Bird by Bird

After giving away several copies to fellow writers, I finally read Bird by Bird. Anne Lamott is the author and she made me laugh a lot and cry a little. The focus of the book is writing but Anne also speaks the truth about our sometimes wonderful, sometimes miserable existence. As I read I found myself making notes in the margins...she really cranked up my enthusiasm to get back to writing. I will read some of the authors that she quoted or referred to. This book is just too good to keep to myself so I'm sharing it with friends and family. And I think I will want to read through it again after Mom finishes with it. Maybe then I can post a few Anne Lamott quotes that were important to me.

Now I have started a novel she wrote - Blue Shoe. I am only on page 13 and so far the story is grim and disturbing. Hearing rats in walls kind of disturbing. But the blurb sounds good, it is a bestseller, and I loved Bird by Bird and Anne's writing philosophy. So...I'll forge on at least until the heroine Mattie finds the blue shoe.

Today was stressful at work but fortunately my job isn't stressful most days. I will have an abbreviated work week by at least a few hours since I have jury duty on Wednesday. My past experience with jury duty has varied from being kept for only two hours to being tied up for an entire week.

Hubby and I ate dinner at Outback and then I went to see Daughter and the Grandkids. I had a good visit there - Daughter is in nurse practitioner training and got to do a variety of interesting things today...numb up a toe and remove part of the toenail and give a mini-mental exam to another patient. When I got home I tried my hand at painting on silk. It was a lot of fun...my experimental first attempt is pretty cute but far from perfect. I had purchased two long silk scarves on ebay. I used Tulip paints to draw circles and leaves. Then I used Pebeo fabric paints, diluted with water, to do the painting. Some really nice effects and a few problems with bleeding from one area to another. One other tiny problem...the wax paper beneath the fabric was too small and so I painted my ironing board cover. Well, nothing disastrous. I am anxious to try it again tomorrow when I'm not so tired...I believe I'll try faces since that is something I'm very comfortable drawing. Of course, with the fabric paints I have on hand the characters I draw may have to be lavender-skinned aliens.