Under the Skin

It has come to my attention that I have not done my July New Year's Resolution Check in.  Well, today, I will rectify that. I must let everyone in on some perspective, though.  In January, I got a concussion.  It took me MUCH longer than I would have ever anticipated to recover from that.  As such, a lot of these past two months has been me recovering from that fact.  So, I'm failing on a lot of my New Years Resolutions.  But there is time to recover from that, as well.  Health Goals: Eat at least one meal every day:  Umm...about that.  I have spurts.  But right now isn't one of those spurts Carry around a water bottle: Yeah, I'm absolutely failing at that. Remain at a weight I'm happy with (because you have to have a weight-based New Year's Resolution, it's tradition): Yep. Writing Goals First edit of novel "War to End All Wars:" I need to do this. Finish first edit of novel "Passing the Setting Sun:"  I haven't even st

"I could have done something else you know. Something more glamorous, but I choose to stay here."   I had a book review that I was extremely excited for (and worry not, it is in the works), but first an ARC review. For those who are not familiar with ARC reviews, if you are really into books and really into reviewing books, you can do ARC reviews.  ARC stands for "Advance Reader Copy."  Basically, this book is not yet published. But I got a copy for the express purpose of reviewing it for its impending publication. I've always kind of thought it would be fun to do some ARC reviews.  So, I took the plunge.  Maybe I'll do some more in the future.  Maybe not, but it's kind of fun. So, disclaimer that you  have to include when you do ARC:   I was given an advanced reader copy by the author in exchange for an honest review.   Oliver Brixby takes a lot of medicatio

My maternal grandmother's favorite poem was John Donne's No Man Is an Island .  As this grandmother passed away before my birth, I have spent a fair bit of my life trying to connect with her through things she loved:  her favorite poem, her favorite book ( A Tree Grows in Brooklyn ), her love of opera, her kinship with the people of Hawaii and their music and dance (she was a school teacher there), and other things. I try to understand her through quilting, which was very important to her, but I just couldn't do that. It requires spatial reasoning, which I do not have. The point being, I have pored over this poem a lot.  I have come to the conclusion that many people don't understand this poem.  No man is an island entire of itself; every man  is a piece of the continent, a part of the main;  if a clod be washed away by the sea, Europe is the less, as well as if a promontory were, as  well as any manner of thy friends or of thine own  were; any man's death