Bookish Happenings

Hello, I’m Shot Out of a Cannon. What’s your name?

Last week was one of the longest, coolest weeks of my life. (I got to celebrate a family birthday, participate in a Jesse Tree ornament exchange, help with a wedding reception, make new friends, and babysit the world’s sweetest kids.) And somehow during all of that, a ton of great bookish things still managed to happen. (Although, I didn’t get to read at all over the weekend.)

I wrote 5,000 hopefully useful-to-the-story words. I dreamed up Easter dresses for Kiera and Jade, wrote about them being sick (while having a headache myself–helps with the realism ya’ know), made sure the “romance” wasn’t going too quickly, and stressed myself out badly by the midpoint. Like seriously. My least favorite thing besides tragedy is uncertainty. Apparently I did a really good job putting my character through a situation I would hate; because, well… I hated it. 😉

It’s a normal day and Kiera is cooking ahead and messaging her goofy bestie Destiny to invite her over to decorate sometime. Here’s what happens next…

“Do you want to come some morning with your fantastically weird scrap bag?”

“Yes please. If you please, ma’am. I’ll try to be good.”

“Hang on, dear. I’m getting a voice call.” Kiera realized seconds before it dropped. “Never mind. I missed it, but Mom’ll call back if she needs.”

“I was reading this really weird book the other day.”

“And Jade might be waking up, so keep talking while I’m gone.” Kiera set a few large knives up on the high counter, washed her hands again, and went upstairs to the sound of several incoming messages. Wow, Destiny was talking a lot.

She listened at the nursery door and decided she had just imagined that Jade was awake. Hurrying back down the stairs, she poured the spaghetti sauces into jars to cool and threw the cut vegetables into her soup pot. Now, what was a good breakfast to make ahead?

The device sounded again reminding her that Destiny was still waiting. She looked at the most recent message.

“I am so sorry, dear. That must be so scary! I’m praying for you.”

Kiera’s heart jumped. “Wait, what’s going on? Is this a payback prank?”

“I don’t think I should be the one to tell you. Maybe you should call your mom. Love you, dear.” Destiny was never this calm.

Kiera raced to check the voice calls. There were no messages left behind, but instead three missed calls were left in addition to Mom’s first try. One was from Ian? He never called her. All of this happened while she was upstairs? Her hands were shaking as she pushed the button to voice call Mom. No answer. She tried again. She even tried Dad and Ian. No one picked up.

Finally she did something she’d never done before and called Brennan. “Pick up, oh, please pick up. If I don’t find out what is going on…” She yelled at the device.

Brennan’s voice cut through the speaker. “Kiera, I’m coming home right now.”

“Brennan, what in the world is going on? Will you please tell me? I can’t get ahold of anyone!”

“Your Mom didn’t tell you?”

“I missed her calls!” She was desperate now.

Yeah, nice stuff, eh? I’m really happy to be this far through, and great things are coming! (After some really bad ones…)

My copy of The Martian is done being attacked by white-out!!! My inner nerd adored the movie (I’ve seen it twice and can’t wait for the next time), so I knew of course that the book would be even better. Mom kept telling me how interesting it was as she was editing it for me (language problems), and all I could think was, “I can’t wait!” I really hope to get started on it this week. 😉

Ember Falls came in the mail! I finally splurged and bought it. It’s so beautiful. The name itself is so heartbreaking. I can’t wait to read it. But I’m scared. What happens to my favorite rabbits? *whimpers*

The world’s loooongest computer cord also came in the mail. 😉  My parents bought it for the computer I use most of the time, and I’m so happy to have it back in commission. Hopefully this means more writing. 😉 I’m also really happy that its so long (see above) at fourteen feet or so. The battery isn’t working so I have to stay plugged in, but this means I can plug in at one end of the room and sit at the other. XD

I also signed up to be part of a clean Christian reads Black Friday sale, which I’ll tell you more about later if you promise to be good. I can give you a list of the amazing authors that will be participating…

Sarah Holman

Jessica Grayson

Kendra E. Ardnek

Leah E. Good

Faith Blum

Morgan Elizabeth Huneke

Jenelle Schmidt

Jaye L. Knight/Molly Evangeline

J. Grace Pennington

Claire Banschbach

Rachael Ritchey

Tricia Mingerink

Sarah Allerding

Kate Willis

Amanda Tero

Now, what to do first? Write, read, read, or read? 😉