Pottery- Korean Style

Recently our family went into the countryside (about an hour and a half bus ride) to visit the traditional Korean pottery city, Icheon. If you've read Single Shard by Linda Sue Park, you know what I'm taking about.

There's a festival held there once a year in the spring but since it's fall, we just went to the part of town that had all the Korean pots for sale. There were about forty shops in all that sold all types of pottery from the traditional celadon to a more modern rustic look.

The boys also made their own pots. Here's a video of Caleb shaping his clay:

And Luke:

And remember when Doug made his own pot? Here it is:

I kind of got carried away and bought too much pottery (and more not pictured for my parents). What's your favorite? The traditional green celadon (on the left) or the modern?

Website finished!

Sick, sick, and more sickness all around our home. It's been a tough week here at the Farleys but I think I'm coming out of the murky darkness of sick bay. And here I'd planned on getting so much writing stuff done. Like polishing my query and synopsis. Yeah, right.

But I did revamp my website! Yeah! I'm hoping it will give editors and agents a glimpse of who I am as a writer. Check it out at: http://www.christinafarley.com/

While we were all sick at home, guess where my husband was? Hong Kong! Jealous? You should be. At least I was. But I was really glad he could go. He attended a tech conference on how to incorporate technology into your classroom. He said it was very innovative and exciting.

I'm going to leave you with a movie clip of his junk boat trip on the harbor of Hong Kong. The last time I went, I was pregnant with Luke so it brought back good memories for me too. Oh, and the photo above was taken by Doug from Kowloon, Hong Kong.

Books that Inspire Songs

A friend of mine sent me this link called Artists for Literacy. Basically, its a site that lists songs inspired by a particular books. It's facinating. And terribly fun.

Like did you know the novel Frankenstein inspired Bob Dylan to compose 'All Along the Watchtower'?

Kate Bush was obviously so impressed with Bronte, she wrote a song called 'Wuthering Heights'. And one of my favorite authors, C.S. Lewis, moved Steve Hackett, he wrote the song 'Narnia'.

I was not very impressed to find no matches for Jane Austen. What is up with that? The only redeeming factor for these songwriters' oversight is a number of artist were influenced by J.R.R Tolkien. Now we're talking!

So, if I were a songwriter (stop laughing at that thought!), I'd be inspired by Jane Austen, J.R.R. Tolkien and Shannon Hale (after all, her writing is gorgeous).

How about you?

Picture by Alexey Arkhipov

All Sparkly

Oh, I’m so excited about my current WIP. I can actually see the end right now and WOW, does that feel GOOD. Okay, so it’s not the end as in ‘book being printed’ and all that. But it’s close to query stage. Yeah!

I hope to spend the rest of this week, checking and rechecking to make sure I’ve got those commas in place (naughty little buggers) and then swish! Off it will go.

Scary. Exhilarating!

So wish my sparkly WIP lots of luck and if you think of it, send me some cyber chocolate, too. I use it for all purposes such as rejection medicine, celebration food and, of course, for inspiration!

Photo by Ed Bruns

Breakfast Tales

The view from where we eat overlooks the mountainside and down into the section of Seoul called Yonhi Dong.

The conversation this morning at breakfast kind of went like this:

“Daddy,” Caleb said. “Are there any tigers in that forest?”

“Not any longer,” Daddy said, “but they used to a long time ago when Yonhi Dong was all forest. The people lived behind the city walls."

“So they were safe behind the wall?” Caleb asked.

“What if they got in?” Luke’s eyes were all big and blue at this point.

“Don’t worry,” I told him, “the Hwarang warriors protected everyone.”

“Then I want to be a Hwarang warrior,” Caleb said. “And have a sword.”

Luke sat up really tall. “Me too.”

I guess I’m going to have to write Santa a letter asking for traditional Korean swords. Let’s hope they come in plastic!

Photo from: Anima

Hungry for Good Books

Do you like to write? Do you love food? Check out this post I wrote over at the MiG Writers Blog:

http://www.migwriters.com/2009/08/31/a-three-course-meal/

I'd love to hear what foods you think go with your favorite books!

PS This is Caleb with his favorite food- Cheesecake!