Back to Routines [What's Up Wednesday]

It's Wednesday and summer in the Rivera household is officially over. My husband went back to work yesterday, so we are reconstructing normal sleep cycles and I'm doing what I can to build a routine for myself. That's a little bit of What's up this Wednesday (thanks to Jamie Morrow for asking!), here's the rest:

What I'm Reading

I am having so much fun in the reading realm this week! The first book I am reading right now is Fangirl by Rainbow Rowel. I LOVE it. I am intentionally not rushing through it because I can already tell it is a book I will mourn over. I already don't want it to end and I haven't even reached page 100.

Who Owns the Future? by Jaron Lanier is an audiobook I just started yesterday while doing my around the house chores. This book is going to blow my mind. As a person who spends a good portion of her life online, I can just feel that this book is going to lead to a personal paradigm shift.

Thinking in Numbers by Daniel Tammet is the other audiobook that I started this weekend in celebration of school starting up. I was incredibly distracted while this one was playing, so I know I am going to have to go back and re-listen to what I heard so far because somewhere in there Mr. Tammet said that he looks at the connection(s) between fiction and mathematics - I can't think of anything cooler!

What I'm Writing

I started my Memory Project on Monday (The Memory Project Begins). I wrote down my first memory story inspired by Zeppoles. While I am happy with what I wrote, officially starting the project has planted some seeds of insecurity as I wrote about in today's Insecure Writer's Support Group post.

My writing goals for this week are:

•  to write at least one blog post every week day (which will require scheduling ahead to guard against my sick days that will, unfortunately, show), 
• to write at least one "memory" for the Memory Project before next Wednesday
• to submit something to my writing group (meeting this Saturday) for critique

What Inspires Me Right Now

The empty house.

It's just me and Champ (my dog) until about 4PM each day. Of course I have a ton of chores to do and next week is going to be my disability hearing (meaning that at some point soon I am going to melt down from the nerves), but in the in between there is quiet and one thing I have learned is that:

What Else I'm Up To

I am embracing a Japanese tradition. I am creating 1000 origami cranes. When I first heard about it, the legend was that the person who creates 1000 cranes gets cured of an illness, which sounded awesome to me. After researching it to begin, I found out that it is actually that the creator is granted a wish - not too bad either. As of this writing I am up to 70 cranes and I find the entire process very relaxing. I make cranes while watching movies. I make cranes while on hold during stressful phone calls. I make cranes all over the place. Here are some pictures of my cranes so far:

Rewriting Memories [IWSG]

Since taking a huge step forward on my Memory Project on Monday (The Memory Project Begins), I started to realize that one part of this project is going to be a lot easier than the other. The story I wrote on Monday was easy enough to write because it was my own vivid memory - the details and the dialogue lived within my mind for years. That part of the project, the part where I document my own memories of my father, will be the "easy" part. The other half (the part that I think I will have to rely upon so much more to finish my book for my brother), where I rewrite the memories of friends and family, will be so much more difficult.

Having rewritten one of my own memories on Monday I was reminded of the preciousness of our memories. How can I possibly rewrite someone else's memory with the same kind of passion that they will? When they read my recounting of their tales, will they see them as some bastardized version of their truth?  My path to capturing the memories has been through virtual interviews. I am doing this so I can have a copy of each interviewee's words. My memory has been pretty much terrible ever since I was diagnosed with IIH. Most people don't know how bad it is and I don't want to harass them with repeated calls asking them for the same details over and over again!


So I ask you, my dear Insecure Writer's Support Group (I missed you last month!), what techniques do you use when trying to write other people's stories? How do you interview non-writers in order to pull out their stories rather than just a listing of facts? What techniques do you use to write the story of someone who is long passed away?

Any tips would be greatly appreciated!

What's Up Wednesday - Moving On To New Adventures

Time to catch up using Jaime Morrow's awesome meme as the excuse to tell you what I'm reading, what I'm writing, what inspires me and what else I might be up to.

What I'm Reading

Well, late Tuesday night, I turned to my husband, staring over page 167 of The Fantastic Family Whipple and said, "I have to move on." He didn't know what I was talking about, and I could hardly believe what I was saying, but I explained my thoughts. I have a ton of books from BEA that I need to read and review and this particular book is holding me up for reasons I cannot explain. It is not a bad book, but it just hasn't hooked me. The only thing I can think of is that I don't really like the protagonist's family because they are always so hard on him and, considering the book is mostly about them (see title), I am not driven forward. I will come back to this book, that I know, but in the meantime, I have to move one.


So, in other news, I am in audiobook heaven! I have been flying through my review copy of The Cuckoo's Calling, which has been a lot of fun.

Then, this afternoon, I received the digital download of Fire with Fire, the sequel to Burn for Burn - a book I gobbled up on the bus ride home from last year's BEA (my Burn for Burn review)! I am really looking forward to starting that.

Back on the print side of things,after closing the cover on The Fantastic Family Whipple, I went upstairs (I was in Barnes & Noble) and grabbed a copy of City of Bones. Even though I have a ton of ARCs to read and review, I kind of have this problem where I have to read the book before I see the movie. So, one of two things is going to happen here: 1. I will finish the book, or 2. I will not see the movie until it comes on Netflix.

What I'm Writing

Last night I solidly committed to a brand new writing project that scares the hell out of me. I am writing a book for my brother for his Christmas book. Since he is absolutely clueless about my blog (in the sense that I think he knows I blog, but probably has no idea what the name of my blog is), I feel safe writing this here. Here's the idea: I am going to write a book about our father who passed away when I was 12 and my brother was 8. I found out awhile ago that my brother has almost no memories of our father and I always wished there was something I could do about it. The thing is, I was only 12, so my memories are also limited and our mother passed away in 2006. That's where the big scary commitment came in last night. I sent out a huge message to as many family and friends that I had contact info last night explaining my idea and asking them for their memories.   

There's pretty much no turning back now. Too many people know about it and will be asking about it. 

So... what am I writing? A book. That I will have printed by December 25, 2013. All prayers, advice and good vibes are welcomed!

What Inspires Me Right Now

Breaking Bad the TV show. No, I am not kidding. I finally got to watch Sunday's episode Tuesday morning and it blew me away. Sitting back and thinking about what all these characters have been through and how the writer's have gotten me to ROOT FOR A BAD GUY is nothing less than inspiring. 

Also Hawkeye #11 normally I don't really read superhero comic books, but my husband was reading the trade paperback in Barnes and Noble last night and he said, "Wow," out loud. He showed me the last issue in the book (#11) and it was amazing. The entire story was told from the perspective of a dog. Brilliant. 

And, without a doubt, the brief in and outs I have had at WRITEONCON have been inspiring as well. There is just so much to learn and gain from such a giving community. I hope I have some more time today to explore the rest of the stuff I missed on Tuesday!

What Else I'm Up To

Well, I almost exploded from social overload this weekend. We had a white party to go to on Saturday. There are tons of pictures on my Instagram, but here's one to give you the idea (I'm down in front):

Then on Sunday, we had dinner in Brooklyn for my brother's birthday at a delicious restaurant called Prime Meats. (In this shot, I'd be the only female at the table.)

 Besides all that and dog sitting my cousin's pug, I've been cramming in a ton of blogging both here and over at StoryDam. On StoryDam, I've been continuing the Build a Better Blog Challenge for Writers with Writing a List Post for Your Blog, and today I did a review of one of my favorite writing tools of all time, The Writer's Toolbox. Here on Rivera Runs Through It, I shared my tips for getting started reading graphic novels and yesterday I listed my top 10 books that take place in New York.

That's it in a nutshell for me. Hopefully I will have a healthier end of week this week than last (I don't know if you noticed, but I went radio silent again on Thursday and Friday. My barometer brain didn't like the rain, so it gave me pain.)

Now it's your turn...

What's up with you this Wednesday?

Have you ever had to walk away from a book just because you were reading it too slowly?

Any advice on what I am calling my "Memory Project" for my brother's Christmas gift?

Have you ever been to a white party?