Saturday Stories: The Mystery of the Missing Fat Man

ITS SATURDAY!!!! Not only is Saturday a sleep in and hang out in your pajamas day (in my house anyway) Saturday is STORY DAY! So settle in and get ready..but first, let me update you on my goal chasing for the week.

If you don’t subscribe to my BookTube channel, you probably didn’t see my weekly goals last Sunday. That’s fine, the good news is that you can go right HERE and check them out (don’t forget to subscribe while you’re there 😛 )

So how did I do? Well, I completed Liar and a review will be up on the channel sometime soon while a written review is already available on this blog: here.

Monkey and I told the story of Little Monster and you can view that video HERE.

I am waiting for my illustrator to complete the final picture needed for Leonard the Lemur, but she’s in the finishing stages and the rest of the book is ready and waiting for that addition.

I did not write anything at all on Paulonious Punk , nor did I write any short stories *hangs head in shame*. I have, however, joined Camp NaNoWriMo and written the first 2k on the second half of The Way We Were. Progress is progress..write? *ahem* I mean, right?

I am planning on focusing my will power on Pauly P. and his adventure today but first, I’m going to tell you a little true story. Ready?

George and the Mystery of the Missing Fat Man.

Last night my daughter and I pulled a book from her shelf and settled in to read a bed time story. The book we chose was Curious George Flies a Kite by H.A. Rey. The edition was an old one I’d found at a thrift shop and has a page torn from it. We know the stories by heart and didn’t think that would be a big deal. BOY HOWDY it was. Want to know why? The new editions are updated for new generations and adapted to the television show. The edition we were reading was published in 1958. In the 1958 edition there were 3 different stories and one was what we know now as “Curious George Goes Fishing.” In this story George sees a man walk by with a long stick that has a long string attached and he realizes the guy is going fishing. In 1958 the fisherman is referred to as “The Fat Man” several times. In the 2012 Curious George’s 5 minute stories the tale of “Curious George Goes Fishing” refers to the fat man as ‘A Big Man’ when George first sees him, and then just as ‘the man’ for the rest of his part of the story. So the original beloved children’s tale was ‘tweaked’ and now the fat man is missing.

I realize that we live in a time of political correctness and fight against body shaming and all of that jazz…but this is a children’s book meant for small kids. Maybe I’m just naïve about how other people raise their children, but mine didn’t blink an eye or start pointing and laughing or anything even resembling fat shaming. She did say “Hey look, that’s a BIIIG fishing rod!” So why change it?

What do you think? I’ll leave it to you to decide.

Saturday Stories 2/27

Hello my friends! Sorry I’ve been so MIA the past two weeks, I seem to have had time getting away from me lately. Though looking back on the month I don’t seem to have really accomplished all that much, but I have been extremely busy. So, let’s figure out how I did and get to the short story reward, like the gooey chocolate at the center of crunchy cake pop :).

To recap my ‘goals’ for the week, you can go watch this video and see what I thought I could do.

Goal Updates:

Writing – 

I was supposed to type up everything I have handwritten and ready to type. Unfortunately my much loved laptop has been a little too loved and my programs are not working as well as they should (and I procrastinated a little) so I only got a few pages of Paulonious Punk taken care of. I did, however, purchase a new laptop so I can move my hundreds of word documents over and get back to writing!

 

Reading –

I completed Truthwitch and gave it a 4 out of 5 stars. The writing is gorgeous and the story is a fast paced thing of beauty. I’ll have a full review up sometime soon(ish).

 

Sewing/Coloring/Exercising – 

I managed to get a princess dress cut out for the little monkey and am going to try to sew it up today around my band practice schedule.

I did not complete the coloring pages, but I did a little more coloring on them and expect to have both completed this weekend.

As for exercising, I was able to go 3 days this week and the other 2 I was very active at home. I also upped my weight training weights to the next level, which made me super excited!

Now on to the good stuff! This week’s story excerpt is from a novel I began several years ago…and then kind of abandoned in pursuit of a different story. Here is the first bit of Sylvester, hopefully there will be more some day.

Sylvester

“I have to.” The words were simple, the gaze steady as Annabelle watched Sylvester pace the clearing. “No, you don’t. Those people don’t even know you, you don’t know them. Why are you so intent on helping those who would cast you aside if they knew who you really were?”

He was irritated, and had a right to be. His girlfriend, the woman who he had been on the brink of proposing to, had just informed him she was going to hop worlds and help people she had never met to defeat some nameless threat. Not only that, but to do what she was planning, she would disappear from their world and become a baby in the other. He might never see her again, all for some people she had only seen in a dream.

“I’m sorry, I have to. I hope you’ll understand someday love. Goodbye.”

Then she was gone. A world away a child screamed into the night. “It’s a girl.”

Chapter One

As a child, Brianna had dreams of another world. One where magic was as natural as air and people watched and waited for her. Somewhere, in the back of her mind, Bri knew these people. Sometimes she could remember their names, and would excitedly turn to them, but she would always wake at this point, dream memories niggling at her brain until she pushed them aside. As she grew the dreams became more in depth, more real. She would wake smelling the scents of otherworldly kitchens, feeling the softness of otherworldly grass.

She began seeing the people from her dreams out of the corner of her eye, in broad daylight. She would sense them watching her, urging her to something she couldn’t understand, or rather, felt as if she couldn’t remember. In defense, she turned to the things all teenage girls find interest in: sports, music, books, friends, and, of course, boys.

If there were those that watched her grow, rejoiced for her achievements, grieved in her failures, that was their business. And if there were those that watched a little more closely than others, whose heart broke a little with each new boyfriend, they did so in silence. All watched with bated breath as she began the path that would lead her to her destiny. Some watched, wishing they could help. Some watched waiting for their chance to foil her fate. None of them, though, could have imagined what would come next.

Weekend Posts

The weekend got away from me without my posting of my weekly word counts, wrap up, goals, etc. So here are the quick videos I made for the BookTube channel and some numbers for you:

Writing –

I wrote approximately 2,500 words last week. While many people seem excited about that, I have been known to write 5-10 thousand words in a day and am not to pleased with myself. However, I know that sometimes you just don’t get as much done and if I write at all, I win. Mostly 😉

As for reading, I got through about 20 pages total (which is discussed a little more in the videos)

How did you do last week? Can you believe January is already over???

I hope you’re having a wonderful start to an even better February! Happy month everyone!

Weekly Goals

Weekly Goals

Just like last Sunday, I have 3 writing goals and a TBR.

Writing Goals:

1. At least 3 chapters of Paulonious Punk
2. Organize one or two character sections of The Way We Were
3. Edit and Perfect (as much as possible) The Siren’s Tale

TBR:

Six of Crows by Leigh Bardugo

 

Bonus Goal…send a query or two out to agents!

If you would like to know more about these goals, check out my BookTube video below. As always, I would LOVE to hear from you so leave me a comment and let me know what you’re up to this week.

 

Goals for 2016

There are approximately 12 hours left until the year 2015 dies away with the bang of firecrackers and chanting, 5…4…3…2…1 – 2016 will be born in bright lights or, in many places, the dark contemplativeness of ancient stars and moon.

In honor of this yearly renewal, many people create resolutions and goals for their lives. Things like “I will exercise at the gym 5 days a week” or “This year I swear I’ll be nicer to my co-workers.” Last year I resolved to not resolve a thing…and that rings us here, to my goals for the new year.  These are all things that have been growing, pressing on my mind and heart more and more as 2015 fades to allow 2016’s entrance. I’ll list them for you here, and if you’d like to see the video I made for my Book Tube channel you can click the link at the bottom of the page.

May your New Year be blessed with love, inspiration, and enough resolve to get you through anything you have coming at you.

Goals for 2016:

Personal:

1) Read with my daughter daily and work on letters/numbers etc for her pre-literacy love of words

2) Continue to eat healthy and get up/move around more

3) GET ORGANIZED!!! (For every aspect of my life!)

 

Reading: 

1) Participate in reading challenge(s):

a) PopSugar Challenge

b) Book Tuber Recommends Challenge

2) Read more Diversely

3) Read between 50-75 books (hopefully many, many more!)

Writing:

1) Review more books for both Book Tube videos and Blogs!

2) Face my fear of failure and rejection and FIND AN AGENT!

3) Enter at least 1 contest a month (mostly short stories)

4) Promote books and TyreeTomes each month

5) Complete Works in Progress (WIPs)!

6) Stick to a schedule and really work on Blog and Book Tube videos. (3 videos and 4-5 blog posts a week prefereably)

7) Write! Write everyday, everywhere…and attend at least one writing retreat or lectureship etc this year (classes, retreat, bookcon…something!)

What are your resolves?

 

Weekly Goals – 8/30-9/5

This week I have an incredibly important, incredibly difficult goal to complete:

I am dead certain that I need to do…Something.

I’m not quite sure what all that something will entail. However, there will be writing of several types involved. Maybe even some cooking and clean clothes…but let’s not push things!

Oh yeah, I’ve been cleared to exercise again now that my foot is healed up. So there’s a possibility for that as well.

Basically, i don’t know what I’m doing. Not that it’s uncommon..I never know what I’m doing.

What about you? Do you have a long goal list this week?

Goals at a Glance 8/9 – 8/15

I think I may have tried to start this a while back and then didn’t stick with it…sounds like something I would do anyway! So here it is, I’m going to list out my goals for the week. Sounds simple right? Like I should be able to just say what I’m going to do and go on without much to-do about it? Well, it might be that simple for most people but I tend to garble, forget, or postpone my to-do list unless I have something or someone pushing me on (nicely).

Since I thought that, perhaps, some of you may be the same about your goals, I decided to share mine and encourage you to either post a list of your own (in the comments or on your blog) OR whatever else it takes to have the accountability you need. Little things really help me to ignore the big writing things, so having accountability will hopefully help me reach all of my goals without sacrificing the reading portion.

Weekly Goals:

1. Write and upload the next 3 chapters of Vocabulary/Lesson Ideas/Quizzes for Dragon on My Neck
2. Write at least one new chapter for Dragons in the Deep
3. Write at least one new chapter for Paulonious Punk
4. Wash, dry, and PUT AWAY laundry (its that last part…gets me every time)
5. Work on creating Monkey’s pdf files for the book
6. Create new cover them for Stone Dragon books
7. Sew Monkey’s birthday presents
8. Clean Monkey’s Playroom (She’s almost 3, MAKE HER HELP!)
9. Finally watch the end of those 3 different seasons of shows on Netflix…it’s been a while Elizabeth, get ‘er done.
10. Sew bibs and various cute and super nerdy baby things. College friend baby #1 will be here in 2 months woman! Niece and or nephew in 7…get on it!
11. Crochet hoodie for Monkey.
12. Edit…
13. Write at least 3 blog posts *not counting today’s*

Thirteen things…I can handle this! What about you?

WELCOME TO 2015

I resolve to be more like the Minions – Happy and Sassy. Wait! They’re mutated slaves…lets think about this for a minute.

I don’t know about your friends, but most of mine tend to make fun of the traditions involved with New Year’s Day and making resolutions…especially as they, themselves, are in the process of resolving to be/do/see/or say something differently in the coming year.

This is a trend I’ve noticed more and more on television, radio shows, magazine articles, and social media…the ‘I’ll make fun of anything, even while I’m in the middle of trying it’ syndrome. Exercises, diets, clothing and hairstyle trends, and resolutions all get the same treatment. But why is that? Are we really so afraid to leave the pack that we cannot stop ourselves from this behavior? Are we, as what passes for adults, really so wrapped up in everyone else that we don’t have our own voices? Or are we just still living with the high school mentality that making fun of everything somehow makes us seem cool?

Honestly, I have no idea. But I do know that I actually saw two resolutions all the way through the end of 2014, and it felt GOOD! I don’t actually think that I’ve made it all the way through before. But this year I followed through on both getting a job (I’m a teacher…what what!) and writing at least one short story a week! (Ok, so I didn’t always get them posted on time, but I did WRITE them..which was my resolution after all).

So let’s get down to the brass tacks: What are THIS YEAR’S RESOLUTIONS?

Here a few from me, and I would love to hear from you!

I resolve…to make strict and followable goals instead of vague resolutions! Because “I’m going to try to get healthy this year” does nothing but sit there on the paper while I eat chocolate and flip channels!

1) I will realize that just because the New Year has begun does NOT mean that I automatically change. I must WORK if I want to see the changes!

2) I will eat at least 2 meals a week that are meatless but full of hearty vegetables (This does NOT include the meal of chips and salsa I try to sneak in once a week or so)

3) I will continue to write on an (almost) daily basis but try to remember that if I miss a day or two it is not the end of the world. Life interferes and that is the normal way of things. (grr)

4) I will attempt to be more loving and patient with my child, my family, and my students. Really I will!

5) I will get a planner and USE IT for more than a month or two at a time. (last year’s planner was used for January, February, July, and October) This also goes into a whole big thing about organization. Baby steps people, its all about baby steps.

6) I will learn to knit. Those slippery non-hooked needles will not get the best of me!

7) I will do my best to do my best, even on days when I don’t feel it in my core. Fake til you make it and all that jazz. (Nerdy quotes help people succeed, remember that!)

Happy New Year! May 2015 be blessed and full of love, success, and inspiration beyond your wildest dreams.