There are a few other bloggers that are doing these Guilty Pleasure posts as well. It all started with C.J. Duggan and if you want a bunch of smiles, circle back to her site and see the comments to read other pleasures. Love to have you join the fun.
Today I am excited to turn over my blog to Laura Bickle, author of the Anya Kalinczyk series. A free excerpt of Sparks found here.
I'm a big fan of guilty pleasures. They don't have to be big. But I
think it's necessary to indulge ourselves once in awhile, to demonstrate that
we care for ourselves...after all, if we won't, who will?
I have many...my Tarot card collection. My collection of Wonder Woman dolls and action figures (yes, my inner ten year old is alive and well). I occasionally bring home fresh flowers just to bring some life to my desk.A long, hot soak in the bathtub is a daily requirement. And an occasional massage at the spa is just wonderful.
But my favorite indulgences are journals. Especially ones with gorgeous colors,
textures, and bindings. I devote a journal to every project I work on, to fill
with notes and research, outlines and hooks. I cut out pictures and paste them
into the pages. I doodle maps and sketch the characters. It becomes my Bible
for the book I'm developing - part scrapbook, part journal, part file
folder.It's a way of honoring the work that I'm doing at the moment - and a way of keeping a record of the past. I always smile when I run across a journal of a past project on my bookshelf, all tattered and lumpy and full of paste and scribbles and cut-out articles. No one else ever sees them, so it doesn't matter.
They start out pretty. They don't stay pretty. But they're all mine.
Do you keep a journal of some sorts? Is yours handwritten in books or on-line? Do you blog your journal entries anywhere? Here is my Live Journal blog, Fangs, Fur & Fey.
http://www.salamanderstales.com/
Do you keep a journal of some sorts? Is yours handwritten in books or on-line? Do you blog your journal entries anywhere? Here is my Live Journal blog, Fangs, Fur & Fey.
Laura
Bickle has
an MA in sociology-criminology (research interests: fear of crime and
victimology) and a BA in criminology. She has worked in and around criminal
justice since 1997. Although she does read Tarot cards, she's never used them
in criminal profiling or to locate lost scientists. She recently took up
astronomy, but for the most part her primary role in studying constellations
and dark matter is to follow her amateur astronomer-husband around central Ohio
toting the telescope tripod and various lenses.
Writing as Laura Bickle, she's the author of
EMBERS and SPARKS for Pocket - Juno Books. Writing as Alayna Williams, she's
the author of DARK ORACLE and ROGUE ORACLE.More info on her
urban fantasy and general nerdiness is here:http://www.salamanderstales.com/
Laura/ Alayna’s blogs: http://www.salamanderstales.blogspot.com and http://delphisdaughters.blogspot.com
Hi and thank you for sharing your guilty pleasure today.
ReplyDeleteI did a lot of journalling when my kids were little. Mostly it was I wrote to them in little books. They are sweet to now go back and read.
I also did a bit of journal entries at work and saved as draft. I did this when I was really frustrated and I used it as an output for that frustration. What was interesting is that when I went back to read them a year later, I almost laughed at how meaningless they all are now. That really demonstrated that in your life if you are going through a really bad spell, you can reflect later and it always works itself out. Something may be a big deal right now but it will pass.
I've never really taken to the handwritten journal idea, but I have an online journal that I try to keep up with. A few of my high school classes and university courses have required that I keep a journal, and though I wasn't overly keen on the idea at the time, looking back on those journals now is like being transported in a time machine. They're priceless to me, and I'm so grateful for them. :)
ReplyDeleteThanks so much for hosting me today!
ReplyDeleteMichelleKCanada, I mostly use journals to organize projects. I did come across one of my high school diaries while cleaning out some boxes last summer...they did make me laugh!
Julie, I should probably consider keeping a journal again. When I was in high school, my art teacher required us to keep art journals with pictures of our art projects. All the projects are gone, but I still have that journal. :-)
I am one of those who starts out with the best of journaling intentions and quickly peters out. I admire your ability to keep going! Thanks for sharing your guilty pleasure with us.
ReplyDeleteGreat to meet you Laura, and I btw the covers of your books are awesome... love them.
ReplyDeleteI also have a huge addiction to journal collecting - the fancier and more colorful the jackets, the more I must have them... I also have a bad habit of writing inside each one of them - only on a few pages, and then using a new one - hence I have a tonne of journals with only a few written pages in each...hehe
I kept a journal in my teenage and early twenties and I am so glad I did. I get them out now and read them (They are HILARIOUS) and have captured some really poignant moments in my life. Including the first time I met my husband, first memory's to be cherished. Makes me want to get back into it again.
ReplyDeleteThanks for sharing Laura and I agree with Tania your books look gorgeous!
Awesome Guilty Pleasure :)