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About This Author
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La Bene Vita
I am a professional musician  , worship leader , small business owner , songwriter , aspiring author and freelance nonfiction writer with a chemical engineering degree .
But that's just my resume.
My profile of qualifications is only one of the ways in which I am unique. Here I chronicle my personal and professional goals and my efforts to achieve them. Occasionally I fail. Mostly, I take daily baby steps toward all my long-term goals. Much like the stories I pen, the songs I compose, and the businesses I run, I am always a work in progress.
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I finished Brisingr today. I have mixed feelings about Paolini's descriptive writing. It's an interesting case study in how action verbs keep even a setting description moving:
"Hundreds of feet below Tronjheim, the stone opened up into a cavern thousands of feet long with a still black lake of unknown depth along one side and a marble shore on the other. Brown and ivory stalactites dripped from the ceiling, while stalagmites stabbed upward from the ground, and in places the two joined to form bulging pillars thicker around than even the largest trees in Du Weldenvarden. Scattered among the pillars were mounds of compost studded with mushrooms, as well as three-and-twenty low stone huts. A flameless lantern glowed iron red next to each of their doors. Beyond the reach of the lanterns, shadows abounded.
Inside one of the huts, Eragon sat..."
...and we finally get back to action on the part of the character.
The action verbiage does keep the description moving: stone OPENED, stalactites DRIPPED, stalagmites STABBED, the two JOINED, lantern GLOWED, shadows ABOUNDED. Very well done. However, the plot isn't even taking place outside of the hut, so I wonder how necessary the description is. The lake of unknown depth, the marble shore, the thick pillars, and the mounds of compost never enter into the story. Is an assassin waiting behind one of those pillars? Are we going to cross the lake by boat? I'm amazed by the pictures his descriptions paint in my head, but they slow the story wayyyy down. And, frankly, I would like him to allow me some imaginative license.
That said, I teared up a little at the end of Brisingr, which means Paolini hit a home run with his characterization.
Reach 300 students at MTMS by 12/31/11.
 We reached 200, then we dropped instantaneously down to 18x. This was not the result of a flurry of withdrawals, but rather a change in the way we counted certain students. If a student had an extended lesson, which is double the time with the instructor, we counted them as two students. But the lesson was really 60 minutes instead of 40. That was just an extended lesson for a single instrument - say you wanted a 60-minute voice lesson instead of a 40-minute voice lesson. Now, by consensus among the staff, we added a new extended lesson product that we think will be wildly successful - a multi-instrument extended lesson. Now, if you want to study voice AND piano, you can do it in a 60-minute lesson and pay the extended lesson rate instead of paying for two separate lessons. I agreed to the change on the condition that we change the way we count extended lessons to 1.5 instead of 2, which affects the staff goals, but also more accurately reflects our budget situation. Although it immediately dropped our numbers by about 10%, it also made for a really easy up-sell, and we've sold the extended lesson to several existing students and a couple new students just this week alone. We're back up to 195.
And climbing.  We has a smart staff, yes, we has. Suppose I'll keep 'em.
Reading: One book per week.
It took much more than a week, but I finished Brisingr. I'm on a fantasy kick now, and I have a series by Jane Yolen, the first book of which is entitled Dragon's Blood. I don't remember if it was recommended, or if I just bought it because it has a shiny cover with interesting artwork. It looks like a youth novel and an easy read.
Writing:
(1)  Blog at MT.com by the end of Wednesday: At least, I blogged recently enough.
(2) 30 minutes of daily freestyle writing: While cleaning out desk drawers and old planners, I found some writing dating back to a rough patch in 2005. Am I the only one who writes angry rants directed at other people, speeches I wished at the time to deliver directly to the recipients, but which I committed to paper instead, probably out of some deep-rooted wisdom? I read the rants now and realize how stupid I would have sounded, had I yelled the words instead of writing and hiding them. The rants ended up in yesterday's shred pile. One or two song seeds survived the shredding, though it may be awhile before I do anything with them. For the time being, they're stored in my "Muse Spews" journal.
Count points:
1 Coffee
4 ZonePerfect bar
2.5 Turkey kielbasa |
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Something feels strange... like I should be having a hectic day, but instead, I had a relatively calm, leisurely summer day.
Reach 300 students at MTMS by 12/31/11.
Dropped down a couple, which is typical for the second half of the month. Right now we're just trying to get ready for the fast-paced ramp up we expect in August and September.
Reading: One book per week.
I got about halfway through The Everything Dog Obedience Book and then stopped after the part about biting. And then I picked up Brisingr and read the same page three nights in a row before setting the Kindle back down on the nightstand and passing out. The reading is a bit stalled, but I did two loads of laundry and taught the dog to come, lay down, drop it, wait, and look. Sadly, he's still biting.
Writing:
(1)  Blog at MT.com by the end of Wednesday: No, but I was thinking of working on that now. It's the thought that counts, right?
(2) 30 minutes of daily freestyle writing: Hmm. Actually, thanks to a prompting from Storm Machine  , I stopped in at Helium, caught up on my rating, and edited a few of my articles. She's thinking of exercising her article-writing muscles, and I'm thinking of following her example.
Count points:
Umm. |
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Sammy the Yorkie: He's cute as a button! And though this isn't saying much, he has more energy than I. Thankfully, we've had the kids all week, since we're both on vacation. This is good because the four of us combined come close to Sammy's energy level.
About vacation: In my family, this is when you do a bunch of stuff together. Typically, we do that somewhere out of town, but due to puppy expenses, I convinced the boy to do local day trips instead. It's been much better, but we still have to plan, make checklists, reserve, leave on time, and follow a schedule. Plus, activities like hanging out on a pontoon boat all day, which should have involved me reading, actually involved me feeding the kids, hauling the kids out of the water, and teaching the dog how to swim.
Couple that with daily puppy play and potty training, and I find myself beginning blog post, walking away, and letting them time out before I finish what I started. I've also been helping the 13-year-old edit and publish his debut movie, Mezesoic Park. Yes, he spelled it wrong, LOL. Check it out anyway, it's rather hysterical. Plus, we could use the views and "likes" so he'll show up in the YouTube search:
CLICK HERE:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RZesAEhmy3Q
I also find myself yawning a lot. Is it odd that I look forward to returning to work tomorrow and all of next week?
Reach 300 students at MTMS by 12/31/11.
Still in the 170's, but we've been closed all week.
Reading: One book per week.
Not since Eldest, though I did see Transformers yesterday and was pleasantly surprised by the engaging and innovative plot.
Writing:
(1) Blog at MT.com by the end of Wednesday: Not for probably a month.
(2) 30 minutes of daily freestyle writing: No.
Count points:
No. |
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Thanks for sharing!
Even better if she can whistle to the tune of Mozart or something. 
Comment • View 1 comment 
, also known as Michelle Tuesday, is a musician, educator and writer hailing from Columbus, Ohio.![Merit Badge in Music
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To a dear friend whose talent for writing music is sensational. May you have a fabulous New Year, (((Brandi)))!!! *^*Kiss*^*
Big hugs,
Sherri *^*Heart*^*](https://images.Writing.Com/imgs/writing.com/writers/badges/genre-Music-1050.gif)
![Merit Badge in Organization
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I don't know how you do it, but I assume there's magic involved *^*Bigsmile*^* I have really enjoyed this month of planning and preparation for NaNoWriMo and I love how organized it all is. Thank you for hosting a great challenge and for your dedication to helping so many of us prepare with confidence and trepidation for National Novel Writing Month (known to sane folks as 'November' *^*Laugh*^*) at your [Link To Item #1474311]](https://images.Writing.Com/imgs/writing.com/writers/badges/general-Organization-1150.gif)
![Merit Badge in Leadership
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For your hard work, commitment, talent and innovation in running the October NaNoWriMo Preparation each year, which helps many of us get our scattered thoughts together for November's novel-writing. And also because this badge has ducks on it.](https://images.Writing.Com/imgs/writing.com/writers/badges/general-Leadership.gif)
