Thursday, June 21, 2007

Summer Reading: LOG THE HELL OFF!!

Livejournal, myspace, blogspot: they all SUCK!!!

Even as I write, indulging in this vampiric wastetime, I must briefly rail against!
Especially for an ADD person with a strong tendency towards hyper-focus, such as yours truly, it's hard not to get sucked in. So, I have begun unplugging my wireless at 5 pm. It's a start. While I love my internet friends, and I have fun reading interviews & book reviews by the likes of
Little Willow
as well as the hilarious observations of Emma, I'm now reading like crazy.


I FINALLY finished I'm with the Band: Confessions of a Groupie, the touchingly innocent and simultaneously earthy (though never pornographic) memoir of Pamela Des Barres (who refused the advances of Mick Jagger because she was so in love with Jimmy Page!)


Then, it was Alias Grace by my favorite Canadian writer, Margaret Atwood. (The Boob Lady
is second, sorry!) She's amazing. I'm in awe of the combination of her research and imagination into pure seamlessness. And her mastery of voice in multiple points of view--including Grace herself, who is far from reliable--helps Atwood spin a tale in which I was far from certain what the truth was or exactly what the truth meant.

On to Stephen King and the finale of The Dark Tower. In the thrall of Mr. King and his gunslingers, I'm no good to anyone. I was was told yestereve, as I read myself into another world, oblivious to the familial chaos around me, "I think Daddy's checked out."

So much for the idea that I'd would be a better family member after unplugging the wireless. I was no good at all this morning either, on account of being up until after one last night reading until I had not the strength to make it into bed. Waking on the couch around five, I pulled myself out from dreams of Low Men, were-spiders, and portals to other times and worlds, and managed to make into bed with a sore neck.




Next, it's going to be one of my fellow FLUX authors Carrie Jones
or Brian Yansky, probably Carrie because now that I'm in Maine with King, I might as well stay there. Ayuh. :)

Escape! Isn't it best with a book? Forget about my former righteousness in getting offline--I just needed a better way to slip out of the real world. I do say so and thank ya!

Friday, June 15, 2007

The Real Goat Horn



This is the mountain that inspired the Goat Horn, which rises above Cassie's cabin.

Read my old pal Jeff's blog of his climb to the summit, and see his awesome pictures! Wow!

Then get outside and get some altitude!!!!!!!

Tuesday, June 5, 2007

A Half Birthday

Or maybe just a quarter-birthday. Certainly not an occasion for champagne or cake. In the life of a book, it's not much of an occasion.



Nonetheless, I feel like marking the "completion" of a reading draft of my next novel. The final pages are spitting out of the printer upstairs, and I am a little scared. For a year and a half, this story has been working, and I've only shared a couple of pages with my trusted Becky and my writing club. It's just a reading draft, but that means that I'm going to have to let my readers, um... look at it. And though I have loved working on this monstrosity that currently weighs in at 127,00 words, 355 pp. 1.5 space, I'm terrified that I haven't pulled it off.

I guess I'll have to trust the fact that I smile when I think of my characters and parts of their story, and trust my readers to help me figure out what I've got wrong.

Here goes nothing!