Reading Circles – Rescheduled

 

Since multiple members of last night’s Reading Circle were hit with the Plague that seems to be going around, our Reading Circles discussion has been postponed to February, 21, 2013 at 8:00 p.m. CST. This means there are three more whole weeks until our discussion – plenty of time if anyone else cares to snag the book and join in. If you’d like to join our party, just email me at jade.celene.keller [at] gmail.com.

This is what we’re reading and discussing:

The Hour I First Believed
Wally Lamb

High school teacher Caelum Quirk and his wife, Maureen, a school nurse, move to Littleton, Colorado, where they both get jobs at Columbine High School. In April 1999, Caelum is away and Maureen is witness to the horrific school massacre. She survives, but cannot recover from the trauma. Caelum and Maureen try to find safety on the Quirk family’s Connecticut farm, but come to find the difficulty of life after trauma.

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Reading Circles – A Word from an Author

If you’ve ever wondered whether you can really do this whole writing thing, whether your words or ideas are any good, and if any of those self-doubts have caused you to hoard your words to yourself, too timid to share them with others, this week’s word from an author is for you.

From Hugh McLeod’s book, Ignore Everybody: and 39 Other Keys to Creativity:

 

What he’s saying here is to own your work. Stand up for it. Because if it’s yours, and it’s truly you, and you stand up and say, “Yes, this is me,” it will have a far greater impact on people than even the content of the work itself.

He goes on to say, “Your idea doesn’t have to be big. It just has to be yours alone. The more the idea is yours alone, the more freedom you have to do something really amazing.”

Our job as writers, underneath the deadlines and word counts and blog linkups and itching to clear the head & heart of the madness, is to connect. Number One thing: connect. These days the mediums by which we connect are more numerous, democratic, and facile than ever. The more clearly you speak from the heart, the easier it is for another heart to hear you.

So own it. Own yourself. Own your work.

Happy Friday, everyone!

Reading Circles

Because motivation, like showering, does not last and is thus recommended daily:

From The Icarus Deception, by Seth Godin

Happy Friday, everyone!