Juggling Books

I'll let you in on a secret: my dream job is to be a juggler in a circus. It doesn't have to be in one of the rings, just in a corner of the big top, where I'll stand in the sawdust, sending the multicolored pins reeling into the air in effortless yet precise coordination.

Well, that's one of my dream jobs. The ability to write nearly every day is a dream job for me, for which I often thank God.

And while the circus dream likely won't take off, this didn't restrain me from learning to juggle. I'm far from perfect, but I can keep the balls in the air for short spans, a feat I found more difficult than it had appeared!

My sister had a literal hand in my success as an amateur juggler by hand-crafting these three crochet balls, complete with beans inside for a measured weight lest they bounce out of the palm.

Aren't the colors and design lovely? They fit my hands better than the tennis balls I had previously practiced with, making for a more pleasing experience! Now, my mistakes don't end with me diving after the runaway tennis ball, plus having my set near at hand affords the chance to practice more often.

However, I can't claim the same success in another area, as I'm finding I'm dropping the ball with my reading list, that ever-growing TBR list, that seems more like an expanding python than a mental selection of book titles.

A tangible list might be necessary in order to keep me on track, because I'm forgetting where I came from and where I'm going.

My recent reading fiasco started with The Russians by Judith Pella and Michael Phillips, a fascinating historical fiction series set around the fall of the Russian Tsars in the late 1800's. On the whole, I enjoy reading across genres. However, with my aim to join the mystery and suspense market with my novel Safecracker, I need to be up on the current trends – or so they say. And as James Scott Bell says, “whoever 'they' are, I wish they’d pipe down.”

Following the old adage, be well read in the genre you're entering, I temporarily set aside the historical fiction series and began reaching out to discover similar Christian suspense novels to my own. Terri Blackstock and Colleen Coble were among the significant discoveries (no duh!). I also read a Dani Pettrey novel that, to put simply, I didn't like. The complete review is here.

Among my wanderings, I went through a few other suspense novels and a cozy mystery, some good and some not so good. Somewhere in between, I landed on Blackstock's Newpointe 911 series. The books aren't recent in terms of the market, but I stubbornly began the series anyway. So far, I love it.

The trouble came when I finished the second book and a temporary insanity overcame me, during which I up and began The Lord of the Rings. My only defense is that I love Tolkien and hadn't had a previous opportunity to get my hands on the massive volume until then. So I snatched it.

Yet I have no regrets! I enjoy every bit of it, in spite of the rashness of my decision. Though, to maintain the mystery and suspense diet, I've been forced to dual-read, a concept my younger self abominated.

So coming to the end of The Fellowship of the Ring (a sad, but beautiful ending!), I am at last moving toward adding a mystery to the reading mix again and likely will pick up the third book of the Newpointe 911 series. But wait, I forgot! I still have The Russians series, sitting unfinished on the shelf like the dangling yarn ends of an incomplete crochet project! And that's not even mentioning the miscellaneous other novels from new authors I ought to give a try!

Thwack! Thwack! Goes the second and third books onto the floor, and one of the corners has managed to strike my big toe!

Most of you read ten times more than I do and faster too, so this likely doesn't seem like a big deal. I'd like to know how you do it, because I can't seem to fit in reading regularly alongside the graphic design work, my own writing, and familial obligations. And yet, my TBR list is screaming at me, “Read more! Read faster! Read! Read! Read!”

My life grows complicated.

What am I to do, dear friend? Perhaps my only alternative is to run away and join the circus!

~Alissa