What's Up Wednesday

I found this awesome weekly meme, created by Jaime Morrow, called What's Up Wednesday that is specifically geared towards readers and writers. It's a great way to let you know what I'm up to this week and then, hopefully, you will do the same. The four headings in this meme are:

• What I'm Reading
• What I'm Writing
• What Else I've Been Up To
• What Inspires Me Right Now

If you have a blog of your own and you wish to participate, then head on over to this week's post on Jaime's blog to add your link to the widget in her post! Here's my update:

What I'm Reading

I'm all over the place on this one, so bear with me.

AUDIOBOOKS

 

Shop Indie Bookstores

Ready Player One by Ernest Cline, read by Wil Wheaton. This book has been long recommended to me as "nerd canon" type of reading. However, it was very important to those who recommended it that I listen to it being read by Wil Wheaton, one of the great nerd gods. I downloaded it from the library, started listening this morning and I am a little disappointed that I had to stop it because my husband need quiet homework time.

Shop Indie Bookstores

Gregor and the Curse of The Warmbloods by Suzanne Collins, read by Paul Boehmer. I wasn't planning on downloading this. I already had Ready PLayer One to move on to, but when I finished Gregor and the Prophecy of the Bane (Book 2 of The Underland Chronicles), I was ready for more. The Underland has been the place I have been going every night for about a month now before I go to sleep. I will NOT be happy when I am done with this series.

GRAPHIC NOVELS

Shop Indie Bookstores

The Poor Bastard by Joe Matt. The Picturebooks Anonymous Club meeting at Comic Book Jones is this Monday and I NEED to finish this book before I get there. It's a quick read, but with this depressing protagonist I am dragging my feet.

BOOKS

Shop Indie Bookstores

An Abundance of Katherines by John Green. It is crazy I haven't bought this book. I probably will when I finish it. For now, it is my "in-store read" every time I go to Barnes and Noble and I'm not writing. Sometimes, in fact, I go up to B&N for the sole purpose of finding out what is going on with Colin. I love this book. John Green is my hero.

Shop Indie Bookstores

Multicultural Teaching by Tiedt and Tiedt. This is one of my husband's grad school books. For anyone interested in teaching literacy in a multicultural way, this book is an invaluable resource - it has page after page of books to share with your students, lesson plans and cool activities. Next chapter I'm reading is on Art History!

Shop Indie Bookstores

The Fantastic Family Whipple by Matthew Ward. This is another BEA book. It is an ARC of a middle grades book that is coming out in August. It's a really fun premise of a family that constant breaks world records and the one kid in the family who doesn't fit in.

31 Days To Build A Better Blog by Darren Rowse. As part of the StoryDam.com relaunch in August, I will be bringing the 31DBBB challenge to the StoryDam community. This challenge is part challenge, part book club surrounding Darren Rowse's book. I am rereading it to refresh myself and get ready for the introduction.

What I'm Writing

Dear 302, a YA novel It's still CampNaNoWriMo, and even though I abandoned ship for awhile, I'm back on board and I am rewriting/editing Dear 302, the first novel I ever completed. I have finished seven chapters at over 11,000 words, so  hopefully I will make it to my 50K goal by the end of the week (miracle?).

My husband has made me vow that I be brave enough to just go ahead and do something with this once I am done with it. So that's happening. Time for me to put some big girl pants on and finish up and move forward! As soon as I am done with this post, I am diving right in again.

Trifecta I've been looking for weekly memes and hops to join in on to keep Rivera Runs Through It more active during the summer. One that I found that really intrigues me is Trifecta - a weekly writing prompt based on a word and one of its definitions. The writing is short (from 33 to 333 word limit), so I am going to participate. This week's word is "charm," as in charming an animal like a snake charmer does. Check out tomorrow's post to see how I did!

What Else I've Been Up To

Limping My back has been in a lot of pain this week, so mobility is sucky. I am actually propped up against my large heating pad while writing this.

Bike Reading This is where I go on my stationary bike and reading while I cycle. This is an incredibly important activity to do each day just to get my muscles unwound and at least partially mobile.

Writing outside my house. I have been basically living at the Barnes & Noble up the block from me. The baristas know my husband and I and they were actually shocked when we left the other night before closing. I am feeling a little bit of withdrawal since we didn't go yesterday (I was super symptom-y) and I am not sure we will make there today!

Reading "Poets & Writers" at the park while eating really bad stuff. The purple minion says it all. I was being crazy. I was being bad. But, in the end, I was having fun. It was an afternoon picnic with my husband while we watched the duck and turtles in the pond and read about writers. (I read about Neil Gaiman while my husband read about Joe Hill in Writer's Digest.

Prepping for The StoryDam Celebration As alluded to above, I am at least one part of the relaunch effort taking place next month. I'm doing everything I can during my good days, so that when the bad one comes in the middle of the relaunch (this is bound to happen, I am sure of it), I will not be leaving the rest of the team in the lurch.

Snapshots Birthday Bash I am still promoting my two posts from yesterday about the awesome YA LGBT scifi novel, Snapshots by Patricia Lynne. For some reason there are no entries in my giveaway which makes me sad, so I am trying to tell more people about it! Here's the Book Review and Author interview (Patricia Lynne is awesome) for you to learn about the book. But, if you just want to try to win it, the widget is at the end of this post!

Working Towards a Masters Degree in Literacy Education I joke. My husband is actually doing this, but since I have been helping him each weekend, I feel like I am back in grad school again. The sad part is that I am loving it. I love learning. I love talking about teaching and I find everything about it, but my husband's stress levels, to be so much fun!

What Inspires Me Right Now

The Online Community In preparing for the StoryDam relaunch, I have been exploring the online world again and it is just wonderful. The memes, writing prompts and celebrations have been very inspiring to me. Also, the CampNaNoWri community is second to none. I feel extremely guilty that my health didn't allow me to keep up this month, but I am extremely proud of the work my cabinmates have been doing.

My writing group This Saturday is my next writing group meeting. Hopefully I won't have to cancel like I did last time. Every time I leave a meeting, I come out completely recharged and ready to WRITE. I love it. I look forward to it and I am mad that August's first meeting lands on my anniversary.

What's going on in your week?

What are you reading?

What are you writing?

What's inspiring you?

____________________

Snapshots Giveaway!

a Rafflecopter giveaway

10 Characters I'd Switch Places With for 24 Hours

Top Ten Tuesday is an original feature/weekly meme created at The Broke and the Bookish. There's a new book-related top ten list every single week and it is a great way to get to know other book-loving bloggers! Everyone is welcome to join in the weekly linky party, even if you can't think of TEN for a certain Tuesday (just think of as many as you can!), just make sure you link back to The Broke and the Bookish if you do!

This week's topic is:
TEN CHARACTERS I'D LIKE TO SWITCH PLACES WITH FOR 24 HOURS

24 hours is the key to this week's list in my eyes. If the topic was simply characters I'd like to switch places with period, I think a bunch of these choices would be off right away. On the other hand, knowing that I can enter the world and life of my choice for one day and, no matter how scary or surreal that world may be, return back to the simplicity of my own dull life I felt a bit braver in my choices.

1. Hermione Granger from the Harry Potter series by JK Rowling.

I know a thousand people will have this character as one of their selections. I mean who doesn't want access to a magical world just beyond the reaches of our own and a time turner? I don't think this requires a whole bunch of explanation.


2. Annabeth Chase from Percy Jackson and the Olympians series by Rick Riordan.

 A half-blood daughter of Athena, Annabeth gets access to Camp Half Blood out in Long Island and has cool friends like Percy Jackson, his brother Tyson and Grover Underwood. Being Annabeth for 24 hours would give me the ability to see beyond the mist so I could see all the awesome mythological, godly and magical stuff happening right in front of me every day!


3. Any hobbit from The Hobbit or The Lord of The Rings by JRR Tolkien.

I want to see the Shire, live in a hobbit hole and have one full day of hobbit life. This should include merriment, lots of eating and - hopefully - not be my birthday (hobbits have a tradition of giving gifts to everyone else on their birthday, this way they gifts all year round, rather than just one day). 

4. Lucy Pevensie from The Chronicles of Narnia by CS Lewis

I'd like to meet Aslan. Since Lucy was always the most faithful of the Pevensie children chances are, even with a mere 24 hours, stepping into Lucy's shoes give me the greatest chance to do so. However, even if the great lion doesn't drop by, at least I'll be able to explore Narnia which is awesome!
 

5. John Smith/Number Four from I Am Number Four by Pittacus Lore.

 

It's all about the power here, not the impending doom of another alien race set on my demise. John Smith has super strength, speed, telekinesis, Lumen (an awesome power that allows him to shoot heat from his body and be able to resist fire whenever he needs to),  but my all time favorite power that he possesses is Animal Telepathy! I need this power! While I'd love to have it in my own home, so Champ (the ShihTzu) and I could really talk, just getting into the mind of any animal would be fun for me.

6. Sookie Stackhouse from the The Southern Vampire Mysteries series by Charlene Harris.

 

Although this is kind of cheating (I feel like I cheat every week in Top Ten Tuesday!!) since I haven't read the books yet, I know enough about Sookie's life from friends who have read the books that I think I'd like a day in the life of Sookie. This is a combination of world exploring and character exploring. First, I need to check out a world in which vampires are publicly recognized, and I want to mingle around. Second, Sookie is a super-charged fairy with magical friends, I'd like to take her powers for a spin!

7. Marcus Yallow from Little Brother by Cory Doctorow.

 

Marcus has some pretty fantastic computer and hacking skills. I'd like to be him for 24 hours and, while him, spend the 24 hours writing up a how-to manual for the real me to make me the most web-savvy person I can be. I just hope I won't get distracted with an ARG. On the other hand, I will accepting LARPing distractions; they sound like loads of fun!

8. Grover from The Monster At The End of This Book by John Stone.

 

Alright. There. I admitted it. I want to be a muppet. It's only for a day, and why not be the most lovable furry blue monster on the block in Sesame Street?

9. Effie Trinket from The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins.

 

I'm not into mak-up and doing my hair all fancy, or even getting dressed up all that much, but I would like to spend 24 hours experiencing all the insanity that is the Capitol and I feel like Effie could get me right in the middle of that muck. I'll treat that day as my own Halloween as I take part in all the garish flamboyance that is expected as the norm. 

10. Hobbes from Calvin & Hobbes by Bill Watterson.

 

I love to surprise and terrify those I care about. I hide behind doorways, under counters and in darkened halls waiting for the perfect moment to jump out and SCREAM! It's wonderful when the victim screams as well, when you see their eyes turn into saucers and you can run and hide before they shake off the fear and realize they just want to murder you for the time you've shaved off of their life... This is something I relish in. However, in my nearly 36 years of practice in this art I have never mastered a pounce the way Hobbes has. I love when Calvin is creeping through his front door knowing that Hobbes is just waiting somewhere quietly in some shadow to pounce on him. Calvin knows it, but it doesn't matter. Hobbes gets him every time. I want to be Hobbes for one day so I can - in my long, furry, agile tiger body - deliver the scare I have been reaching for my entire life. 

...and then maybe after that Calvin and I can play with the Transmogrifier.

YOUR TURN!

 

Who's on your list? You've got 24 hours to be any character from  any book; who do you choose? Who did I forget? Post your answers in the comments section below!