The lost take the path of least resistance.
–possibly a Choctaw saying

Saturday or Sunday we went to the library and I checked out 17 books.

Note: if you are a military wife, these are probably not good books to read.

Bring Him Home by Karina Bliss was a beautifully told tale about a woman whose husband was killed as the result of an IED and her husband’s best friend (and her own friend), their grief, and their love. It was a well-told tale and believable.

The Other Soldier by Kathy Altman is also a good story. A friendly-fire incident kills the woman’s husband and the man who deployed the drone goes to see her to try and make amends in some way. She is not happy about that.

Others:
Really enjoyed Cara Colter and Brenda Minton.

Buzzfeed has an article 17 Bookstores that Will Literally Change Your Life. One is in Fayetteville, Arkansas.

Dickson Street Bookshop

Specializing in out of print and rare books, you’ll step off the main Fayetteville drag into this cozy shop filled with rows and rows of books old and new. The rare and more leather-bound options are right up front and absolutely stunning, while if you head into the back you can find anything from Southern cookbooks to music biographies.

This past Saturday Ron would talk about a book for a while and then I would ask about another book. This happened twice. Both times it turns out that the book I asked about is next to the one he was talking about in our bookshelves.

I guess I have finally organized our library in my head. (And to think it was after 15 years of marriage that I finally merged our SFF books.)

It is so calling out to me to write something similar–even though my hand is not weary with writing.

My hand is weary with writing;
my sharp great point is not thick;
my slender-beaked pen juts forth
a beetle-hued draught of bright blue ink.

A steady stream of wisdom springs
from my well-coloured neat fair hand;
on the page it pours its draught of ink
of the green-skinned holly.

I send my little dripping pen unceasingly
over an assemblage of books of great beauty,
to enrich the possessions of men of art—
whence my hand is weary with writing.

from Mary Jones’ website

I found a book by Kate Danley on my iPad Kindle. Apparently I read a short story collection she wrote in and enjoyed it enough to purchase the book. However, I also apparently hadn’t had time to read it. Or I forgot to read it. Or something.

However, today I found it. I read it. I liked it–a lot. And I read the next two books in the series today as well. I like the fact that I can download books and read them instantaneously. I don’t even have to go to the bookstore.

I still like going to the bookstore, however. I still like holding real books and reading them. But I do enjoy the benefits of the Kindle, too.

This past week (during Thanksgiving break) I also rediscovered Jennifer Estep. Apparently I recently started reading her books but then ran out of time and thought I had read them all. Nope. I was only on number 5.5. (She has novellas.) In the last three days I have read the rest of the series through book 9. Book number 10 is coming out Christmas Eve. I should go order it.

I wonder WHEN I started reading Jennifer Estep. And when I purchased the Kate Danley book.

I looked on Amazon. I purchased the Kate Danley book on October 7th of this year. Interesting. I purchased the first Jennifer Estep book on October 23rd. I purchased 5.5 on October 26th. Took me three days to get through those.

Then we had Halloween–though really we were working on it that whole week. But I guess I got sidetracked by Halloween and didn’t remember there were other books. I’m glad I got bored over Thanksgiving and started re-reading books. … I actually got bored before that because I started re-reading the whole Safehold series. Most of those I own in hardback. I wonder how much they are in Kindle.

Maybe I should consider reading the Mythos Academy or Bigtime books by Estep next.

I read some of a book’s introduction to Beowulf to my son and he said “It’s a post-modernist reading” but when I explained to him that it was written in 1837, he said it was just crap. Hmm. What does that say about post-modernist readings in his viewpoint.

I think it’s just crap, but I didn’t consider it a postmodern reading.

Do not read this again.

I bought Kitty and the Midnight Hour in hardback and epub. What an idiot. I should have known why it looked familiar. She gets raped by her werewolf boss. There’s nothing in the book discussions that mentioned that.

I am not reading this author again.

Went to a different church to visit this weekend and a young girl came on stage and spoke. She told the Dielli story from the Bible perspective, with “young” being 13 or so. That’s a lot younger than I had envisioned. It was so well done.

Then the preacher got up and spoke on the same topic.

First, a Babylonian statement on what to do if someone got leprosy:
“He has been rejected by his god and so should be rejected by mankind.”

Note that Naaman was not rejected by his king (who was Syrian, not Babylonian, but…).

The servant girl could have been silent, made Naaman pay for his sins. Instead she said, “If only…”

She was the lowest of the low.
A woman.
A slave.
A foreigner.
Young.

And yet Naaman was desperate enough to listen to her.

A talent in money was as much as a man could carry. Naaman brought ten talents of silver. Shekels varied by year. Ten sets of clothing was a LOT. Most people owned one. Some owned two.

By writing the letter to the king of Israel, Naaman’s king was doing the normal thing. Talking to the person at his level. However, healing someone of leprosy was “a bit above the king’s pay grade.”

Naaman went as an important man, a military man, a rich man, to the prophet who did not even come out the door of his house, but instead sent a servant out to talk to him.

I would think that this would insult Naaman. He’s not good enough for the prophet to come out and talk to?

He expected the prophet not just to come out but to personally intervene in his life for his health. What is that saying? Pride. Certainly not the kind of humility the centurion showed to Jesus many centuries later.

The rivers’ listing is really a clash of gods. Gods were place limited. Listing his rivers meant that Rimmone (sp?) was his god.

Naaman listened to his servants (plural) when they advised him to go ahead and bathe in the Jordan.

He got his help from the help…

Naaman wasn’t just cured of his leprosy but his skin became as a young child’s. … I think this might be an interesting addition if Naaman is a lot older than the princess. His body and his life are rejuvenated by the Maker for trusting him enough to follow the directions.

Another point here is that he said he knew that God was the one true god. That means he has rejected the gods of place.

Yet he asks to take dirt back.

Why?

The minister said that he hopes that this means Naaman was thinking of Dielli. That he was bringing her part of her homeland back.

I don’t know why. What would be the point?

However, it would be interesting if there were a point.

Does Dielli come with Nakhaman when he goes to see the prophet? I always assumed she did. Figured she and the future husband were the servants who talked Nakhaman into the plan. If she did, then it wouldn’t be her the dirt was for.

Also, why would Nakhaman think of her enough to bring her dirt when he didn’t think of her enough to offer to free her? That is a very important question. I think it shows that Nakhaman (or Naaman) was still too aware of his own standing. He’s the prince of a country in the book. Why would a young slave want to be away from him? She would have more standing in his home than in her home country. And he’s never lost his standing, even with the leprosy.

So was the dirt to offer sacrifices on? Why would he need to do that when he recognizes God as the only god?

Hmm. I know where I can put dirt in. I can put it in the scene where the slaves are telling god stories. Toban and Dielli ask for dirt because the Maker made everything. So Nakhaman would be thinking of Dielli to bring the dirt back. Just not thinking much.

Interesting ideas.

Thanks, God.

I wrote Dielli I and it was 140,000 words. I rewrote it significantly and shortened it to 114,000 words.

Today I am reading Mike Nappa’s 77 Reasons Why Your Book Was Rejected and in “Reason No. 11” it says:

Typical adult nonfiction book: 45,000-55,000 words
Typical adult novel: 80,000-100,000 words
Typical young adult novel: 40,000-60,000 words
Typical juvenile book (fiction or non-fiction): 20,000-40,000 words

That would explain a lot. My book is too long.

Using Robert’s Rules of Writing:
Start the book with Dielli crawling out of the bedroom to find her aunt and uncle, not with the dream. (Really?)
“Figure out what the action is … and then start writing just a fraction before that action begins.”
Maybe reorder, so that it starts with Dielli killing the spider? Not telling her folks about the problem? What?

Start with the spider on the window? Dielli grabbing the broom out of Jeska’s hand?

Perfect the Villain.
I introduced a bad guy and then just dropped him out of the story. I need to make him a more substantial character. Someone needs to overhear him telling about Dielli’s dream.

Heroes are Imperfect.
What is Dielli’s flaw? It doesn’t have to be fatal, but she does have to have one. Insert it into the storyline. Make it something that does hurt her now and again and eventually becomes a huge deal.

That she keeps problems to herself? What?

What anecdotes do you tell best?
Use those in the story.

God’s intervention seems too fake, too deux ex machina. So what can you do instead? What will make it seem less strange? Tell stories that show the gods’ intervention outside of Dielli’s life too.

Make smaller mountains she has to climb.

Perhaps write the story of the power encounter as a short story. See where you go with that.

Revise the part on the scribe work.

Rework the standing outside the door waiting for K and L to open it. Maybe they can hear tears inside? What?

“[N]onfiction sells more easily than fiction. Newspapers… have a bottomless craving for news stories, features, trend pieces, profiles, travel essays, and humor columns. They don’t just want these things, they need them.”

Look at how your favorite writers catch your attention. What do they do with their characters? why do you like them so much? Scrutinize. Then try their tricks.

#96 When you pick a project, you find things everywhere that relate to it specifically. So you have to pick a project.

#97 “The more specific you become, the more generally felt your writing will be.”
Perhaps I should go back to Dielli and the guy at the door… but I wanted her to be unaware of what was happening, to not recognize it. How could I talk about the woman who was assaulted and how she felt while introducing Dielli? Perhaps she comes by to tell Dielli it’s not her fault and Dielli wonders why she thinks D doesn’t know that?

#99 “Writing is all about perseverance.
…
But it’s also a matter of knowing when to quit.”

#101 (Just because we were talking about wallowing earlier in class.)
“Writers wallow in words like pigs in a mud puddle, and the dirtier we get, the happier we are.”
Yes, exactly.

We officially have too many science fiction and fantasy books.

I can’t fit them all into the three bookshelves in the dining room without double stacking and I don’t really like to do that. I know Chris does it, but I don’t like it. When I go in to find something to read, I have to be able to see it.

But the dining room is really full, so I’m not sure what I am going to do about more bookshelves.

Inuit Tradition:
To truly love someone is to learn the song that is in their heart,
And then sing it to them when they forget