Motivational Failure and other stories

Lou being away for three days makes Jenna make this face:

:-|

Meh. The whole world is meh. I have no motivation. Last night, I left dirty dishes in the sink and stayed up until one AM reading Twilight.

* * *

Look what came this week, though:

I'm in a book! That I can hold in my own two hands!
And now I can read everyone else's essays, too!

The mysteriously-truncated document has been fixed. And if you bought the book when it came out with part of my essay and the entirety of the back matter missing, email me and I'll put you in touch with the editor.

* * *

Last weekend, Lou and I tore out all the juniper and shrubbery on the front of the house. I am thrilled. I'd like to put in roses and rhodies and all manner of flowery things. Thus far, however, I mostly have a few sticks in the ground to mark where things are planted. But remember how it used to look like this?:

Now it looks like this:

Which picture doesn't do it half justice, partly because it's too much in the shade, and partly because the new little sweet peas and snapdragons aren't visible. But give it time. At least it doesn't look like a shrubbery-overgrown CPA's office now.

In other gardening pretties: I have no idea what these are, but I love them.

Also, I've got a baby pumpkin plant! I put the seeds in the ground three weeks ago, and thought I'd have to replant. All of a sudden, just yesterday, up one came. No word on the zucchini, yet.

The beans waited well past their supposed germination time, too, but have been popping up quite cheerfully over this past week.

But the showstoppers of the week have been the laburnum and the pink rhododendron. Once upon a time, somebody really loved this little 'bit of earth'. I'm grateful to get to take up their mantle.

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Writers' link of the week: Colleen Lindsay on authors and self-promotion. Ah, how I'm grateful to live in the age of the internet.

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Music of the week: Rambling about the house this week, I put on the first ever mixtape I made for myself, which I'd pretentiously titled Liebesfeier. And other than that I've tired of Howie Day's Collide, the mix is still completely awesome. I must say.

This song, the closing piece from that disc, is some of my favorite pop songwriting ever. If you're not keen on slightly out-of-balance live performances, there's a better quality recording here.



* * *

Random amusement of the week: Turns out, I have the same birthday as Dwight Schrute. Who knew? What fictional character's birthday do you share?

* * *

With a fellow book clubber wanting to borrow my copy of Mark Shea's By What Authority, and the ever-present urgency to get querying, I'm going to see if deadlines can't restore some of my motivation. Oh, and I haven't cleaned house yet, either.

Meh.

Happy weekend, anyway.

Bonus Post: Regarding Mockingjay

Mockingjay: Is There Redemption amid the Horror?

My latest post at The Hog's Head, on the final installment in Suzanne Collins' The Hunger Games series. Feel free to check it out.

At The Hog's Head: Harry, Horror and The Hunger Games

Today's post belongs to The Hog's Head. I just finished reading Suzanne Collins' The Hunger Games, and while I will probably write a full Currently Reading post about it shortly here, it suggested some thoughts for the pub.

Feel free to check it out!

At the Hog's Head: Literature and Lessons

Today's post went to The Hog's Head. I had originally intended to post it here, but decided it belonged at least as well there. Referencing Shannon Hale's aggregation of thoughts from various YA writers and M.T. Anderson's excellent essay, "On Ideology and Chickens with Blankets," I'm hoping for a good discussion on the relationship between morals/worldview/ideology and storytelling.

You're welcome to check it out and join the conversation at this link.

Fictional Characters Everywhere

After several weeks of burying myself too deep in essay to get much else done, I'm back at The Hog's Head today posting about seeing fictional characters everywhere. That is something I do--seeing fictional characters around, I mean; sometimes they're even people from my own books. There's a toddling boy at church that looks so much like I'd imagine my main character's brother at that age that if I ever spoke to him it would require conscious thought to not call him the wrong name. And the Lily Evans I spotted recently was married to a guy who from the side looked a lot like another of my characters. I had a very hard time not staring.

Want to know who else I've seen? Click here to find out. And I'd love to hear if you have stories about fictional character sightings.

Twitter Gets Another Try

If I hadn't forgotten, my first tweet in two years probably would have been "Tweet ... tweet ... ON TOP OF SPAAGHEEEEEETTTIIII ... #CalvinandHobbes" But I forgot. Oh well.

Setting up my profile for Google Buzz actually sent me back to Twitter. That, and an article by Michael Hyatt that I read months ago. I started doing some research, and found that Twitter is more than a place where you can read the whole world's Facebook status updates. Conversation happens.

Or, you could just say I'm an internet junkie.

As an introvert, I find large amounts of conversation overwhelming, but we'll see how I do with the birds. It'll take me some time to figure out how to navigate in that world, but Michael Hyatt says to try thirty days. Here goes.

Do you tweet? You can find me at @jennasthilaire. I won't promise to follow every single person who comes and follows me, but I will if I recognize you from life or the combox. :)