I have not written - I have not even practiced my accordion! All I have done is suffer from cold and sinus pain. (I sound like an advertisement.) Sinus infections, yuck, yuck, yuck.

So the stuff I am reading is fun and light - more Carola Dunn. I found my lost library books.



Yesterday, I catalogued a bunch of new Christmas picture books and one Hanukkah - Rosh Hodesh picture book, "Hanukkah Moon" by Debra DaCosta. I did Holly Hobbie's new Toot and Puddle book, "Let It Snow!" Hobbie's artwork is just so good.



I leave for my vacation tomorrow so I will be so busy getting things in order that I am going to sign off now.

It's over. My Nanowrimo novel-ette is over. 50,980 words. So why didn't I just go for 51,000? No idea.
As soon as it was done, I wailed to the hub, "What do I do now? I don't have anything to write about now."
He suggested editing the silly thing but I'm not ready for that. I need to print it out and get out the red pencil to deal with that. Besides as I was telling him what happened in the story I realized what a huge part conicidence played in this book. My character is smarter than I am and I don't know how to deal with that. In order to make the book work, as it was conceived, I'd have to revisit high school math courses; learn about social networking sites; figure out how substitute teachers are hired and called; and learn about mental disorders of the very intelligent.

So just writing the book was only about a tenth of the project. I'm exhausted.

So, why did I do it? Well, I DID it. I wrote through a story from beginning to end and I did not stop and I did not decide to change things - well, I did but I just changed them - and I did not tear out my hair and say, "I don't know what happens next." I just kept writing and, guess what? I figured out what could happen next.

My character's situation was with me when I wasn't typing and for the first time in a long time, I felt like a writer.

I realized just how much I enjoy the creative process.

I have the skeleton of a possible teen novel if I decide to use it.

I have hope that the fifteen or more books I have started may actually get written.

I had fun.

Now, I have to come up with a BookLady article for the end of December. I think I did resolutions last year so what should I do next month? I already did gift books. The article appears the week after Christmas.

Any ideas, oh phantom possible readers of these posts?

Well, I'm 43000 words into my NaNoWriMo novelette and I don't know where to go next. There are dozens of things I should be doing right now - including adding onto said novelette and instead I am here writing this blog.
I started a Jo Dereske novel last night and realized I'd rather be writing than reading. Why has it taken me this long to come to this insight? I LOVE reading but I like the creative process more. Even the accordion isn't bringing me as much satisfaction as writing.
Except for now, when I have finished the climax and don't know where to go next.
I have 7000 words, more or less, to tie up the lo0se ends, explain my antagonist's rationale, help my protagonist deal with what has happened to her and provide a hopeful ending. I didn't intend to write a "problem" novel. I dislike problem novels and yet I have found this novelette so much easier to write than something lighter and funnier. So what does that say about my sense of humor?
Well, I have until Friday at midnight to finish this thing. I WILL do it. I will also exercise, count calories and maintain a positive attitude. Right!

Oliver Sachs has a new book out, Musicophilia. His books deal with strange neurological conditions, usually. But this book deals with music and the effect it has on normal, and probably abnormal, people's brains. I am listening to music right now because I am cataloguing the enormous backlog of books from one of our major book jobbers. (They had a problem, I think.) Whenever I choose to listen to music, I am amazed at the effect it has on my mood. I can feel my heart beat differently. I feel more peaceful, or more energized, depending on what I am listening to. Other sounds can have similar effects but with music the change is instantaneous and more pronounced.
I haven't read Musicophilia. I bought the book for my musician neuro-science obsessed son. I have time before the holidays. Maybe I'll give him a slightly used copy of the book.
PS: 31000 words for Nanowrimo. Hey, I might even do it this year!

Ahh, autumn. I just took a walk around the drive here at the library. The shadows are long; the leaves are sparser on the trees. The grass is golden in the late afternoon sun. It makes me melancholy even as I am awed by the beauty.
Then I came inside and as I sat working I thought of my husband's mother who died this past spring and I missed her with an ache that was painful and at the same time beautiful. I want to take the time to feel that grief. I want time to watch the shadows overcome the sunlight. I want to see the sky turn flame-colored and then gradually dark, dark blue dotted with stars.
I want to sit still for an entire autumn day just watching the light and the sky change, the trees move, the grass lie flat against the earth. Ahhhh, autumn.

NaNoWriMo started already and I haven't written a single word. Not one word. How am I going to fit that in with everything else I have to do in the next two weeks? Like the Craft Fair, hmm, uhhh? And Nicolas's birthday celebration and what do you buy a fifteen year old for his birthday???? and my assistant is leaving for another week and I have 7 storytimes AND 3 nursery school tours that week. AAAAAGGGHHH. I don't even have an idea for a novel and why did I sign up for this silly thing anyway? I'm reading Brad Meltzer.s "Book of Fate" by the way. It is a "Davinci Code" by someone who can actually write and it concerns the Masons instead of the Catholic Church and takes place in and around D.C. It's pretty exciting because I KNOW the narrator has been marked for extermination by this crazy ex-marine - sort of like the albino monk in DaVinci - and of course the narrator is going to walk right into it any page now. But enough. If you don't hear from me this month, just refer back to the first sentence of this post. BYE.

I promised you a listing of scary stories. Instead, I am going to insert the article I wrote for our little freebie weekly newspaper - The Bethlehem/East Penn/Parkland/Easton/somewhere else/ News. Here it is. Not exactly the way it was printed - because my editor has to edit. That's her job. Read on for some classic scary story collections.

On a recent Saturday night, I made my way to Little Pond Retreat Center (www.littlepond.org) in Nazareth for the Lehigh Valley Storytelling Guild’s (www.geocities.com/lvstorytellers) Fright Night Bonfire. WOW! What a wonderful night to sit under the stars on the top of a hill around a crackling, snapping bonfire! The sparks looked like orange fireflies and they rose 20 feet into the air. The night was just cold enough to make the fire seem cozy. The storytellers, Maryann Paterniti, Vicky Town, Chaz Kiernan and myself, were awesome. (Well, THEY all were awesome. I played the accordion!). Our MC, Larry Sceurman, did some magic and told personal reminiscences of the tricks he played on Halloweens long past. I was never a big fan of scary stories - not as a child - not as a teen - not, now, as an adult. You won't catch me reading Steven King or Dean Koontz. Real life is scary enough. Anyone who has ever sent her children off to school for the first time knows just how scary life can be. And then there's your teen's first solo trip as a new driver. The very thought turns more of my hair white. So, creepy things oozing from the walls, evil lurking in the subways??, um...no thank you.That said, I actually like telling scary stories. Since they are not my favorite stories to tell, it takes me forever to find the perfect stories. The tales I told on Saturday came from Ghosts Go a-Haunting, a collection of Scottish ghoul yarns collected by Sorche Nic Leodhas. I have used Alvin Schwartz's collections, Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark, More Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark, etc. for some great spine tingling-ness as well.

Telling creepy tales is a time honored Halloween tradition. Here are some books to get you started. Read them out loud or tell them from memory. Sharing a shivery moment as the nights grow longer is great family fun.

The Scary Book, compiled by Joanna Cole and Stephanie Calmenson, (Morrow Junior Books, 1991) is a collection of funny-scary stories, riddles, tongue twisters and games. None of the stories are TOO scary and some of them are just plain fun.

Early readers can learn to tell the stories they read themselves in Alvin Schwartz’s collection, In a Dark, Dark Room, and Other Scary Stories (HarperCollins, 1984). Or they can read Scared Silly!: a Book for the Brave compiled and illustrated by Marc Brown (Little, Brown, 1994).

For fun read-alouds, little ones will enjoy Kay Winters’ Teeny Tiny Ghost series. In these books illustrated by Lynn Munsinger, a timid ghost tries to overcome his fears with great success.

Jarrett Krosoczka wrote and illustrated a Halloween tale of bravery against dreadful odds, Annie Was Warned (Alfred A. Knopf, 2003). Annie WAS warned but that doesn’t stop her from going out on a dark night.

Old readers and listeners will find a lot to chill their bones in the ghost story collections of Robert D. San Souci. The series starts with Short & Shivery and continues with More Short & Shivery and A Terrifying Taste of Short and Shivery (all from Delacorte Press). Like Schwartz’ Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark series, San Souci’s collections each contain dozens of scary stories for braver readers. Schwartz concentrates on American folklore. San Souci’s stories come from all over the world.
(Schwartz’s series is available in a boxed set from HarperTrophy, 2001. The set includes Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark, More Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark and Scary Stories III.)

Raw Head, Bloody Bones: African-American Tales of the Supernatural Collected by Mary C. Lyons has some of the creepiest, most blood-curdling stories EVER between its covers. Reader, beware!

Some readers want real ghosts – or the rumors thereof. Daniel Cohen has collected stories of “real” ghosts since the 1980s. His books include The Ghosts of War (Putnam, 1990) and Civil War Ghosts (available in paperback from Scholastic), both of which concentrate on stories of haunted battlefields and soldier ghosts. Star-gazers can read Cohen’s The Ghost of Elvis, and Other Celebrity Spirits (Putnam, 1994).

People who are looking for local ghosts can read Charles J. Adams III’s Ghosts of the Lehigh Valley (Exeter House, 1993). There are some horrifying stories about local landmarks in this book. Keep the light on!

You missed the bonfire this year but if you want to listen scary stories told well, the Lehigh Valley Storytelling Guild will perform more spine-tingling yarns at Godfrey Daniels in South Bethlehem on Halloween night – October 31st – at 7 p.m. Check out Godfrey’s website for directions – www.godfreydaniels.org.

And now for a disclaimer: Read all of these books at your own peril. This writer will not be responsible for nightmares and/or sleepless nights. Happy Halloween!