When You are Doing More Reading than Writing

Even though I have complained about the winter cold; it really hasn't been that bad as in past winter's but the older I get the worse the cold is to me in my mind. When the flu season started I thought I should take as many precautions as I can without getting the flu shot. In the past I had the mindset to get the shot but for several years I have went the opposite and just haven't. Some may think its crazy to roll the dice I seem to dodge the bullet most years. This year all reports indicated that it might be a bad year for the flu.  Washing hands, carrying anti-bacterial products, other than wearing a protective bubble I managed to stay on the well side.

Our youngest grandson had what seemed to be an upper respiratory incident and sure enough he graciously shared the lovely sickness. For a full week plus I hacked and snorted and felt like I was eating Kleenex by the box. I finally survived the major part but as everyone who is older knows it takes sometimes twice and three times as long to recover and back to 100 percent.

I remembered when I was competing competitively forging on while not 100 percent was just part of skating. Several of the competitors during the last Olympics dealt with some injuries/sicknesses but put on their performance faces and moved on.

The one positive out of all of this was I had more than enough time to read a few books and relax and ponder life. I am not sure if it was the over the counter medicine or home remedies or just the right amount of time I had to clear my mind of daily tasks but it was a welcome diversion during an otherwise unproductive several days.

While reading some interesting books, (A full log of recent book is listed on the blog) I also thought once again about doing a better job about blogging and about my own ideas of writing stories. 

One of the author's I did pick up this time was Phaedra Patrick. She has written two charming books: "Curious Charms of Arthur Pepper" and "Rise and Shine Benedict Stone". Both stories take you to places that tell great stories of life, and scenarios that leave you thinking. She does have a website: www.phaedra-patrick.com that also has some interesting writing tips if like me your are interested in taking the leap. She is also on Instagram, Facebook and Twitter. She was gracious enough to respond to several of my comments so I hope we can start further dialog. She also has some upcoming books which I am sure will be just as wonderful.

Her Writing Tips from A to Z on her website I found to be really helpful and informative. I especially enjoyed :

F-Firsts. Make your first line, paragraph and chapter really count

J-Journey-Make the journey as interesting as possible

T-Time Find the time. Either between cleaning and your shopping.

It is truly funny how we don't always say no when we should. We make time for everything; just about, yet we think when we are sick we don't have time for it. I guess by being sick it made time to reflect on maybe some things I want to do than things I am expected to do.