This week flew by. I had really been looking forward to attending a local book club for The House of the Spirits by Isabel Allende but had to skip due to our ongoing family situation I mentioned in my last post.
Writing:
This week I managed to put out 5 pages of writing. I am feeling happy about the progress I am making with the story. Basically as things stand at the moment I am pretty certain about the beginning and the end of the story. It was the middle that I have had to work through a bit more but I think that this week I managed to put some stakes down so to speak, so it feels like at least with these anchor points I have something to work with and continue to develop.
As a new writer I have been working on finding the balance between pushing through and motivating myself to get the work done but also being patient and grateful for the work that I am doing. I imagine writing a novel is like running a marathon. It is a long and arduous task I can’t just rush, have to pace myself so I can make it across the finish line. I keep telling myself it’s about taking things one step at a time but when it seems like there are million steps between the beginning and the end it can feel overwhelming, daunting even, and difficult to appreciate the little step you managed to take this day or this week. I’m working on that. Patience.
Reading:
In reading news this week there are a lot of things going on. I am so excited by the many books on my TBR list right now and wish I could enjoy them all at once but again I have to pace myself or else nothing will get done.
Some fun book purchases this week included:
–Striking Thoughts by Bruce Lee
–Like Water for Chocolate by Laura Esquivel
–The House in the Cerulean Sea by TJ Klune
Striking Thoughts was purchased for my dad. He used to practice martial arts as a young man and I thought he would enjoy reading Bruce Lee’s book since he is a big fan. I am planning on printing some old pictures of my dad practicing martial arts and framing them for him. I think these two things together (the book and his framed pictures) will make for a fun just because gift.
I kind of wish I had gotten a copy of Bruce Lee’s book myself. I might get one later on haha. I must admit I am a sucker for personal growth/philosophy type books. Another book of this kind that I have on my reading list is The Creative Act by Rick Rubin. It came out recently and is sitting in my self just waiting for me.
In other reading news, this week I finished reding Maame by Jessica George and I must say I really enjoyed and definitely recommend it! It was a really great story about a young girl coming into her own. The novel had some pretty cool elements that combined to create a moving story. I really enjoyed that it is about a young woman whose family immigrated to England from Ghana and really related to her story. There is a lot to like about this novel but I don’t want to spoil it for anyone looking forward to picking it up. This is Jessica George’s debut novel and I am excited to see what she writes next!
Next week:
I am looking forward to two books — The Goldfinch by Donna Tartt and A House with Good Bones by T Kingfisher. I have started both of them but am not very far in either. The Goldfinch is a lot longer than A House with Good Bones so I am thinking I will likely get through the shorter one first but we’ll see…I’ll let you know next week.
Hope you are all up to some good reading yourselves. I’ll catch you all up again next week!
Angelica Sophia 
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