2012: It's a Wrap!

Well, there goes another year of blogging. This has been my least productive year as a blogger, but you know what? I had a lot going on, so I'm not going to worry too much about it.

I started the year reading/reviewing The Chronology of Water a memoir by Lidia Yuknavitch. It reminded me why I love to write and that I want/need to push myself to that raw, honest place where Lidia goes. If you still haven't read this, I highly recommend it.

Then I started nesting in preparation for Kiara's grand entrance into my life. I painted a mountain mural, and readied the nursery.

And then I spent the bulk of the next couple of months getting Overdue Apologies ready for publication. I hate book promotion, but I love making play lists so I put together three soundtracks, one for each part of the middle school memoir. If you're a fan of 80s pop, these are the mix tapes for you. I published a few excerpts from the memoir and hoped it would move, but I didn't do enough to promote it, didn't properly release it or stage readings, so although it sold in modest numbers, it hasn't done nearly as well as Through Eyes Like Mine.

Then, on April 1, I had a baby. April Fools. No, really, I did. You can read Kiara's birth story in three parts. The link starts with part three so if you want to read them in order scroll to the last post first. 

When summer arrived I read a book: Looking for Alaska by John Green. I liked it, but took issue with a section where he referred to basketball players as ape men. He doesn't think it is racist. I think it is. You can read the whole deal here. Again, the original post is after all of the conversation which followed.

I haven't written much since. I am a new mother struggling to figure out how to make the writing fit. I also tore my Achilles tendon which sucks. Everybody stretch. You don't want to tear, or strain, or rupture that tendon! But I wrote the draft of a novel during NaNoWriMo, and that helped me learn how to sneak in time at the page no matter what else I have going on.

So, thanks for hanging with me in 2012, and here's to 2013. Happy New Year.

ESA On Ice!

I can't believe 2012 is almost over. It's been a big year and as I procrastinate my end-of-the-year blog I decide instead to post about this year's ESA ice skating trip.

It was our second year taking middle schoolers to Santa Monica to skate and hang out on the promenade. For the second year I didn't get to skate, but I still had a blast watching my students skate, stumble, and slip around that little outdoor rink.

It's the closest I get to sharing a Central Oregon winter with them and until we get a college trip to Oregon, I guess it will have to do. Here's a link to my post about skating last year with an excerpt from Overdue Apologies about ice skating and Spin the Bottle.