Today's Events - 01/02/16

Adhar card would be the valid Identity proof in Jammu & Kashmir

The Government of India has established the Unique Identification Authority of India (UIDAI) for issuing Aadhaar numbers to all citizens. The J&K government finally decided to recognise adhar number as valid identity proof  as well as proof of address.

Afghanistan�s Chief Executive officer and Head of the Council of Ministers Abdullah Abdullah is on a five-day visit to India.

PM Narendra Modi and Afghanistan's Abdullah Abdullah held a meeting in delhi .During the meeting �The prime minister reiterated India�s commitment to extend all possible support to the efforts of the Afghan people in building a peaceful, stable, prosperous, inclusive and democratic country,� An agreement for visa-free travel for diplomatic passport holders of the both countries were exchanged.

Abdullah abdullah will address a conference on counter terrorism in Jodhpur on tuesday. The conference will inaguarated by President Pranab Mukherjee. The first counter-terrorism conference was held in March 2015 in Jaipur.

Justice Sanjay Mishra took Oath as new Lokayukt of Uttar Pradesh 

Former judge of the Allahabad High Court, Justice (Retired) Sanjay Mishra, on Sunday took oath as the new Lokayukta of Uttar Pradesh. An apex court bench headed by Justice Ranjan Gogoi had appointed Justice Mishra as the Lokayukta.

Chief Metropolitan Magistrate Sanjay Khangwal allowed Mr. Jaitley�s plea seeking summoning of records of DDCA from December 1999 to December 2003.

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SC agreed to hear the appeal to hold Make in India Campaign on Chawpatty.

The Maharashtra govt appealed Bombay High court to hold the biggest Make in India week program in the Girgaum chawpatty but Bombay high court refused it. SC agreed to hear the appeal of MH govt against the Bombay High court. The summit will be attended by Prime Minister. The event is of much importance as it is expected that it will be attended by the PM's of three countries.

Surrogate Mother will be entitled to get leave

Bombay High Court has ruled that the mother who adopt surrogacy procedure is entitled for maternity leave. Considering rules 551(C) and(E) of Child Adoption Leave and Rules.

Supreme Court will take final decision on LGBT rights

SC will give its final decision on section 377 of IPC according to which a consensual sexual acts of Lesbian, Gay, Bi-sexual and Transgender (LGBT) adult in privacy are criminal acts .

Anatomy of a Sprint

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One of the best things about the break between semesters is the opportunity to put my writing first. And, thanks to a great presentation by fellow writer Ramona DeFelice Long, one way that I do that is to make sure I get my writing sprints in. If you're a regular reader of this blog, you know all about my writing sprints, so you understand that getting myself into the habit between semesters (when I have lots of one hour time slots at my disposal) makes it easier for me to maintain the habit once the semester begins.

For me, the ideal sprint remains the one Ramona taught me: one hour, first thing in the morning, before the day takes over, with a goal of writing 1000 new words. This is the gold standard, the one to which I aspire.

The reality, however, is somewhat different.

On a good day, my one hour sprint consists of sixty uninterrupted minutes sometime early in the day. Because I have a high school student living in my house, and because procrastination is part of my writing process anyway, these sixty minutes rarely occur right out of the gate. I usually putter for a bit, checking email and often writing and posting my blog before settling in for my sprint, which occurs anywhere between mid-morning and bedtime.

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Some days, I end up with a split sprint -- the first thirty minutes in the morning or early afternoon and the second thirty minutes in the late afternoon or evening. I try not to cut my sprint into more than 2 pieces, but some days, it happens.

Perhaps the most useful sprint variation I've stumbled across is the sprint as a means of digging into an unpalatable or overwhelming task. For me, that task is revising. I hate revising, but there's something about breaking revisions into one hour chunks that makes the process much less painful. By telling myself I have to revise for only an hour, I've already taken an insurmountable task (revising an entire novel!) and made it more approachable.

I rarely "cheat" and count writing I'd do anyway (blog posts, for example) as my sprint time. Regardless of how I do it, when I do it, or how many chunks I break it into, I think sprinting is meant to advance a work-in-progress.

What task do you want to tackle, but keep putting off? Could a sprint be the answer for you?

Sale Today, Event Tomorrow, Giveaway Tuesday!

I thought that the second day of the second month provided the perfect opportunity to celebrate my second novel, Chasing a Second Chance. Stop by on Tuesday to find out how you can win a copy for your Kindle. Or, if you live in the York area and prefer a paperback, stop in and see me at the Village Library in Jacobus tomorrow, February 1. I'll be there from 3 - 5 pm.

Meanwhile, the Kindle version of Casting the First Stone is 99� through tomorrow, and Chasing a Second Chance goes on sale Tuesday, so that even if you don't win a copy, you can join the celebration.

Don't waste a second.

Saturday Special: Sooner is not Always Better

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Yes, I am profoundly aware of the irony of posting a link to an article on procrastination late. This one, however, was worth sharing regardless of the timing.

Unlike most articles, this piece from the New York Times about procrastinating on purpose is a great read for procrastinators and non-procrastinators alike. The author, a "get it done" kind of person, learned that achieving a balance between leaping into action and dragging his feet might indeed be a good place to be.

If you're wondering how that could be possible, you should definitely read the article. Now or later? Well, that part is up to you.

Friday Freebie: Reframing New Year's Resolutions

The first month of 2016 is rapidly coming to a close. How are you doing with those New Year's resolutions?

If the answer is, "not so great," that's not so bad -- at least according to Dr. Samantha Boardman. Dr. Boardman thinks New Year's resolutions are made to be broken, and that broken resolutions can actually be an important part of progress. In addition, she says that tying resolutions to one particular day can actually be self-defeating.

As someone who's made progress on her resolutions, but is still falling short, I'm happy to hear that. How about you? Ready to revise those resolutions?

I hereby declare February 1st Resolution Revision Day! Please pass the champagne.

5 Questions from the Porch Swing for Lori Myers

What have you written? I write in a variety of genres: fiction, creative nonfiction, plays, and essays. My creative nonfiction has appeared in many national and regional magazines, my fiction in literary journals and anthologies, and my plays have been produced for the stage nationally. Writing is writing to me and each style speaks to all the others. My story, "The Kindest Cut" was just included in the anthology Bad Neighborhood (you can find it on Amazon). Plus my short story collection, Crawl Space, is with a publisher and in the editing process.

What do you read? Many of my short stories are dark fiction, so I tend to read novels and collections of that ilk. I also love women's fiction and literary fiction. Currently, I'm reading All the Light We Cannot See by Anthony Doerr and Landfall by Ellen Urbani. The "bottom line" for me is that the writing and story have to be of good quality. There's so much garbage out there. If you read enough, you instinctively know the good stuff from the bad.

Lori's story, "The Kindest Cut,"
appears in this anthology.

Why do you write? I love words, sentences, and stories. I could read before I started kindergarten and I couldn't get enough of books. I've been jotting down stories since I was a little girl and when I wasn't creating characters on the page, I was acting them on stage. Theater and writing are intertwined creative efforts for me, and they've served me well throughout my career.

Fun writing factoid (not technically a question, I know): Long walks have a way of sparking creativity and resolving plot issues. If a story isn't working for me, I'll take a walk and somehow, some way a writing solution will appear. Needless to say, I take a lot of walks!

One more thing: Thank you, Lisa, for being a great literary citizen and featuring other writers on your blog. It's something all writers should do for each other.

My pleasure! It's lots of fun hearing about everyone's projects!

Thanks for joining me, everyone! 

Next week, I'll return to my usual Wednesday posts.

Journey to College: Senior Year

northeastern.edu

Last summer, we took a trip to Boston. We got to do lots of vacationy things, but the main purpose of the trip was to visit colleges. We'd determined ahead of time that we were doing this in an "enjoy the visit and explore" mindset; checking out college campuses was just part of the vacation. We identified what we liked, what we didn't, refined the list and came closer to reality, but didn't quite walk through that door.

We did a few scattered visits closer to home before summer drew to a close, ushering in the school year and "perfect the essay" time. My daughter was working part time last fall, and between her school schedule and her work schedule, there was no time for additional visits. The essay assignment came and went in English class, with the applicant never really satisfied with what she'd written. Thanksgiving break -- "perfect the essay" time -- also came and went with no further progress on the common app schools, but acceptances from those schools that required their own applications. Perfected common app essay or not, my daughter now had somewhere to go after graduation.

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And then it was Christmas break. Common application deadlines loomed. On New Year's Eve, the essay got its final polish and was plugged in and sent off to the remainder of the schools on her list. We could breathe a brief sigh of relief, knowing all the while that the FAFSA lay in wait, a new set of blank fields to fill in with demographics, social security numbers and bank account balances.

It wasn't until we took down the Christmas tree that it really hit me, and if I think about it too much right now, it's likely to run me over again. The last Christmas celebrated in just the way we've come to expect and perfect over the last eighteen years. A rite of passage.

And today, as I look out my window at the nearly three feet of snow that prompted a snow day, I have that same sense of finality again. Next year, there may be snowy days, but they won't be snow days. The closer we come to warm weather, the farther we travel from the summer of possibility. Spring will be filled with endings, in preparation for the beginnings that lie ahead. It's exciting, but it's also sad, a bittersweet celebration in which I finally understand why graduation is called "commencement."

But there's much to do between now and then, much to enjoy and celebrate.

Beginning with a snow day.