Brenda's Writing Blog

July 5, 2009

Happy Birthday America

Filed under: My Life in Perspective — Brenda @ 8:44 am

I had some grand and verbose political statement typed in here but I removed it.  What’s the use?

Instead, I hope everyone had a safe and fun July 4th and didn’t get their fingers burned by a sparkler or two.  We only had a couple of accidents and those could be treated with a little ice and neosporin. Why does the July 4th holiday turn at least 90% of Americans into pyromanics? Just wondering.

I was off Friday, so I finished up the laundry. Hubby did the grocery store trips and played golf.  Yesterday it was a pool party at a friends house and then back to our place to watch the fireworks and set off a few of our own. Gotta love living within a twenty-minute drive to South Carolina!

Today, I plan to type some handwritten pages. Yep, I’m still writing.  I’ve completely overhauled my new project from 1st person to third and gave my character a “granola” new age edge. So far it’s working, for me anyway.

Since I’ve been working longer hours at the day job, I’m entitled to full lunch hour. So, off I drive to a local park, pull into the shadiest spot I can find, and write until it’s time to go back to work. 

I did this same thing when I wrote the historical serial a few years back and it worked pretty well. The only problem is the area where I work now.  It’s a little dicey, so I switch up my routine a bit. Different parks (there are two close ones), different sections of said parks and making certain I’m never alone.  Oh the times in which we live!

Today I’m a golf widow. Most wives have an issue with this, but I’m okay.  Perhaps one day, I’ll take lessons, but right now, I have free time to relax and create.

Colin, I never responded to your question of whether I enjoyed A DAY IN THE LIFE OF IVAN DENISOVICH. Well, it was brilliantly written and expertly translated and I wanted to like it, but honestly, Shukhov took me kicking and screaming through each page and I was freezing everytime I read it. With the path the US Congress is taking the country right now, a book about a USSR Communist labor-camp inmate in Siberia scares the hell out of me.  I’m seriously not kidding.

I think, like with Tolstoy and any other translated book, one has to consider the era of the writing and the message. Yes, this is a Nobel Prize winning book so of course there is a theme –  Perseverance of the human spirit in the face of extreme adversity.

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