Category — Microblog Mondays

Not sure what #MicroblogMondays is? Read the inaugural post which explains the idea and how you can participate too.

*******

I have lost two of my Harry Potter book covers, the paper dust jackets that wrap around the book.  Once upon a time, they were on the bookshelf, next to the books.  But then I had a brilliant idea to move them… somewhere.  Except I can’t remember where.

And I need them because I was going to display all the books in my new literary kitchen.  But I don’t want 5 copies to have dust jackets and 2 to be bare.

So I am turning to the collective powers of the Internet.  These are the two book jackets I need to replace.

Just the standard, US versions with the Mary GrandPre drawings.  Is there anyone reading this from Scholastic (or who knows someone at Scholastic) who would be willing to send me an extra dust jacket?  Does it help at all to know that I love Harry Potter so much that I not only own the hardbacks, the paperbacks, and the e-books, but I also walk around the house in my Hogwarts robes?

I hate losing things.  I hate not knowing where things are.  I end up obsessing about them for hours instead of getting anything accomplished.  I’m a little less stressed over these covers because they are replaceable (vs. being a one-of-a-kind object like the sketch pad from a few weeks ago), but that doesn’t mean I haven’t wasted hours looking to no avail.

What have you recently misplaced?  Any odd places where you’ve found missing objects?  And can anyone help me replace these missing book jackets?

*******

Are you also doing #MicroblogMondays? Add your link below. The list will be open until Tuesday morning. Link to the post itself, not your blog URL. (Don’t know what that means? Please read the three rules on this post to understand the difference between a permalink to a post and a blog’s main URL.) Only personal blogs can be added to the list. I will remove any posts that are connected to businesses or are sponsored posts.

Not sure what #MicroblogMondays is? Read the inaugural post which explains the idea and how you can participate too.

*******

There was an interesting post recently on Mental Floss musing that Laura Ingalls Wilder may not have written the Little House books.  Or, she did write a draft of them, but her daughter heavily edited them to the point of rewriting them.

It raises an interesting question: how much editing is too much editing when it comes to designating authorship?  If you wrote a book and then I edited it, keeping all of the same ideas but smoothing out the language, is it still your book?  What if I changed the order to scenes or rewrote a scene or two to change the motivations of the character?  Is that still your book?

The editing process is such a hugely important part of book publishing.  I can only self-edit my books so far before I hit a wall and need an outsider’s perspective on the project.  As an editor, I am always aware of not crossing over a line where my hand is too deeply in someone else’s work.

Does it change your feelings about the books if the original books Laura Ingalls wrote looked nothing like the books that ended up in the bookstore?

*******

Are you also doing #MicroblogMondays? Add your link below. The list will be open until Tuesday morning. Link to the post itself, not your blog URL. (Don’t know what that means? Please read the three rules on this post to understand the difference between a permalink to a post and a blog’s main URL.) Only personal blogs can be added to the list. I will remove any posts that are connected to businesses or are sponsored posts.

Not sure what #MicroblogMondays is? Read the inaugural post which explains the idea and how you can participate too.

*******

The twins and I recently spent the day at a board game cafe.  So it’s a cafe — you can get small salads and sandwiches and desserts, plus any coffee or tea drink.  But you can also pay $2.50 per person for unlimited access to over 500 board games.

The walls of the store are bookcases, and you walk around the different sections and pull down games and bring them to your table.  We started with Clue and then moved on to Life and Trouble.  Then we started the inevitable rapid cycling through games we didn’t know.  There was one that took us 20 minutes to set up but we ended up not playing once we realized we still had 4 pages of rules to read.

We own a lot of board games but being in there made me realize how many fun ones we’ve missed having at home, like Sorry.  And I am definitely purchasing a copy of my favourite game — Clue — this week because the twins loved it, too.

What is your favourite board game?  And do you own a copy?

*******

Are you also doing #MicroblogMondays? Add your link below. The list will be open until Tuesday morning. Link to the post itself, not your blog URL. (Don’t know what that means? Please read the three rules on this post to understand the difference between a permalink to a post and a blog’s main URL.) Only personal blogs can be added to the list. I will remove any posts that are connected to businesses or are sponsored posts.

Not sure what #MicroblogMondays is? Read the inaugural post which explains the idea and how you can participate too.

*******

February has come and gone, which means that I missed the first round of the Complaint/Restraint project.  It’s an Internet project meant to get us complaining less.  Apparently we complain about once per minute of conversation.  So in a 15 minute conversation, we whine 15 times.

And that’s a bad thing?

Yes, yes, yes, we all know that negativity begets negativity and how we need to send positive energy into the universe and the Laws of Attraction and… I get it.  But there is something so satisfying about a complaint; about unloading something that has been annoying you.  In fact, talking about things you can do nothing about takes back control from the uncontrollable by containing it inside words.  So there.

So complain away.  What’s bothering you this morning?  For me, it’s people who use their phones while driving, especially the ones who think it’s okay to look at their screen because they’re driving slowly or because they’ve reached a red light.  GAH!

*******

Are you also doing #MicroblogMondays? Add your link below. The list will be open until Tuesday morning. Link to the post itself, not your blog URL. (Don’t know what that means? Please read the three rules on this post to understand the difference between a permalink to a post and a blog’s main URL.) Only personal blogs can be added to the list. I will remove any posts that are connected to businesses or are sponsored posts.

Not sure what #MicroblogMondays is? Read the inaugural post which explains the idea and how you can participate too.

*******

I’ll admit that I usually don’t read reviews of my books.  I’m afraid that doing so will change me.  And change is bad.  So… I avoid it like an ostrich*.

But I was scrolling past a review the other day and this line caught my eye: “You’ll do well in the future so keep going.”  This stranger managed to say the exact words I needed to hear at the exact time.  I’m not ashamed to admit that I wrote out the words on a post-it note and stuck it over my desk.  If that person is reading this post, thank you.

Maya Angelou was correct when she said, “I’ve learned that people will forget what you said, people will forget what you did, but people will never forget how you made them feel.”  That reviewer’s words made me feel grounded.

Two inspirational quotes for the price of one… post.

I do love to surround myself with well-written reminders, the sorts of words that get under your skin exactly when you need them to.  So leave your favourite inspirational quote in the comment section.

*I’m aware that ostriches don’t actually bury their heads in sand.

*******

Are you also doing #MicroblogMondays? Add your link below. The list will be open until Tuesday morning. Link to the post itself, not your blog URL. (Don’t know what that means? Please read the three rules on this post to understand the difference between a permalink to a post and a blog’s main URL.) Only personal blogs can be added to the list. I will remove any posts that are connected to businesses or are sponsored posts.