A Thought Collection

I liked the free clip-art graphic. Even though it’s a guy, I decided to fill his big thought bubble, er, rectangle, with a summary of my own experience:

Lots of different thoughts filled my head today.

This is a big month for me. July is not only Mega Memory Month but also the month leading up to the release of my book, Not So Fast, on August 1.

So the blog this coming month will likely offer a hodge-podge of my memorization trials and tribulations alongside posts chronicling the excitement leading up to the book’s debut … not to mention the usual Make-Do Mondays and Food on Fridays carnivals.

Here’s a round-up of several top-of-mind subjects:

Regarding Not So Fast

• Used? The other day, a friend of mine sent me over to the Amazon.com listing of Not So Fast, asking how can a not-yet-released book be sold used? Good question! How can a book that hasn’t yet rolled off the presses be available used?
• Marketing. I picked up my daughter from a sleepover, and the mom, a former news anchor, offered me a long list of marketing ideas. What an encouraging friend with such wonderful suggestions! Now … all I have to do is implement them all.
• Inspiration. I found a beautiful photo to accompany a “slow” quote and posted them at NotSoFastBook.com yesterday. Check it out.

Regarding Mega Memory Month

• Preview of my Memory Plan. I intend to announce my own personal Mega Memory Month plan tomorrow, July 1st, when the challenge officially begins, but as a preview, I’ll reveal that along with a passage of Scripture, I’m planning to memorize Robert Frost’s “The Road Not Taken.” In January I memorized “Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening,” so to undertake “The Road Not Taken” feels like a nice complement. Plus, I mention the poem in my book’s dedication and want to have it inside my head. I know the poem; now I want to know the poem by heart.
• Spread the Word. Please let blogging and non-blogging friends know about Mega Memory Month, because it’s more motivating to know that a lot of people are sharing the same challenge!

Random Mental Meanderings

• Length of Messages. A friend who is a professional speech writer said that speeches should be no longer than 20 minutes. “Twenty minutes of content,” he said, “ten minutes of Q & A, then that’s it. Sit down. Nobody wants any more than that, even if they say they do.” In the past year, I have been asked to give 30-, 40-, and 45-minute messages. Should I have followed my speech-writer-friend’s advice instead?
• Eggs. I buy eggs from a local woman who raises chickens in humane conditions on her farm. They taste better to me than store-bought eggs, but when someone asks me to describe the difference, I can’t find the right words. They just have more flavor.
• The Scarlet Letter. I hadn’t read The Scarlet Letter in high school or college. How did that happen? Finally, after all these years, I read it last week. I had to force myself to keep reading at first, but by the end, I really liked it.
• Vocabulary. Reading all of these classics to prepare to teach an American Literature course is revealing my meager vocabulary. I’ve started making 3×5 cards of all the words I don’t know. My stack of cards is already thick. I feel stupid for not knowing, but better for taking time to learn them.
• Twitter. I’m still trying to figure out how to make the most of Twitter without having a portable gadget to post tweets.
• Facebook. I’m still trying to figure out how to make the most of Facebook without living online.

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Join Mega Memory Month for the month of July!