Books and Christmas

I'm subbing at the bookstore today (The King's English on 15th and 15th--come see me). And I think I'll start some holiday shopping while I'm at it.

You'll recall (maybe) that I asked if you liked getting books as gifts because I'd begun wondering if they just created a sense of obligation in the giftee. But after reading what Shannon Hale had to say on her blog recently, I've had a change of heart.

Shannon issued a call to action to her many readers. BUY BOOKS AND GIVE THEM AS PRESENTS THIS YEAR! She said. Only more eloquently. She spoke of the publishing industry and how everyone is wondering (nervously) where the world of print is headed. About the only thing we as bibliophiles can do is express our commitment to books by putting our dollars there.

And of course I think it's important to shop indie.

So! Books it'll be this Christmas!

A focused twenty minutes

So okay. I haven't been writing much this week. Or even this month. I did make a deliberate decision to lay off the book for a bit but this has drifted into bad stuff--not writing because I'm afraid of failing, not writing because I'm discouraged about rejections, not writing because I'd rather stare at my tree and eat fudge.

My friend Laura Torres, who always had a busy career in addition to her writing life, used to say it's amazing what you can get done if you just write with focus for twenty minutes every day. So I need to re-commit to that idea. That's on my To Do list today. RE-COMMIT.

So that's what I'm going to do today. Re-commit. Also buy Christmas presents for my kids, including a Jimi Hendrix wah peddle and a Where the Wild Things Are t-shirt for my youngest son. I can post stuff like that here because my kids never read this.

What I did instead of write today

1. Check my e-mail
2. Surf the net
3. Do the wash
4. Go to TJ Maxx and buy Christmas present, even though it's early November
5. Talk on the telephone
6. Handwash all my cookie sheets
7. Check my e-mail some more
8. Surf the net some more
9. Take Q. to his guitar lesson
10. Hang out at the library and look at gardening books

And now I'm going to bed. And now I wish I'd taken the time to write something down--even if was only an auhtor's name!