Looking, Acting, and Living the Part

I've had a busy month at the DDJ (dreaded day job) and have had my star-changing activities interrupted as a result. I fought the good fight for the first half of February but the last two weeks have not even remotely resembled the productivity I wanted to log.

Lately I have had this adage echoing in my head: Dress for the job you want, not the one you have.

When I pick apart that saying and truly think about the sum of its parts, I tend to take it past its outside appearance and look at the totality and what it means to me. For me it means not only looking the part but acting the part and living the part. It means finding those people who are doing what I want to be doing and not only studying the paths they took to get there but the actions they take to stay there.

For me, March is going to include doing deeper research on my writing role models.

I have tweaked my long term goals during this two week interruption in my Change Your Stars productivity. And I am super jazzed to dig deeper into what this tweaking means for me and my personal and professional future.

Hope is an amazingly motivating feeling! With hope and perseverance, I believe we are each capable of doing anything we can dream of. Keep up that single-minded determination and we will get there!

If you could do any job other than what you do now, what would it be? Who would you emulate in looking, acting, and living the part? Inquiring minds want to know!

xoxo,

bex

Books I'm Loving: Jane Austen Ruined My Life

A week ago I had the chance to spend the day in New York City at The Morgan Library and Museum to take in their current Jane Austen exhibit entitled, A Woman's Wit: Jane Austen's Life and Legacy. The very cool thing about the exhibit was that the museum featured some of the original letters she had written to her sister, Cassandra. Before her death, it is thought that Jane Austen asked her sister to keep the very personal comments in her letters private, and, much to the dismay of Austen lovers around the world, Cassandra burned many of those prized pieces of correspondence. Of the existing letters, Cassandra played editor, took a pair of scissors to the pages and cut out the passages that revealed too much.

It was fascinating.

On my train ride home, I remembered that I had Beth Pattillo's book, Jane Austen Ruined My Life near the top of my to-be-read pile. I picked it up as soon as I got home and read it as quickly as I could. Having just spent a day with some of Jane's correspondence in person, it felt timely to read a book whose premise supposed some of those lost letters actually survived.

Here's a blurb from BookPage:

English professor and Austen expert Emma Grant is heartbroken after her divorce when an intriguing communication lures her to England and a possible cache of Jane Austen's unpublished letters. Her desire to inspect them is complicated by her renewed acquaintance with fellow professor Adam Clark, and the series of Austen-related assignments that the guardian of the letters gives to Emma. Yet through these tasks Emma learns about herself and her attitudes toward love and marriage. While the growing romance between the heroine and Adam is sweet, sweeter is the new sense of self that Emma gains.

The book is a treasure hunt through Austen's old haunts and is fun and a delight to read. I highly recommend accompanying Emma on her journey!

xoxo,
bex

Coping with Family

Happy February, everyone! It's month two of the Change Your Stars Challenge on the Moody Muses blog. I made it through month one meeting each of my daily goals, so I am celebrating the victory today.

February will be much harder as I add one more goal to the mix while maintaining the ones I set in January. It is also a much busier month for me on the day job front and other family commitments, so I am trying to plan accordingly. Still, if you guys have any tried and true coping mechanisms for dealing with extended family, I would love to hear them! Spill -- inquiring minds want to know!

xoxo,

bex

The Meet-Cute

One of my recent obsessions is the meet-cute. In writerly terms, the meet-cute is a device dating back to the screwball comedies of vintage Hollywood and has carried through to our modern day romantic comedies. What is it? Our old friend Wikipedia defines it as:

"The contrived encounter of two potential romantic partners in unusual or comic circumstances. In most screwball comedies and many romantic comedies, the potential couple comprises polar opposites, two people of completely different temperaments, situations, social statuses, or all three, who would not have anything to do with each other under normal circumstances. The meet-cute provides the opportunity."

Finding the right combination for the meet-cute in fiction is not always the easiest circumstance to manufacture.

But what about in real life? Where do people meet each other? I am baffled. I know I live in an area of the country statistically unfriendly to single women. But it seems like new people are meeting each other all the time.

So, tell me . . . What are some of your favorite examples of the meet-cute, whether it be from your favorite movie, scene from a book, or in real life?

Inquiring minds want to know!

xoxo,

bex

Life's Soundtrack

I sometimes forget the powerful effect music can have. A song can have a lot of personal meaning associated with it, depending on circumstances taking place in your life during the times you hear it.

I like to think of the tunes on my iPod as songs selected for my own life's soundtrack. Love songs, happy songs, sad songs, and get-up-and-go songs. Old soul songs. Songs that fill me with an I am woman, hear me roar kind of confidence. Songs that remind me of different times and places in my life.

And I love how everyone's soundtrack will be different.

One question I'm so curious to ask though -- is there a song on your playlist that you'd be embarrassed to admit to downloading? Come on . . . I know you have at least one! I'll tell you mine if you tell me yours.

Fess up -- inquiring minds want to know!

xoxo,

bex

One Page At A Time

On my other blog, The Moody Muses, we kicked off a Change Your Stars Challenge for 2010. As my fellow Muse, Barb, wrote in her kick-off post:

In the wonderful Heath Ledger movie, A Knight’s Tale, the hero pursues a destiny beyond his status and upbringing. In the beginning, his friends think he’s crazy, but as the movie progresses, he proves that a man can indeed carve his own future. Or, as he calls it, “change his stars.”

I loved this idea. For the past few years, I had gotten really lost with my writing - a kind of, is it the forest or the trees kind of confusion that paralyzed me and prevented me from making any progress, whether it be good or bad.

But thinking about my hopes and dreams in the context of the Change Your Stars Challenge helped me stop looking at so big a picture. At least so far. My fellow Muse, Cathryn, offered the idea of planning in terms of 30 day increments, so that is what I have chosen to do to kick off 2010. To set the small goal to write at least one page a day.

My hope is to change my stars, one page at a time.

Today is January 10, and we are 1/3 of the way through the first 30 days of the challenge. So far, so good! I hate to say this because I sure don't want to jinx my productivity, but so far I have made good on my one page a day goal. In fact, I have written nearly forty pages since the turning of the calendar's page on the new year.

I have a great team of supporters cheering me on, one page at a time, and I want to thank you guys for hanging in there and offering your care and encouragement. I truly hope I have even more good news to report when I next share an update on my progress.

xoxo,
bex

Books I'm Loving - Hip Hollywood Homes

I like to share the titles of books I've really enjoyed reading and hope to do a better job of announcing more good reads on the What's Wilder blog. Most of those reads will be fiction - mostly Young Adult, Women's Fiction, and Romance. I like political thrillers and spy stories too, plus I tend to read an eclectic blend of non-fiction.

Today is all about a non-fiction title.

I really get into browsing home decorating books. Heck, it's not just books. It's web sites, magazines, mail order catalogs, and all kinds of shows on HGTV. I am obsessed with home design and interior decor and constantly look for hints and clues in trying to define my own design philosophy. It's not such an easy thing to do!

I picked up a copy of Hip Hollywood Homes on the clearance shelf at my local Borders. The homes featured are impressive examples of the Los Angeles design aesthetic, ranging from modern minimalism to historic Spanish design, from the glamor of Old Hollywood to the funky mix of the artsy outer communities.

But one thing I hadn't anticipated was how curious I would become about the people whose homes the book featured. I am stalker-like in my quest to learn more about the home owners. How did they get to where they have arrived? Where did they come from? How did they hone their talents? I am fascinated by their stories - the jobs they have held, the adventures they have had, the people they have met, the impact they have made on the vast sprawl of the City of Angels.

The book not only offers a glimpse into some of the hippest residences in town, but also into the lives of their inhabitants. It is equal parts stunning in its pictorial and motivating in its revelations!

I hope you'll check it out!

xoxo,
bex