Enchantment

So lately I have been reading and listening to a ton of fairy tales, Grimm, Anderson, and modern fairy tales and I am swept up in them. I want to write some of my own, whether they be new tales or retelling. I have been listening to Grimm and Anderson on Audible, I play them all through the night so the stories really seep into my subconscious mind. I have been reading books like Favorite Folktales from Around the World by Jane Yolen, Spooky Wisconsin retold by S.E. Schlosser, My Mother She Killed Me, My Father He Ate Me, edited by Kate Bernheimer, and other collections of other retold or reimagined tales. I asked my book group on Facebook for suggestions and got a large list. It’s really my jam right now. UW Madison has a Folklore Program and if I was in my twenties again I’d do it for sure. Now I’ll just enjoy exploring folklore and Fairy Tales on my own. You don’t have to spend money to learn, and I got all of those books at the library.

I rewrote a French Tale from the Yolen book called The White Cat. It’s not bad but I want to play with it for a while before I show it to you. But I will.

I also now am working on my Writing Specialization’s Capstone Project (Coursera), a short story at least 15 pages long. I am currently working on my first draft. I chose to expand a writing assignment from the first week, about a theater director. My dad was a High School theater director, but my main character for my Capstone is not like him. He’s a college professor directing his last show. The character is not my Dad, but I was able to draw on my memories of Dad doing shows, as well as memories of my doing shows in college. It’s got promise but is very rough. It needs direction, a clear story arc. I’ll share it with you at the end of my course after it has been graded.

I just walked to the grocery store and got some beautiful cod loin fillets for dinner tonight. I’m also going to make roasted Brussels sprouts with red onion and pancetta. All this fanciness just for a Wednesday! Nathan deserves a nice meal when he comes home after work, and I deserve a nice meal after a day of writing. I enjoy taking care of my man. Hey, I can be a feminist and still enjoy coddling my loved one!

I just ate (drank) my lunch, a nice smoothie. I am very into smoothies right now (I’ve been hinting to Nathan that a Vitamix for Christmas would be a great idea). I’m doing the Intermittent Fasting along with Noom, so I fast between 7 PM and 11 AM, then have my smoothie (1 C skim milk, 1/2 C low-fat vanilla yogurt, 2 big handfuls of baby spinach (about 1 1/2 C), 1 C frozen mixed berries and a banana, blended, 386 calories, fills a 24 oz cup), then have a healthy dinner, and keep each day under 1200 calories. I’m doing this because I weighed myself the other day and was at the heaviest I’ve ever been. It was the straw, my dears. I knew I had to take action. I’m exercising more, too. Go Team Mary!

This has been lovely but I need to get cracking on my capstone.