Friday Mourning

2010 Goal Tracking:
Writing progress: searching searching searching for agents!
Weight progress: I'm giving my body a day off. I've been mean to it.
Bible in a year progress: Genesis 15-17, Psalm 7

Today I've been particularly missing Rome. I can't get this

*photos removed intentionally*

out of my head. I blew this picture up huge and framed it in my living room. It's next to this one.

Looks fake doesn't it? Everyone that comes over asks where I got it. Um...well I was inside the Colosseum, we were gazing around, my friend said, KRISTIN STOP! LOOK AT THAT TREE! Snap. And here's the result. The Italians cut their pine trees so that all the green is at the top. Really neat looking, Dr. Suessish allmost. Basically, since Italy in September, I've been spreading my photos all over the house! I can't stop myself. I took around 200 pictures of the Colosseum alone. That's just insanity. But I was very moved. Misty eyed, even.

Sigh. Too bad we spent all of our money there and can't go back for years and years.

In other news! For all you poetry writers out there, there is a sweet online magazine called The Basilica Review that I learned about yesterday. Their first fall edition is free on their website, and has some pretty inspiring pieces. They are actively seeking submissions for their Spring issue, so check it out and see if your work is along a similar vein. The website is HERE and I also have added a link on the right panel under OTHER GREAT STUFF!

Gotta catch up on my reading this weekend! I’m off to a land of wolves and mystery!

*All photographs are property of Kristin Rae and may not be used or duplicated without written permission.

Poetry

2010 Goal Tracking:

Writing progress: still working on that agent list
Weight progress: 50 minutes high-tech elliptical machine, 506 calories GONE - VERY SORE from yesterday's session.
Bible in a year progress: no readings assigned for today

I don’t have much to add to the blogging world today, but at my writers guild meeting last night, a man I know only as Dr. Jones read some of his poetry. Now, I don’t really get into poetry; I don’t like to think that hard when I’m reading something. But this one line stuck out to me, and I had to share. He wrote it over ten years ago before he was married, after he and his now wife had broken up. After giving her the poem, she married him. The line I fell in love with:

“Let the others without life amuse themselves.”

How sweet is that?! To give it some context, he was describing what it was like to be with her – nothing else compared. Everyone else in the world didn’t have what they had. Everyone else lacked life! Let them go about amusing themselves with whatever it is they do! I have YOU! and there is nothing more important. You are LIFE! Beautiful thought.

Have a beautiful Thursday, all!

Wheew

2010 Goals Progress:

Writing progress: Agent research!

Weight progress: Feel like I'm gonna die

Bible in a year progress: Genesis 12-14, Psalm 6

Wow. I'm still coming down from my first personal training session ever. I had no idea I was such a wimp...especially in my legs. I seriously, could just lay down on the floor right now and not get up until tomorrow. And I know I will be sore beyond words tomorrow when I have to do at least 30 minutes of cardio, and worse on Friday...which is when I'm supposed to do all that I just learned...AGAIN. I can't even think about it. But, it will be worth it in the end. Not that there will be an end. It will be worth it...eventually!

Well, I got some great feedback on my Teaser Tuesday posting of Still Loving Ghosts. I love that your curiosities are kicking in, and I believe I just may tease you again with the second half of that first chapter on next Tuesday! I'm encouraged to focus on this WIP and see where it takes me.

The inspiration for Still Loving Ghosts came mostly after reading Sarah Addison Allen's THE SUGAR QUEEN. It's one of my absolute favorite books, and the ideas in it just fascinate me! That's when I knew I had to try my hand at magical realism, too.

I have to run to my writers guild meeting, but thanks all for the lovely comments, and happy wednesday!

Teaser Tuesday - And Title Revealed!

2010 Goal Tracking:

Writing progress: 5 chapters of new project mostly written

Weight progress: Got a personal trainer today - scheduled 3 sessions

Bible in a year progress: Genesis 10-11, Psalm 5

Thanks to Kristi for the goal tracking idea! It's a great daily reminder of priorities.

Well, another Teaser Tuesday is upon us! I've decided to reveal the (working) title and first section of my current work in progress. It's not gorgeously edited, and the formatting in this blog is a nightmare, so be gracious! And it's set in a fictional town, so don't get out a map. LOL. Let me know what you think! Drum roll please!!!!!

STILL LOVING GHOSTS

*Removed for editing

Muscle Monday

To kick off our year of Muscle Mondays, here are today’s fitness tips, found HERE if you’re interested in checking out this site designed specifically for women’s fitness. The trainer is Brad Schoenfeld.

MYTH: Performing abdominal exercises will give you a flat stomach.
TRUTH: Many women believe that if they perform exercises for their abdominals, they will get a flat stomach. Television "infomercials" for abdominal exercises further help to promulgate this myth. The fact is, the only way to get a flat stomach is to strip away the fat around the midsection. This is accomplished by having a proper nutritional regimen, increasing muscle mass to increase metabolism, and performing cardiovascular exercise to help burn calories. Abdominal training will help to build muscle in your midsection and is certainly beneficial to overall health and well being. However, you will never see the abdominal muscles unless the fat in this area is stripped away.

I’ve been researching best times to workout, best things to do, eat, etc…and there is a lot of conflicting information. And what works for some, doesn't work for others. Now, starting this week, I'd planned to work out just after rolling out of bed, THEN eating breakfast, but here’s what Brad says about that idea:

A popular fitness tenet is that cardio should be performed first thing in the morning on an empty stomach…. The truth is, however, it's not always best to perform cardio as soon as you roll out of bed…. In addition, studies have shown that eating before exercise actually increases caloric expenditure . This apparently is related to the thermic effect of food (TEF) . You see, every time you eat a mixed meal there is a corresponding increase in metabolic rate. When exercise is performed after the consumption of food, metabolism is heightened by about 20 percent over fasting levels. Better yet, these effects are maintained for up to three hours post-workout . And since burning more calories means burning more fat, eating before cardio can have thermogenic effects on exercise activity… Perhaps more significantly, a pre-exercise meal allows you to exercise more intensely . In order to perform at a high level, your body needs a ready source of glycogen; deplete glycogen stores and your performance is bound to suffer.

It’s the first Monday, or Lunedi on my Italian calendar, of the New Year. Back to the cubes, back to sitting on my rear all day, but NOT back to eating whatever is hanging around the office. Please let full time writing be in my future!

How is everyone else in keeping true to their fitness proclamations in 2010?
Today is THE day! (Can you tell I’m trying to pump myself up here? I need a support group! Or at least a personal trainer...)

Buon anno!

New Project Progress

A great start to a new year methinks!
Don't you love those days when you pick back up on a project you haven't worked on in awhile? These past few days, chapters have just been flying out of my fingertips for my magical realism book. It was a project I had started working on months back, mostly to experiment with a new POV for me, but this past week, I did a major edit on what I had, switching it to first person.
Since Between the Letters is in first person, I thought I wanted to change it up, but I discovered that I really really shouldn't stray from what works. I'm even hopping around to different characters for each chapter, and getting inside their heads has been incredible. The story is going places I had never intended, because I was just'a typin' and the next thing I know she's done this and decided this and holy cannoli....
It's so exciting when that happens, isn't it?
And to top it all off, I came up with a title that I'm very very pleased with. I won't reveal it yet until I'm ready to share from it (perhaps a future Teaser Tuesday?!), but I am so very excited!
Is anyone else having a great start to this new year of writing?

Let 2010 Begin!

Even though my track record for resolutions isn't that great...I sort of can't help but outline a few things here in writing to help me focus.
I really do want to only read one book at a time, which I plan on instituting (after I finish the five I'm currently reading).
I also would like to finish writing a second book. We'll see if the sequel to Between the Letters or the magical realism piece gets finished first. Maybe it will be both this year?! But just one would be a great accomplishment.
It would also be ideal to land an agent this year. I'll keep trying until I have 200 rejections.
Losing 15 pounds sounds GREAT. And while it may be reachable, how many years have I been trying to lose, and have only gained since landing a cubicle job? Exactly. So, the goal this year is to make better choices, exercise more consistently, and feel better about myself. No pound numbers in the official resolution. Just get healthier, and the rest will follow.

As an aid to this goal, I will be posting weekly health tips that I run across. I will try to get these up on Mondays to help start the week out right. But since today is the start of a new year, I have to share one today! And, I know that every tip has a conflicting opinion, but what it comes down to is finding that solution that works for YOU. This one comes from SELF Magazine:

"Divide it up. Exercisers who did two half-hour stints of moderate cycling with a 20-minute rest in between burned 10% more fat afterward than when they cycled straight for one hour. The repeated bouts triggered a release of hormones that helped metabolize fat more efficiently so that fat supplied a greater percentage of the total calories used later."

While I don't love cycling, I imagine any straight up cardio like the treadmill or elliptical will suffice. After reading this, I thought, well that's great, I'll do 2o or 30 minutes of elliptical, 20 minutes of weights, and then 20-30 minutes of the bike or treadmill. But then I found THIS:

"Lift First. If you tone and do cardio in the same session, start with weights. Participants in a study who did a total-body strength workout 20 minutes before cycling burned 10% more fat than those who simply cycled without weight training. Lifting taps those hormones that guide fat into the furnace. The reverse - doing cardio, then weights - doesn't."

Now I don't know who has 2 hours to spend in the gym to space all this out, but it does help to give an idea of the order to do things, and how to mix it up. Try intervals, do LOTS of stretching after muscles have been warmed up, and after the workout to alleviate soreness.

2010 is brand new, with no mistakes in it! Happy New Year!