Natalie's Blog

I am so dreadfully behind in posting here. It has been on my to do list for weeks, just transferred from one list to the next. I just have not had anytime. Anyway I wanted to talk about getting back in the saddle today.

Before September 1,  I had not written anything for two months. Not one word, I tried it wasn’t that, but I just couldn’t do it. But then a friend suggested that we do a ‘Scribbling in September’ challenge. Basically write something everyday and see what happens. So I have been forcing myself back in the saddle and guess what- I realized how much I missed it.

I love writing. I know that I am not the best, in fact there are many places and things that I am lacking in but it is an escape. I am a happier person when I write. I don’t know if that is because I can escape into so many new worlds or lives or if it is because I am able to get my emotions out through words. All I know is I am happier.  So yes, short and sweet today but come on everyone, November is around the corner and it is time we all got back in the saddle.

Posted by natalie at 08:47 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

I have a confession. I have been in a deeply committed relationship for 20 years. I know it is shocking, but it all started at the tender age of eight and each year that love seems to deepen and grow. Who is man you ask? Why none other than William Shakespeare.

I fell in love with the Bard when I attended a play in the 3^rd grade. The 6^th graders were performing  A Midsummer’s Night Dream for the school’s annual Shakespearean Festival. I loved the story and went home and begged my parents to take me to the library where I could check out every book on this mysterious Shakespeare. My love continued to grow and in 6^th grade I played the Shrew in The Taming of the Shrew (fitting, I know).

As the years went on I began to devour everything Shakespeare. I read the plays (even Timon of Athens), I read the commentaries, I went to the plays, I had Shakespeare quotes around my room, I could read something and pick out the Shakespearian allusions, I was in the plays finally playing Helena in A Midsummer’s Night Dream my senior year of school. I couldn’t get enough of the Bard, I quoted (and I still quote him in fact) in conversation ignoring others looks of confusion or shock. My love for this man was unquenchable. I took every class I could in college. He helped me to noted papers- the one on Troilus and Cressida is still used at the Utah Undergraduate Literature Conference. Shakespeare in Love  has been the only rated ‘R’ movie I have ever wanted to see (I still haven’t seen it) and when he was featured in Doctor Who I squeed (the HP references weren’t that bad either).

Then in 1998 I made my first pilgrimage to the Utah Shakespearean Festival. This is one of the premier festivals in the nation. I was like a little girl at Christmas. I can still tell you where our seat were (second row to the back in the balcony- bench seating not the seats), what we saw (All’s Well that Ends Well), the set colors (deep purples and burgundy with stars- the costumes too), and the feeling of euphoria I had while there.

I thought the love I had for this man, his words, and his stories couldn’t grow anymore, but that August night I was hooked. I made it a priority to go every year and the years I couldn’t afford food I lived on PopTarts while at the festival. The only thing important was that I go and stay in a cheap motel, with my Pop Tarts and Shakespeare. Over the years my finances have grown and though I still stay in a reasonable hotel and bring my own lunch for three days my love has never wavered (unless you count that one time during Anthony and Cleopatra, but I blame the actors).    I have post cards from each year (this year I even splurged for a Shakespeare head sucker). I have the sweatshirts, tshirts, and blankets, plus the obligatory magnet- though I have held out on purchasing the action figure.  I devour their free literary magazine as I study about the plays, five minutes in I am in love with the language and find myself blissfully wishing we lived in a time where words really meant something.  I bore my companions after each show analyzing the plots, the quotes, and the performances. They look at me funny when I say “I enjoyed Coriolanus more than Twelfth Night this year.  I mean look at the parallels between that play and today’s society- and the influence of his mother. Shakespeare knew it much earlier than Freud ever laid claim to it.”  I hate leaving because I know it will be another year until I can truly enjoy the magic of theater, story telling, and language.

He opened up the world to me, made me see it in a whole new way. He is a constant friend who has filled my life to the brink. Has made me search for deeper meanings and gives me the surface meanings as well. Simply put I am in love and I don’t think it will ever end.

Posted by natalie at 04:05 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Do you know what I love seeing right now? People reading. It has been over two weeks since the release of Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows and yet it isn’t uncommon to hop on a bus, get on a plane, or walk into someone’s home and see a gray and yellow book (Hufflepuff colors- well, close). No matter what your thoughts about the book, whether you liked it, hated it, tolerated it, never read it, devoured it, or avoided it, you have to admit it has reenergized reading.

Now the fact that people wouldn’t read to begin with astounds me. You know me, I have waxed about my love of books at every opportunity. I am usually reading three or four at a time not counting the one or two I am listening too at work or in the car. I have my library card number memorized and they know me by name at the bookstore (okay, that might be because I work for the parent company) simply put, I am a book nerd.  But I know I am not the norm. I know that many others do not share my…passion for reading, yet somehow this remarkable series has inspired people to read again.

And they’re not just reading Harry Potter. No, they are looking for new things to read, new worlds and lands to explore.  Already there are lists of “What to read now that Harry is over” people are flocking to bookstores and libraries trying to find something to fill their time. It is amazing to me. One little book, one little series has restored the magic of reading to thousands of people.

I know that Ms. Rowling set out to simply to tell a story, I don’t think she had any intention of revitalizing the book industry and children’s literature in particular (yes I still consider it children’s lit even though I believe it is much, much more), but she did. So book geeks around the world embrace it. For once you are in the spotlight. Give out those recommendations, talk to people about literature, take the time to create more book geeks- heaven knows we need them.

Posted by natalie at 03:28 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

I should not be this anxious about a book. I should not loose sleep, stop looking at internet news sites, stop watching TV, listening to the radio, and avoiding humanity in general so I ‘m not spoiled. I should not be counting down the hours until I can leave work, I shouldn’t be thinking of camping out at the bookstore, nor should I be so nervous that I want to throw up. I shouldn’t be all these things but I am.

In a little over 15 hours all that comes to an end and I will be holding the last Harry Potter book in my hand. An adventure I set out on eight years ago will reach a turning point as I close the last pages on Harry and his friends.

My first introduction to these books came in the Atlanta airport. I was racing trying to catch a connection from DC to Salt Lake and every bookstore I passed had huge signs up announcing the release of a new Harry Potter book. I had heard rumblings about these books before- something about witchcraft and unsafe for children, but I had paid them no mind.  I was a busy college student in the midst of midterms, working full-time, and trying to launch a new program at work- the first of its kind in Utah. I was also a sorority officer, chairman of the school’s service committee, and trying to have some semblance of a social life. Needless to say I was an active twenty-year-old just trying to get buy.  When I landed in Salt Lake my youngest brother, then just ten started telling me about the new books he was reading. Yup, you guessed it- those books I spotted while running through the airport.

Now I was a little worried, I had heard about the witchcraft and all that jazz so instead of telling him he shouldn’t read them, because they were bad, I decided to find out for myself and then discuss with my parents if these books were appropriate for Zach to read. I delved into the first book and was immediately drawn into the story. I found myself connecting to the characters, whose lives really were not made any better by magic. I knew exactly how Hermione felt to have no friends and to be nothing but a “insufferable know-it all”, I understood how Ron felt not having any money and having to wear hand-me downs, basically I connected with the bunch of misfits and the story wasn’t that bad either. I finished the first book in a day and devoured the other two in three days (did I mention it was midterms?).  We bought the Harry Potter trivia game, I bought the books on cassette and listened to them nonstop. I immediately was shipping (though I didn’t know that term at the time) Ron and Hermione and as much as I hated him I trusted Snape.

When the fourth book was released I had just left on my LDS mission- which meant no books. Zach wrote me of going to the Midnight release party, and of his new favorite character Mad-Eye Moody. Friends wrote me about the plot in detail, though I didn’t really understand it and had to wait 13 months to read it myself, and one friend sent me the first chapter read by Jim Dale- I got the chills listening to it late one night, in the dark, with nothing but the wind and an occasional frog to break up the silence. I had my Harry Potter calendar with me and the pictures Zach would draw me of the boy wizard.

After book five is when I discovered the fandom a fandom that changed my life in ways that I’d never expect. I was astonished that people actually shipped Draco/Hermione well Draco with anyone really,  Harry and Hermione shippers really confused me- I just didn’t get it. Fanfiction became a guilty pleasure and though I read considerable less than I did before I still like to go back and read my favorites. Oh and I should tell you someday about that time I discovered there was fanfics out there that I now affectionately refer to as ‘Potter Porn.’

The fandom has brought these books to a whole new level for me. No longer did I only discuss theories with my best friend and family- but others who loved the books as much as I did.   I have meet wonderful new friends and set of on so many adventures that I never would have thought it possible.

Tonight when I hold the book it is an ending- not an ending to the fandom, the discussions, or even the fanfic- but an ending nonetheless. I keep thinking of the GoF movie when Hermione wistfully says “Everything is going to change now, isn’t it?” Everything is going to change now. After tonight I will know if my crazy theories are correct (Harry is going back to the night of his parents murder- trust me on this one), if those I love the most will survive (come on Ron and Hermione-I’m counting on you), and if I can raise a toast (with my Crystal Light) to Harry Potter- the- boy that lived.

Posted by natalie at 07:59 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

I promised you all a blog so here I am sitting at my computer, trying to decide if I have any great words to impart on this lovely day. Guess what- I don’t. The sad thing is I already know what my blog is going to be in two weeks (thank you Jo Rowling and HP). In fact now that I think about it HP will provide me with fodder for weeks to come.

*Starts making lists of possible blogs*

I don’t know how columnists do it? How do they write something witty and profound two or three times a week? I am rather witty and occasionally profound but I can’t come up with diddly squat. Yet another reason I am going into education and not journalism.

What to talk about, what to talk about. There has got to be something in my life, or in literature that I can fill a page with.

Ah, yes that might work.

I read a ton. It’s part of my current job to read the new books that we publish and offer reviews. I read for school- I just love those text books and journal entries. I read for fun. You will never find me without a mystery or two in my hands. Then there are the classics. I love classics. Give Austen any day of the year, give my F. Scott Fitzgerald (I’ve read The Great Gatsby three times since April) give me Shakespeare and Chaucer, Mark Twain and I are even coming to an understanding. I love they way that these author’s use words. I love the way that the pace is set, the way they control you. You can’t breeze through these, well you can but you would miss so much. That is what I love about the book I am reading now.

Elisha suggested that I read Housekeeping by Marilyn Robinson. I am already half way through but I know it is a book I will need to revisit more than once. The characters are delightful and so real, the words though. I am in love with. I haven’t read a contemporary writer that can use words quite the way Ms. Robinson can. With the images that they provide and the pace and tone that they set, I find myself slowing my reading down just so I can savor it.

Usually I can blow through a 200 page book in a couple days. This book is so rich I can’t. It’s like slowly working through a piece of triple chocolate cake.  This book is a true gem to the genre of fiction. One of it’s crown jewels.

I love it when books like this can inspire me; where they make me want to be a better writer, a better reader, a better critic. To me it is like watching something written by Aaron Sorkin. There are so many layers you know you will need to peel through them to arrive at any sort of a conclusion, and you know you will be better off for it.

Posted by natalie at 12:54 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)

Before I start I want to make a promise. I will be updating this blog every other week. I know this is a lofty goal and I can imagine that many of you are rolling your eyes and saying ‘yeah right’ but I promise. They may not always be about writing but I will be doing this.

I have a confession to make, I am not a writer. No really it’s true. I’ve never taken a creative writing class, seminar, or been in a writing group. I can write a great lit essay or research paper, I can even lay down a great speech, but I am not a writer.

Oh, I’ve written some things. There was that wonderful piece titled ‘Herbie Goes to Mars’  which was an instant hit in my third grade class and then the wonderfully tragic saga ‘Love Never Dies’ which told the beautiful heart-wrenching story of two best friends raised as sisters pulled apart by the American Revolution I ended up killing everyone in that one, but one of the friends who was left to raise the others child. Tragic enough? No? Well don’t worry because there was the even more tragic and even more heart-wrenching story called ‘Love on the Shores of the Mississippi.’ In which I also kill a ton of people, there is tragic romance, orphans, murder, people being driven from their homes. Really it as frontier romance at it’s best.  But even with all these I’m not a writer.

There has been some fanfic (some of which I will actually claim) and then there was ‘Love By Starlight’ which was so cliché it was fun to write.  

But here is my point I have written every day for the past 61 days. It hasn’t always been pretty. There have been days when my writing has been plan crap, go read it I promise. But here is my point (my English teachers are either rolling in their graves or shuddering right now) if I can do this anyone can. It is hard but guess what you get better and you learn things about yourself. So if I can do it all of you who are more talented than I am get to it- you can accomplish amazing things.

Posted by natalie at 06:27 PM | Permalink | Comments (4)

I need to update this more often but why bore you all with the ins and outs of a grad school student's life. Honestly all I do is work, go to school, work, well you get the picture.

I should have probably saved this entry for a couple more weeks but I wanted to do this now. You see there is a really great lady in my life. One who has been in my life for about a year now, but who I only met two weeks ago. She has inspired me, made me laugh, made me think, pushed me to be better. She has let me be a nerd, I've told her my dreams and she has helped make them a reality. Really I don't know where I would be without her. Who is this wonderful person you ask, well it's my cohort Elisha.

I first met E through a mutual friend's Live Journal. We had some common intrests and well, I thought she was kinda cool. So I friended her, little did I know what importance that would have in my life. I still have the first email she sent me *is a nerd*. You see I was working on a fan fic and well E is the best around if you want help on your writing or grammar. I didn't know her well at the time and was nervous sending her my writing. Anyway her email back to me was so wonderful and the advice she offered just had to be saved. One day you will see it in our biography.

When we decided to start TBN LJ it was our first venture together and it was about that time we decided we were taking over the world. After a joint writing project we basically became attached at the hip. Daily IM session get me through the work day, TBN.com has become our baby, I come up with the ideas and then E makes them happen, I try to help but she is just better than I am.

So I find joy in having a cohort, someone whose criminal mind far surpasses my own. Bonnie had Clyde, Borris had Natasha, Pinky had Brain and I have E.
 

Posted by natalie at 10:43 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)

I am so bad at updating my blog here. It is on my to do list every week but always seems to be the last thing I do. I apologize for that and promise to get better.

So I have been working on a project here on Nano that is slow going but it is going. In chapter one though, I talk about opening lines from books. These have always amazed me. You have such a short amount of time as an author to capture some ones attention. For me if I get bored in the first paragraph I stop reading.  So for today’s entry I give you my favorite opening lines from books:

“Call me Ishmael,”

“It is a truth universally acknowledged, that a single man in possession of a good fortune must be in want of a wife,”

"It was the best of times, it was the worst of times, it was the age of wisdom, it was the age of foolishness, it was the epoch of belief, it was the epoch of incredulity, it was the season of Light, it was the season of Darkness, it was the spring of hope, it was the winter of despair ..."

“Last night I dreamt I went to Manderlay again.”

"All children, except one, grow up."

"Happy families are all alike; every unhappy family is unhappy in its own way."

"I write this sitting in the kitchen sink. That is, my feet are in it; the rest of me is on the draining-board."

"'I should've been a nun,' he says, as his feet leave the ledge."

“It can hardly be a coincidence that no language on Earth has ever produced the expression “as pretty as an airport”.

“It was a bright cold day in April, and the clocks were striking thirteen.”

"As I was born the umbilical cord tangled around my neck and I came into the world both arms flailing, unable to scream and thereby take in the air necessary to begin life outside of the womb, being garrotted by the very thing that had until that time succoured me and given me life."

"In a hole in the ground there lived a hobbit. Not a nasty, dirty, wet hole, filled with the ends of worms and an oozy smell, nor yet a dry, bare, sandy hole with nothing in it to sit down on or to eat; it was a hobbit hole, and that means comfort."

"If you really want to hear about it, the first thing you'll probably want to know is where I was born, and what my lousy childhood was like, and how my parents were occupied and all before they had me, and all that David Copperfield kind of crap, but I don't feel like going into it, if you want to know the truth. "

So what are your favorites? Let me know.

Posted by natalie at 01:55 PM | Permalink | Comments (2)

"I have always imagined that paradise will be a kind of library."

— Jorge Luis Borges

I have been pondering a lot about reading lately. Maybe it is because I have so much of it to do right now, or maybe it is because this time next year I will be teaching literature classes, or maybe it is because reading is the staple in my life. I don't know why really, it has just always been there.

I learned to read when I was 4. I have my parents to thank for that, no really I do. They read to me from the get go. To this day Peter Pan remains one of my favorite books. I can still hear my dad reading it to me and hyperventilating when Peter crows and comes to save Wendy. Because of this nightly ritual I of course had a love of books instilled in me. The memories I have reading with my parents are so vivid. There were books I made them read to me over and over again. They took me to the library every week to get even more books. I found out at an early age that books could be a comfort and take me to places I'd never been. As a small child I traveled the plains of the west with the Ingalls family, joined the circus with Toby Tyler, learned to find sunshine with Pollyanna, soared with Peter, Wendy, Jon, and Michael, and became a castaway with the Swiss Family Robinson. I knew that books could open up worlds to me, and though Johnny's Apple wasn't Kafka or Twain, when I read it for the first time, by myself, I knew I was going places.

By the time I was 6 I was reading chapter books on my own. I still had story time with my parents and siblings but now I was reading other books as well. I found myself cheering for Charlotte to save Wilbur, for Charlie to win that prize, for Anne to become a teacher and find a place to belong, and the bridge to  terabithia to have a different ending each time I read it.  I was going even more places now. On trips to the library my parents had to limit me on how many books I could check out, four,  and then I would still have them all finished days before I we went back to the library. I lived in a neighborhood with few children and not very safe. I had already discovered at this young age that I had no inclination to outdoor activities either, I didn't learn how to ride a bike until I was nine, and it wasn't from lack of trying. So I read more and more. Instead of allowance, I got books. It probably worked out better for me and my parents on that end.

By the time I was 11 I was reading what I guess is considered 'adult literature', no not that kind the kind I'm talking Agatha Christie. I fell in love with mysteries at that point of my life. A love that is still going now. I made it my mission to figure out who did, where and how. I was so dedicated to this task that I even carried around a notebook with me. These books opened even more worlds and expanded my vocabulary and knowledge in ways that I never thought possible. This was also a time when life got a little rough for my family. I found books to be my solace, I knew that I could be anyone I wanted when I picked up a book and I was grateful for the get away. 

I did not think life could get any better but then my dear ninth grade English teacher introduced me to the classics, by way of The Odyssey. The classics were a place I had never ventured before and I was thrilled to go there. I loved the language, I loved learning the history, I loved being able to understand literary references in the world around me. This love continued as I eventually went on to college and majored in English Lit. I thought there was no better major because I just had to read novels and discuss them. It was perfect for me.

Needless to say books have become a huge part of my life. Because of them I have attended balls via the Bennett’s and the Dashwood's, rode a train across Russia with Anna Karenina, escaped war torn France with the Darnay's, and been taken on countless other journey's and trips. You will never find me without a book, as I find them my to be my life long friends and they are friends I won't be letting go of any time soon.

Posted by natalie at 09:01 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)

Update blog, it has been on my to do list for over a week now, you can just ask Elisha if you don't believe me.

The past ten days have just been busy but one thing I haven't stopped doing is writing. Now it hasn't been the nano writing I wanted, in fact that poor project is quite behind at the moment but I have had papers to write, my 'In Case I Get Hit by a Bus' file for work, my personal journal writing, then of course the flood of emails I send out to people. In addition to that there is also the words I read. Books, articles, papers, I can't get enough of words.

So what's the point, you ask? Enough with the rambling on words already, I hear you say. Well the point is language facinates me. I love learning new words and using them. I love finding out what words mean and where they came from. I am facinated by the fact that sounds are used to communicate. Did you know up till the age of two children can create every sound that a human can make. Yes I am facinated with language. It is a disease, but one that I hope for which there is no cure.

So in honor of my facination here are some words and their orgins that I looked up this week:

 Rubric: c.1375, "directions in religious services" (often in red writing), from O.Fr. rubrique, from L. rubrica "red ochre, red coloring matter," from ruber, from PIE base *rudhro- (see red).

Etymology: 1398, from Gk. etymologia, from etymon "true sense" (neut. of etymos "true," related to eteos "true") + logos "word." In classical times, of meanings; later, of histories. Latinized by Cicero as veriloquium.

Dobbie: "household sprite," 1811, from playful use of the proper name represented in dobbin (q.v.). In Sussex, such apparitions were called Master Dobbs.  (I knew Rowling was smart)

Flabbergast: 1772, mentioned (with bored) in a magazine article as a new vogue word, perhaps from some dialect (in 1823 it was noted as a Sussex word), likely an arbitrary formation from flabby or flapper and aghast.

contract: c.1315, from L. contractus, pp. of contrahere "to draw together," metaphorically, "to make a bargain," from com- "together" + trahere "to draw" (see tract (1)). Noun came first, then verb and variant meaning "become narrowed, get smaller," especially of a withered limb (both 17c.). U.S. underworld slang sense of "arrangement to kill someone" first recorded 1940. Contractor in the modern sense is from 1724.

Posted by natalie at 10:47 AM | Permalink | Comments (1)

Squee!!!!

I feel that is all that I do lately, but there have been exciting things happening here at TBN. For those who haven't been there yet, run on over to nanowrimo.org and  check out their Q&A. Elisha and I were so excited when they approached us. I’m susre people in Kansas could probably here our squeals and our screams of delight when we found out.

So here we are a week into this grand adventure and I’m still loving it as much as I did a week ago, as much as I did in September when we launched the LJ site.

Now I have found my life has grown even crazier (if that is even possible) in the past few weeks. School is now in full swing and I find myself with more and more homework every day and work keeps me constantly busy. As if that wasn't enough I decided now was a good time to give up chocolate and all carbonated drinks.

With all of that though I find I have a blast here at TBN. It is a small escape everyday and gives me time to work and do something I love. Between this and my cute but entirely evil trainer, life is good.

Gives you something to squee about!

Posted by natalie at 07:36 PM | Permalink | Comments (3)

Oh my gosh. I can't believe this is finally happening. After months of dreaming about it and weeks of planning it we are here.

To Boldly Nano (TBN) has become such a big part of my life since the end of September. I have posted from all over the West, in airports, hotel rooms, where ever I could get my hands on a computer I was posting or working on our Live Journal site, and now here we are a few months later and we are taking this to new heights.

I need to thank Elisha, she has supported this dream and has done so much work to get us going. She is an amazing person and I have been privileged to work with her.  

So come and play with us- there are so many things here to see.

Posted by natalie at 09:42 PM | Permalink | Comments (2)