By: Emily Smith Pearce,
on 6/10/2014
Blog:
Emily Smith Pearce
(
Login to Add to MyJacketFlap)
JacketFlap tags:
Books,
kids,
games,
toys,
nature,
Crafts,
plants,
weeds,
outdoor fun,
outdoor play,
Kid Crafts,
Add a tag
Hi again folks. What have you been up to? I hope it’s getting warm and green wherever you are.
Here in Charlotte it’s very warm now, too warm, but it’s been exciting to see all the flowers make an appearance, and inevitably, there are lots of weeds popping up, too. Lately I’ve been thinking about the things my friends and I used to do with various weeds when we were kids.
- There was the weeds-into-pop-guns trick, pictured above (arrowhead weeds, I just learned they’re called).
- Trying to make a grass blade whistle (okay, not weeds, but still counts)
- Of course making a wish on dandelion heads
Know any others?
I’ve been so focused on my writing goals that I haven’t been doing a lot of crafts and (interesting) cooking, though I do have a few things l’d like to share in the coming weeks. Our last day of school is today, which means my schedule will be quite a bit different from here until the end of August.
I’ll try to be here as much as I can, but you may find me more frequently on Twitter and Instagram, since those are easy for quick snippets. My Twitter handle is @emilysmithpearc and I’m on Instagram as Emily Smith Pearce.
Good news! I reached the goals I set for myself with both my nonfiction and YA novel manuscripts. This is big. So much writing done this year, though it’s easy to wish I had gotten even more done.
Currently reading: The Divorce Papers by Susan Rieger and The Great Green Heist by Varian Johnson (both purchased at Park Road Books). Currently watching: Game of Thrones and Orange is the New Black.
I have a small plaque on my desk at the library: "In Life, don't let the weeds overtake your dreams!" Nearly ever day someone reads the quote outloud and comments on the simple advice. Many times it's the adults who ponder on their future, sharing how they haven't had time to work on their goals or dreams. My usual response, "that's why I display the plaque! We should NEVER forget our dreams."
Every day happenings have a way of nudging our dreams right out of our thoughts, let alone off our "To Do" List. Staying focused is hard. But that doesn't mean we let the routine part of life choke our goals til they no longer thrive. We need to take a moment or two and decide what it is that overtakes our creative ambitions? And what can we do to accomplish our once shiny and sparkling dreams? How do we make them a priority?
So, after contemplating awhile, I'm taking my own advice; I'm restructuring my goals, creating time to read more, write more and make a real effort to keep the weeds from covering up my dreams. I'm striving for time management - a real challenge for me!
What helps you stick to your routine? Do you have a favorite inspirational saying? Perhaps most importantly, how do you avoid the pitfalls that suck away your writing time?
Take a moment to share with us.
Til next time ~
DL Larson
Well, here it is - the dreaded post without an illustration to go with it (gasp). I had high hopes for lots of art time over summer, but that hasn't been the case. Any free time has gone to selling the house and related home improvements and, now, sorting through things and moving to the new house next month. Oh well...
But, I wanted to check in and let you know I'm still here. And, I'm determined to do something in the sketchbook. I'll be back with a visual soon!
Ok ok! I just can't leave this without an image. So, here's a little something from the past. I just love the way the texture from the paper gave the cloak such weight in this drawing. It was an unexpected discovery. Overall, a fun doodle when I was doing it.
With this week's topic, I had a childhood memory of how I used to always wonder where the seeds from a flower would plant themselves when you blew them into the wind. (I know...totally corny!) I am sure my neighbors could have done without me blowing weeds into their yard.
Here is a quick experimentation with Painter's digital watercolor brushes and Hard Pastel on Rice paper. I have not used Painter's watercolors in awhile and I had forgotten how wonderful the brushes are for showing fluid movement. (the seeds blowing out of the dandelion are the "Spatter Water" brush.) When I worked traditonally, I could never control my spatters and would always end up with a muddy mess.
If people like this experimentation then maybe I will do a tutorial next on painter's watercolor and pastels tools. Let me know if you are interested...
The last of the Bedwyn stories and the one that I have been looking forward to the most. This is the story of the Duke of Bewcastle who, up until this book, has been portrayed as a cold, arrogant man with little feeling for his siblings (except at rare moments when he can’t seem to help himself) It is obvious that he has been deeply hurt and needs love. Enter Christine Derrick, a widow and person who lives life to the fullest. Disasters seem to follow her everywhere and Wulfric seems to be the one who is always saving her. Despite himself he seems to be falling for her. So he offers for her to be his mistress. She is appalled and tells him so. More time passes and they are thrown together in a lot of different ways. Is Wulfric’s heart thawing or will he always have ice for a heart?
Another of the Bedwyn’s but Freyja Bedwyn, the older sister, is a little bit more rough and tumble than Morgan. Freyja goes to Bath to escape the birth of the son of her formerly betrothed neighbor. She meets a veritable rapscallion and proceeds to have the time of her life with him. Meanwhile, Joshua Moore thinks he will be bored to tears in Bath, but after meeting Freyja knows that is not going to happen. They decide to enter into a fake engagement on a lark, but soon it looks like it might become all too real. That is if the Duke of Bewcastle, Freyja’s brother, has anything to say about it. I don’t care as much for Freyka as I did for her siblings; she is a little too rough around the edges, but it is a good story.
So I am on a Bedwyn kick and this is another of Balogh’s tales about the infamous Bedwyn family. In this one Lady Morgan, the youngest of the Bedwyns, travels to Brussels and becomes embroiled, if only peripherally, in the Battle of Waterloo. Her beloved brother Alleyne lost, she finds herself adrift and alone save for the Earl of Rosthorn who takes her of her and see she makes it safely home. Of course this causes all sorts of scandalous talk (historical romance during 19th century England tends to have lots of scandal) and just when Morgan and the Earl seem to be out of trouble they fall headlong back into it again. This is a thoroughly unconventional family and there is a lot of secret rendezvous happening.
.jpg?picon=1621)
Deb, it's a good discussion topic.
I've found an inexhaustible list of displacement activities to justify not writing.
At the beginning I was naiive and my writing was that of a beginner during the first two novels. Then, just as I started to hit my stride, I discovered peer group review both in groups and online.
The distractions went through various phases. I retrofitted a rational to each phase, delight accompanying my discovery that 'reviewing others' work was the best source of learning as a writer'. It took my mentor to drag me kicking and screaming from online review sites.
So then I needed another 'valid distraction' and got into building social network platforms as an author. Essential if I wanted to sell my ebook. At the moment I'm struggling to find the writing / social networking balance. Note not work / life balance. Taht'll come later!
Full story of my Compulsive Communication Syndrome on my blog http://rubybarnes.blogspot.com
Cheers
Ruby
Ruby ~
finding the balance between networking vs. writing productive pages is a constant struggle. I've opted to get back to basics ... which means more writing and less internet time. We'll see what happens.
Thanks for sharing ~
DL Larson
I'm easily distracted these days, so almost anything can sidetrack me.
Morgan Mandel