Appreciation can make a day, even change a life. Your willingness to put it all into words is all that is necessary.
— Margaret Cousins
Everyone wants to be appreciated, so if you appreciate someone, don’t keep it a secret.
— Mary Kay Ash
You get a good review, and it’s like crack. You need another hit. And another. And another. I know authors are like Tinkerbell and generally need applause to survive, but it’s a slippery slope.
― Alexandra Bracken
When was the last time you showed appreciation to someone for something they did? Of course, we do it all the time. When someone does something for us we thank them. Not just because it’s common courtesy, but because we appreciate that they took the time and trouble to do it.
Now, when was the last time you told a writer how much you appreciate the book they wrote?
I thought as much. Don’t worry, I’m guilty of the same thing. And this is something I’ve regretted over the years because I keep saying I’m going to, but I don’t. And now it’s too late to show my appreciation to a couple of my favorite authors – they died without knowing how much their books meant to me.
I don’t know what it is about showing appreciation to an author that’s so difficult. We’ll tell a friend or family member how much we loved a book, but rarely tell the author themselves. It’s a wonder any of us keep writing.
In the old days you could write your favorite author fan mail. These days it would be email, so much quicker and easier and you don’t have to make a trip to the post office. Some people show their appreciation by writing fan fiction, where they like a story so much that they never want it to end, so they continue it on their own. A prime example of this is the Shades of Grey series, that started out as fan fiction for the Twilight series.
Of course the sales help. When those sales figures go up an author knows they’re doing something right. Nothing says I love you like someone paying full price for the book you slaved over. I have to wonder though how Stephanie Myers felt about those sales figures from the Shades of Grey series creeping up towards those of Twilight.
Have you ever written a book review? I used to do that on a regular basis on a different blog (which is long gone now), and one of the perks of that was when publicists started sending me books to review. So many free books! But I only accepted books I intended to read, figuring it unethical to do otherwise.
Reviews are another way to show appreciation. I keep track of the books I read on the Goodreads site, and I’ll usually leave a quick little review when I add a book to my “read” list, but I never think to add the review to Amazon, where ratings are everything. And there’s no reason for me not to, other than sheer laziness.
So next time you read a book you really enjoy, let the author know. Send them some fan mail, or better yet, leave a review. I know I’m going to start trying to do so.
* ~ * ~ * ~ * ~ *
WORDAGE REPORT
THE WEEK IN REVIEW
I’m starting to see a pattern here. My weeks start out strong, and then somewhere in the middle they just seem to get away from me. Or they kind of peter right out. It’s a little bit frustrating!
Monday was a really good day – a nice balance between writing and stitching and reading. But Tuesday I had some medical stuff going on, and then I figured since the day was pretty much a write-off anyway, I might as well drive up to Peterborough to drop off the car load of donations I had.
Wednesday there was some unexpected socializing, which really threw what was left of my schedule off. Thursday I had a coffee date with a friend, which I might not have made if I’d known Wednesday afternoon was going to be a write-off.
By Friday my ambition had kind of deserted me. I worked in my office, but didn’t get much done. I fixed the poem I’d done for my “poemwork” . . . yeah, that was about it. In my defense, though. I’d like to point out that we’re deep into allergy season and my head has been hurting on a daily basis.
But also Friday, I had the final installment of The Pond up. I probably could have split it into two, but I really wanted to end at part 40. And I was getting a little tired of it. And despite the fact that it seems a little rushed, it did end the way I’d always intended it to.
And the really good news is, I’m pretty sure I’ve figured out what my next serial is going to be. It’s a strange story I had the idea for many, many years ago, loosely based on a poem I did that personified winter.
Should be something a little different.
NEW WORDS:
2205+633+427+1099=4,364
DOWN – 85 words from last week
Down a little bit from last week, despite the rather lengthy post on Friday. But I’m still not tempted to include my morning pages (which I’ve been doing faithfully) because first, they’re hand written and I’d have to either count the words myself or type them out, which seems a little redundant, and second, I don’t know how creative they are really, they’re more just angsty, whiny, rants. :-D
But I have to admit, sometimes my morning pages are a bit of a struggle. Not because I don’t have anything to write about, but because I’ve been getting distracted lately. I come downstairs and sit in my recliner to do them before I go to the gym, but the kittens lately have decided to start going after my plants, breaking my train of thought when I have to chase them away from them. Maybe I need to sit at the dining room table, or go into my office to do them.
I did spend more time in my office last week, but I forgot the advice from one of the workshops where the instructor said to take a 5 minute break every 25 minutes or so. My office chair is not as comfortable as my recliner, so sitting in it for long stretches at a time becomes really uncomfortable.
Goals For Next Week:
Find a workable routine to generate more words.
EDITING:
0 hours
One of these days I’m going to surprise the heck out of everyone and actually have something to report here. And no, I’m not going to remove it from my wordage report due to lack of updating like I did the marketing and tech. This is something I really want to get done, I just keep getting . . . distracted.
I know I said I wasn’t going to split my master list into sub-lists, but maybe I need to at least make a list of all the writing projects I want to do. A lot of the time with me it’s “out of sight, out of mind,” but if I have a list to consult then I won’t forget. And maybe I won’t waste as much time on games and surfing – I can work on something from that list instead.
Goal For Next Week:
Figure out the prophecy; get editing Elemental Spirit.
POETRY:
I found last week’s form, the Octo, kind of interesting, despite the lack of information about it and the fact there is another form with the same name. And I liked the two examples I wrote for it.
There was supposed to a poetry gathering last Wednesday, but it ended up being cancelled at the last minute. I’ll spare you the details of the miscommunication revolving around it, but in the end I was just as happy I had more time to work on my “poemwork.” I really had to scramble to get my poem finished, and it certainly wasn’t my best work, but I was able to fix it now, and while it’s not perfect, it’s a lot better.
I was inspired to start a new poem that was neither a form nor poemwork yesterday. The bones of it are there, but whether or not I flesh it out remains to be seen. It’s a little morbid. I may finish writing it anyway, just for me.
Goal For Next Week:
Find another new poetry form to share. Expand on the other poems I started.
CRAFTING:
I finished the first square of my zentangle sampler and I’m debating what to do with the second one. I don’t want them all to look the same, so I’m thinking of doing an actual picture in the next square instead of a true zentangle.
To be honest, I didn’t really give much thought to the overall design/theme when I started, which I’m beginning to see I should have. The first square is fine, but it was a bit of a pain to figure out what stitch to use next each time I finished a section. But if I do 9 squares altogether, I can do one square in each row something other than a zentangle design.
Like, this row I can do just a scene of some kind. The next row I can do an appliqué, and the third row I could do stumpwork or something like that. Or maybe just to keep the look of it even, I could do two appliqués, one on each side, in the middle row and then the stumpwork in the center of the bottom row.
Lots of things to consider, I guess. But I need to consider them soon because I don’t want to lose my momentum.
My baker’s rack is all trussed up and ready to go, but getting it here is turning out to be a bigger issue than we counted on. My father-in-law has not been able to get a hold of the neighbor who’s got the truck, and I’m pretty sure we’re going to need a couple of extra bodies to help move it. It doesn’t look like much all trussed up, but trust me, that sucker is heavy! As well it should be considering it’s made of wrought iron and wood.
The art supplies I got from my father-in-law are just going to have to join the rest of my stash for now. I want to get my routine with the writing and crafting well established before I add art into the mix. Once I get my baker’s rack in place I want to get back into my jewelry making and bead work, something I can’t really do right now, especially with a pair of nosy kittens around (I can close the door to my craft room to work).
Goal For Next Week:
Figure out a layout for my sampler; start thinking about the granddaugher’s dress for this year’s father/daughter ball.
WHAT I’M READING:
I haven’t been doing as much reading lately. I’m still reading The Little Flower Shop, by Lori Foster – I’m about halfway through it.
And I’m ashamed to admit that I slacked off a bit on the bike riding, but I still managed to read Glacial Eyes, by J.K. Walker, and I’ve started Rule of Three, by Kelly Jamieson.
I did figure out how to upload new books to my Paperwhite, but I have no idea which ones are new and which were already on there. My old Kindle was having issues updating, so even though I was downloading books, they weren’t being uploaded. And I have no idea how many books, or what date, I stopped updating to the old device.
And there’s no option (at least not one I could see) for “update all new books” so I have no idea where I’m at as far as being up to date. Does that make any sense?
Goal For Next Week:
See if I can figure out how to put books in folders on the Paperwhite.
THE WEEK AHEAD:
I have my stitch-in at the library on Tuesday and a blood test on Thursday next week, and that’s it. Hopefully there won’t be any unexpected visitors and I have no coffee plans. However, as I’ve seen in the past, that doesn’t necessarily mean I’m going to have a more productive week.
For one thing, I need to get my garden in. Yes, that’s right, I still haven’t done that. I don’t even have bedding plants in the front garden. That’s because we were still getting frost warnings. It’s almost June, for crying out loud!
But while the long-range forecast isn’t exactly promising summer temperatures, at least the temperature isn’t supposed to drop so drastically at night. So at the very least I’ll be putting in some gardening time.
I need to make a little more time for crafting this week. You know, once I settle on the overall design for the sampler. I’m actually starting to wonder how it would look if I alternated sampler squares with picture squares. Might be a little more cohesive looking. *sigh* Decisions, decisions.
I’d like to get a little more creative with my writing. I’m not sure yet if this is going to be the meditative writing, or maybe a prompt a week, or maybe a combination of the two. Or maybe it can even be following the lessons in some of the writing books I have. Or, heaven forbid, accessing some of those courses I’ve paid for.
Here, again, is another reason to keep a writing specific list. I write down all these ideas for progress here, but then I promptly forget about them.
I can see the track and it’s getting closer, but there are still a lot of weeds to cut through before I’m able to step back on it.
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