Writing
For now, I am not posting anything new for The Shoes that Charlotte Wore because it’s being extensively edited. I’ve gathered some great feedback on the manuscript and going to work on tweaking it and making it better. #PitDark is next week and I also want to get a few twitter pitch ideas going for the manuscript. I’m keeping my fingers crossed that a few agents might want to read the whole thing and maybe, just maybe that can lead to a publishing deal. But, if not, I can always self-publish. Are you on twitter? You can always look me up @authoraliciacv
In the meantime, I will still be posting The Nationalist.
In addition to all of this, I have been brainstorming several novels which are coming along nicely. Right now they are just a bunch of chicken scratch on paper but hopefully next week I will have an outline. Then, maybe I’ll start on a whole new journey by June!
Reading
I am taking a break from To Kill A Nation. I’m about halfway through but sometimes it’s really hard for me to get into nonfiction. Don’t get me wrong, the book is packed with goods and interesting bits but it doesn’t read like fiction and that’s my problem - I’m more of a fiction kind of girl.
So I picked up The Left Hand of Darkness. This is a high fantasy novel in which you are totally submerged into the culture of another planet. It is a very strange read and a little hard to understand what all the terminology is. It’s like reading The Way of Kings for the first time and half the time you are saying, “what is that?” But you can’t put the book down because you’re intrigued by the story and you just have to know where this is all going.
The Left Hand of Darkness makes me think of all this transgender stuff going on right now. However, no one is transgender in the book, its that the people of Winter are both sexes at the same time and can get each other pregnant but they all call each other by male names and use ‘he/him.’ They also have a more masculine appearance and build but sometimes take on a feminine appearance (naturally) when they are in a state of being able to ‘bear’ a child instead of siring one.
I am also reading Behold, a Pale Horse. This is nonfiction so of course, it’s taking me longer to go through. I’m kind of at a boring part of the book where he is explaining all this sciencey stuff that is related to economics and government functions. So right now this is my ‘porcelain throne’ read. Hey, don’t judge because I know you sit there scrolling your phone on the ivory throne too!
Life outside of books
I’m growing corn! I have about a dozen stalks right now and they’re coming along nicely. The ones planted in the ground are growing better and faster than the few we planted in the veggie bed. I also have a lot of peppers coming out: cayenne, jalapeno, sweet, bell peppers, and serrano. My tomatoes are about to take off and any day now I should have some start to form. Other than that I have a ton of apples on the tree and I think they may be ready to eat by June. I need to take more pictures of my garden and post them here. The picture below was taken last month. The apples are bigger now though.
We also made the decision to start homeschooling next year. I really lost all faith in the public school system. However, California has a lot of rules for homeschooling so for now, we are technically still a part of the public school system until I can find a suitable private homeschool option that is affordable. On the bright side, I will at least be able to be more active with my children’s education. I will have the opportunity to see and hear exactly what they are learning.
Well, May felt like a long update and I apologize for rambling on. Have a good book recommendation I can put on my TBR list? What are you reading this summer? Comment below and let me know.