April 5th update

I have read the following

       The Boy Who Came Back from Heaven: A Remarkable Account of Miracles, Angels, and Life beyond This World by Kevin Malarkey, Alex Malarkey

            DISCLAIMER: This is a religious(Christian) book which is being reviewed by a non-Christian.

The Boy Who Came Back from Heaven was what the authors’ last names suggest: malarkey. This is so much the case the book was pulled from countless religious bookstores’ and churches’ shelves.  Alex admitted later after publication and a DVD was made he had made the whole thing up because he thought it would get him attention.  I think the removal of the book in its entirety was the wrong choice instead the book should have a second forward or an afterward explaining that Alex admitted he never went to heaven.  Alex’s portion of the book is less than 1/5 of the total. The rest of the book recounts how Kevin dealt with the accident through his eyes and the journey he went through based on what his son told him.  If his son said he visited heaven and that brought Kevin closer to God then as Kevin’s spiritual journey this book hits the mark.  What Alex did or didn’t lie about doesn’t discredit how Kevin felt or the sense of community that was felt from the churches of Prayforalex.com.  This book won’t convert any non-believers but it will affirm works of God for current believers and help non-Christians gain a deeper understanding as to the sense of comfort gained by people who turn their troubles over to God.  Despite being a bestseller the author told me everything and showed me nothing.  All I got was I did I felt I saw. I was aware the entire time I was being told someone’s story which made some parts harder to believe because as a reader I didn’t get sucked into the action.

The Oxford Book of American Short Stories 
by Joyce Carol Oates (Editor) 

As a short story collection this anthology contains a wide variety of authors with a quick comprehensive overview of each author included.  Throughout this entire anthology I was annoyed however because Dates in her forward explicitly said she hand-picked works which weren’t the authors best known pieces and then not only began with the most known Poe but in her snippets about the author on more than a fourth of them said this piece is this authors best know or most reprinted.  That wouldn’t have bothered me if she hadn’t also said she was not going to print those and instead look for more less known representations of the author’s works. If you’re looking for a comprehensive short story collection containing American authors this is your book, if you want to find more obscure printings of the well known American authors you will need to look elsewhere.  

I have worked on the following

             I’ve been working on my first screenplay. I will have the first ten pages, hopefully more done by may first.

            Following reading this anthology for my short story a day, which I got behind on, I must now choose whether to pick one of the incredible authors to study for short stories and longer prose, move to a different anthology of American/or another country’s literate, or pick a different collection either arranged by a theme or of a different selected author all together. 

I’m working on the following

            I’m working on catching up.  As a result of life circumstances I got way behind.  At this point looking at my goals I’ve read two non-fiction books only 46 short stories, and three works of fiction.

            I’m participating in Camp NaNoWriMo with my screenplay as my focus.

Thoughts

            What do you do when you find yourself behind on any project? How do you catch up?