Updated 888 Book List

Well, when Mercury goes retrograde (astrologically speaking), which Mercury did last week on the 11th, snarls and confusion sometimes occur, and also revision. Well, I've ended up revising my 888 Challenge list because I realized I had left off mysteries and fantasy, which are the types of books I read most frequently. I had one pile of each sorted for the First in a Series Challenge (one ran this year which I was much too late to join, so I'm starting my own challenge for 2008!), and I knew I was going to read them anyway.......so I went back to my first edition and realized some were books I wanted to read, or thought I should make a category of! and revised everything. Now it's a list of books I can hardly wait to get to (but it means snow is coming, so Jan 1 2008 doesn't have to hurry too quickly!). Here is the new updated today 888 challenge book list:

888 CHALLENGE – 8 BOOKS IN 8 CATEGORIES IN 2008

i) Short Story Collections

- Northern Frights 2 – ed Don Hutchison*

- Everything's Eventual – Stephen King

- Year's Best Fantasy and Horror – 6^th Annual Collection, Datlow and Windling

- Stories of Your Life and Others – Ted Chiang

- Kissing the Witch – Emma Donoghue *

- The Door in the Hedge – Robin McKinley*

- Harrowing the Dragon – Patricia McKillip

- Fragile Things – Neil Gaiman

ii) Latest Books by Favourite Authors

- Territory – Emma Bull

- Widdershins – Charles de Lint *

- Exit Music – Ian Rankin

- Ysabel – Guy Gavriel Kay

- Dragonhaven – Robin McKinley

- Piece of My Heart – Peter Robinson *

- The Fabric of Sin – Phil Rickman

- Something Rotten – Jasper Fforde

iii) Classic Literature

- Ulysses – James Joyce

- Wuthering Heights – Emily Bronte *

- Persuasion – Jane Austen *

- O Pioneers – Willa Cather

- Beowulf

- Middlemarch – George Eliot

- Jane Eyre – Charlotte Bronte *

- The Iliad - Homer

iv) Fairy Tales (original and re-written, short story collections and novels)

- Enchantment – Orson Scott Card

- Fitcher's Brides – Gregory Frost

- Kissing the Witch – Emma Donoghue *

- The Bloody Chamber – Angela Carter

- Black Heart, Ivory Bones – eds Datlow and Windling

- The Door in the Hedge – Robin McKinley *

- The Classic Fairy Tales – Iona and Peter Opie

- Beauty and the Beast – Mary Jo Napoli

v) Non-Fiction

- Canadian Settler's Guide – Catherine Parr Traill *

- Life of Charlotte Bronte – Mrs Gaskell

- 1599 A Year in the Life of William Shakespeare – James Shapiro

- Journal of a Solitude – May Sarton *

- Tarot for Yourself – Mary K. Greer

- The Psychic Pathway – Sonia Choquette

- Crossing to Avalon – Jean Shinoda Bolen

- Goddess Initiation – Francesca De Grandis

vi)Mysteries ( all are also First in a Series Challenge books)

-Louisiana Hotshot – JulieSmith

-Blind-Sighted – Karin Slaughter

- Murder in Grub Street – Bruce Alexander

- Death & the Oxford Box – Veronica Stallwood

- The Shape of Water – Andrea Camilleri

- Turnstone – Graham Hurley

- Death in the Off-Season – Francine Mathews

- Every Dead Thing – John Connolly

vii)Popular Books I've Been Meaning to Read....

- Jonathan Strange and Mr Norrell – Susanna Clarke

- Obsidian Butterfly – Laurell K. Hamilton

- A Long Way Down – Nick Hornby

- White Teeth – Zadie Smith

- She's Come Undone – Wally Lamb

- The Bean Trees – Barbara Kingsolver

- Sixpence House – Paul Collins

- The end of Elsewhere – Taras Grescoe *

*alternate, Suite Francaise by Irene Nemirovsky

viii) Fantasy – (all are in 1^st in a Series Challenge)

- Shaman's Crossing – Robin Hobb

- The Weirdstone of Brisingamen – Alan Garner

- The Sharing Knife – Lois McMaster Bujold

- A Wizard of Earthsea – Ursula K. LeGuin

- Over Sea, Under Stone – Susan Cooper

- Dead Until Dark – Charlaine Harris

- Moon Called – Patricia Briggs

- Knight Errant – R. Garcia Y Robertson

Stars mean the book is linked to another book challenge. Bold books are cross-listed here - sadly I only have two now. I could have cheated and put less other books to be read in other categories, but I WANT to read them and intend to! so I might as well get credit for it! And it makes it a real book challenge, 62 books to read in 2008, plus the Can Book Challenge - 13 books (minus whatever I read between now and Jan 1 2008). so at least the fantasy and mystery categories now count for the First in A Series Book Challenge!!!

Bear dream

I had one of my bear dreams last night. For those of you who don't know, bear is my medicine helper. I'm not going into my spiritual beliefs right now, but any time a bear shows up is important for me. So I dreamt last night that I was at a house by a marsh, and a man was going out with a gun to hunt a grizzly bear. He had met her long ago as a child and survived (the bear never attacked him) and now he was going out to hunt her. He had a rifle, and as he set out to the marsh where the bear was, the scene changed to show Charles de Lint at a bookstore signing books, and I was there to interview him. There was a small shelf of 20 books below the counter, and I was supposed to ask him about one of them. I saw Stanislaw Lem, and others, pulling out eventually Neil Gaiman's Fragile Things. I woke up then.

I have added Neil Gaiman's blog under writing blogs on the sidebar, because his site is fun, interesting, and gives a close-up look at the writing life - he writes very frequently on it, almost daily. When I checked today his site (because of the dream) I saw he had written yesterday about 'why write?' go check it out, if you are interested in writing, or in how books are written. I haven't experienced that flow of writing often enough yet, but with the book I am working on now, I have sometimes - it is an absolute thrill when suddenly the writing and everything in the story I've put makes sense.
I'll write more later, but for now The Tudors is on CBC! I think my dream is about writing, so I will get back to it - also the coincidence of adding Fragile Things last minute to my 888 challenge, and dream of it a night later?? H-m-m-m.....

* what the stars mean....

It means I have crossed linked the books in the challenge with another challenge that the book is in. Amazingly enough, in the 888 challenge, I only have 3 that are cross-linked within that challenge! but a few of my Can Challenge books are linked to the 888 Challenge, and both of those challenges are linked to my own challenge, which is to re-read some favourites this year. Thus, Jane Austen (I love all of her books), Emily of New Moon - the other series by L MM Montgmery that I loved as a girl - Jane Eyre - Wuthering Heights - Journal of a Solitude (one of my favourite books on the writing life):

Favourites Reread Challenge - 2008

- Persuasion – Jane Austen *

- Bridget Jone's Diary – Helen Fielding

- Jane Eyre- Charlotte Bronte*

- Dune – Frank Herbert

- Beauty – Robin McKinley

- Wuthering Heights – Emily Bronte *

- Emily of New Moon – L.M. Montgomery *

- The Door in the Hedge – Robin McKinley *

- A Life of One's Own – Joanna Field *

- Journal of a Solitude – May Sarton *

- Notes From a Small Island – Bill Bryson *

And sad to say, I have another challenge for myself: a poetry reading challenge. More to be announced later, but I've decided I have to read more poetry, and while I have begun buying more books and reading them, I want to make it a regular habit. And, I've wanted to read Birthday Letter by Ted Hughes for so long now, having had a big Sylvia Plath period in my life!

Maybe, because I am in my 40s and pausing after getting to this point in my life, looking forward and seeing where I want to go into (and bring with me) into the second part of my life, I am looking back and seeing what is worth experiencing again, what I want to re-read again. Not because I want to relive anything, but it's kind of like a spiral. Life turns and turns, and I experience things on a deeper level as the same themes come around again. So I find myself drawn to some of the same books I read in my early 20's, in my 30's, in my childhood. I want to visit them again and enjoy the pleasure in their company, like old friends that I don't need to explain myself to. I want to reread them now and see how I experience them now, what I take away from the books now, and how they move me now, and bring them forward with me into my future. Besides, books that are my favourites throughout my lifetime, are part of my soul now. When I love a book, it becomes a part of me, and I carry it with me wherever I go. Actually, any book, like any experience, becomes a part of me.

One of the pleasures of being an adult is that I can do what I want to, so I give myself permission to read as much as I desire. The thing is, I don't read as much as I want to or used to - life, etc, kids - so part of joining these challenges is to prod myself away from the tv (which does suck your brain out, I've decided) and give more time to books and reading time. I think I just grew lazy - I have always read, just not more than I watch tv, and now I want to reverse it so I read far more than I watch tv.

I hate that question 'what book would you bring on a desert island?' because I could never ever decide on just one book.

Ok, time to go read my next Hallowe'en book, A Winter Haunting by Dan Simmons. I've just started it,and it already looks deliciously creepy and scary. I'll keep you, gentle reader, posted.

Canadian Book challenge list posted

I did it! I got 13 books chosen for the Canadian Book Challenge, running from now until July 1 2008.

1. CANADIAN BOOK CHALLENGE Oct 2007 – July 1 2008 (13 books)

- the Penelopiad – Margaret Atwood

- Widdershins – Charles de Lint *

- A Touch of Panic – L.R. Wright

- Emily of New Moon – L.M. Montgomery*

- The Canadian Settler's Guide – Catherine Parr Traill *

- The Writing Life – ed Constance Rooke

- Northern Frights 2 – ed Don Hutchison *

- Bitten – Kelley Armstrong

- Life of Pi – Yann Martel

- A History of Reading – Alberto Manguel

- Still Life – Louise Penny *

- Piece of My Heart – Peter Robinson *

- The End of Elsewhere – Taras Grescoe *

I've been really good, only one book is a reread - Emily of New Moon - the rest are new books to read! I'm actually excited about this list, and with Canadian books it can be hit or miss. Much of Canlit I don't like - my mother read Miriam Toews 'An Complicated Kindness" which she said 'finished like a typical Canadian book'. I have yet to read it, and would have put it on my list but my sister-in-law Kim currently has the book. Most of the authors I have here I love - Charles de Lint is one of my favourited fantasy writers, Margaret Atwood was my adolescent introduction to adult Canadian fiction when I read 'The Edible Woman' while on summer vacation at a cottage, but I don't like all her writing. I love LMM Montgomery and would have put Anne of Green Gables on the list only i discovered I don't own it!!!! Yikes, one of my all-time favourite children's book growing up......I have the other two - Anne of Avonlea and Anne of the Island - in the original covers that I discovered the series in, so I want Anne of GG in that series, and I guess I haven't found a good enough copy yet. It is a good feeling to know that I had to leave some books off the list! Ysabel by Guy Gavriel Kay, and his Sailing to Sarantium series (I read book one, haven't read book 2 yet).

Of the ones I've chosen, Louise Penny is getting good reviews for her mystery series, of which Still Life is the first one.

I forgot Giles Blount!!!! My mother is buying the latest one for me for Christmas!!! Uh oh, there may be some tinkering with this list, and the 888 challenge, then, since I love Giles Blount! If you haven't read 40 Words for Sorrow (the first one in the series), then I highly, highly recommend it. Wonderful series set in a fictional town in northwestern Ontario.

Dragon Charmer by Jan Siegel.......the Benny Cooperman mysteries.......there were lots more that I would have liked to put on my list. No Logo by Naomie Klein, which I really want to read, but don't own yet, and until my LSS gets a new contract, I can't add too many books I have to buy. There's always the library, but I confess I like to own books. It's one of my few vices, but as my sister Patricia can say, you can get me into a bookstore, but you can't get me out of one!!!! My eldest son used to cry as soon as we crossed the threshold of one, when he was a baby.

So, as dinner calls - our two year old - wants ketchup with his spaghetti! yecch! - I hope you find some new Canadian authors to read from my list. Happy reading!!

Triple 8 Challenge Book List done!

Well, it's done, I was all excited until I lost the posting - so much for saving it automatically.....so here goes again.......I just saw that I missed the publish post part - it is midnight! I'm tired! Here is my list, I will comment on it tomorrow.....

• 888 CHALLENGE – 8 BOOKS IN 8 CATEGORIES IN 2008

  i) Short Story Collections

  - Northern Frights 2 – ed Don Hutchison*

  - Everything's Eventual – Stephen King

- Year's Best Fantasy and Horror – 6^th Annual Collection, Datlow and Windling

- Stories of Your Life and Others – Ted Chiang

- Kissing the Witch – Emma Donoghue *

- The Door in the Hedge – Robin McKinley*

- Harrowing the Dragon – Patricia McKillip

- Fragile Things – Neil Gaiman

ii) Latest Books by Favourite Authors

- Territory – Emma Bull

- Widdershins – Charles de Lint *

- Exit Music – Ian Rankin

- Ysabel – Guy Gavriel Kay

- Dragonhaven – Robin McKinley

- Piece of My Heart – Peter Robinson *

- The Fabric of Sin – Phil Rickman

- Something Rotten – Jasper Fforde

iii) Classic Literature

- Ulysses – James Joyce

- Wuthering Heights – Emily Bronte *

- Persuasion – Jane Austen *

- O Pioneers – Willa Cather

- Beowulf

- Middlemarch – George Eliot

- Jane Eyre – Charlotte Bronte *

- The Iliad - Homer

iv) Fairy Tales (original and re-written, short story collections and novels)

- Enchantment – Orson Scott Card

- Fitcher's Brides – Gregory Frost

- Kissing the Witch – Emma Donoghue *

- The Bloody Chamber – Angela Carter

- Black Heart, Ivory Bones – eds Datlow and Windling

- The Door in the Hedge – Robin McKinley *

- The Classic Fairy Tales – Iona and Peter Opie

- Beauty and the Beast – Mary Jo Napoli

v) Biography/Autobiography

- Canadian Settler's Guide – Catherine Parr Traill *

- Life of Charlotte Bronte – Mrs Gaskell

- Bad Blood – Lorna Sage

- Georgiana, Duchess of Devonshire – Amanda Foreman

- 1599 A Year in the Life of William Shakespeare – James Shapiro *

- Donne: The Reformed Soul – John Stubbs *

- A Life of One's Own – Joanna Field *

- Journal of a Solitude – May Sarton *

vi) Esoteric (Astrology, Tarot, Magic)

- Tarot for Yourself – Mary K. Greer

- The Psychic Pathway – Sonia Choquette

- The Elements of Ritual – Deborah Lipp

- Intuitive Astrology – Elizabeth Rose Campbell

- Everyday Magic – Vivianne Crowley

- Crossing to Avalon – Jean Shinoda Bolen

- Goddess Initiation – Francesca De Grandis

- Chiron – Martin Lass

vii)Popular Books I've Been Meaning to Read....

- Jonathan Strange and Mr Norrell – Susanna Clarke

- Obsidian Butterfly – Laurell K. Hamilton

- A Long Way Down – Nick Hornby

- White Teeth – Zadie Smith

- She's Come Undone – Wally Lamb

- The Bean Trees – Barbara Kingsolver

- The Thirteenth Tale – Diane Setterfield

- Wicked – the Life and Times of the Wicked Witch of the West – Gregory Maguire

viii) Travel, Armchair

- Sixpence House – Paul Collins

- London: the Biography – Peter Ackroyd

- Notes from a Small Island – Bill Bryson *

- Falling Off the Map – Pico Iyer

- The end of Elsewhere – Taras Grescoe *

- A Year in Provence - Peter Mayle

- The History of York, Yorkshire – ed Patrick Huttgens

- (to be determined)





There, let's see if I can get this one posted! Happy reading, happy book challenge! Let me know your comments, and if you would like to join, please do! It's fun to share in reading and talking about books! Like I said, it's too late tonight to comment on why I picked what I did, and the categories, so I will add more tomorrow. It was fun doing, and amazing how many came off my shelves - I only need about 20 (I see my Christmas list now......) Hurry up 2008! Though, I must add, all the books that didn't make it onto my list, are waiting to be read before 2008, now!!!

The Lamplighter by Anthony O'Neill

Done! and a strange book, in the end. It started off a bit creepy, very atmospheric, and then about three-quarters of the way through it took a very strange turn and ended up not being a horror/ghost story at all. I originally bought the book because some reviewer liked it, though now I can't remember who to go blame. Because, in the end, I was disappointed.
The book is set in Edinburgh, in 1886. I don't want to give the plot away here in case any of my gentle readers want to go get the book themselves - I hate reading book reviews that tell the entire plot. That's like the movie previews, that after a minute I feel like, why bother go see the movie? I've just seen it encapsulated on the screen! Book reviews that give the plot away are kind of like that.
It is set as a murder mystery, but ends up with quite a bit of theology mixed in and while the murders are explained, there is no resolution in a satisfactory sense. It is unbelievable to me that the main character Evelyn could survive everything that happened to her as a child and function as an adult. It is not a happy mystery, none of the characters are happy or even content, but they are all (esp the main ones) likeable and interesting. Some of the characters are funny, like Inspector Groves. But the story is an odd mix of philosophy - do we exist? do we exist only in another's mind? How do we know? - and ancient evil with roots in religion, which in this book are odd together. I think, though, the book is worth reading to see what the author was struggling to do, and to judge if he succeeded or not. At least we writers can learn from the author's mistakes!
Some of it is implausible, and I think this is what bothers me the most - bothers me about most anything in books or on tv. I want the events to be realistic. Even in fantasy, when reading about unicorns or dragons, I want there to be an inherent logic to the story so that the actions are believable. Especially near the end of the Lamplighter, the actions become very strange. There are religious overtones - hence the theology, so if you have anything against Scottish religious views, don't read this book! We aren't fully shown how the evil is resolved, or even if it is, and what happens to two of the main characters is confusing and could be debated for a long time by readers of the book.
In the end, it was an enjoyable read, and I do love the setting in Edinburgh. The city came alive for me again while reading the book.
3 out of 5 stars.
Note: I first published this blog with the title The Devil in the White City.....if you've read both books, you'll know why! plus I'm very tired....

book sites

I've been busy adding some of my favourite book blogs to my site. They are fun to read and excellent sources for books to read. I've also added three of the book reading challenges I have accepted to read so far.....what started me on having a blog in the first place, was all the challenges I saw that I wanted to join!!! So, look for book lists shortly; I already have a pile of 'firsts' that I pulled off my shelves last week, and now have to sort through - I have more than 12 firsts in a series that I haven't read yet! And I thought I was up to date with what I had on my shelves (sort of). I also am joining the Series Challenge, which allows me to finish or catch up in some series I am behind in (found plenty of those as well, and some new ones are coming out - Ian Rankin, Charles de Lint that I want to get for Christmas). Then there is the Shakespeare Challenge, since I have been thinking about reading some of his plays - I haven't looked at any since university, I am sad to say. And I think I will be joining the TBR challenge - To Be Read Challenge, since I found well over 20 on my shelves that I have now moved to my immediate to be read shelf. The big challenge is the 888 Challenge - 8 books each in 8 areas to be read in 2008, selection and interest of my own choosing. I am hoping some of my smaller challenges can be cross-referenced into this big one! Since reading 64 books is a challenge at the best of times these days with my young family.........
I am very happy to say that I have managed to cut down on some of my tv viewing time already, so that I can read more. It helps that most of the tv shows this year - the new ones - look boring, so I have my regular ones only to watch (House, The Office, the CSIs). I am really enjoying The Tudors, the BBC series running on CBC right now, about Henry the VIIIth's early years in charge. I'm not sure I am sold on the girl who plays Anne Boleyn though, she doesn't look nearly interesting enough to make a king part with the Church.
Gentle readers, feel free to look at the book blogs, I hope you find book readers you will enjoy reading about, and always, find new books to read!!!
I'm afraid to look at my list of books for Christmas that I want, there are so many......and I just saw that Nigella Lawson has another new cookbook out too.....

Thanksgiving

Well, after those two adorable photos, even though I am full of turkey and pumpkin pie, I have to write and say, Thank You! for a lovely day at home. It was the first day since last Tuesday that I hadn't been at work........I cooked all day, which I find now relaxes me, and we actually ate at 4, so Graham got to fall asleep right after eating! He tried the turkey, but the pieces were too big (he wouldn't let me cut them) and ate almost all the carrots with brown sugar, cucumber, and some rice. Holly-Anne ate TONS of turkey and skin, and some cranberries, and everything else under persuasion (no dessert if she didn't eat a few mouthfuls of rice and broccoli!). It was a lovely meal, and we all said something we were thankful for. Even though Toby isn't working, we have alot to be thankful for. We even had rain yesterday, for the first time in weeks, so the air smells of fall again. It has been so dry that on my walks, the leaves were crunchy and the air had none of the damp smell full of leaves slowly decomposing.....it sounds gross, but it's a smell I love, wet leaves and smoke drifting from other houses where it's finally cool enough to have a fire in the fireplace.....wood burning....
In between working overtime and cooking two thanksgiving meals this weekend - we had our very good family friends Patricia and Victor over on Saturday night for a non-turkey, pot roast Thanksgiving meal that was lots of fun and the kids behaved and ate at! - I managed to read The Devil in the White City by Erik Larson, one of the books on my Hallowe'en reading list. I read it in 4 days, and had to force myself to put it down this morning in order to get the pumpkin pie baked, then start on the turkey.
It is a fascinating book! Almost unputdownable. It shows the best of what man can achieve - by all accounts the Chicago World's Fair was stunning, and moved those who went to it with the beauty of the buildings - and the worst, in the horrible hotel that HH Holmes built, the Castle of Terror, where he killed a still unknown number of people (mostly women). It is gripping reading, as you see the progress of the World's Fair being built against enormous obstacles and odds, compared with the procession of people coming into the Castle but not seen leaving it. A very good book. And suitably creepy for Hallowe'en, but not graphic.
I have just started The Lamplighter, which I forgot I had on my shelves when I made my original list in my first blog. The writing is definitely different from the Devil in the White City, I'll see how tomorrow goes. I may just be tired tonight. Though it doesn't seem very original, it is set in the era of Scotland's developing police force and their investigative techniques (1888), which is one of the reasons I bought the book.
Happy Thanksgiving everyone! I hope you enjoyed your turkey and cranberry sauce and pumpkin pie!

Women and writing

I've been thinking alot about how women find time to write. I've read Virginia Woolf's A Room of One's Own, and thoroughly agree that a woman needs a room of her own - not just to write, but to have her own space, so she can dream, create, just be herself. So much of every woman I know is taken up with children, taking care of the house, working, that there is so little time left over for creative time. I'm not saying that tired argument that we are overworked, stressed, etc, which anyone who has a family, is! that's a given. It's the effort to make creative time that seems to give women the most trouble. We leave it for last. Earlier this year, I discovered that leaving my writing for the end of the day, meant I would fall asleep on the computer. I would struggle to put sentences together because I would nod off between words. After a few months of this, I realized I couldn't keep up. so now I am trying something radical: I am getting up before dawn, to write. The house is quiet, it is dark outside, it is still. I have my cup of tea, I open up my computer, open up my file that holds my novel, and start writing. And it's working!!!!!
There are distractions, of course, the kids get up earlier because I'm up, my LSS (long- suffering spouse.....I buy books, he's given up asking when am I going to stop, and wonders now where the next shelf can go!) gets ready for work and turns the radio on in the kitchen.....I stay up too late the night before - I still struggle to get to bed before 11! - any number of things can distract me, but I try for a page of writing before the rest of my day begins.
So I began in May, and while I am still cranky (perimenopause, EVERYONE seems stupid these days!), that anxiety that used to weigh on me - why am I here? What am I doing with my life? What am I going to write, and WHEN am I going to write it? Those questions and that anxiety have disappeared. I am more peaceful inside me, much more loving my life because I am writing. It si the act of writing, of creating, that I need to do, to feel my life has meaning. I don't know why, it has been this way since I was 10 and realized I could write, I could tell funny stories and at least my teacher back then liked them! I knew then it was what I wanted to do. And after 40 years of some writing accomplishments - honorary mention in a poetry competition a zillion years ago, winning a short story competition at a science fiction convention - lots of stories begun and left - it just feels good to be writing.
I have a little room upstairs that is all my own, since the youngest kids want to share the bigger room at the moment. I am still setting up the room, but it is mine. I have my altar set up, two book shelves packed with books, writing binders, tarot card sets, magazines, my trunk with all my quilting supplies (another creative activity that I long to do), a tiny table to sit at and write.....no computer yet so I can't write there, but for my quiet time and space, it's there! A room of my own.
And so when I get pressured now and think of all things done and that I still have to do every day - which I am grateful for, by the way, I know how lucky I am in my life, how blessed and how rich (even if not in actual money!) - I remember that I've done my writing that day, the novel is coming along, and I relax. I am a great deal more peaceful with a room of my own.
I also remember what I read in Charlotte Gray's Sisters in the Wilderness, about Susannah Marsh and Catherine Parr Traill. They had to bake bread from scratch every morning, prepare all the meals based on their gardens, current supplies or what they could catch, do all the chores of running a household with 5 kids and husbands away to war often - and every evening, after the kids were in bed, they would sit up and by the candlelight, write furiously for an hour or two, because they always wanted to be authors, and they needed to bring in more money. This was in the 1820's to 1840's!!! In pioneer Canada, when all they had was the one room cottage for all the family members! Whenever I think I have it hard, I think of them and am very grateful I don't have to start baking bread first thing every day! And that they could stay up every night and write (well, every night they could)! I am awed. They are some of my writing heroines. They didn't have a room of their own, but they had determination, and they did it.
So what makes a woman want to write or paint or act when her life is already so full? I think it's because it's from within us. It's our own creativity, and no one else's. That's what makes it so hard for so many women to do, that it's not for anyone else, and often not with overt permission. It's like a treasure that we each have, but we have to dig for it - or as Stephen King says in The Art of Writing - dig for the bones. When we strip away our life, what is it for and what does it mean, if we have not lived a life that we have really been in? And we can only be in our lives really if we are creating, actively pursuing our passions while we raise the kids, work, clean the house, and do all the myriad things that compose our outer lives with others. We need an inner life, where our soul lives, where we find ourselves. And mine is in writing, and reading, and books. As well as gardening, nature, my goddess spirituality, my family, quilting, cooking.
So what do you think, do women need a room of their own to write? Do we need to create? Why? Just curious to know what others think and their experiences of creating.
Time to go finish The Well of Lost Plots so I can begin my horror reading month!
Luckily, when I finish this novel, I have at least 4 others lined up.

First time out........

Okay, this is scary, writing into the wide world of the internet. But if I'm going to join all the wonderful other bloggers writing about books, I guess it's time I get started! Since I have no idea how to add links yet, all the wonderful sites will have to wait for another day for me to add.....and the book reading challenges (and links to them) I've decided to join for 2008........I already have my piles of books ready......
For Hallowe'en this year, I decided to pick 4 books to read for October: Dan Simmons -A Winter Haunting, Erik Larson's The Devil in the White City, re-read Anne Rice's Interview with a Vampire, and poke through Edgar Allan Poe's 'The Fall of the House of Usher and Other Writings. So if anyone else out there is reading for Hallowe'en, let me know what you are picking. This was all last minute, to get in the mood for Hallowe'en. I thought I had a copy of The Haunting of Hill House by Shirley Jackson, which is one of my all-time favourite frightening ghost stories to read, but I have lent it to a friend and it has not made it's way back to me yet.
I'm currently reading Jasper Fforde's The Well of Lost Plots. Having lots of fun with her ideas of hwo books are developed and given to authors, and how characters wander through books and some have to be stopped. Very clever. I have to finish it by this weekend or I'll never get through my horror reading! Working full time and raising kids (very young kids) means reading time is at a premium, and I've decided to cut back on my tv viewing, especially as it looks like I won't make my goal of 50 books read this year. My actual goal is 100, but I've never made it yet, in 10 + years of trying......though I've gotten close a few years.
I've just discovered Mary Oliver, which I found at my local favourite bookstore in Ottawa - Collected Works, an independent bookstore! - and am thoroughly enjoying reading Owls and Other Fantasies. I am also reading Rapture by Carol Ann Duffy (an English poet) on the go, as well as Walter Mosley's You Can Write a Book in A Year, which I have by the bed, to inspire me while I sleep (and help me get up at 5:30 so I can get my writing done.....)
I did it! My first blog!!! About books! O heavenly joy! (Ok, it's not so hard, but for the technically challenged, this is quite a feat. Now to see if this actually turns up on my blog as a post.......)