Last week, during the kids’ school spring break, we went to Pipestem Resort State Park, one of the WV state parks I hadn’t yet visited. It’s lovely, situated atop the mountain ridge of the Bluestone River gorge. The views are spectacular, especially the sunsets. Best of all (according to us), they have horses for trail rides! We fell hard…in love, that is!
On the downside, I had a cold all week, and I didn’t get/manage to do much writing or reading, so I felt pretty drained. It feels like that’s also been my general state during this always-difficult season of winter and early spring.
So now I’m trying to take proactive steps to help rejuvenate my inner Writer, including, now, doing one of my seasonal “splashings” posts (which I tend to forget about until I truly need them!) on what I’ve been reading and writing lately.
Reading lately
(re-reading, for fun/mind candy) the Artemis Fowl books by Eoin Colfer (audio, narrated by Nathaniel Parker, through my library via the Libby app) — love
the Dreamers trilogy by Maggie Stiefvater (audio, narrated by Will Patton, through my library via the Libby app) — love
How Not to Hate Your Husband After Kids by Jancee Dunn (audio, narrated by the author, via Libby) — love
The Fire Next Time by James Baldwin — (audio, narrated by Jesse Martin, via Libby) (then I went and bought a copy of the physical book to reread and underline) — LOVED
just started today: Self-compassion by Kristin Neff (audio, narrated by Xe Sands, via Libby) — loving it so far
recently started but will probably give up on: The Courage to Be Disliked by Ichiro Kishimi & Fumitake Koga (audio) — so far, the philosophy this book is apparently proposing sounds ridiculous, and I don’t have time for that right now.
Writing lately
revising my novel…it’s being a struggle, as I wrote about in my post “The Quagmire of Novel Revising (in which I am currently stuck)”
journaling, poems, & blog posts as I can
That’s pretty much it…my inner Writer needs much more. I’ll keep trying.
I’ve also been doing little “Writing & reading log” notes on Substack when I can, aiming to do them nightly. I quite enjoy doing them, and I actually wish everyone would post periodic notes about what they’re reading and writing/creating—I’m always interested!!!
So please share with me, dear reader: what are you reading and writing/creating lately?