Harry Potter - Frankly, My Dear . . .

The Perfect Start

Dec 31, 2018 | 5 comments

Welcome to the New.

Can I just tell y’all how hard it is for me to write this post? I mean this post, with that word in the title. Oh, yes. THAT word.

PERFECT.

It’s like a flashing neon arrow pointing right at me, screaming “HYPOCRITE!”

It’s a little funny, dontcha think? After last month’s post about embracing my imperfections? The thing is… I just don’t know where to start. Wait. That makes it sound like I have way too many imperfections. Okay, stop nodding in agreement, brother. I know where you live.

Frankly, My Dear . . . The Perfect Start

Anyway. I’m imperfect. CHECK. But I’m trying. CHECK. And I want to move forward. Uhm, check?

How does a perfectionist move forward with imperfections? Well, for This Girl, I’m just gonna start. Someone once told me, “Three steps forward and two steps back is still one step forward.”

I HAVE LISTS.

#truestory. I have list upon list upon list of things I want to do this year. Posts to blog. Books to read. Things to learn. Recipes to create. Experiences to, well, experience.

I’ve already embraced the imperfections of my planning skills and allowed myself to scribble in my Happy Planner. *gasp* Insert SCREAM face here, right?!

Well, being as I’m now what is known as a true Southerner, I queried my local writing friends over a cup of Starbucks. Cuz, you know, we’re writers. We need the coffee to do the thinking to do the writing. And I’m an extrovert. I need the talk to do the energy to do the writing. Put me in a social setting with caffeine and BAM! Instant Bohemian Hurricane. Anyway, focus: Yes. I received some excellent advice on doing a blog relaunch. Now, I’m not going to do a big Facebook Live Event. But I am going to narrow my focus. Rather, refocus my focus. Good gravy there’s a lot of focus in this paragraph and I still haven’t gotten to the point. *sigh*

IMPERFECT POST: CHECK.

I’ve kept myself locked in a holding pattern, unable to do anything but circle the target. I can’t fly away, I can’t land. Until I get the gears and the mechanics and the passengers (uhm, that would be all of you) in just the ~~write~~ right place, I can’t do anything. So I do nothing.

BIG UNCHECK HERE, PLEASE.

I’ve been wanting to relaunch Frankly, My Dear . . . with a stronger emphasis on the four tenets I’ve held all along: Faith, Family, Food, and Fun (Fun being the one that incorporates the outings and the writings and the everything elses that happen in life). Edie and Cathy told me to just keep doing what I’m doing. But, keep doing it. Don’t sit back and wait for it to magically appear. After all, Harry Potter doesn’t live in Simpsonville. So, think of the Four F’s as the legs of a table. And you’re all invited. And since I’m a true Southerner now (can y’all tell I just love saying that?!), I want to keep in line with the whole Southern Gone With the Wind “Frankly, My Dear . . .” theme. I mean, I just wouldn’t be me if I didn’t tell it like it is from my perspective.

Sidenote: Someone told me it takes ten years to become a true Southerner. Someone else countered it doesn’t take any time at all. In NOLA, Toni tells Josie what it’s like to be a local. This is where my good friend Beckie Lindsey would say, “You’re being Josie!” And this is where I agree.

Excerpt from NOLA by Molly Jo Realy

[Click here to join my NOLA Swarm Facebook group]

So, ultimately, it comes down to boiling the potato like this: Do I want to start, or do I want to stagnate? Given that I’m adverse to mold and immobility, I choose the former. And I hope you’ll come to the table. There’s plenty to go ’round. And I hope you’ll keep me accountable to what’s on the menu.

With a heaping plate and a pitcher of tea,
Happy Everything.
~Molly Jo

And Frankly, My Dear . . . That’s all she wrote!

Sweeten my tea and share:

My Book Wish List

Dec 28, 2011

Yesterday, I posted My New Reading List for 2012. To make sure I keep up with my List, I already started “The Magician’s Nephew” by C.S. Lewis. By the time you read this post, I should have finished that book and moved on to “The Lion, The Witch, and the Wardrobe”. I’m highly excited. I love writings that are so well done, you forget to breathe while writing. That’s how I aspire to write.

I know my List is not nearly exhaustive, but of all the books I have at my house, those are the ones I want to read. Of all the books I have…

So you know where this is going. This post’s title and that one half-sentence say all you need to know. This post is a list of books I will someday have in my Library.

Louis L’Amour. Any and all. Except for the one short story collection I already have and treasure. The one that inspires me again and again to keep writing. He is so magical, so descriptive with his words. He is someone I would have loved to have met. 89 novels, 2 nonfiction works and 14 short-story collections. 105 books! Now there’s a writer!

The Oz series. Recently I watched “The Origins of Oz” on the Smithsonian Channel. All I can say is, “WOW.” I’ve always loved The Wonderful Wizard of Oz and can’t ever remember not having a copy (or two!) on my bookshelves. But after watching this show and realizing what I’ve missed, I’m more interested than ever in reading all the books, not just the first. Yes, indeed. All 16.

Charles Dickens. I humbly admit I had never read A Christmas Carol until this year. December 21st, as a matter of fact. And I read it all in one day. It was stunning, and much better than any movie portrayed. Now I’m anxious to read all his works. In addition to 27 novels and novellas, his was also the author of many shorter stories and essays.

My teen daughter tells me I still need to read her Twilight and Harry Potter series of books. She also received the Hunger Games trilogy for Christmas. There’s 13 right there.

Claudia has reminded me that Ray Bradbury is always a good read. He wrote a plethora of short stories and novellas that would be hard to put down. I’ve tried googling his bibliography but can’t come up with a number because all articles point out that most of his creative writings were either magazine articles and/or adapted for stage and screen, like Something Wicked This Way Comes, which I wrote about in my post, Why I Don’t Go To Carnivals in October. As best as I can figure, there’s a good 20 books at least.

At the proposed rate of one book every two days, I’m pretty sure I wouldn’t be able to read all these books in one year, even if I had them in my Library. But it gives me something to look forward to for 2013. I guess I better get reading …

And Frankly, My Dear… that’s all she wrote!