The Countdown Begins...

The end of this pregnancy is in sight! My doctor scheduled a c-section for February 8th, in case Baby Scribe doesn’t come before then. I am really beginning to think now that I am going to make it to that date, too. Baby Scribe seems just oh-so-snuggly and cozy inside me and doesn’t seem to be in any hurry to come out. What a difference from Little Scribe arriving seven weeks early! I am now 36 1/2 weeks and ready more than anything to have the baby. It’s going to be so nice to have a baby and hopefully be able to hold him and keep him with me instead of having him whisked away to the NICU, the way the miller’s daughter’s child was stolen from her by Rumplestiltskin

I haven’t been working on my novel, lately. It’s been a few weeks. I think I am officially in baby mode now, so I'm finding it extremely hard to concentrate on anything else that doesn't have to do with "nesting." Instead, I’ve been diving into books to help me not focus so much on baby baby baby and still do something that helps my writing. Recently, I loved the Y.A. novel, TWILIGHT, by Stephenie Meyer. I had heard so many good things about it and have been wanting to read it for a long time, so finally I bought the paperback, read it in a couple of days, and went out and bought the sequel, NEW MOON, the day I finished the first book. It was that good!

At first, I hesitated on reading it because I had heard it was a “vampire story” which really isn’t my genre, but it’s so much more a gothic romance with the main love interest being very much like Heathcliff in WUTHERING HEIGHTS in the first book. (The sequel even mentions WUTHERING HEIGHTS, which I found interesting, since I had thought of Heathcliff while reading the first book.) The author is very clever with how she creates a world where there are a group of “good vampires” who do not feast on humans, but instead on wild animals, in order to remain civilized, begin a family, and become members of normal, human society. I had never seen a vampire tale come from that angle before. The stories also have a TUCK EVERLASTING quality to them, as the vampires never age, so there is a plot thread in the book about how Bella, the main character, and Edward, her love (who is a “good vampire”) could possibly stay together if Bella continues to age as a human, while Edward does not. She decides that the only way it could work is for her to eventually become a vampire, too, before she gets too old. (Edward is stuck at seventeen and has been for eighty-plus years) but Edward is insistent that she stay a human and live a real life.

The only thing I don’t like so far in the two books, most especially the sequel, is how Bella has completely given up her own self for Edward. She has no other passions, ambitions, or goals, and just lives for Edward and his family. It’s very odd. I’m hoping that it is deliberate by the author, and that Bella will eventually change in the third book, ECLIPSE, and become her own woman somehow. It’s depressing the way the girl has no other passions in life. I am starting to not like her character, and that really bothers me. But, I guess a teenage girl would probably be that way with her first love, but hopefully would change later when she realizes her own self-worth is important, too. Or, is this just the feminist in me talking?

Another middle grade book that has been keeping my mind occupied when my fingers don’t feel like typing my own stories is DRAGON SLIPPERS, by Jessica Day George. I haven’t finished it, yet, but I am thoroughly enjoying this fresh take on the damsel-in-distress fantasy genre. Creel is a main character that has been given to a dragon by her aunt in order to have a wealthy prince come and rescue her and marry her. But Creel makes a pact with the dragon that she will keep the prince away from him if she is released and allowed to take a bit of his golden hoard. Low and behold, he has no gold at all, but shoes, and lots of them! He’s worse then some women I know! Creel takes a pair of blue slippers that hold some mysterious power to them and ventures forth to the King’s Seat to make her own way in the world. She talks the prince out of attacking the dragon while on her way, and later is captured by another dragon again (this one collects stained glass windows. Ha!) That is where I am at right now. The novel is a lot of fun so far. What’s also interesting is that both Stephenie Meyer who wrote TWILIGHT and Jessica Day George went to Brigham Young University, live in Utah, and have young boys (Jessica Day George has one, Stephenie Meyer has three.) I’d really like to know their writing secrets! Grandparent help? Nanny? Daycare? Old enough to be in school everyday during the day?

I wish I could write to them and ask them. Maybe I could. Afterwards, I should turn what I find out into blog entries about how published writers with young kids actually get their writing done. It would be inspiring for me, that’s for sure. Something else to think about while I wait for Baby Scribe!