Slump Days

It's been several days since I posted. I've been kind of in a slump for a few days. I'm having one of those weeks where I really want to write and create art and it's like the cork got put back in the creativity juice bottle, denying me access. My brain is coming up with ideas, but I just can't get myself to actually do anything. The weather has cooled up a bit; maybe that will help.

One bit of news, well actually two bits, my Mollie Be Muse art doll (see post/pic Aug 16) was chosen as winner of the Mojoart yahoo group challenge this month and is now gracing the homepage until the next challenge winner is chosen. Don't know yet what the next challenge is, but it will be fun. This one was a lot of fun. There were three other art dolls entered, among other great things, all made from recycled stuff, all adorable and unique. Mollie needed friends and she got some good ones. :)

I also got some very positive encouraging feedback from an assistant editor on a fictional short story that I submitted to the print magazine last March. I got an email reply this week making a suggestion for a revision in a couple of places to make the story better, which I am working on. She didn't say they were still considering the story, but she didn't say they had rejected it either. Kind of confusing, but we'll see what happens...

I did finish a book this week. I had started reading "Tara Road" by Maeve Binchey a few weeks ago, and though it was very hard to put down, I got sidetracked and didn't pick it up again until this week. It has all the elements of a good read and I found it well written, making me feel all sorts of emotions. The characters were all characters I really cared about and felt for and with. There is everything short of murder, and that came close, in this book. Love, anger, betrayal, adultery, addiction, abuse, friendship, loyalty, wasted years, success, failure, loss, suspense, blackmail, mystery, sadness, happiness are all there. All kinds of twists and turns building to a suspenseful climax and a satisfactory ending, although not the ending I expected.

I would recommend it if you haven't read it. It's not an edge of your seat thriller, but it's about the lives of ordinary people, how tangled up lives can get while they're trying to be lived, the strength that people find to face things they never thought they could, and peoples' need for each other. Very entertaining and at times thought provoking. At least to me. :)