This is Not a Super Witty Post

Nope, this is not a witty or exciting post, but I did find an awesome picture which I put on the left. Go check out where I got it and show the creator some love :)

Now on to business! I know my last post was a week ago. Ooops. Life goes on eh?

I have some blog posts in planning, but none of them are quiet solid enough for me to put them up tonight, mostly because my brain isn't behaving and performing for me (dance monkey, dance!).

What's coming? Awesomeness, deep thought, hopefully some discussion with you (the people of blog land), and possibly a contest.

That's really all I have to say tonight. Yes, I know, there's no content tonight other than a little teaser. I just couldn't go another day without posting! I really do miss you guys even though I'm the one who's been awol, here's hoping life continues to improve so I am here more...cuz I really am excited about some of my upcoming posts!

~ Ruthie ~

I Am That Monster

Yes. That's me. The year was 2006 (which feels oh so long ago lol!) and I was all dressed up to go dancing for my birthday. We were taking pictures (after all, how often was I going to dress up like that?) and for some reason out came my dagger. Why? Who knows? My brother was taking the pictures, we both like knives, and we decided that it was a good photo prop.

The picture itself is fairly crappy, it's hard to see the dagger and I'm all white from the flash, but add a little red tint, and it's perfect for today's blog post! Why you ask?

Every great quest involves a few monsters along the way. Ogres and goblins that are determined to make sure you never reach the end. Writing is like a quest sometimes, especially when you want to be a published author some day. There are plenty of swamps and mountains to get through, and yes, there are monsters.

I am that monster.

I know that may not make much sense on the surface, but believe me, I am one of the monsters I have to slay in order to get to the end of this quest. Ok, maybe not me in my entirety, but believe me, I get in my own way just as much as anything else does!

Self doubt and distractions are the two things that get in my way the most. I've noticed I am having a hard time finding the time to work on my first draft of Misfits and it boils down (largely) to those two things. I look at it and all I see is this huge mountain of work, which is followed quickly by, "But what if it's no good?" This inevitably leads too, "I should take a break first and watch that show or read that book. Charge my batteries before I tackle it."

Um. Yah. That doesn't work out so well most of the time.

Granted, I do probably have ADHD (not diagnosed) and so a portion of my problem is just that I have troubles focusing on things unless I'm VERY motivated, but if I didn't start out by telling myself that my work probably isn't worth it I wouldn't get as distracted.

I say it's time to slay the Monster That Is Me and scale the next mountain. I will complete this quest!

~ Ruthie ~

Sunset Scarf

I really should be posting something writer-ly today, but I'm still catching up on life after the back injury (and not out of the woods yet) so I'm just going to talk about what I want to :) It's my blog after all, so no one's going to flog me, right? Right?

I'm working on a scarf for myself right now. It's 48 inches as of this morning, and I'm going to knit up that entire ball unless it gets to the point where it's twice as long as my height LOL. Ok, realistically I'll probably stop when it hits my knees when drapped around my neck. Probably. I decided I want one realllly long scarf in my collection, can you tell?

Over the last two years I've learned to love lots and lots of color, but I also love black, so this yarn is the perfect mix. My Mom saw it earlier and said it looks like a sunrise or sunset, so I'm going to call it my sunset scarf. I've seen a lot more of those in my day than sunrises, I am NOT an early morning person.

In other news, I'm slowly catching up on house cleaning and there are a number of craft projects I'm behind on. The scarf is an easy one to work on when I'm really tired, so it's been getting the most time, but I have some rings, earrings, anklets, and a necklace or two that I owe various people. Plus I need to get started soon on a baby blanket for my cousin who's having a baby.

Oh and I am getting a lesson on tatting on Thursday and I am going to start a project that's supposed to be inbetween projects (using yarn scraps) but I can't resist starting it. And write. Did I mention write? Writing would be good.

As you can see, I'm a little ADHD at times. Ok. Maybe very ADHD and it totally applies to my projects! No matter how I try to finish them I always seem to have more going then I can keep up with.

Writing is a priority, house cleaning and keeping the hubby happy is a priority, knitting happens a lot because I can do it when relaxing, and the other projects happen based on which friends have been waiting the longest and when I find time/inspiration.

I'm starting a folder on my facebook page (you can look me up under Ruthie Stickney, mention your a blog follower please so I don't ignore you) for all my crafty projects. If your a crafty-nut like myself feel free to keep an eye on it! Not that there's anything other than my scarf there now. I am JUST starting it.

What are you working on today?

~ Ruthie ~

Ps. I hear some people are having problems posting on my blog. I'll try to get it sorted out soon but things are a little busy the next two days.

Moving Forward Once Again - ROW80 Check In

I'm making progress and writing again. It makes me so happy! I'm no where near caught up on my goals, and honestly I'm fighting a migraine right now so I'm not going to pull up my goals sheet and update it until tomorrow. I'm going to need to revise things based on the time lost due to the back injury, but that's ok. I'm well aware that there are things in life that are out of our control. The only thing we can control is how we respond to them and then move forward.

Moving forward can be hard sometimes, especially once you know your too far behind to properly catch up. The key, I've found, is to remember that even if you can't catch up you'll only fall farther behind if you don't start moving. That's where I usually start, simply moving.

Simply moving can mean a lot of things. Pertaining to the actual injury, it means doing what I can for myself, with out help. Getting my own water. Then, as I improve, getting my own food. As time progresses I move about more often, do basic stretches, start to catch up on small chores.

With writing, simply moving looks similar. The first thing I usually pick back up after a major set back is this blog. If you look at the last two weeks my posts have been few, but I did make attempts to get back at it. Then, once I was able to do that with relative ease, I focused on catching up on book reviews. Now? Now I'm back to the "real" writing.

In the last couple of days I've not only written some of those book reviews that I've mentioned (I have several in queue right now!) I've also started on a ghost story, and worked on going through Misfits and taking notes. I was hoping to work on Jemnath today, but I got knocked down with a migraine so again its one of those days where moving forward involves small steps.

The ghost story is one of those cases where I have loads I'm supposed to be working on, but my muse is insisting I take some time to work on a different idea. I'm trying to balance all three right now, but hopefully the first draft of the ghost story (it's a short story) will be done in the next week and I can put it on the back burner for awhile. Depending on how it turns out I might work on polishing it from time to time and make it my first submitted work. It has potential, but who knows what will happen!

How are your writing endeavors going?

~ Ruthie ~

Creative Nudge #6 - Meet Levi

Due to my back injury I was never able to respond to the last Creative Nudge I posted - or to post a new one! To catch up I'm both going to share what I wrote and give you a new Nudge - all in one post. Sorry if this gets a little bit long!

Creative Nudge #5 was to interview a character from one of your stories. If you didn't get a chance to respond to it but still want to, feel free to leave a link to your post in the comments of this one! For now... Here's mine :)

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Levi is one of the characters from my NaNoNovel 2011 which I'm currently referring to as Misfits (although I'm thinking maybe Pack of Misfits instead?) Levi is a Wolf. Wolves in Maerdon are sentient, have a range of psychic and magical abilities, and years ago began learning to shape change to enable them to more easily communicate with the members of other races that weren't comfortable (and sometimes not capable of) using telepathy. Levi has a tortured past, and when we meet him in Misfits he is choosing to live out among the other races in the shape of a man. He's big, 6'2" in human form, with black hair and blue eyes. I've had him answer these questions based on his life before the book starts.

Question #1: What's the hardest part about shape changing?
The small things. At first that means things like getting the fingers and ears right, but then once you have learned the form that becomes much easier. Then you are tripped up by things like facial expressions, mannerisms, even the way you walk. I've spent enough time among the other races that I've learned to imitate them fairly well, but I still forget that most humans can't smell the way I still can while in human form. It takes a lot of focus not to be constantly sniffing the air.

Question #2: What's your favorite thing to do?
Hunt. I love the hunt, and, based on experience, it's something I won't really be able to explain to you.

Question #3: Since you've chosen to live among the other races and not with a pack, how do you make your living?
I hunt. I've learned out to take down a kill without ruining the hide and I then tan and sell the hides. 

Question #4: Where do you live?
I travel a lot. Never stay in one place long, but I do have a cave I take the hides back to so I can tan them. 

Question #5: Wolves are a pack society, is it hard living as a lone Wolf?
Yes.

I could ask him more questions - but this post would get rather long (because of my questions, not his answers obviously, did you notice they got shorter as we went?).  

Erin Morgenstern's Website

Creative Nudge #6: The Circus! I'm currently reading "The Night Circus" by Erin Morgenstern and I can barely put it down (but I know I have to do my own writing too!). So write some thing about a circus, or a clown, or something else you associate with the circus. 

Go write! Then Blog. Then come back here and leave me a comment so I know you did! I will not be using the linky tools that I was previously using (don't want to pay for it) and I'll be looking around to see if I can find another one before next week.

~ Ruthie ~

Friday Features - Ready Player One - a Book Review

I first heard about “Ready Player One” by Ernest Cline from the members of my online book group. It sounded really interesting, and after hearing my Elf-sister geek out over it I knew I had to read it! It took me awhile to get my hands on it (it’s a popular book based on how many holds the library had!), and when I did I couldn’t put it down. The synopsis on Amazon is really long, so I’ll give you my own summary.

“Ready Player One” is set in the year 2044, a bleak future where the world is overcrowded, and trailer parks now rise twelve levels or higher. All the trash, just with a higher population density.

There is one escape from the stark pain of daily life, OASIS, virtual reality at its best. In fact its taken over real life in many ways, business meetings take place there virtually, its full of shopping malls, and kids can even go to virtual schools via OASIS! Wade Watts is one of those kids, although he goes by Parzival everywhere but at school, where he’s not allowed to.

For years OASIS had provided not just an escape, it’s provided people with purpose. When OASIS creator James Halliday died, he left the world with the opportunity to win his vast fortune, all they had to do was participate in a vast and difficult quest. Now thousands have spent years trying to even figure out the first puzzle. Parzival is not only one of these kids - he is the first to find his way through that first challenge.

This book is a riotous geek-fest for anyone who has fond memories of the 80’s. Halliday was obsessed with the 80’s (and some with the 70’s and 90’s) and the quest is all based on obscure facts from that era. Video games, movies, music, you name it, it’s there!

I have to admit that I was pretty young in the 80’s, and I didn’t have much exposure to the popular culture of the era until long after it was over, but there was still more than enough in here that I did remember. And I loved every minute of it!


I give this book 5 out of 5 cups of coffee. (really need to get the graphic figured out lol) Not only is it a ton of fun for the nostalgia, it’s incredibly well written. The quest is compelling, and there is a lot of character growth, both in the main character and in his friends. If you remember the 80’s, or are a video game geek, go read this book!

Still Recovering - a Late ROW80 Check In

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Well - after I posted my last bloggy/writing update I managed to re-pull the muscle in my back. Yeah. I'm on a roll here this month! I was fighting off some sort of bug yesterday, so I didn't even mange to get this up on time. That's ok though, I'm definitely on an upswing again today! I even managed to wash a few dishes. Woohoo! Any progress is good!

Hopefully I'll have some writing progress to report by Sunday, at the very least I'd like to get back to my regular blogging schedule, and blog reading schedule. I miss it!

How is your week going?

~ Ruthie ~ 

A Dusting of Snow

Photo by my friend Jenni; Author, Blogger, and Photographer. Check out her blog: Jenni Merrit.


We got some snow this weekend! It was just a dusting, but it was a enough to make the world look pretty. I didn't get any pictures, but Jenni did, so I stole hers! 


Now as to why I didn't get any pictures, and why my blog has been silent... Remember that "little and massively annoying thing which shouldn't completely stop me from writing" that I mentioned in my last post?  Yeah. Um. I was a wrong. It was worse than I thought and I didn't get anything done. Like anything. I didn't even cook for a couple days (poor hubby). 


Long story short, I had a virus that caused an asthma flair up, that resulted in my coughing HARD, and spraining a muscle in my back as well as knocking my back just all out of wack. I shrugged it off, kept doing things, and woke up the next day with the left side of my back swollen and this one line of muscle spasming. Ouch.


Since then I've been a good girl. Very little time at the computer (until today). I didn't even clean my inbox out for three days! And I'm someone who finds unopened emails painful. I did a bunch of reading, took the meds the doctors gave me that made me nice and relaxed (weeeee!), and rested. 


I'm back in the game today...sorta. I still have a lot of healing to do and I start physical therapy tomorrow which will probably both be good for the healing and exhausting. BUT I wrote today! It was just a book review for one of the books I read this weekend, but just doing that felt so good! I also have an idea for a ghost story that I'm going to try and work on later. 


So that's my belated ROW80 check in. Didn't meet any of my goals, but you know what? I think I'm more that excused this time *wink*


~ Ruthie ~ 


Ps. How are you doing on your writing goals?

My First Disappointing ROW80 Check In

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I started out this ROW80 round with a bang, I was excited, I was meeting my goals (even if at the last minute) and life was good. Well, good-ish, but hey, I was getting my writing stuff DONE.

Now, here I am at only the third check in, and I'm not doing so good! Oh well. I knew it wouldn't last. *wink*

I'm actually not that upset about it. I mean, I could let myself be so quite easily, but I'm choosing not too. I do have a good reason for not having gotten anything done after all.

Those of you know know me outside of the NaNoWriMo, ROW80, and the general internet world, know that I have a lot of health problems. I'm not going to spend my blog talking about it all, because that's not what this blog is about, but this week has been bad. Probably the worst out of the last few months.

That's ok though. I'll keep plugging along. I have lots of good days and accomplishments to remember and those keep me driven on the bad days.

Plus...the week's not over yet! So far the only goal I have managed to meet is my goal of writing 750 words a day. Most of what I've written this week has been forced drivel (half of it moaning and complaining lol) but the point is that I did it. That is the only thing I've gotten done in the writing world, but considering I've paid bills and fed me and my husband, I'm content.

I don't think I'll meet my goals this week, but I'd like to at least make some progress on the rest of them. I seem to be on the upswing (except one little and massively annoying thing which shouldn't complete stop me from writing). I'll let you know on Sunday how it goes!

~ Ruthie ~

Just Because

Hey ya'll. Today is supposed to be the day where I post a piece of my writing, or do a post about one of my characters, or SOMETHING related to that. Well... Um... I could. I really could. I'm sure I could go through my stash and find a gem, dust it off, and slap it up on blogger.

I don't wanna.

Yes, I'm whining. You can tell me to go to my room if you want to. Thing is, I haven't done a "just because" post in a long time, and since I'm really not feeling good today, that's what I want to do!

Now, normally I keep things to writing and books on this blog, but that gets a little "all the same" after awhile. Mixing it up a little...see the pretty scarf on the right? That's what I've been spending on lot of my non-real life, non-writing, non-reading time on. For those of you who haven't known me long, I love to create. My passion is beads and jewelry (most often made out of teeny-tiny seed beads) but I love creating things no matter what medium it's in!

This scarf is a project for myself. I'm still a very beginning knitter, and I haven't really done anything since last winter. It's been challenging working with the boucle yarn, it snags easier and can be harder to count, but I've stuck with the basic garter stitch and after pulling things out more times than I want to admit the project is going well! I have two HUGE skeins in this dyelot and I'm hoping to have enough confidence by the time I'm done with the scarf to make hats and gloves. We'll see how it goes! I'll post more pictures as the project progresses.

What do you do with your "non-real life, non-writing, non-reading" time? Does such a thing even exist? If it doesn't... don't hate me. I wouldn't have this much time if I didn't have health problems! See? Even bad things have their upsides.

~ Ruthie ~

Ps. I added the Good Reads book count widget to my books read page - check it out! 

Week One of Set Writing Goals

Before I start talking about where I'm at in my writing goals - I wanted to share something fun with you! I mentioned on Tuesday that I won the Book Mark Break Challenge this year, and the prize was that she featured me on her blog. I'm very excited about it as its my first time being featured since I rejoined the bloggy world, so I'd really appreciate my lovely readers heading over there and checking it out.  Just don't forget to come back and read this post and leave me a comment! 

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Today marks the end of my first week of ROW80! (If you don't know what that is go here.) It's been a weird week, but a good one. Most of my plans got changed around, but I still got a lot done, and I had some invaluable girl time that I don't regret for a minute, so that makes me once very content writer. Mr. Muse is happy too. 

The Goals and what I accomplished:

1. Write 750 words minimum a day - I did it! I had one day where I was really sick and almost didn't do it, but that's why I've set up a reward. If I do my 750 words every day I get to buy a book - and I really want to buy a book! It was enough to get me to the computer. Most of what I wrote that day was trash, but reading back over it today it was interesting to see how some of what I wrote set me off on things I worked on the next day, without even remembering I'd made a note about it while sick! See? Even sick ramblings can be useful.

2. Jemnath - Ch’s 16 &17 - I barely made this goal ... by writing at least half of it today. But hey, the goal was there, this blog post was looming over my head, and it got written. Isn't that what joining ROW80 is all about? I know I do much better when I both have set goals, and a system of accountability. Of course we'll have to see what future weeks hold, but so far it's working!

3. Misfits - Read Through & Hatchet Attack - This is a lesson in needing to adjust goals. I'm not done with the read through - and I haven't done the hatchet attack yet because I have to finis the read through first! I'm ok with that though because I am 30% of the way through my read through, and I put a bunch of hours in it. It's just taken me longer to do than I expected because of the type of notes I'm taking. So I've adjust my goals, dedicated next week to trying to finish the read through (hopefully life will cooperate a little better than it did this week), and going from there. If you look at my goals page you'll see both that I updated it with this weeks results, and I've already adjust my editing goals to match reality!

How is your writing going? Are you meeting your goals? Do you need to adjust your goals like I had to when faced with reality?

~ Ruthie ~

Creative Nudge #5 And A Fun Picture!

Remember my review of Prison Nation and my author interview with Jenni Merrit?  We've been chatting a lot and went out for coffee today! I was thinking maybe one or two hours chatting... Three and half hours later we were no where near running out of topics and we are planning on getting together at Powell's soon. What's better than two writers talking about books and writing in a book store?

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I was a bad girl and never wrote a response to my own writing prompt this last week. Ooops. It's been a bit of a crazy week, I'll write up something for this week's Nudge though!

Creative Nudge #5: Take a character, it could be one from a story your writing or just one you make up on the spot, and do a Q&A session with them! You'll get to know them a lot better along the way - I promise! Ask what ever questions you want. Have any you want me to throw at one of my characters? Leave a suggestion in the comments!

~ Ruthie ~

Friday's Features - The Outlaws of Sherwood by Robin McKinley

I’ve always loved the story of Robin Hood, despite it’s moral ambiguity. Actually, I have to admit I’ve always liked the bad boys, so when you present me with a bad boy who is still trying to do good, well, I’m happy to say the least.

Since I love the Robin Hood story I was really excited when I realized that Robin McKinley had written a book based on the legend. She's one of my favorite authors anyway, and she didn't disappoint me with this book! It was obvious that she loves the story as much as I do, and when you read her little note at the back of the book, you see that she really did her research as well..

Now let me warn you, while the story does include all of the important elements and does a wonderful job fleshing out the legend, don't go into this comparing it to your favorite Robin Hood tale. I started to, and was quickly reminded that doing so is always dicey. This is not necessarily the Robin Hood story that I am most familiar with, but it is a really, really good story.

I love people, and one thing that Robin McKinley does an excellent job with in this book is making the characters from the old tale into people that you can understand and relate too. There is one character that I don't recognize from the tales I know (his name is Much, what kind of name is that?) but all of the rest of the players are there, even some I only dimly remember!

Robin Hood himself isn't necessarily the hero you'd expect at the beginning of the book, but it was a lot of fun to watch him grow into his legend, and see how he changed over time. One thing McKinley highlights in this book is just how legends actually start, there's usually a grain of truth in them, but it's often blown all out of proportion. Which, of course, outlaws like those who lived in Sherwood Forest, have a lot of fun exploiting!

I give this book 5 out of 5 cups of coffee (cuz stars are boring). I liked the story, it provided great character growth and development, and despite not matching up my most beloved version of the tale, it was close enough that enjoyed it immensely. Not to mention that Maid Marian is a kick-ass woman in this story - which I always love! I never liked her in the Disney movie because she was too weak...

~ Ruthie ~

Ps. I'd also highly recommend any of her other books - I've read most of them!

WIP Wednesday - Full of Distractions (ROW80)

That's right, my week so far has been full of distractions. Some of them good (lunch with a friend) and some of them mundane (like laundry) but full none the less. Today was supposed to be a day of writing with a little bit of house work mixed in - but my plans have been derailed! 

It's a good derailing though. See that cute couple on the left? That's my "baby" brother Peter and his wife Tanya wearing some of the knit & crocheted items my Mom made (I know the hats were knit, and I have a feeling the scarf was crochet but I can't remember). They have been in town for Christmas (they live in Chicago) and I found out last night that there is a going away luncheon for them today! I was going to head up to Vancouver tomorrow, but I've moved all my plans around and I'm heading up today instead. Which should be a ton of fun and leaves tomorrow as a writing day instead! 

Despite all my distractions I've gotten a little bit of writing work done. My goals for this week are:

1. Write 750 words min. a day.
2. Jemnath - Ch’s 16 &17
3. Misfits - Read Through & Hatchet Attack

So far I'm going strong on the writing 750 words a day. I've promised myself a new book at the end of the month if I manage to do it every day so that's plenty of incentive! Yesterday's 750 was taken up writing chapter 16 in Jemnath (goal 2!). Every other chapter in this book is very short, between 450-800 words, so that was relatively easy to hammer out yesterday. The only downside is that means I have at least 2000 more words to write this week in that book, but with tomorrow and Friday pretty wide open that should be reasonable to accomplish.

I'm LOVING doing the read through of Misfits! I'm only through chapter 5 so far. I debated going through and just reading with out notes the first time versus taking detailed notes as I went a long and opted for the second option. In an ideal world I'd be able to keep my writing fingers still long enough just to take in the scope of the story - but I just couldn't do it. I am not only taking notes in my notebook, I am making 3x5 cards for each scene as I go along. It's all part of my master plan to take a hatchet to first draft! I'll explain more about that (with pictures!) in the ROW80 check in on Monday. 

For now - I gotta go take a shower, write my 750, and head out for Vancouver. Cheers!

~ Ruthie ~

Bookmark Break Challenge 2012

I love to read. You should already know that - I posted earlier this week about how many books I read this last year (171!). Since I doubt I'll slow down any time soon - I'm joining on a reading challenge that I participated in (and won!) this last year.

The Bookmark Break Challenge take virtually no work other than the reading you'd be doing anyway, so it's an easy one to add to your busy schedule. Plus - if you read more books than the creator of this little challenge, you'll be featured on her blog! Cool huh? 

That's it for today - I'm fighting a migraine and my laptop screen is therefore evil. Fortunately I have some homemade soup to keep me happy. Yum. I love learning how to cook more - the disasters are frustrating (and sometimes comical) but when it works....!

~ Ruthie ~

Ps. If you want to keep track of my reading progress check the page at the top or go to this link; Books Read 2012.

My Writing Goals - I'm Excited!

I’m very excited to share my writing goals with you, my blog readers! I’m not sure I’ve ever been this excited about sharing my goals. There are several reasons for that, but I’ll save that for later.


This year I’ll be joining in on A Round of Words in 80 Days (ROW80). ROW80 is all about setting good writing goals and then achieving them, but there is lots of grace involved, you are free to change your goals and adjust them to meet reality.

I am excited about meeting other writers, and about the accountability involved. I’ll be posting twice a week (Sunday and Wednesday) about how I’m doing with my writing goals. I have put a page up at the top of my blog with my writing goals (or you can click here). That page has it a copy of my spread sheet (I’m all about spread sheets!) but I’ll summarize in this post.


1. Write 750 words a day. I’m doing the 750words.com monthly challenge (for more on 750words see my post here.) If I write every day for this month I get to buy myself a book! Going back and forth between actually owning Hunger Games, Eden by Keary Taylor, and working on my Terry Brooks collection. Anyway, the 750 might be made up of writing prompts, writing book reviews, working on my books, or just stream of consciousness, but it will happen!

2. Two chapters a week in Jemnath. I’ve projected that out until the end of the 80 days, but I honestly have no idea how many chapters this book will take! I may be done by the end of ROW80 - or I might just be really close. We’ll see. Two chapters equals one long chapter and one short (about a page) chapter. I think that’s attainable and still gives me time to meet my other goals.

3. Editing Misfits. I really don’t know exactly what that’s going to look like past the first read through and going at the book with a hatchet (I’ll post about that on Wednesday). For now I have the first two weeks filled in and the rest is TBD (To be Determined). I’ll expand on my goals once I have a better idea of how the edit is going.

Like I said - I’m really excited about this! I think I’ve set attainable goals that will stretch me, but not too far. It certainly won’t be the challenge NaNoWriMo was, but I think thats probably a good thing in this case. I also feel more confident about meeting those goals than normal, because I’ve learned that I desperately need outside accountability to meet my writing goals, and I think this will be perfect for that. Not to mention, I’m just elated that I’ll be doing so much writing!

What are you writing goals right now? Want to join ROW80? We’d love to have along for the ride!


~ Ruthie ~


Ps. Do you like my writing notebook (see picture)? I love Celtic knot work and leather - so this book is perfect for me! I also love purple and this pen works really well.

Happy 2012!!!

Happy New Year! I've always found the change of the year to be both exciting and a little depressing all at once. I love that we have a new year, in which anything can happen, because it's kind of like having a blank piece of paper in front of me, just waiting for me to fill it with words. The depressing part? Well...I'm not a big fan of winter, of the storms, the cold, or the seasonal colds that normally come with it. This just plain isn't my time of the year.

Having said that, I'm really excited about this upcoming year! I'm poised to do a lot more writing, and I'm excited to see what happens as I continue to move forward with that. I have a lot more I could say on that front, but it belongs in tomorrows post, so you'll have to check back then!

Looking back at this last year I have a lot of things I could talk about, but since this is a new blog, I don't really have a ton of links that I could include like other bloggers have done. I'll save that for next year when I've been blogging here for awhile.

One thing I DID want to mention is my books read list! You may have noticed I always have three books in the left side bar. The book I'm reading on my kindle, my paper book, and the audio book I'm currently listening too. Yeah. I read a lot. Apparently not as much as I thought though.

I started recording my books read last January, and it's one thing I've managed to keep up faithfully over the course of this entire year. I have a spread sheet with the total numbers on one page, and additional pages for each and every month. It's kinda cool looking. Too me at least, but I'm a big book nerd who likes things like spread sheets. That's just me.

I read 171 books during 2011. I honestly thought the number would be higher! I've never recorded the number of books I read before though, so I have no way of knowing if this was low year or if that's actually about average. So guess what? Yup, I'm going to keep track again this year! I’m having way to much fun to stop now.

Here's the stats for this year:

171 Books Read
An Average of 14.5 books a month.
80% were fantasy or dark fantasy (ie vampires and werewolves)
27% were JV or YA fiction
Lowest #of books in a month = 5
Highest #of books in a month = 23

How many books do you read in a month? What genre? YA fiction or adult?

Who else is excited about what else this year holds???

~ Ruthie ~

Ps. The first picture is from a winter storm a few years ago - I  thought the snow covered palm trees were fun! The second picture is the last book I read his year - on audio book!