.

Okay, enough rambling. This post reminds me of my old coworker Brian, who on occasion would say "I'm not going to do anything useful today. Not one thing--" and then, he wouldn't. He'd screw around all day. I have managed to write a post about nothing. Not one thing. Ah well.

Cheers and happy writing--
Alyson

p.s. this is our 69th post here at AoTP. It seems as though a romance writer should go somewhere with that . . . but I'll just let you play with it in your imagination :)