“What’s Up Wednesday” is a fun weekly meme started by my friends Jaime Morrow and Erin Funk. From Jaime: It’s similar in some respects to the Currently… post, but it’s been whittled down to only four headings to make it quicker and more manageable on a weekly basis. You’re invited to join us if you’re looking for something to blog about, a way to let your blog friends know what’s been going on with you. If you’re participating, make sure to link your What’s Up Wednesday posts to the list on Jaime’s blog each week. That way, others can visit your post and check out what you’ve been up to.And now, here’s what’s up with me this week…And now, here’s what’s up with me this week…
What I’m Reading: Over the weekend I read Charm & Strange by Stephanie Kuehn, which isn’t a book I normally would have picked up because there’s much talk of wolves in the summary. But it is so, so good, guys. The plotting — WOW. And the writing… it’s beautiful. The entire story is visceral and haunting, one of those where you’re never quite sure what’s real and what’s not. The other day it was named the William C. Morris YA Debut Award winner– well deserved! I highly recommend it. (Also, can we talk about Stephanie’s next release, Complicit? It’s one of my most anticipated 2014 books!). Now, I’m reading Leap of Faith by Jamie Blair, which came highly recommended by Tracey Neithercott, a book bestie who has yet to fail me. I’ve only just started, but so far it’s lovely.
What I’m Writing: I’ve been making great strides in my revision. Funny how after several weeks away it is VERY easy to see what’s awesome and what’s embarrassingly cheesy and needs to go. I’ve also made some important decisions regarding my characters’ motivations and the challenges I need to present them with, so I think I’m moving in the right direction. Guess what else I wrote this week? A RESUME! Which was really challenging, considering I haven’t worked outside my home in seven years. Big thanks to my husband for all his help!
What Else I’ve Been Up To: Mostly, I’ve been trying to remain motivated and in my revision zone. I’ve been also spending tons of time with my husband and my girl. We’ve been watching a lot of Modern Family, a show we’ve only recently discovered. As a rule, I hate sitcoms, but this one is laugh-out-loud funny (I love Phil so much!), plus it’s full of heartfelt moments that aren’t totally gag-inducing. Cam cracks my girl up, which in turn cracks my husband and me up.
My daughter has been studying landforms at school and had a take-home volcano project to complete last week. She had a blast (see what I did there?) mixing and molding and painting, and was thrilled when the chemical reaction actually worked. Watching your child get excited about learning is hands-down one of the best parts of parenting.
Sometimes I participate in Photo A Day challenges via Instagram. At the end of each day, Fat Mum Slim (aka Australian blogger Chantelle) chooses a “Fab Four” group out of thousands of entrants. Imagine my surprise when my photo of Daisy on the front porch (for the prompt “My Space”) was selected. It totally made my day to have my simple little image featured with three incredibly lovely photographs. Daisy was also flattered. ♥
We’ve been having a stretch of crappy weather (I’m not impressed with Florida so far) and my daughter’s school has been closed for the last two days. Yesterday we baked Homemade Yeast Bread together and it was so much fun. My girl learned how to knead dough, and then we ate warm bread with butter for a snack. Yum!
What’s Inspiring Me Now: I love author Erin Bowman‘s recent Pub(lishing) Crawl post entitled Making the Most of Social Networks as a Writer. It is everything you need to know about the various social media platforms available today, as well as advice for how to make the most of them as a writer. Definitely check it out. My WiP’s Pinterest board has also been inspiring me lately. Every time I get stuck, I turn to it for a creative boost, and it’s totally working.
Tell me… What’s up with you today?
katyupperman.com 
It is amazing how time away from a project gives you such amazing perspective. Good luck with the rest of your revisions 😀
I love Modern Family. I’m not much of a sitcom fan, but this is one of the three that consistently makes me laugh. It’s also the only one still being made 😛
Hope the weather gets better ^_^ Have a fantastic week!
No sitcom has made me laugh like Modern Family since Friends. I love it! Hope you have a great week as well. 🙂
I really want some of that bread. I’ve been thinking about it since it showed up on Instagram. Good luck with the job hunting! I’d love to know what field you’re in outside of the writing realm 🙂 Charm & Strange has been on my list to read, and since you loved it I should probably bump it up. Have a good week!
I suspect you will like CHARM & STRANGE, Liz. It’s incredibly well done. And I hope to have something to share on the job front someday soon. Maybe. 🙂 Have a great week!
So many things to comment on here, Katy! First, Modern Family is pretty hilarious, and I completely agree with you, that the touching moments are handled really well. I actually do love a 30-minute sitcom (as you can tell from my Friends quoting) but they can be rather annoying too. Have you seen the MF episode, where Phil is talking about being ADD (Or is it Claire talking about Phil being ADD?) and it keeps cutting to him in the garage? Seriously, I died.
Second, I agree about taking time away from a WiP and coming back with renewed vision for it. I have had that happen with revision, but also with drafting. 🙂
Bread. I can’t make homemade bread because I can’t NOT eat it all. Bread and butter are my greatest weakness. I have no self-control there. NONE. I see your picture of bread and start salivating.
We baked two loaves of bread yesterday and one is already completely gone. Mostly my husband’s doing, but still… We can’t control ourselves either. 🙂 Friends happens to be one of my all-time favorite shows. Modern Family is the only other sitcom that’s come close to my love for it. And yes, I have seen that ADD episode and it’s hilarious. Everything Phil does cracks me up!
I also love Modern Family, and Phil. My favorite characters have switched from Phil, to Cam, to Gloria, to Manny, to Lily. But always back to Phil. Cam is kind of annoying in later episodes but Manny definitely gets funnier the more he’s developed.
I like Manny too. The way they write his character is so clever, especially his interactions with Jay. 🙂
Mmm…homemade bread. That reminds me of being a teen and hanging out with my boyfriend (now hubby) at his house when his grandma would bake. We’d sneak an entire loaf to his room and stuff ourselves silly. Wow, that sounds so gluttonous when I say it out loud 🙂
I never made a volcano in school – I feel like I missed out!
Aww, Daisy, so cute
My little family and I have already eaten one of the two loaves we baked yesterday, so if you’re gluttonous, we are too. 🙂
Your baking pictures are always the best 🙂 I totally want to read Charm & Strange as well, so I’m glad you liked it! Yay for writing resumes!
Thank you, Lori! CHARM & STRANGE is excellent. Not at all what I’d been expecting, but so amazing.
Good luck with your revising, and with what ever is going to come from that resume writing project. I love hearing about all your baking projects, but can easily imagine you being fabulous in a number of outside the home work environments too. Have a wonderful week!
Thank you, Kate. We’ll see what comes of the resume. Perhaps I’ll have some news to share one of these days. 🙂
Glad your revisions are going well! Keep strong!
“Watching your child get excited about learning is hands-down one of the best parts of parenting.” >> agreed! I feel so proud some times, I think I’ll burst!
Oh, that bread looks very yummy!
Thanks, Juliana! I am not going to give up on this revision until it’s done (or kills me… whatever comes first!). You should check out that recipe if you’re ever in the mood to bake break. It turned out so well!
Modern Family is one of my favorite shows (and I also adore Phil, which makes sense because he kind of reminds me of my husband). I wish I could start watching from the beginning again!
Congrats on the progress with revisions and on the resume writing!
Phil is a bit like my husband as well — fun loving and spontaneous. I suppose my mild OCD and issues with perfectionism make me a bit like Claire. 🙂
So excited about your revision progress, Katy! And, wow, I had a chance to look at your Pinterest board and it was aMaZiNg! It’s making me even MORE excited to read (though I am not quite sure how that is possible) – I especially love the short quotes and am certain the girl MC is going to be fascinating and complicated and so very real. The bread looks delicious (I have a serious love of all things bread!), and I love the picture of your sweet doggie. Hope your kitty is continuing to do well, too 🙂 Thank you for the great recommendation for Charm & Strange! As you know, I don’t often stray too far from MG, but am definitely drawn to that book – it sounds so intriguing – and hope I can read it one day soon. Also, congratulations on your resume! So exciting! I would love to know more too about what you are doing, but am certain that whatever it is you are going to be an incredible addition 🙂 Wishing you all the best ❤ ❤
Tem, I totally owe you an email and will happily answer your resume questions in it. Perhaps I’ll have news to share publicly one of these days too! Every time I sit down to work on my WiP I think of you and Alison in particular, and how eager I am for your feedback, and how hopeful I am that you’ll connect with my story. My goal is to have it ready for readers in the next month or so… Yay!
Time away from a WiP can be so good, though discovering all of those “embarrassingly cheesy” moments can be kind of…embarrassing. Still, I think it’s so, so helpful. Happy to hear you’re making good progress revision-wise! And a resume??? I’m totally curious now, and excited for you.
I’m so behind on this season of Modern Family, but I agree with you about how funny it is. I’m not a sitcom fan either, but this one totally sucked me in. Phil just gets funnier and funnier. Actually, the whole cast is pretty darn funny, which seldom happens with shows like that.
It’s so weird to me that you guys are having such crappy weather down there when it’s been pretty tame here. I hope Florida smartens up and starts impressing the heck out of you. 😉
Yeah, northern Florida is a mess right now. People around here are not equipped to deal with ice, so driving anywhere is dangerous. It’s supposed to warm up to 72 in the next few days, though, which is keeping me from going stir-crazy in the house right now. 🙂
I hope to be able to share that something exciting came out of my resume one day soon. We’ll see though. For now, I’m happy to know that it’s done and ready to go should any opportunities arise.
Have a great week, Jaime!
Congrats on the revision progress! I’ve heard the weather’s pretty crazy everywhere at the moment (just miserable rain here in the UK!) – though whenever I think of Florida I think of sunny beaches, haha. Hope it warms up soon!
Yeah, that’s what I think of when I think of FL too, but it’s been pretty chilly since we moved here. Can’t wait for spring!
My husband has told me more than once that Phil from Modern Family is his hero. I’ve not read Charm and Strange, will have to add it my list, it sounds amazing! So glad revisions are going well! And a resume! i haven’t made one of those in almost a decade. Yikes! Glad you’re getting to spend time with your husband and daughter, family time is so important.
Yeah, I hadn’t made a resume in about that long either, Prerna. It was definitely a challenge. My husband is really good at stuff like that, though, so he hooked me up. 🙂 Definitely read CHARM & STRANGE when you get a chance, and let me know what you think!
Time away really helps to give fresh perspective about what needs junked or restyled. It’s been an amazing experience to work with books I wrote a decade ago, after not having access to the files due to not knowing how to convert or reformat them. All that time away was really the best thing for my first Russian historical. I ended up junking or radically rewriting probably 99% of the original 1993 material, from my first phase of working on it.
I’d much rather have bad Florida weather than bad New York weather! My favorite aunt keeps inviting me to move to Sarasota, and I might take her up after I have my degree.
Yes, I know I shouldn’t complain about out bad FL weather, Carrie-Anne, but the whole point of moving to FL was to leave the snow and ice behind. It’s a mess here right now! And I totally agree with what you said about time away from MSs. Mine has been invaluable, and while my story is still far from perfect, I think I’m making some really great changes. Hope you have a wonderful week!
I loved CHARM & STRANGE so much, and I was so happy when it won! Isn’t the whole wolf aspect so clever when you look back at it? One of my favourite reads from last year, for sure.
Taking time away from an MS is so important, I think. It’s so weird to go back and instantly see lines you want to cut, plot points that make no sense…I always wonder how I ever wrote that to begin with! Have fun revising this week 🙂
Yes, SO clever, Rebecca! I think I’ll do a reread one of these days because the way Stephanie layered all of the hints and metaphors was truly brilliant. I’d love to see it all again, knowing what I know. 🙂
Have a great week, friend!
Mmmm…I need to start making bread again.
And congrats on your revision progress! That is such a good feeling. And much more fun than writing a resume. 😉 (good luck on that front too!)
I’ve heard good things about Charm & Strange. I must add that to my TBR pile.
Hope your week is splendid. And I’m with you, I want my Florida weather back now please. Weekend’s supposed to be 79 though, so we can’t really complain *too* much. 🙂
Oh my gosh… fresh bread is the best, right? And yes, definitely read CHARM & STRANGE when you get a chance, Kris. It is so incredibly well done. Cheers to warmer FL weather!
I saw that Stephanie Kuehn’s book won that award. Cool! I’ll have to add it to my TBR. And I’m also going to check out Erin’s article. I’m convinced I totally suck at social media. I don’t Tweet as often as I should, and my Tweets are not exactly inspired. And I’m probably not making the use of my blog that I should… Anyway, thanks for the tips, Katy!
Have a wonderful week. 🙂
I think your blog is pretty great, Colin, but definitely check out Erin’s post. It’s full of fantastic tips and ideas, things I’ve never even considered. And I hope you enjoy CHARM & STRANGE when you get around to reading it. I thought it was just brilliant!
I’m with your daughter about Cam. He’s my favorite Modern Family character out of the bunch. We don’t watch many sitcoms either, but that one’s pretty darn funny.
I so agree that watching your kid get excited about learning is one of the best parts of parenting. That volcano experiment is like an academic rite of passage, I think. The messy experiments are always the best ones!
Hope the revisions continue to go well! I have some embarrassingly cheesy bits that need to be trimmed too, so you’re in good company. And one last thing: that bread is torturing me. Seriously, fresh bread is better than dessert! Have a super week!
I’m with you on the fresh bread thing, Erin. Totally a weakness of mine. Warm out of the oven with butter… yum! Best of luck trimming your cheesy bits. There’s something so satisfying about cleaning all of that nonsense up. 🙂
I think half the country is a mess now! I’m in Chicago, but we don’t have below freezing temps for days like we’ve had. My friend in Georgia says they shut down school if it’s too cold or snows because they don’t have the stuff to deal with it that we do–salt, plows. etc. I actually don’t mind winter, but my version of winter is not -15 below F.
Yeah, that’s the problem here. They’re just not equipped to deal with bad road conditions. School was canceled for my girl again tomorrow and while I think the whole thing is a little silly (the road in front of my house is DRY), safety is the most important thing. I hope things warm up in Chicago soon!
I am SO HAPPY you loved Charm & Strange! Wasn’t it such a masterful use of magical realism? I know what you mean about the blurb because at one point before I actually read the book, I had the impression that it was a paranormal, hah. Was so thrilled to hear it had won the Morris. So deserving!
I saw your Daisy pic in the Fab Four and totally meant to congratulate you! That is so cool, but you downplay your skills. It is a great pic, totally postcard worthy. 🙂
Sorry the weather in FL has been meh, but yay that your daughter is having fun at school. I remember doing a volcano project in elementary school too, and it was one of the BEST projects. So fun!
Yeah, I only bought CHARM & STRANGE because I’d heard it was amazing. I wasn’t thrilled about the wolf element, initially, but the way it all pans out is just brilliant. Definitely deserving of all the attention it gets. Have a great week, Alice!
Yum I love home made bread, especially when it’s still hot. It goes down really well. I haven’t heard of Fab Four before, but my sister in law submits nature types of photos for something on Instragram. A couple of her photos have been picked. I live in Australia too 🙂
Have a good week.
Australia is on the short list of countries I must visit before I die. Lucky you! Next time you’re in the mood for homemade bread, definitely check out that recipe. So yummy!
I always find stepping away from my writing for a few weeks really helps me when I come back to revise. I haven’t read that post on PubCrawl yet, but I’m going to have to go do that now. It sounds great. I adore Modern Family. Sit coms/comedies aren’t usually my thing, but the families are just too adorable.
I hope you find that Pub Crawl post helpful, Kim. It’s so comprehensive, and full of tips I hadn’t even considered. Hope you have a wonderful week!
I’m excited to read CHARM & STRANGE, even more so now that it won the Morris! I’d also like to read LEAP OF FAITH at some point.
I love MODERN FAMILY! It’s the only sitcom I watch but it really is laugh-out-loud funny. I wish there were more funny shows like that out.
Good luck with your revisions this week! And whatever comes from that resume! 🙂
I love your WIP’s Pinterest Board. I’ve been looking at mine a lot lately, especially at pictures of the LI because he’s hot, I mean I’m studying his facial expressions. 🙂 Congratulations on your picture getting chosen! It’s lovely. That looks like such a nice spot to hang out. I’d sit on the front step with your doggie and watch the cars pass by any day. 🙂
Ha! I totally get what you mean about studying those facial expressions. 🙂 Hope you have a wonderful weekend, Kris!