Cleaning!

I have made not necessarily noticeable but still quite important progress in my effort to clean my house. In other words, it still looks messy, but I've cleaned out and sorted through some things so it will be easier to find places to put away the mess. I'm going to have to get some new hanging file folders to really make progress on my office, but I have opened up shelf space in the office closet that will soon allow me to clear off some desk space.

I found that the trick to getting this work done is to combine it with something I enjoy. I'm way behind on listening to Ron Moore's podcasts about Battlestar Galactica episodes. I seldom have time to just sit and listen. But last night I played a podcast while cleaning my desk and sorting through my files, and I got a surprising amount of work done. Today I'll be working on the living room while Sci Fi runs a Firefly marathon.

Meanwhile, I've been on a bit of a reading binge. Sunday and Monday I read The Botox Diaries. My editor is working with these authors now, and she'd sent me a copy of their last book last year, so when I saw their first at the library I picked it up. It's a fun, fluffy henlit book (though I think the two books by them that I've read had far too many plot similarities -- like they're writing the same book with different characters and with cosmetic situational changes). Tuesday evening I re-read The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe and Prince Caspian.

Last night (really, very early this morning) I finished reading The Time Traveler's Wife. I'm still not sure what I thought about that book. I obviously found it compelling, since I stayed up very late to finish it. I thought the concept and storytelling style were fascinating. I like non-linear narratives, and all the bouncing around in time made the story far more interesting than it could have been if it had been told in a more straightforward style. I'm just not sure I actually liked the characters or how the characters dealt with the situation. I know I shouldn't have read the reading group guide at the end because it suddenly gave me high school flashbacks, and all those "what do you think the time traveling represents?" type questions sort of ruined the magic of the story for me. Maybe I'm not properly literary, but I wanted to take it at face value. If I have to start thinking of it being a metaphor for something, then it's like the time traveling represents someone who checks out of strongly emotional times when the people he loves need him the most, and that's definitely not a character I want to spend time with.

Reading a book like that does tend to make my mind work overtime. I have a non-linear story I want to tell, and I just haven't yet figured how to go about it.

I still have time to read something else before I plunge into revisions, but I haven't decided yet. I'm torn between re-reading a book by a favorite author (because I've noticed a pattern in her themes and that's the one book of hers where I don't recall it showing up, so I want to double check) and digging into the big box o' books my editor sent me at Christmas. Or getting something fun off my TBR pile. It's a dilemma.

Now off to clean house while watching Firefly. And then it's a big, supersized Sci Fi Friday before my last free weekend until goodness knows when.