And the wonder of good friends.
Amazing, no, that a friend in one part of the States in the morning can read about your sale and get a beautiful flower arrangement to you, in a far-flung part of the States, by the afternoon.
Thanks to everyone for all the congrats. It still feels a little surreal.
For an announcement from Publishers Marketplace:
Charity Tahmaseb and Darcy Vance’s debut THE GEEK GIRL’S GUIDE TO CHEERLEADING, the story of a self-confessed debating dork whose practical joke lands her a spot on the varsity cheerleading squad, where she realizes that if there’s one thing worse than blending into the lockers, it’s getting noticed!, to Jennifer Klonsky at Simon Pulse, by Mollie Glick at the Jean V. Naggar Literary Agency.
If anyone is interested, I’ll be glad to elaborate why it took nearly two weeks from hat tossing to being able to announce the sale. But. Later. I should be able to form coherent sentences later.
My fortune cookie fortune today:
Your destiny is to be famous.
Wow. For a fortune cookie, that’s … specific. They’re usually not quite so bold. I’m hoping they mean famous as in Louis Pasteur rather than, say, Paris Hilton.
Of course, it may be my destiny, which I end up refusing. This will lead me to write one of those introspective, navel-gazing, literary, semi-autobiographical novels (and if I can make it both pretentious and obscure, so much the better).
Depending on what destiny thinks of that, it will either end up on the NYT list or in the remainder bin.
Ah, destiny. You are a cruel mistress.
Chris over at book-a-rama is holding a book giveaway contest.
Linda Wisdom author of 50 Ways to Hex Your Lover will be making a guest appearance here at book-a-rama on April 11, I’m going to give away my gently used (by me) copy of 50 Ways to Hex Your Lover to ONE lucky reader.
So, go on over and enter, by April 4th. Sure, it means my chances to win are slimmer. I’m sure you can deal with that guilt.
Argh. I hate this literary vs. genre argument with the passion of a thousand fiery suns. I love Fitzgerald (Darcy and I have a serious thing for The Great Gatsby). Love “Shapespeare” as Andrew used to call him. Spent serious time with the Russians (Tolstoy, Pushkin, Chekhov).
I enjoy genre. I enjoy literary and literature. I think it’s important for writers to read outside their comfort zone. If, for no other reason, to understand what it is they don’t like about it and why.
But then, we love absolutes, don’t we? All genre is escapist fluff. All literary is pretentious, tragic, and obscure. All classics are boring. And sure, you could probably find plenty of evidence to support those statements.
And I don’t buy the: I’m busy, so when I read, I want to be entertained. Uh, same here. The way I see it, all fiction (and a great deal of nonfiction) is escapist. If it’s not my reality, then chances are I’m escaping.
Sometimes it is good to grab a comfort read, something you know will make you laugh, or has a guaranteed happy ending. And sometimes, those tougher reads help us make sense of the world, understand why the bad things happen.
As a reader, I need both of those. As a writer, I’d be negligent if I didn’t at least consider all types of writing.
I’ve been called a literary snob for not liking The Da Vinci Code. It wasn’t so much the writing (nothing to uh, write home about), but the topic. Conspiracy. Yawn. Whatev. If I’d been into the subject matter, then I probably would’ve been into the book.
On the flipside, it has also been suggested I’m somewhat less of a writer for choosing to write young adult fiction–that somehow fiction with teen characters aimed at a teen demographic is lacking in all the elements you’d find in adult fiction.
My response: whatev.
So, y’all go fight among yourselves. I’m going to go back to reading whatever happens to appeal to me, despite its label.
You’re Ecuador!
It’s been said that you’re worth your weight in gold. But maybe you’re just worth the wait. In any case, you have some friends who’ve been waiting for you longer than any human would find to be reasonable. At least you get them to sometimes come out of their shell. Much has been made of your most inaccessible traits, and there are those who feel they could learn about the whole world from these. You could never quite get over your distaste for lima beans.
Take the Country Quiz II
at the Blue Pyramid
Except we love lima beans around here. They’re called “wish beans,” because if you happen upon one in your mixed veggies (not wedgies), you get to make a wish. It’s supposed to come true, too.
So, as many of you know, I lost my mind on Wednesday evening and had my kids toss my manuscript into the air. Not only did this provide them with loads of fun, but this way of editing?
I have much love for it.
Not that it’s 100% easy or anything. Injecting tension, sharpening prose, micro-editing. But the thing is: all you have is that one page. It’s the editing equivalent of Anne Lamott’s one inch picture frame for draft writing.
This isn’t the sort of editing I’d do for plot continuity, character arc, story flow, and so on. But it is one of those edits I need to do. The fact the pages are in no particular order means I start each page fresh. It’s just me, the page, and my trusty Uni-ball Vision Elite pink pen. (The kids agreed; this would be the pink edit. Purple’s up next.)
And sure, there are 345 pages in this current version of my manuscript. But hey, all I have to worry about is one at a time.
From the SPAM files, too funny not to share.
I am Mr. Wang Hongzhang, Chief Disciplinary Officer, People’s Bank of China (PBC).I have an obscured business proposal of US$24.5million for you.
Please reach me promptly if interested.
Kind Regards,
Wang Hongzhang
One question: What is a Chief Disciplinary Officer, and what, pray tell, does a CDO (like the acronym?) do?
Oh, wait. According to Google, he exists. And you know Google is never wrong. So if he exists, and this email exists, then woo-baby, hand over the 24.5 million. Obscured or not.
Andrew and Kyra first tried to catch a rabbit. Do you see a rabbit? Because I don’t.
Andrew was frustrated with Kyra’s lack of understanding of his (mostly confusing) hand and arm signals. Then we came inside and tossed my manuscript in the air. No. Really. We did.
Here’s proof:
Even the dog helped:
Don’t you wish this was your manuscript?
There is actually a reason behind all the insanity. It’s an exercise from Donald Maass’ Writing the Breakout Novel Workbook. Tension on every page. The only way, according to Mr. Maass, to edit every page for tension is to do it out of order. I have no reason to doubt this. If nothing else, the kids had fun tossing the manuscript into the air.
Writing Wrongs 
