Random Thoughts from the Bathtub Ranch

I'm not actually writing from the Bathtub Ranch, but the idea of sitting in an old bathtub (preferably claw-foot) on a pile of pillows with a laptop on my knees, legs flopping over the side seems like the height of coolness to me. Which only goes to show you just how desperate a person can become, I suppose. I took this photo west of Oxford, MS, as we left town after our trip to visit Rowan Oak, last weekend. I'd been hankering to photograph it for a couple years, but this was the first time the spouse was the one in the driver's seat and both willing and able to pull onto the narrow shoulder. The timing is seldom right; it's a busy road and the shoulder is puny. I had about 5 seconds to snap before he said, "I've got to move," but I thought the photos turned out pretty well.

Reading-wise:

I'm about 75% finished with The Sound of Waves by Yukio Mishima and absolutely loving it. Hubby wants my help sticking blue tape along the edges of the hallway wall in preparation for painting trim, but I should finish Mishima tonight and hope to have a review up, tomorrow.

The Tibetan Art of Positive Thinking has been briefly set aside because the author recommends beginning a 28-day cycle of meditation on a particular Thursday in order to end up on a Wednesday. I had to look at the calendar to see if that was really going to work and, sure enough, it is. The concept of waiting till a specific day to meditate briefly gave me giggle fits, but I love positive thinking and I'll give it a whirl. Why not?

Joe Hill's 20th-Century Ghosts is short stories; and, with short-story collections I have a tendency to read one story then set a book aside to let my brain finish playing with the characters and situation for a time before proceeding to the next, so it's going slowly but still progressing. Writing a review will require a lot of thought, but I can tell you that the man (son of Stephen King) has a knack for scaring the crap out of you. If that floats your boat, great. In general, I dodge horror but ghost stories are an exception. So, it's not surprising that my favorite story thus far was exactly that - a ghost in a theater. I loved it; it's still haunting me. Pun intended.

Start Late, Finish Rich has some excellent suggestions. My favorite concept is looking at everything you spend money on, for a time, to see where your "latte money" is going. By "latte money", the author means those little piddly expenditures that add up significantly - like a daily cup of latte. He does some tricky math and I don't always agree with him - seems like, at times, he's deliberately attacking other "save up fast" authors. But, I think with this type of book, you have to use your head and just give and take the principles that work for you as an individual. I stalled on it to finish up some fiction reads but it would be a quick read if I focused.

Writing-wise:

A character and situation have recently come to me, so I've been taking notes. Apart from two years of NaNoWriMo ( which I "won" - meaning succeeded at reaching 50,000 words - both years), I haven't done much fiction writing in quite a while. So, it's exciting to have a very specific and well-defined character suddenly tackling me; I missed that.

I hear the sound of tape ripping. Better go.

May the tape of your life be lengthy and multi-colored,
Bookfool, waiting to meditate