Celebrating Art, Writing, Blogging, and Breaks from Alll Three

I'm celebrating the "art spirit" this week. Yesterday was Art Club again, but no pictures of their work yet, because the kids got so fixated on their little masterpieces that they didn't finish in time and are going to finish them next week. I love this class. I love their commitment. Parents came to pick them up, and stood around waiting, while the kids hunched over their easels, until I finally said, "Let's make next week a finish-up week," so they (and I) could go home. These are the new easels we have this year, thanks to the South Natomas Community center. We purchased them at University Art Supplies on J Street for an unbelievably affordable price. Then I used the backs of art tablets and clips to provide a solid backing for their work. They can clip the canvas to it and have a stable surface to work on.

I'm also celebrating being back to work on a novel I started years ago that involves a ghost. I got through the whole story once, but then bogged down half way through the re-write because of a character who took on more importance and who would change many scenes, and I hadn't envisioned those scenes. So it's been cooking this long while. This week I've been working on the characters' back stories and also different kinds of timelines: one for simple events that took place in the world around them (politics, disasters, etc.) that some would remember, and then the general timeline of events plus births & deaths of characters, and then the timeline of the story itself, when it starts, when it ends, and marking birthdays celebrated or holidays and a funeral that occur within that space, ages of the various characters at the time of the story's present. It's a lot of work before I start the new rewrite, but it feels wonderful, because all the characters have come alive for me again. I feel like they are right next door — although in another century.

I'm also celebrating that I feel so much more focused after a long writing "drought" where nothing was happening. That's right. No writing. No blogging. Just the minutiae of everyday life. It seems to have been beneficial.

How about you? What are you celebrating this week? Are you working on a WIP? Enjoying respite from your writing projects? Discovering new hobbies? Just taking it easy? Any one of those can be so enriching.

Celebrate the Small Things  is a blog hop co-hosted by Lexa Cain at: Lexa Cain,  L.G. Keltner @ Writing Off The Edge , and Tonja Drecker @ Tidbits Blog. (You can go to any of these sites to add your name to the links, if you want to participate.)