Gee, I feel like such a conformist coming up with my own Friday Five…I don’t normally do memes or anything else that everyone else seems to do. But, what the heck? It’s a Friday Five kind of day…
1) Today is my husband’s birthday! (Happy Birthday, Dear!) He and I both have birthdays on the 26th of a month (different months), which I thought was very cool when I first met him. (What can I say? I like numbers! So this was sort of a sign that I was somehow meant to be with this guy…) And today, being the 26th of October, is also the 26th birthday I have spent with this man!
2) I’m reading a really good YA novel…Choices by Deborah Lynn Jacobs. It is SO good I will probably have to send the author (whom I do not know) a fan letter. I almost stayed up and read the whole thing last night, but I’m a slow reader…and I wanted to savor it.
3) I will probably spend much of my weekend reading (is there a better way to spend a weekend? I don’t think so…). Besides finishing Choices, I need to (perhaps I should say GET TO?…because I’m really enjoying it!) finish reading/critiquing a middle grade novel for a writer friend (she and I share an editor!). I also received those page proofs for Truth About Truman that I mentioned yesterday, so I’m going to try and read those over the weekend. And I really need to reread Do You Know the Monkey Man again (which I hate to do…like I said yesterday, I don’t like to reread my published books because I always find things I wish I could change…but I really need to reread this book so I know what I can/cannot do in the sequel)
4) I have my mandolin lesson later today! I love, love, LOVE this instrument! And I look forward to my lesson every week. (It’s really very different taking music lessons as an adult than it was taking them as a child.)
5) I’m going to be a rebel and only come up with four “real” Friday Five things…
Yay, Friday! Half day at the day job, and I met somebody with a prospective student who helps run the Midwest Book Festival in Aurora, Illinois. Have you ever gone to that one?
It’s really very different taking music lessons as an adult than it was taking them as a child.
So, so true. Have a good lesson!
No, I haven’t. I’d like to one of these years. Have you ever gone? I hear wonderful things about it…
I’m looking forward to Choices and she is on LJ dljacobs.livejournal.com
And my kid is taking mandolin lessons.
And she commented on my blog! I’m so excited. (Doesn’t look like she posts much on her LJ)
Really? Your kid (she, right?) takes mandolin? There are so few people who play it, I’m curious what made her interested? Does she play violin, too? I understand the fingerings are the same.
My husband is kind of self taught on guitar, has a Taylor, as well as a 12-string and a mandolin. She asked if she could take mandolin lessons and has been much more excited about them than her piano lessons (she took a couple of years worth of lessons). From my husband, she has gotten straight hair, artistic abilities, and athletic abilities (she skateboards, a rarity for girls). From me, a love of reading. From both of us: stubornness to the max. She’s 12.
Sounds like my kind of kid (well, except for the athletic abilities). I used to ride a skateboard when I was 12, too! (They ride a lot more aggressively now than when I was a kid, though.)
Tell her to keep up those mandolin lessons! 🙂
The boys are scary! Sadie doesn’t have the scary gene or hormone or whatever.
Hi Dori!
I think you should send the author a fan letter. She’d be thrilled!
To be honest, I didn’t send fan letters until I became a writer, myself. It seemed so, I don’t know, juvenile? (Like when I was a teen and would have written letters to my favorite movie stars, only I didn’t have the nerve!)
But now that I’m a writer, I do send an email to let someone know I’ve enjoyed their book. Even 3 a.m. emails.
It’s just nice to know someone is reading my books!
Debbie
I’m so excited! The author of this really cool book I’m reading commented on my blog!!!!! (Was that actually three days ago? Unfortunately, life has gotten in the way of my journaling AND finishing that book! I should’ve stayed up Thursday night and finished it like I wanted to! I’m hoping to finish it today…)
I wrote a fan letter to Shaun Cassidy when I was 12 (did I just admit that in public???). I wrote one to Kristy McNichol, too, and asked if she wanted to be penpals. I didn’t get a response from either one. (Big surprise, eh?) Now I write fan letters to writers. What’s cool about that is writers will often write back!