Christmas Eve: Merry Christmas, Happy New Year

 Merry Christmas, Happy New Year

These are the things they say.

MERRY Christmas, HAPPY New Year

I wish all felt that way.

Merry Christmas, Happy New Year

Telling you how to feel

But sometimes those feelings,

Simply cannot feel real.

We must take the things we have

And spread kindness, far, wide

To touch a heart this season

That then we know we tried

Twas The Night Before Christmas...and I was still Writing

‘Twas the night before Christmas and all through the writing nook
Not an item was stirring, not even a Book.
Now the stockings were hung from the 3-foot, barely decorated tree without much care
With Hopes that Saint Nick, soon would be there

And I was all settled, in a writing position
Typing a story I could give to my friends.
My fingers were moving straight across the keys,
as words appeared on my tiny screen.

And then on the sidewalk, there arose such a clatter
So I rose from the computer to see what was the matter.
Straight to the window I dashed
Threw up the blinds and threw up the sash

The moon on the breast of the old fallen leaves
Made me a bit disappointed that this Christmas wasn’t white
I looked to the sky, and what would appear?
A grand red sleigh and eight tiny reindeer!

With a large jolly driver, so lively and quick
I knew in a second, that it was St. Nick
More rapid than NaNoWriMo, he came with his chums
And I heard distinctively, he calling them by name.

“Now Dasher! Now Dancer! Now Prancer and Vixen!
On Comet! On Cupid! On Donder and Blitzen!
To the top of the porch! To the top of the wall!
 Now dash away, dash away,  Dash Away All!

And I threw down the window as they landed on the roof,
And leapt into bed (so I’d look like a good girl).
And maybe under the tree, when I woke up,
I’d be surprised with things for my writing nook.

A Mourning Child

12.24

Dear Father,

            Today marks one year since your death. It is Christmas eve, and the house was bustling all day, but it wasn’t the same. I tried to pretend that you were in the office, but it didn’t work.

            You’ve never missed a Christmas Eve! Mum said that we would still have Christmas without you, but it will be so hard. You took up such a great presence in our lives, making it so hard just to give you up.

            Mum worked all day on preparing tomorrow’s feast. It’s significantly smaller because our guest list is one short. She purchased a much smaller turkey from the market because the main eater isn’t able to be in attendance. I will greatly miss him.

            I can’t sleep. The holidays are so hard. Next year, I will be a bear, so I can sleep through this season. Your smile and laugh haunt me. Sometimes, I’ll wake up, thinking that you may be sitting by the fire, whittling a piece of wood into something for the younger children. Now, I sew more presents than before because mum is too tired.

            Church was my only escape. I could focus myself on things other than your death, and that was good for me, I think.

            Once again, I love you, Father. You may have left this earth, but I still love you, as does mum and the younger children. I’m taking care of the family. I don’t know what would happen if I left mum. I just have to stay and persevere as you would always say.

                        Merry Christmas, Father.

                                    With all love,

                                                Margaret

                                               

December 24th Has Arrived!

Throughout today, we will be posting holiday/winter tidbits of writing constantly! I hope you enjoy. If you want to see your work featured here, fill out the below form. We really want to hear from you, and just for writing something I will give you feedback.

To get started, here are some ideas to do with your spare time today.

You can track Santa at santatracker.google.com. Follow the big guy wherever he goes this Christmas Eve!

I always love reading Christmas Classics. In our house, we have a basket full of Children's Christmas stories, and even though I am not a child, I love reading those and  reliving memories.

Bake whatever. Cookies for santa. Cookies  for you. Snow candy. Turn on some music while your at it, and this activity guarantees fun!

Start a new tradition! Whether it's making gingerbread or going sledding or opening a teaser present, give this one a go!


And remember to take a few minutes to send in some holiday writing to be posted throughout the day! It's easy and quick- we'll have letters, poems, short stories, and more! Send them in before time runs out!

Christmas Writing

Good Afternoon! Today is Christmas eve eve, and if you celebrate Christmas, things might be getting kind of crazy.

I know it's crazy at our place. We host Christmas Dinner for the family, so we'll have 20+ people eating at the house. It'll be fun, but boy, that's a lot of cleanup.

I've been working like crazy on Life in Mill Halley, but it's probably going to only be the first draft done January first. I'll get another date soon. If you want to help edit a chapter or two, or even the whole book, email me at readnowtoday@gmail.com. It would really help.

In the Christmas spirit, a new Christmas post. Enjoy!

Pippa

_____________________________________

It's Christmas, the almost 30-day period of time where your life halts and focus turns to giving. It's  a nice way to get your thoughts off of politics and celebrity gossip and whatever you focus your life on. Instead of those things dominating your time, something else takes its place.

Family.
Santa.
Stress.

And the Christmas season can be stressful. Two weeks with the kids home (or, if you are in school, off school), a couple days off work, and preparations. Make a list of the gifts. Buy the gifts. Wrap the gifts. Give the gifts. It should be relaxing, but it isn't.

If you are reading this post, that means you've taken time out of your day to read my writing. What makes you care enough to read this, I don't know. I have no idea who is reading this. But you still are taking time out of your day to read it. And I take time to write these. Who knows why? Maybe to release stress or express an opinion. And because you are reading it, I can help you release that stress. Turn on Christmas  music (there is some to the left). Take a breath, close your eyes. It may no longer be Thanksgiving, but what are you thankful for? What has made this Christmas season good? What are you looking forward to?


Organize your priorities. What do you need to do tonight? Tomorrow? Write a list. Once you feel relaxed enough, continue reading.

Tomorrow is Christmas eve. I will be posting Christmas tidbits throughout the day, but that's a lot of Christmas tidbits to write alone. If you want to write something, I will post it. Some posts here get 50+ views, and I would put a direct link to your writing blog. Just fill out the form below to see your writing on the site tomorrow!

-Pippa Liber

Must-Reads for Christmas

Today is December 10th, 2016. Christmas season started two weeks ago.  I've decorated the house for Christmas. We have lights covering the bushes outside, that make me think I may have a minor case of OCD. They all have different coloring and make me get a headache. But, I can live. I'm not outside at night much anyway, so it's better.

Our German friend, Elli, and I made snowflakes to cover the windows and the wall behind one of our three trees (the small one). We have gifts for passersby and jars with chocolate kisses- but I think I'm the main reason they are disappearing.

Now that the house is in full Christmas spirit, I need Christmas things to read. We have a basket by our fire full of books, but they're mostly for children. Secret: I still read them to remember Christmastime as a girl. :)

Then, there is a collection of stories that I love to read a little before Christmas- often on Christmas eve. It's called "A Merry Christmas & Other Christmas Stories" and it's a Louisa May Alcott compilation. There are seven short chapters, but it's really sweet.

You may have seen the movie Miracle on 34th Street, but there's also a book. The book is a great Christmas read.

And then, it's not a book, but Christmas.com has some good Christmas related things. One that I have recently read is a history of various Christmas traditions. It's very intriguing! You can read it at http://www.christmas.com/blog/story-mistletoe-christmas-symbols/.

A good way to preview books is by typing in the title on Google, then going to books and clicking preview under that book. You can read a lot that way, and some books have everything on there!

So, Happy Holidays!

Love and Luck,
Pippa

Today is THURSDAY (100th Post!!!)

So, I don't feel like a story or a poem today. I just feel like complaining and talking.

My first complaint is that some person (no idea who) hacked my account and changed my profile picture to a close up of Shrek's face and my background to this old person's nose. I changed my profile picture to a Christmas tree, but then, when I asked a friend what it was, it was still Shrek. Apparently it's back to the Christmas tree, but I'm not sure if that's everywhere because currently my blogger screen shows both. Sorry if it's Shrek for you guys. I'm probably more upset than you are. 

Next complaint- or more, fear, is for tomorrow. Today I had the opportunity to audition for a show (I do have somewhat a life away from writing) and callbacks are posted tomorrow. The past year I participated in this theatre program and had a main role. Now I find myself that I won't have a callback and that my expectations are too high. After all, I'm one of the oldest actresses in the program.

Anyway, It's really nerve-wracking because I am going to learn whether I have a callback in a professional setting right before I have to talk in front of hundreds of people. As in, two minutes before. So that scares me because if I cry (and I cry at everything), these hundreds of people might be able to tell and that will down my reputation in this professional setting.

So, that's that, and I'm just sitting here saying silent prayers between sentences. A) I pray that the callback list will glorify God, B) I pray that God will give me strength so that I don't have to cry, and if I do, no one will judge me. Because people will judge me (900 non-biased people, together? I don't think so.), I do not want to cry in the first place. So, yeah. Scary. If you want to pray for me and everyone else hoping to see something on the list, please do.

I don't think I have anything else to rant about, or even complain, so I'll sign off here.

Love and Luck!
Pippa

Creating with Canva

I decided to take some time out of my stories to design images, for Life in Mill Halley. After all, 23 days till publish. I probably should work on it...

Original Picture: http://blog.shiva.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/07/Holding_Hands_by_Coralay1.jpg

More later!

TEN WORD TUESDAY

1. Mansuetude

Noun- mildness or gentleness
Her mansuetude was contagious when she picked up the new boy's books. 
I can't think of an application for this word, but I like it...

2. Scholockmeister

Noun- Slang for a person who sells worthless goods.

The city's streets were covered in worthless scholockmeisters' booths.

I think I had too much fun finding these. There was also a cheese grater that had no holes, but I couldn't get it here. Sadness...

3. Incipient
Adjective: Beginning to exist or appear.
The incipient cold told her to take medicine before it got serious.
A while back I had a incipient illness and so I put all of my necessities by my bed. I was sick for about a week. That's when I wrote 'Plate full of smells!'

4. Ripsnorter
Noun- Someone or something remarkably exciting
Say it five times without laughing. I dare you to. I couldn't get past two.

5. Juvenilia
Plural Noun- Writings or works produced in ones youth
I have some really dumb juvenilia. Elisabeth's Journey- I threw that one away in the past year, I think. It was pretty stupid.

6. Pleonasm
Noun- redundancy, using more words to express something than necessary.
 Pleonasm was frequent in the four-year-old's sentences.

7. Manna
Noun- sudden or unexpected aid or help
This word is simple but displays good vocabulary.
For me, I can remember it because manna was also the unexpected food God gave the Israelites, helping them to survive.

8. Anathema
Noun- A person or thing detested or loathed


To me, peanut butter is an anathema. Ew.

9.  Immure
Verb (finally!)- to shut in
I immured myself in my room to escape from my unloving family.


10. Cloudburst
Noun- A sudden, heavy rainfall

A cloudburst erupted over us, showering us with droplets of water.

Book Review! Echo by Pam Muñoz Ryan

I recently read the book Echo by Pam Muñoz Ryan. The story follows a harmonica as it travels through several generations across the Atlantic Ocean from Germany to Pennsylvania to California. The harmonica has five different owners across that time, who all go through struggles of their own. Eins, Zwei, and Drei are trapped, only able to watch their fairy tale, or the harmonica's tale, play out for them. Otto is only touched on briefly, but we know that he has to save someone's life with the instrument. Friedrich is living in Nazi Germany, and lives with his sisters support for the Nazi Party and his father's aversion to the government. Michael lives in an orphanage, and Ivy lives in a broken family, worrying if her neighbors could be Japanese spies.

The story is long but moves quickly. It pulls you in to each character, and strategically placed cliffhangers keep you from putting the book down for very long. Instead, the book stays in your hands for most of the time you take to read it. I really enjoyed the story. Pam Muñoz Ryan did a wonderful job entwining the tales of unlikely candidates, building up to the (SPOILER) perfect, happy ending. If Muñoz Ryan ended this with another one of her tricky cliffhangers, I would be upset. I give this book 4.5 out of five stars, and that's pretty good by my standards.

1 Star- Terrible

2 Stars- One good thing happened

3 Stars- Decent

4 Stars- Good

5 Stars- Amazing

If I enjoyed a book, it's a four, if it is anything else, it's exceptional to me.

Love and Luck,

Pippa Liber

Writing and Writing

Hello All:
I am writing this post, ashamed. You always write comeback posts, but I haven't come back for good. It's been hard without knowing when I will have access to a computer, and I've been working on Life in Mill Halley when it was easy to. Hopefully I'll be back for good in the next month, now that I have a beautiful new computer.

Love and Luck,
Pippa Liber

My Plate Full of Smells

The first smell was sweet, in a sickening manner. The 'small girl' type of scent, that they find wonderful but we find too sweet.

The second smell held more memories than any other smell. Paris Amour. Most of everyone else didn't like it, but I loved it. It could be too sweet, but if you only let out a little, it would be fine. It made me think of my childhood, my siblings, everything from those few years of my life when I was at a public elementry.

The next smell was from my sister, kept contained by a small vial with a silver top and pink lettering. She got it when she was young, very young, for her birthday, and I always wanted to use some. I've kept that smell since she gave it to me. It smells like cupcakes.

The fourth smell is the smallest of the vials. Armani Code, they call it. More herbal and minty. It has a faint smell of something else, something from your wildest dreams that is unidentifyable. You would never think to smell it by opening a vial on a golden plate, rather at a dinner party.

And then, the smell of spring raid ascending in a sheet, fresh and clear. Holding memories of the springs I've spent in Central Illinois and the rains. Seeing rainbows with my father and sister, my mother staying inside to eat dinner.

Five smells, atop a golden plate, atop a gamboge jewlery box, atop a six-drawer dresser. All with stories. Take a whiff. Be reminded.

Mill Halley Editing

Hello!

I am working intently on the Life in Mill Halley novel, and am planning to begin editing in December. I would really appreciate help editing, and think you would be awesome for the job. Sadly, since I am an amateur author, I can't exactly pay you, but you would be able to read the book one month in advance and I would put your name down in the inside cover--- or however that cover will be. I am still working on the logistics, but if there was a cost, I would be willing to charge my wonderful helpers less.

What I would imagine you would do is go through the google doc and suggesting any edits. I would then go through and change everything, and once more, before publication, you would all read it and make any final edits.

So, what are you waiting for? Email readnowtoday@gmail.com to sign up OR if you have any questions. I will only be taking 3 editors, so hurry!

Love and Luck,
Pippa Liber

Writing Wednesday: Getting in the Mood to Write

So, you want to write. Or you need to write. No matter why you are supposed to be writing, sometimes it can be hard to get in the mood to write a successful post or chapter. I struggle with this a lot. Like, a lot. Here are 5 ways to get in the mood to write whatever.

1. Set up a place to write! Mine are makeshift these days- the living room, the kitchen table, my bed- whatever, but I have a lot of stuff that I carry around including 7 notebooks, a sketchbook, binders, research books, a map with pins, and a scrapbook with a bunch of pins.
2. Get comfy.  
3. Turn on music! It can help to have a playlist of music where the lyrics reflect conflict in your story. My sister and I (we both are writers) have a playlist that every song on it aligns with the story in our main books. It works really well, but sometimes I just turn on Pandora.
4. Pinterest is wonderful. Create a board where you can look at pictures of people that look like your characters. Kissing, fighting, selfies- whatever. It all helps get in the mood.
5. Block out other distractions. This probably should come earlier in the list, but it is so important! Don't have social media or email up while you work. I find it  helpful to use an iPad because I can have Pandora going and my work docs up.

Life In Mill Halley: Poems!

I know I'm not publishing anymore Life in Mill Halley until the book is done, but I can still post Skyler's poems! They aren't in the book, so what better time than when I have no idea what to write?


So, here we go:




The One Who Calls Me Sweet


We're together
We're meant to be
I can't get you off my mind
When I try
You catch me in your gaze
You hold me in your arms
I know that I will never leave
And hope you think the same.
           -Skyler Foster




What I Don't Know


Some nights I climb into bed
With a soul feeling as broken as shattered glass
Because I can't find the hurt in me
And I know it's in you too
But if you know there's hurt in me
Then you must be keeping it a secret
Because what I don't know isn't harmless
What I don't know is what keeps me awake.
           -Skyler Foster


Some Feelings


Some feelings you can't put to words
Some feelings can't be drawn
Some feelings can only be felt
Some feelings are only expressed through tears
           -Skyler Foster

TEN WORD TUESDAY RETURNS!!!! 8/02

1. Bildungsroman

I love this word so much!

N- a type of novel concerned with the education, development, and maturing of a young protagonist

BIL-doo ngz-roh-mahn (however you say that)

Pretty much Life in Mill Halley- that explains why I love it so much.

2. Galluses

N- Suspenders for Trousers

I think I like this word.

I know I like this word.

Though the trousers were too big, Emmett was able to get some galluses to hold them up.

3. Skylark

V- To frolic, sport

Skyler was so happy that she skylarked all the way home from school that day.

4. Orthography

N- The art of writing words with proper letters, according to the accepted usage

Spelling Tests are the perfect time to show off orthography skills!

5. Cater-Cousin

N- an intimate friend

I have a few cater-cousins- one is my sister, and the other two are my closest friends. The three of us are separate now, but they are still my cater-cousins.

6. Churrasco

N- Meat Cooked over an open fire

To put it simply- summer heaven

7. Towser

N- A big dog

Our neighbor's dog is such a towser, in the dark you can mistake it for a deer!

8. Encephalon

N- the brain

The encephalon would be so interesting to study!

9. Tohubohu

N- chaos, disorder, confusion

My room while I write. I sprawl out on my floor, my bed is unmade, I often have pretzels, water, a bunch of notebooks, and the computer. Complete tohubohu.

THIS WORD IS SO MUCH FUN TO SAY!

toh-hoo-boh-hoo

10. Rib-Tickling

Adj-Very amusing, funny or hilarious

Tell your rib-tickling jokes in the comments!