In The Pipeline

Do tell me friend, how many cups of tea have you had this week?

I can promise you, whatever the number, I’ve had more.

Seriously, Rainy Weather + Shorter Days + NaNoWriMo = Drinking Tea All Day Long.

I am banging my head against the wall computer, trying to get my word count done each day. For some reason, the writing has been really hard for me this time around.

The good news is that I met for the first time ever with a writing coach and I actually feel a little more hopeful about my writing than I have in months. So that’s encouraging, right?

Also, it’s the weekend! We’re having dear friends over dinner tonight! Then tomorrow, Taido and I are going out for some much needed time together sans kiddos.

Here are a few links + a writing quote I am loving this week!

I shared this one last year, but I still LOVE. IT.

Write something true. Write something frightening. Write something close to the bone. You are on this planet to tell the story of what you saw here. What you heard. What you felt. What you learned. Any effort spent in that pursuit cannot be wasted. Any way that you can tell that story more truly, more vividly, more you-ly, is the right way.

So holler. Tell it loud and tell it bright and tell it slant and tell it bold. Tell it with space whales and silent films or tell it with quiet desperation or tell it with war or tell it with dragons or tell it with tall ships or tell it with divorce in the suburbs or tell it with dancing skeletons and a kraken in the wings.

Tell it fast before you get scared and silence yourself. You’ll never wish you’d held back a little more.

Catherynne M Valente

My dad preached on parenting this week. Of course he made me cry.

My friend Sarabeth Jones shared her slides from her talk about iPhone photography. It’s worth a click through just for the apps.

Sticky Toffee Pudding is probably my favorite UK discovery of the last year.

I edited my video footage from our Isle of Skye trip today. It’s a really accurate slice of our time together over fall break: gorgeous drives/walks + a song that played on repeat + teenager attitude.

I hope your weekend is extra lovely!

XO

Alison

P.S. I was really thrilled to get to participate in Keisha Pittman’s Overcomer Series this month, but the real treasure has been in meeting via the internet all the other folks who participated. I’ve received so much encouragement from this blog series, and it’s a good reminder to me of what a great idea it is to do collective internet projects!