Since I’ve been a small girl, I have had an insatiable appetite for reading. My mother has the American Girl and Mandie series to thank for that. I read all the time, finishing whole books in mere days. My sister and I slept in the basement, so it was easy to stay undercover and read into the wee hours of the night. When I was in the 2nd grade my mom held a five dollar bill in front of my face and challenged me to complete the entire Little Women unabridged edition. I re-read it several more times after that.

There is a huge bookshelf in our dining room now that holds many of the childhood books that both Jacob and I hold dear. My prized copy of Tolstoy’s War and Peace sits proudly on the fiction shelf saying HEY YOU! YOU READ ME! YOU READ THE WHOLE THING! GO YOU!

The Internets is out to destroy books. Of this I am totally sure. The Kindle? Are you serious? I’m sorry, but I like holding a book in my hands and feeling the texture of the smooth cover and the soft, paper-y pages. I don’t care if it makes my bag heavy. I don’t care if my personal library takes over an entire room. They’re BOOKS FOR HEAVEN’S SAKE!

Unfortunately of late, I’ve been reading more blogs and Facebook statuses than books. It’s sad really. It made me so sad that I decided with the New Year would come a resolution to read more books. More REAL books.

Remember how my mom offered me five dollars to finish Little Women? Well, I need that kind of motivation to get started. Luckily, I found this resolution reward chart on Twitter. Little squares to stamp and mark off the calendar saying I’ve accomplished my goal? It’s just the motivation I need to read real books everyday.

I got a whole bunch of new books for Christmas, including a biography of Nureyev, and a collection of the best American short stories. I’ve also started reading a charming – and surprisingly full of depth – children’s series by Avi about a little mouse named Poppy. I am enchanted already.

I am excited to renew my love of reading and my hunger for it. All without the Internets.

No, I am NOT pregnant, so put that party blower away!

After weeks of writing, editing, setting up a Tumblr account, re-reading, editing again, and completely starting over, I am ready to announce something big! As many of you know, I have a degree in writing, I love writing, and I am especially a sucker for good fiction. In my efforts to grow myself as a writer and to use my craft instead of letting it collect dust on the shelf, I am proud to announce the launch of Short Story September!

[Go check it out, I'll wait here]

My goal is to finish one part of a short story each week this month, and complete the whole thing in thirty days. [Yes, even taking time to write next week while we are on vacation!]. If things go all right – meaning I don’t lose my mind or my marriage – then perhaps this project will bleed over into October or [gasp!] November!

Hopefully, writing will become a part of my life again. I would like to have a collection of short works of fiction to call my own. Maybe I can do one story a month, maybe one every two months. It will depend on how things go. One thing is for certain – I am committed to making Short Story September work. I have a dream to one day write a published novel. This is my baby step. My teeny, tiny baby step.

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