Shelby's Life and Whatnot

Hiatus

I think this is the longest break I have taken from blogging since I started oh so long ago. Sorry to disappoint my loyal readers. All three of you.

Friday night we went to a great Dar Williams concert. Kevin introduced me to Dar when we first started going out, and now she's one of my favorite artists. Opening for Dar was Ben Taylor. I immediately thought "Ben Taylor? THE Ben Taylor? As in the son of Carly Simon and James Taylor?" As soon as Ben opened his mouth, all doubt was removed. He sounded just like his father (as if there were dozens of other Ben Taylors running around giving concerts). I almost expected "Fire and Rain" to break out at any minute, but he stuck to his own work. Which I can understand, trying to form your own musical career as the son of two fabulously famous singers, avoiding Mom and Dad's songs. I wasn't all that crazy about his stuff though. His voice was great, but the hard rock quality of his music turned me off.

So that was Friday.

Saturday and today (Sunday) I spent all day at a writing workshop through UC Santa Cruz Extension. I really enjoyed it. It went 10-5 each day and was just a two day workshop on revising, but it was so good for me, especially the second day. I had an opportunity to share some of my work, part of my novel-in-progress, and it was really well-received. It renewed my confidence and enthusiasm for my work. My writing has been suffering lately as I've been in a down mood, but I'm feeling better and am really motivated to start putting pieces of my novel together. Who knows, I may even let YOU read it :). This "you" includes Kevin, who got to read 3 pages of the novel for the first time yesterday. My teacher suggested turning my 3 page sample into an independent short story--something I'm seriously considering pursuing.

So that's what I've been doing the last 3 days.