Month: July 2019

Let’s just take a moment and give thanks for Gordon Lightfoot.  Because he’s B.A.

This article from Harpers Magazine earned the San Luis Valley a spot on my travel list.  Just incredibly well written, an interesting life to contemplate.

I’ve never been a big doughnut person.  I can appreciate a decent cake donut, preferably plain.  I probably ate my weight in chocolate-frosted cake donuts when I was a kid (and since they don’t taste the same as they did from the Waukon Bakery, I just don’t like them anymore).  But over the past year, I’ve gained a decent appreciation for the Danish.  Hyvee makes a caramel pecan one that’s crispy and addictive.  This article takes a look at an iconic pastry.

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Listening: Of course, since I read about the San Luis Valley, I had to listen to Gregory Alan Isakov’s song:

Reading:  Work decided to ramp up this week, so unfortunately, that means life has been light on the reading front.

Writing Life:  That damn work and how it encroaches on my creative world! 😉 On the bright side, I did take a couple mental health days and that means some heads down time in my book. 

Happy Friday!

– Shelley

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What is Friday Fare? As a recap, on Fridays I post link love to the various bits of arcane shiz I discover on the Interwebs.  I liken it to a glimpse into my mind, but without the 80s song lyrics or mental cobwebs.

Timing is Everything … I really appreciated this insight from Angelique L’Amour’s blog post.  And as always, how does this relate to my own life?  (And some uncomfortable questions that causes me to ask myself.)

Jill Lepore wrote an incredible piece called “The Lingering of Loss” for The New Yorker.  I can’t define one facet of this piece that spoke to me (a writer who is also a mom?  That intersection of motherhood and creativity?  The importance of female friends? [One of mine was having a health crisis when I originally found this.] Loss?  There’s been a couple important losses recently in my life. [Although shit, thank God my cat didn’t have a laptop, I don’t even want to know what he’d have surfed on the Internet.])  The whole of this piece is poignant and incredible.

Nick. Cave.  That is all.

My husband sent me this article – the gist of it being a state of Iowa employee was dismissed by the governor for having an obsession with the late rapper Tupac Shakur.  And the article, right there, as it’s stated sounds like a solid read.  Until you click on the link and realize that this employee is not the disenfranchised Gen X-er or Millennial who could/should be digging Tupac’s music, but an old white dude.  And all of the sudden, your heart fills with hope.  At least mine did after I stopped giggling like a madwoman.

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Listening: Earlier this week, I got to see 10,000 Maniacs.  Natalie Merchant may not be with the band anymore, but when I listen to 10,000 Maniacs, I’m back in high school.  (And actually, driving my car in a ditch while listening to the live version of “Like the Weather”.  Seriously. )

Reading: Ooooooof … I finished Tracy Clark’s second Cass Raines book this week (Borrowed Time) and wow.  My Kindle drained itself of battery when I was 94% through the book, so I plugged it in and stood to read the rest of it.  Reading Clark is like a master class for plot, tension, and dialogue.  Also, her characters are just finely drawn people that leap off the page.

I also read Meg Hafdahl’s Daughters of Darkness, her second book in the Willoughby Chronicles.  It was literally un-putdownable as in, I started reading it, skipped dinner, and finished it waaaaay after my bedtime.

They say that if you want to be a writer, you need to read avidly.  I sometimes lose track of that, but it is true.  After reading Meg’s book, I couldn’t sleep and ended up doing some more writing. 🙂

Writing Life: Steady as it goes …

Happy Friday!

– Shelley

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What is Friday Fare? As a recap, on Fridays I post link love to the various bits of arcane shiz I discover on the Interwebs.  I liken it to a glimpse into my mind, but without the 80s song lyrics or mental cobwebs.

Soooo many good articles.  Let’s dig in, shall we?

A throwback from The Atlantic that popped into my Internet “suggestions” – the fact that Hollywood doesn’t make movies like “The Fugitive” anymore.  They probably have their reasons (I’ll withhold too much comment about the new Hollywood formula of remaking the hell out of everything), but this piece was a joy to read.  Because I loved “The Fugitive.”  I doubt that I saw it in the theater, but my family probably rented it.  Then rented it again.  And if it showed up on some random movie channel, we’d sit down and watch it again.  Because it is that good.  This line particularly slayed me:  “One of the movie’s more frequently quoted lines, which (Tommy Lee) Jones conjured the morning of the shoot, has him telling a marshal who claims he is ‘thinking’: ‘Well, think me up a cup of coffee and a chocolate donut with some of those little sprinkles on top, while you’re thinking.'”

Here’s a list challenge of “100 Books You May Have Actually Read.”  And it’s a pretty decent list of newer books and classic standbys.  I have read 37/100 books.

Why yes, I’m still a sucker for productivity articles, but this one was really interesting – why you need an untouchable day every week.  Mark it on your calendar, put your smartphone in airplane mode, and lock the office door (literally or figuratively).  I love the idea of what that could do to my productivity and am thinking about actual ways that I could make that a practice in my life, even if it’s a modified version that takes into account my day job and the realities of my family life.  (Somebody’s gotta drop the kids off in the morning and when school starts, my work day won’t be starting until after 9 AM and that drop off.)

I went down a rabbit hole recently looking at so many cake recipes on Smitten Kitchen.  Birthday season’s coming up for my family (we were remarkable at planning it so we have birthdays in July, August, September, and October!).  Our family’s core group of friends (also known as our Urban Family) also have a bunch of birthdays in the summer (one in June and three in July).  So many good reasons to bake cake!

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Watching: For awhile after my cat died, I decided to indulge in some brain candy.  And I came up with this:

Time spent with Hugh Laurie is never a bad thing.

Reading:  I finished two books recently – Layne Fargo’s “Temper” and Ava Black’s “The Bug Jar.”  And holy hell – both of them were stick to your ribs, drill into your psyche good.

Writing Life:  Feeling good. **shhhhhh**

Happy Friday!

– Shelley

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What is Friday Fare? As a recap, on Fridays I post link love to the various bits of arcane shiz I discover on the Interwebs.  I liken it to a glimpse into my mind, but without the 80s song lyrics or mental cobwebs.