What I do when I'm not Writing

This is yet another question from YA Highway (great blog!).

Well...I do have an extremely adventurous and interesting life so it might take a few paragraphs for me to answer this...(can you all hear the crickets as I ponder what I should write?)

Seriously, one of the things that I do that takes up MOST of my time is teach. I wrote a previous post about making time for my writing (my # 1 passion) because I am so busy grading papers, making tests/quizzes, and creating interesting lesson plans (it takes so much to keep today's youth intrigued). Whenever I do get a moment to not do something dealing with my full time job, I then read (a lot of different novels, as I mentioned before, and I watch A LOT (maybe too much) of TV. I also am trying to become a scary movie aficionado so I spend some of my time watching scary movies. That is really about it- I wish I had something really cool to write, like I go hiking or I meditate, but I'm not that deep :)

So, I would love to hear what else you do- just so I can live vicariously through all you cool people!

What I Read

I love answering questions like this because it allows me to feel like someone actually cares!

So, the question is from YA Highway and it asks what I read besides YA. First of all, I'm not sure if this counts but, I read People and Cosmo magazine :) As for books, I am a huge fan of Christopher Rice- he is Anne Rice's son and he writes books that usually have a homosexual man as the lead. I LOVE all of his books, but my favorites are A Density of Souls, and Light Before Day. I also really enjoy Scott Heim, author of Mysterious Skin (with was an AWESOME movie starring one of my many boyfriends Joseph Gordon Levitt). A few of my guilty pleasures, John Grisham's A Time to Kill and The Associate, and Dean Koontz's The Good Guy and Velocity. My BIGGEST guilty pleasure? The Sookie Stackhouse Series by Charlaine Harris (I even purchased her short story collection based on Sookie Stackhouse). I also recently fell in love with Cormac McCarthy. He has a very vivid, unique style of writing. The books I have read of his and love are No Country for Old Men, and The Road. I also LOVE, LOVE, LOVE Joyce Carol Oates' Zombie. If you have not read it yet, I strongly suggest that you crack that one open. If you have a weak stomach and a low tolerance for pyschopathic, pedophilic, serial killers then you might not want to read that one. However, I must say, Zombie is probably my favorite book of all time!

I think I've said enough- so tell me, what do you read besides YA???

How do you choose a genre?

I went to YA Highway and saw this question posted. I think it's one that I often ask myself when I am staring at a blank Word document on my laptop. What am I going to write about? Why should I write about this thing instead of the other... I am always confused, but I often find myself writing along the same theme- horror or thriller. I think I am influenced by the things that excite and entice me, and also by the things that I think will never happen to me. I get to live these experiences and thoughts vicariously through the characters that I create.

And then there are the rare times where I just write and a story pulls itself together- it's often not very good, but it's a start!

Where does the time go????

I'm usually a good conversationalist when I am interested in a topic- which should translate to me writing on this blog all the time...however, my day job CONSUMES me. I teach Civics and US History to 6th and 8th graders at a middle school in Virginia. If I am not planning and typing lesson plans, then I am grading, if I am not doing either of those, I am actually- GASP!- teaching.

Teaching requires me to stand up, use my laptop to show PowerPoints and videos, explain things to students, help them with their work, and make sure that they understand. So- shock of all shocks, when I am at work, I rarely find a minute to to anything besides, well, work :( It sucks because when I go home I expect to be able to sit down and read, or work on my novel. It never works out that way, I'm usually on my laptop until 8:00 trying to finish grading or finish creating a lesson plan. Where does the time go?

What can I do to balance my dilemma? Do I set aside time to write or read- or will this force me to write instead of allowing myself to succumb to inspiration and creativity?
Or should I give in to my writing desires whenever they show themselves and slack off with the duties that come with being a teacher? So many question- so little time to answer them!