Rejuv-i-lation. Is it a word? Is now.

We are the wordsmiths, the makers of words which form our reality, thus, I have made it a word. (Look at me getting all philosophical at 9:30 in the morning.)

Allow me to veer from my usual topic of books, movies, movies, books to talk about just books... and just one book... and on the heels of Alexa's fabulous post that reminds us all to take time to rejuvenate... one particular book that will be born post "Rejuv-i-lation Weekend".

I throw down the gauntlet. (I would never dream of throwing down a gauntlet in challenge to you. Your gauntlet would get all dirty, so no gauntlet throwing at you.) I'm throwing down the gauntlet at myself. You see, life here is crazy, as I am sure it is for everyone, but I'm suffering my own ridiculous brand of self-imposed crazy which entails family, homeschooling, home renovations, pressure to complete aforementioned home renovations by the end of the month, (self-imposed pressure), AND the pressure to complete another book on "schedule". Again, this is a self-imposed schedule. (Publish or Perish.)

So I hereby declare this weekend "Rejuv-i-lation Weekend"!!!

This is the weekend during which I house sit for a friend, locking myself into her lovely mountain top home, and I write a book, (actually, only half of a book), in FIVE DAYS!!!! Do what? Yes, you read that right. I propose completing a partially written book - to write a fresh 120 pages - join that to the existing 100 pages,  fix all the badness happening there in the saggy middle, and crank out this little yelpy puppy.

So there will be no books, movies, movies, books for me this weekend. There's just one book... and me... in a cabin atop a mountain... and one cat... and a book signing thrown in there in the middle....

If you'd like to get a feel for how "Rejuv-i-lation Weekend" is going, feel free to come by the booksigning at Cascades Library in Potomac Falls, VA. It's all going down this Saturday... and if you like, we can chat books, movies, movies, books... and rejuv-i-lation.

It's an Autumn thing - y'all ready?

The first official day of the season has come and gone - it's AUTUMN!
Colors are quickly shifting from bright vivid jewel tones to rich, mysterious fall colors and I'm already starting to see a shift in the colors of the treeline on the back of my property.

This weekend I was going to make a quick dash to the post office only to be caught, with no option but to wait, as the 50 year celebratory parade marched its way down Main Street Emporia, VA for the Peanut Festival. At first, I'll admit it, I was frustrated and saying things like,

I don't have time for this.

Wish I had my laptop or a book.

Great. How long will this take?

But once I pulled up as close as I could so that as soon as the parade was over I could make the turn to get the packages mailed, I found myself drawn right in to the festivities. A long stream of antique tractors sputtered and putt-putted by. I wish I'd counted them. John Deere green easily outnumbered the other types. Some were solo and others towed along trailers with floats representing various groups from the community.

Candy was tossed from the floats as they made their way down the parade route. Young kids had Piggly-Wiggly plastic sacks that looked to be filling up quite nicely, but what I found the most amusing was the senior citizens that were darting out to get candy. One gal in a Tweety bird shirt was with two other seniors who clearly wanted to act like they were too old for the fun, but they snapped up that candy Miss Tweety risked life and limb for in a hurry, and I swear Miss Tweety scooted one kid out of the way! - twice!, to scoop up tootsie rolls, chocolates and other sweet treats, along with what looked like some coupons from where I sat.

High School bands marched through with baton twirlers, flags swooping and great sounds that had folks tapping their feet and getting in the groove.

The parade lasted a good solid 45 minutes and ended with the emergency vehicles making the most noise of the afternoon. I had no idea there were that many firetrucks and emergency vehicles in the county! I'm feeling pretty safe right now.

As I left I had a huge smile on my face. Not just from the parade and the memories it brought back to me, but from the feeling I got as I watched families scurry hand-in-hand through the crowds away from the parade route - all wearing big smiles.

Now I'm in the mood to pick out a pumpkin and get to carving to make the season feel official. So, tell me...are you going to:

1. Choose a real or fake pumpkin?
2. Giant, big, small or a tiny gourd-sized one?
3. Carve or Paint your pumpkin?
4. Create a spooky scary scene or a funny one?

The weather here has been nice enough to sleep with the windows open and I love it when it's "sweater weather" which puts me right into the mood to be outside under the stars. Hope it's been that pretty where you live.

Happy Autumn, y'all!

Nancy

PS--Sweet Tea and Secrets releases tomorrow - new cover - new scenes and lots of southern fun.

I hope you'll help me celebrate the release by passing the word around. Hugs and happy reading~

http://www.amazon.com/Sweet-Secrets-Adams-Grove-Novel/dp/1612185959/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1348348082&sr=8-1&keywords=sweet+tea+and+secrets 

Best Damn Book I've Ever Seen: Jane Eyre!

by Sofie Couch

Back-to-School? I didn't know we ever left.

School – It Ain’t What it Used to Be. I’ve been doing the college search thing with my oldest child, driving insane distances to have a gander at schools that I know won’t be a good fit for my bohemian girl. I already know they’re too lock-step for her, but we make the trek, groan over the costs, dream about the ones we/she can’t afford… dream about a college that we design...

But there’s an alternative on the horizon. I won’t go into great detail, because I believe one of my fellow-W3ers is going to tell you all about the phenom, but let me just insert here, college classes, free, through www.coursera.org. ‘Nough said. Go check it out. (I’m currently taking the SF/Fantasy class with the aforementioned W3er and it is a hoot!)

Here on the chicken ranch,

 we lead a pretty fringe existence. Our kids, 16 and 13 yrs. old, don’t go to school. What? Nope. We homeschool. Rather, we don’t even homeschool. We do something even more fringe in that we “un-school”. There is no curriculum. The kids follow their own interests and I just sort of seed their environment with the resources they may need to help them along their way. What does a typical day look like here? Typical? What’s that?

Some days we stay in our jammies and read. Some days we all go swimming. Most days, my son plays with other unschooling gamers on-line, sharing game cheats and things called mods, and skins, and something called “easter eggs”, while my daughter pursues her dream of becoming an architect. (We just got back from Biltmore Estate where we took the “architects’ tour”. Fabulous!)

Or we watch movies. It’s election season, so we’re currently watching re-runs (for me they’re re-runs,) of West Wing and we just scored tickets to hear President Obama speak in our hometown.

But just a short while ago, we, (the kids and I,) did a Jane Eyre marathon and this brings me back on point:

“Best Damn Book I’ve Ever Seen”

This month, I take a poke at Jane Eyre, the book and all of the many permutations of the moviessssss!

There is little left to the imagination in this book, although you might want to take a bite out of the sequel, WIDE SARGASSO SEA by Jean Rhys. Told in the voice of the first Mrs. Rochester as well as Edward Rochester, it is a fabulous take on Mr. Rochester’s dark side.

However, for the sake of this month’s topic, I refrain and stick to Jane Eyre by Charlotte Bronte. It is written in third person, and told through narration by the main character. The reader has little need to doubt the veracity of the narrator. In other words, what she says is taken at face value. And thus, have all of the movie renditions portrayed the same story. There are wonderful movie adaptations, each one choosing some minor scenes to include or delete, (although personally, I feel the version starring Zelah Clark and Timothy Dalton, directed by Julian Amyes, is the most complete version. Despite the poor video quality and a poorly concealed migrating zit that becomes mesmerizingly distracting, it is still my favorite version.)

In essence, all of the movie versions recount the same story. However, the version, by director, Cary Fukunaga,  shakes things up a bit in that it alters the order of events, beginning at a point near the end, and ending at the, er, end.

Why? Well, one possible reason is because the book, as it was written, would fail to make it past the editor’s slush pile if written today. There’re the 50 pages of backstory – Jane’s childhood of oppression – for starters, which is no way to start a mainstream movie. There’s the irredeemably damaged hero for seconds, and finally, there’s the ending of convenience, (worthy of an entire paragraph all to itself.)

In particular, the last quarter of the book, (SPOILER, SPOILER, SPOILER,)  after Jane has left the home of Mr. Rochester, a series of convenient events occur. 1) Jane, upon fleeing Mr. Rochester, happens upon a rescuer 2) her rescuer(s are saddened to learn that their uncle has died and left them only enough money to purchase mourning rings, 3) Jane learns that she inherits a fortune from an uncle who has just died, and 4) by the transitive property of equality, Jane finds out she is first cousin to her rescuer, (who, by the way, wants to marry her. Ewww.) Oh yeah, and 5) when she returns to the home of Mr. Rochester an “independent woman of means”, his crazy wife has conveniently cacked herself, leaving them free to live happily-ever-after.

But you know what? I don’t care. This book was the book that made the difference between my being a non-reader vs. a reader, a writer rather than an illiterate. It is a romance that endures, a classic that set a tone, pushing the envelope, creating a hero who was more than moderately flawed. Mr. Darcy might have had pride, but Mr. Rochester, he’s got balls.

That’s me hushing up about Jane Eyre, the BEST DAMN BOOK I’ve ever seen… or read… or inhaled. I’ll be taking a hiatus from WEST WING for a while to get caught up on some assignments for my coursera class. And along those lines, next month’s blog contribution will discuss one of the books I just read for the class, and a brief discussion of the movie version: Mary Shelley’s FRANKENSTEIN. And might I just make a suggestion? If you decide to read the book or re-read the book, will you consider this what-if? WHAT IF Victor Frankenstein suffers from split personality disorder as a result of his inability to accept his own homosexuality? See if that puts a different spin on your reading! Until next month… Sit back and crack open a good movie/book/book/movie.

www.sofiecouch.com

Back to School = School Supply Sales = ★★★★★

I hope everyone has had an amazing summer. Just like when I was a kid, it felt like it went by too quick, but I can't say I'll be sad to see some cooler temperatures roll in. It's been a steamer! 

It’s been a long time since I’ve been in back-to-school mode, but I love it when the circulars start coming out with all the back-to-school supplies, because if you ask me there’s a smudgy grey line between school and office supplies. And even though I don’t have kids, you can bet I’ll be right there in line next to Mom’s with their baskets loaded – the only difference will be I won’t really have a checklist hehehe. Oh, and even better, I don’t have to share. I’ll stock up on notebooks, markers, pens, pencils and, yes, even some crayons. You just never know when you’re going to need a day to color outside the lines. Best therapy ever!

Kids these days are lucky. They live in the land of sticky notes and erasable ink pens. When I was growing up my mom would scotch tape scraps of paper to her pocket book with embarrassing lists of everything she didn’t want to take a chance on forgetting. The whole world knew what her priorities were. Those new erasable ink pens are the best. I remember having to sacrifice many a page of legal ruled paper after making too many mistakes on the ink rewrite. Not any more....have you tried those Pilot FriXion ink pens. They are the superhero of ink pens. A little rubbery end, not like an eraser at all – more like a smooth piece of rounded plastic, that somehow sweeps away your ink and leaves the paper unmarred.

The other thing back to school makes me think of is that great line in the movie You’ve Got Mail. Remember when she talks about a “bouquet of sharpened pencils”? Man, if someone gave me a bouquet of sharpened pencils, or better yet pretty highlighters...I’d be thrilled to pieces.

So what’s a blog post without at least one fun picture?

Here’s a picture of one of my very favorite birthday presents on my 50th birthday 7/29. My dogs, Hunter and Dakota, got it for me. They did too, my husband said so!   Isn’t it adorable. It’s a sticky note holder!

That's my thoughts on Back to School and School Supplies --- a five star event!

Life is good in 2012. Mom’s, I hope enjoy the time that you’ll have back now that the kiddie’s are back in school...for the rest of us...stock up on crayons and practice coloring outside the lines. It’ll do ya good.

Hugs and happy scribblin’

Nancy

PS – the re-release of Sweet Tea and Secrets is just around the corner. It’ll be out in print, digital and audio on 9/25. New cover, new twists. I hope you’ll help me spread the word. You can even pre-order if you like à http://www.amazon.com/Sweet-Secrets-Adams-Grove-ebook/dp/B0087340OO/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1344825357&sr=8-1&keywords=sweet+tea+and+secrets+montlake