Creative Work and Blogging Plans

As much as I neglect it - this blog is still a living, breathing entity. So long as I am.

I'm considering the future of this blog. It was my first-ever blog and since then I've gone through many other blogs via WordPress... but I kept this one Blogger.com blog because it is the first.

These days I call this my main blog: LindaJoMartin.com - it is focused on books and writing - one of my obsessions in life.

I'm getting older. 64 now. Looks like life is limited so I considered what to do with my blogs from years past. What I'd like to do is compile all my blog posts from all the blogs together with my compilation of "morning pages" (my journals) and other things I've written - and publish them all on Amazon as a series of books chronicling the life of Linda.

Anyhow, life goes on. This blog has been fun...

Here's a photo of me now, from earlier this year, in January, when I went to visit my mother in Texas.



And here's my latest video - from a hike up Mineral Ridge Trail, near Coeur d'Alene. When I did this video, I didn't get to the top of the ridge, but I've climbed to the top twice since then. I love this trail loop... 3.3 miles. Awesome climb! I'll have to do another video about it.



Here are a few of my most recent book reviews:
Hillbilly Elegy – Book Lady’s Review
Book Review: One Crazy Summer by Rita Williams-Garcia
Abusive Men: Why Does He Do That? – Book Lady’s Review

I also wrote this recently:
Baptism of Jesus Location: Jordan River

And a couple of prayers:
Gratitude for Salvation
Release From Sin

Here's something I wrote a while back but recently re-posted to my main blog:
Finding Your True Writer's Voice

Daily Blogging Goal

I am challenging myself to a daily blogging goal – to add to this blog daily for as long as I can keep it up. Just small notes will do, or political rants, or notes from my morning Bible study. Anything will do. Photographs welcome.

So, that said, let's start with photos! I took this photo with my new Dell Venue 8 tablet, and it is very grainy sorry to say... my camera takes much better photographs.

This prayer plant lives in the corner of my living room here in Idaho. It was a gift given to me on the day of my baptism: July 4, 2014... a gift from a dear Christian friend who has helped me quite a lot since I moved to Idaho in July 2013. I see her almost every week at the women's Bible study we have here in my living room, currently, every Wednesday.



This photo of my orange spice tea was taken with my camera/camcorder, which is a Sanyo Xacti. You can see how much better this photo is. This is also the camera I've been using to make videos.

I heard from my former boyfriend, Keith, yesterday. I was glad he called because I hadn't heard from him in three months... and that was unusual as he usually called every month. He said he gave his phone away to a woman who needed it more than he did. (!) That is just like him, so I wasn't surprised. He is a homeless Christian drifter. Well, if I tell you this story it will be a long post. I might write about him next time.

My daily blogging goal is inspired by Barbara Radisavljevic's daily blog about Paso Robles.

Update 8/23 - I decided to write about Keith on my other blog: How Comforting it is to Know He Takes Care of Us

The Newbery Challenge Rides Again!

I'm back to the Newbery Challenge! Almost twenty years ago I decided to read all the Newbery books, and now I'm inspired to get going on that again. So far I've read 42 out of 89 books, so I'm not even half-way there, and that's just the Newbery Medal WINNERS. I haven't counted the honor books and how many of them I've read. One of these days, I will. When I feel like I have more time on my hands, I guess.

I was inspired to read more of the Newbery books because I'm updating my Newbery pages online, starting with my page for the 1920's. My next job will be to do the page for the 60's, starting today. The reason why is that the 60's page is getting a lot more traffic than the other pages, so the squeaky wheel gets the grease.

I also started a blog for recording my impressions of the books I'm reading. I'll also be reviewing indie and small press books for teens and children. Yay!! I have a thing for children's literature!

I'm starting with the first Newbery book: The Story of Mankind ... it is a history book! In subsequent years fiction took over as the most common type of book honored by the Newbery Medal, but occasionally there are non-fiction books chosen as honor books. Some of them are excellent, too!

I've read enough books from the Newbery list to know that some of them are great and some, you just wonder why they were ever published, let alone chosen for this honor. As a writer of children's and teen's literature I believe luck and "who you know" count for something. And I read the good, the bad, and the ugly because it is all instructional for my career.

What's got me excited is that I have found communities of people doing the Newbery Challenge... one great group is at Goodreads, and I found out about 2 children's librarians (guys) that are doing a Newbery challenge with videos. I will also be doing videos!

Goals

I got my writing goal for the day done early (I wrote a short story) so I had the rest of the day free and spent it writing goals for the rest of this month and all of next year. I'm amazed how much there is to do but if I stick to my lists of goals I should be able to organize my time better and get a lot done.

At first it looked like a lot but I divided it into twelve months, keeping in mind what's really possible for me... and now the goal list doesn't look so ominous.

Starting LindaJoMartin.Com

I finally got my own server space and moved onto http://lindajomartin.com - I'll be putting most of my weblogs here (at least, that's the plan). This one is more private than the others - it is now protected from spidering so future posts won't be in the search engines. Much better!

Anyhow - I've been way too busy since February and haven't been able to reach all my goals. That's a disappointment... but I've developed my web design business more. That's the good and the bad of it.

Now I have to get back to work.