Today, May 7th, is the seventh discussion question for the Beyond Busy Global Monthly Book Club. We just finished Anne Lamott’s Some Assembly Required, A Journal of My Son’s First Son and now we will spend seven days discussing it. Anyone who has read the book can participate by commenting.

Our next book selection is the hot-off-the-presses Are You My Mother? by Alison Bechdel. You can join our public BBGMBC Facebook group, if you would like to join us in reading one excellent quality book per month and then discussing it here.

Some Assembly Required, A Journal of My Son’s First Son is written by Anne Lamott with Sam Lamott and published by Riverhead in 2012.

Field trip! Read this NYT interview that KJ Dell’Antonia did with Anne Lamott. I really enjoyed it, and I hope you will read the whole thing.

Here’s one line that jumped out at me: “Having one well parent is the hugest advantage any child can have.”

Comment on this line, or read the rest of the interview and pull out a line that jumps out at you and comment on it.

Surprise us!

Thanks for reading Some Assembly Required by Anne Lamott with Sam Lamott. This is our last discussion question for this book and I look forward to our next book and discussion.

Today, May 5th, is the fifth discussion question for the Beyond Busy Global Monthly Book Club. We just finished Anne Lamott’s Some Assembly Required, A Journal of My Son’s First Son and now we will spend seven days discussing it. Anyone who has read the book can participate by commenting.

Our next book selection is the hot-off-the-presses Are You My Mother? by Alison Bechdel. You can join our public BBGMBC Facebook group, if you would like to join us in reading one excellent quality book per month and then discussing it here.

Some Assembly Required, A Journal of My Son’s First Son is written by Anne Lamott with Sam Lamott and published by Riverhead in 2012.

This question was suggested by Mary Lou Gomes. Thanks, Mary Lou!

How does your age and life circumstances impact how you respond to this book?

Whether you are an older parent with adult children and grandchildren or a young mom with young children, how does your life experience change how you feel about this book?

Please describe yourself and your life circumstances in your comment.

Today, May 4th, is the fourth discussion question for the Beyond Busy Global Monthly Book Club. We just finished Anne Lamott’s Some Assembly Required, A Journal of My Son’s First Son and now we will spend seven days discussing it. Anyone who has read the book can participate by commenting.

Our next book selection is the hot-off-the-presses Are You My Mother? by Alison Bechdel. You can join our public BBGMBC Facebook group, if you would like to join us in reading one excellent quality book per month and then discussing it here.

Some Assembly Required, A Journal of My Son’s First Son is written by Anne Lamott with Sam Lamott and published by Riverhead in 2012.

Some authors travel and dive deeply into descriptions of place and history. Anne Lamott travels and dives into more stories of connections: family connections, friendships, mentor relationships, and even, and perhaps most bravely, reflections on and relationships with people who are dying.

Lamott writes most deeply and most fearlessly about the truth about her relationships. Not relationships hypothetically, but real, live, messy, complicated relationships.

Is the map of real life relationships a topic as compelling and engaging as travelogue? Why or why not?

This is a place to gather final thoughts, threads, and media related to Wild by Cheryl Strayed.

It’s also the place to consider sharing your comprehensive thoughts on the book as a whole.

Please copy and paste links of interesting media related to Wild in the comments below.

Did you stumble across a cool blog post or a see a video reading that you wanted to share?

Then this is the place to do so.

It’s also the place to write  a comprehensive review of the book from your point of view.

Consider sharing your review, here, in the comments, and also around the Internet in various places that allow the posting and sharing of reviews.

Most book retailers and book discussion communities also allow book reviews. Or, if you prefer, post yours there and then link to it in the comments here, so we can all read it too.

Most book review sites offer a way to link to your review via a “permalink.”

I will link my review here when I am done with it too.

I look forward to what you have to share and say in closing this discussion about Wild by Cheryl Strayed.

Thanks for participating! And thank you Cheryl Strayed for writing such a discussable book!

Money. Money. Money.

It’s mentioned 31 times in Wild by Cheryl Strayed.

Money is often on the narrator’s mind. Having money. Not having money. Being rich with $20 in her pocket. Scraping together enough change to buy a Snapple lemonade.

Oh, that Snapple lemonade. I’ve never wanted one in my life until I read this book.

I want one right now, in fact. Really badly.

On page 280, Strayed writes, “I probably wouldn’t have been fearless enough to go on such a trip with so little money if I hadn’t grown up without it. I’d always thought of my family’s economic standing in terms of what I didn’t get: camp and lessons and travel and college tuition and the inexplicable ease that comes when you’ve got access to a credit card that someone else is paying off. But now I could see the line between this and that—between a childhood in which I saw my mother and stepfather forging ahead over and over again with two pennies in their pocket and my own general sense that I could do it too.”

A connection between money and fearlessness. A connection between not having enough and having enough.

The word “enough” is mentioned 54 times. What does money have to do with being enough in this book?

What does money have to do with being lost and being found?

What does not having to focus on money allow in the story?

In the memoir, Wild, by Cheryl Strayed on page 241, the narrator talks about a necklace given as a gift by a friend.

I looked at the padded envelope. It was from my friend Laura in Minneapolis. I opened the envelope and pulled its contents out: a letter folded around a necklace she’d made for me in honor of my new name. STRAYED it said in blocky silver letters on a ball-link chain. At first glance, it looked like it said STARVED because the Y was slightly different than all of the other letters—fatter and squatter and cast from a different mold, and my mind scrambled the letters into a familiar word.

Earlier in the book we learned that the narrator chose a new name for herself after she got divorced. She picked a name that was meaningful to her. She told us on page 97:

I had diverged, digressed, wandered, and become wild. I didn’t embrace the word as my new name because it defined negative aspects of my circumstances or life, but because even in my darkest days—those very days in which I was naming myself—I saw the power of the darkness. Saw that, in fact, I had strayed and that I was a stray and from the wild places my straying had brought me, I know things I couldn’t have known before.

In what ways was the dramatic object of the necklace symbolic in the narration?

What’s the difference between straying and starving?

And in how many different ways did the narrator experience both?

And what do either straying or starving have to do with the void, which comes up on page 127 when the narrator encounters a woman in the restroom in Reno who comments on the feather Cheryl has attached to her pack.

“It’s got to be a corvid,” she said, reaching over to touch it delicately with one finger. “It’s either a raven or a crow, a symbol of the void,” she added in a mystical tone.

“The void?” I asked, crestfallen.

“It’s a good thing,” she said. “It’s the place where things are born, where they begin. Think about how a black hole absorbs energy and then releases it as something new and alive.”

Straying. Settled. Starving. Sated. Empty. Full. How are these ideas all explored in the story?

I knew that if I allowed fear to overtake me, my journey was doomed. Fear, to a great extent, is born of a story we tell ourselves, and so I chose to tell myself a different story from the one women are told. I decided I was safe. I was strong. I was brave. Nothing could vanquish me. ~ page 51 of Wild by Cheryl Strayed

One thing about Wild that kept jumping out at me, was how  brave the author was in her willingness to hike the trail alone. Even when Cheryl could have hiked with others, she often preferred to remain alone.

A woman alone. I think this is a good discussion topic.

I hiked a section of the Appalachian Trail with a friend in my early twenties (just a couple of years earlier than when Strayed went on her trip only ours was only for a week and on the opposite coast). When we got off the trail at the end of our hike and returned to civilization, all the locals we encountered were shocked that just the two of us would hike for so many nights out on the trail…two women alone.

Just as the forest ranger seemed to relish telling Strayed and her trail buddies all of his horror stories about all of the terrible things he’d witnessed, the locals did the same thing with us after we got off the trail for good. And boy, were we glad we hadn’t known more before our hike. It was hard enough to sleep. Afterwards, folks could not wait to tell us how the government wanted to expand the trail and how, in protest, local dissenters were booby-trapping the trails by hanging fish hooks at eye level. We heard about women disappearing, getting raped, etc. And on and on and on. I don’t necessarily remember all the stories, but I remember that they were delivered with emotion and amazement. How could we be so foolish?

Women are not supposed to be alone. It’s not safe. Right?

And yet the redemption that comes to Strayed seemed to depend on facing her journey, both external and internal, alone.

If you are familiar with The Hero’s Journey, as discussed by Joseph Campbell and others, you may remember that a Hero’s success in any particular quest typically has much to do with his alliances.

And yet, Strayed’s success in restoring her feeling of wholeness by going on her wilderness hike seemed dependent on her insistence on being alone, again and again, no matter how many times she connected and reconnected with others she came to know and like. She had alliances but so much of the story was about letting those old ties go.

Is this the Heroine’s Journey then? And is being alone an important factor in the Heroine’s Journey?

Have you been on a journey that was more like Strayed’s—more like a heroine’s journey? Or have you read other books that describe something similar?

Is Strayed describing The Heroine’s Journey…or is there no such thing separate from The Hero’s Journey? What do you think?

If you like my blog or you like my Facebook page or you like my tweets, you are going to love The Writer’s Workout.

Here’s what people are saying. I hope you will run, not walk, to your nearest bookseller to get a copy of your very own.

And please also make sure that your local library is carrying a copy.

The Writer’s Workout is a workout every writer needs to do to keep his/her career healthy, productive, and prosperous.  ~ TL Cooper

Writers are notorious for tons of ideas with very little follow through. Christina cuts through the excuses and procrastination, delivering encouraging yet kick-in-the-pants motivation to set your writing goals and WRITE. Her workouts are short and simple yet majorly effective. She nudges us to ‘meet the goal you need to meet today’, in doing so we learn to hone and narrow our focus–thus getting writing things DONE.  ~ Dana Tanaro Britt via Jerry L Britt Jr.

Every page in The Writer’s Workout has information I can use and it is all readable and practical. She covers everything from craft to the creative process to platform building to working with editors. No wonder the book’s spine is the color of gold. This book is a writer’s gold.  ~ Samantha Ducloux Waltz

Katz has gone beyond the how-to writing reference book or inspirational writing book – she has created the perfect blend of inspiration and advice that is sure to motivate and inform any writer looking to advance their career.  ~ S. Lindsey

Ever wondered what it would be like to be an elite athlete with a personal coach helping you set, reach, and push past your goals?…That is where Christina Katz enters. She’s condensed her most inspirational and effective tips, ideas, and advice into The Writer’s Workout.  ~ R. E. Schorr

Loved this book. It’s substantial enough to be great value, but broken up into small chunks so you can easily dip in and out of it. It has advice for writers at all stages of their careers, and though I’ve been writing for a while now I found even the section aimed at writers in the early stage of their career was packed with useful reminders and inspiring quotes. Highly recommended.  ~ K. Banes

Christina’s books inspire fresh writing and intelligent business strategies. She has a unique gift for simultaneously offering the nuts and bolts of craft with sound business advice. Her new book, The Writer’s Workout, offers bite-sized tips every writer can use. It covers everything from dealing effectively with the chaos to finding an agent. I highly recommend this book.  ~ Dylan Klempner

The Writer’s Workout provides a daily dose of inspiration and tactical advice for writers. It’s a fabulous idea that Christina Katz has executed to perfection. Unlike most writing manuals or career guides, her guidance is applicable to every writer at any stage in their career. She doesn’t ask you to follow her route to writing success. Instead, she guides you toward creating your own by digging deep, defining what you have to offer, firing up your creative juices, honing your skills, and sending your best work out into the world.  ~ Malia Jacobson

I’ve long been a fan of Christina’s work. Not only does she offer sound and reasonable writing/how-to-get published advice – she practices what she preaches. This is prob. the easiest book in the world to get any writer motivated. From daily advice and exercises, Christina helps instill a sense of motivation in daily mini-bites for writing.  ~ Dawn Frederick

Thanks for all of your kind words everyone. And thanks for reading!

Here’s a list of places you can purchase The Writer’s Workout. And of course, at your local bookseller.

Lots of good things are happening, and as I try to constantly remind my students, sometimes growth brings challenges that you would not expect.

We might have a tendency to think that good things happen to good people, and that of course, when good things happen to these good people, their lives are perfect and wonderful all of the time, even though our lives rarely seem that way.

And, of course, that’s total bunk. Good things happen mostly for folks who have worked hard for them. And even when one or two good things happen, it does not make your whole life perfect. In fact, it’s actually more like the opposite. Growth is messy. Stretching yourself is also bumpy. And even once you have accomplished several major successes, you’re life does not just magically become perfect.

I think this pretty much sums up my school year, thus far. Good things are happening. And perhaps this is also why I have so many challenges at the moment and have had so many challenges since September.

Challenge #1: The Screen on my Primary Mac is Going Out

I always knew this day would come. But it’s still never fun when you realize that you have to take what you want to preserve and get the heck off the laptop that is falling apart underneath your still tapping fingers. This computer is like an extension of my brain. So what am I supposed to do, relocate my brain? Apparently so.

Challenge #2: My Husband is Producing another Show with over Sixty Kids

This show is definitely running more smoothly than the last show, which some of you may remember was Les Mis. This time it’s Fiddler on the Roof and Samantha is playing the role of Bielke, Tevye and Golda’s youngest daughter. The show is really coming together but everyone, especially my husband, who has been working 12 hour days six days a week for six weeks. But the show must go on. And so it shall. Here’s a media photo:

Challenge #3: My Book is Getting Rave Reviews

This probably seems like a fairly strange challenge. But don’t forget that I have classes to teach, students to coach, articles, curriculum, and columns to write, conferences to attend, a husband to help with a show that has over sixty kids in it, and now a dying computer.

I could really use is some help getting the word out about The Writer’s Workout because the book is getting better reviews than I even expected (I poured my guts into this book, as many of you already know).

Meanwhile, here’s the feedback I’m receiving so far:

It’s a masterpiece. (Thank you! What a compliment. This remark has come from several sources now, and I never take it for granted.)

I can’t read the whole thing because it gives me so many great ideas I have to stop reading and work. (Exactly what I was hoping! This book is meant to be a tool for your career growth.)

It keeps me up at night and gets me going when I am stuck. (Again, exactly what I was hoping.)

You can read more rave reviews on Amazon. A steady stream of reviews is pouring in.

There is so much more I want to do with readers of this book, so if you do not have a copy of the book yet, please order yours today.

Spring is the first season in The Writer’s Workout. And guess what season is coming? Spring!

Baseball players don’t skip spring training just because they already know how to play baseball. And your writing career will similarly benefit from reading The Writer’s Workout, which was written explicitly to help you navigate these changing times in the industry.

Thanks for letting me know that you got your copy! And stay tuned. I’ll get on top of everything again soon. Spring is good like that.