IWSG, ROW80, Favourite Childhood Authors, and Photos from a Weekend Trip!

an Marie - all unknowingly - gave me a great idea for today's Insecure Writers' Support Group Day!

We've got an ongoing goals thread over at the writers' forum (where the character houseparty will start in just a few days!); Zan Marie is our current host, and she set a great theme this month:

"June is a month of settling in for me--settling into summer, settling into warm and *hot* weather. So, I thought we'd settle into the middle of the year, by being good to ourselves.

That's your theme -- What do you plan to do to be good to yourself? Do it just for you."

This is exactly what I need to hear. I've been feeling inwardly guilty (I say inwardly because I haven't been reduced to flagellating myself in public - well, except for on the forum and here) for a month now that I haven't been meeting my main ROW80 goals of editing my novel and current short story.

I've got two weeks left of this round, and I'm going to try to use it to come up with a tangible work and revision plan for the next round.

No more feeling guilty about my pace!


One of those goals is going to involve WRiTE Club! Yes, submissions are open!

Here's how DL describes it for those who haven't participated before:

"Its essence embodies simple, good-natured competition, with lots and lots of fun sprinkled on top. Over the course of eight weeks we'll be holding twice-weekly bouts in which the winners will advance to the play-offs, which will ultimately lead to a single champion. Bouts between who... or what... you ask. Anonymous 500 word writing samples, submitted under a pen name by anyone who wishes to take part, that's who. The writing can be any genre, any style (even poetry) with the word count being the only restriction. It's a way to get your writing in front of a lot of readers, without having to suffer the agony of exposure."

Follow the link to DL's blog for the rest of the guidelines.

I know exactly which 500 words I'm going to submit, and hopefully this will galvanize me into editing them!


Meanwhile... I've been rereading a few of my favourite books from childhood, including Budge Wilson's The Best Worst Christmas Ever, and Margaret Buffie's Who Is Frances Rain?

Margaret Buffie, by the way, is active on Facebook. It's so exciting to have conversations with a favourite author!

I hadn't made the connection, but Budge Wilson is the one who wrote the newly-authorised prequel to Anne of Green Gables! I had been avoiding reading that, but now that I know it was written by an author who's voice I trust, I've ordered it! I also ordered (yes, yes, I know I already have a TBR pile in the house...) a few other Budge Wilson books that feature the characters from the book I loved so long ago.


Which brings me to a mini-rant: the first thing I tried to do was order these books off Amazon.ca. Because, you know, I'd like to support the author.

Out of the seven books I ordered, only one was available on either Amazon, as a new book. The rest were secondhand copies. So instead I went to abebooks.com and ordered from as many independent Canadian bookshops as I could find. And one of the Budge Wilson books I got was signed by the author herself to fellow author Jean Little!


And now... a few more vacation photos!

These are from a weekend away in Glens Falls, New York, and Lenox, Massachussets:

Adirondack Mountains

The Cork n Hearth at Lenox, Mass

Berkshire Brewing Company taps at the Cork n Hearth

Davidson Brothers brews at Glens Falls

  

The Hyde Collection house at Glens Falls

  

The library at the Hyde house... are you as jealous as I am?

 

Rembrandt at the Hyde Collection

Glens Falls town centre

A panorama of the view from our hotel at Lenox

And me, having handmade ice cream...

Sunset at Lenox

Would you rather shop at Amazon or a local bookstore? Or a secondhand store?

What fun things have you discovered in secondhand books?