Focus has been difficult for me this week, due in part to the holidays and also due in part to the blasts of a sinus headache. Everytime the seasons change, my sinuses explode. This week the temperature dropped to freezing. I went from being comfortable in short sleeves to shivering in jackets.
Since writing has been difficult, I've focused on research. I've been watching Snake Wranglers on the Discovery Channel (or is it Animal Planet?). It would be worth it just to see how people go about capturing snakes, but there's also a lot of scientific information squeezed into each half hour episode. For example, did you know that the highway is one of the best places to catch rattlesnakes? The heat attracts them. Or that snake charmers used de-fanged cobras in their work? The venom, however, also functions as the cobra's saliva, allowing them to digest their food. Without their venom they die.
In addition, I cracked open Cults in Our Midst by Margaret Thaler Singer. I'm about two-thirds of the way through. This book is rather terrifying, when you start to think avout how cults work to break down an individual's psyche, isolate them from their friends and family, and threaten anyone who would expose them. Currently, I'm just skimming, taking everything in. Hopefully, my sub-conscious will break the information down into ideas for my novel.
I wrote three scenes for a chapter, something like 15 pages, and I got two substitute jobs. Though I requested high school students in the field of English, history, and Japanese, somehow I ended up teaching elementary school children P.E. Little children bewilder me, I have to admit. I don't know how I'm going to adjust to being an aunt.
Also did some Christmas shopping, present wrapping, cookie baking, card signing, and "How the Grinch Stole Christmas" watching. Going to make a sour cream blueberry pie for Christmas dessert. Looking forward to some rest and relaxation for the holidays.
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