craziness!

Though my brain is pretty numb at the moment, I've been inching my way through The Girl Who Played with Fire (Vintage)by Stieg Larsson. So far, it's very entertaining - a nice way to relax. Only about 80 pages through, though, so that's not really enough to give a review.

My writer's group probably hates me because I've been falling woefully behind on critiquing (hi Lisas!). (Of course, I say "hate" in the exaggerated sense; they're very nice people.) And while I'm not doing any corrections on the novel of mine they're currently reading (The Silent Treatment), I have been making meager progress on Awake. Trying very hard to get it polished (well, second draft, at least) for my Nanowrimo CreateSpace prize, but editing 400 pages in a month looks daunting, especially since it's taken me 5 months to edit 80. (Let's just say there are portions of the story that have to be rewritten since I banged out 120,000 words in a month. Yeah. Some of it is insane babbling because I was crazed by the contest. Happens to us all, I guess.)

Speaking of Nanowrimo, it's June now, and I'm starting to get bummed that I don't have an idea for something to write this November. Usually, I'd be sketching out my outline right about now. Maybe I'll pants it this year.



P.S. This is Smitten, who likes to sit on the back of my chair while I'm writing.

Author Reading

So this is new for me. I've been listening to a lot of author readings through podcasts (as an effort to make my work day not make me want to shoot myself in the face*), but I haven't taken advantage of the opportunities to see these very authors in person.

A few days ago, I went to see Jennifer Weiner at the Reading Terminal Market. She gave us all wine, cheese, and chocolate (really, what more can you want?). After talking to us as though we were all long-time friends, she read an excerpt from her upcoming book "Fly Away Home", and took our questions. Of course, I wanted to ask something thoughtful, helpful for myself and everyone else. Alas, my brain doesn't work that way, so I asked something that had pretty much already been answered. Everyone else thought well on their feet.

Well worth the experience, so I'll make more of an effort to see other authors too (especially with the library doing as many events as they do).

*added for dramatic effect.  come on, people!




Editing for myself has (unfortunately) been dragging. I've enlisted the help of a few fellow writers to read what I'm working on and give me the kick in the pants I need. Thanks everyone!!

I'll also be taking full advantage of Starbucks' Frappuccino Happy Hour this afternoon and work on my story in a comfortable, distraction-free place (and who can say no to a Frappuccino?).

accountability

Looks like I'm having a hard time keeping myself on the editing track.  That might be because I have no deadlines.  If any of you lovely readers are interested, I can send you a serialized version of my current novel (Awake).  The first ten or so chapters are finished (i.e. edited and readable), while the rest of the story is finished, but unpolished.

If you're interested, leave me a comment, or send me an email to awakenovel (at ) g m a i l (dot) com (don't want the spam-bots to get me!).

Persepolis

Took me a little while, but I've finished Persepolis (part 1).  Like Delisle's Pyongyang, I went into this story not knowing a whole lot about the culture behind it.  

The story was a little slow, but if the narrator is to be believed (and since the book is labeled "memoir", I think she can be), Iran was not a nice place to grow up in the early 80's.  I'm looking forward to reading the second part -- possibly even watching the movie after that.

Comic?

Today I finished reading my first graphic novel.  While superhero stories and stuff with a lot of violence isn't my favorite thing, I've shied away from them for a long time.  But after talks from my sister (who just wrote a short graphic novel), and seeing Persepolis everywhere, I thought I'd see what was out there.

The one that immediately caught my attention was Guy Delisle's Pyongyang: A Journey in North Korea.  I love to travel, so realizing there are a handful of countries out there I'll never be able to visit simply because I'm American leads me to be curious about that place.  Once I saw pictures of North Korea's Ryugyong Hotel (and how creepy it is), I thought a little research about it might be worth my time.  (I mean, talk about secluded: Google maps doesn't even have anything labeled in that country!)  So when I saw this graphic novel, I was intrigued.

The story impressed me.  No one turned into a robot, and there were no vampires.  With pictures accompanying the text, reading was almost like watching a movie ... or almost like being there.  I guess there's the appeal of comics!  Well worth checking out: the author mixed humor and curiosity into a very strange subject.

No Loafing

I haven't been getting as far as I wanted to with the novel.  It's April, and I've been finished with the first draft since, what, January?  At the latest?  I've got to say I have my work cut out for me: in addition to cutting nearly 30,000 words, I'm having to smooth out some seriously rough text (including some wooden characters).

My biggest problem is finding better stuff to do on my computer than edit (damn this wireless internet connection!).  Now I have 62 quality pages (as in, all the junk has been taken out, I've smoothed it over, and run it through autocrit), and 407 to go.

Also, happy Easter, everyone.  Christ is risen!

I didn't realize I was going to get this, but here it is!  Feedback on my Amazon's Breakthrough Novel Award excerpt:

p.s. if you'd like to read the excerpt that these people read, please download this short TXT file.

Feedback

Amazon Breakthrough Novel Award Reviews

ABNA Expert Reviewer

What is the strongest aspect of this excerpt?

The excerpt is well-written overall but what I really liked about it was Kat's interaction with Bridget, which seemed realistic and lively and fresh. I like their easy banter.

What aspect needs the most work?

I think overall this is a really strong entry. There were just a couple of things that gave me pause. (1) Kat's interaction with the policeman in the first chapter was odd. Specifically, these two passages:

A. "What's the matter? Why are you hugging
yourself?" the cop asked, rather coarsely. His
name tag read Brown. "You cold?"

-- If she's standing there barely dressed and soaking wet, the answer to this is obvious. Anyway, it doesn't seem like a question the policeman would be likely to ask.

B. "We could just," she
started, giving Officer Brown a tiny smile and
tilting her head back toward the apartment.

-- I'm not sure what this is supposed to mean. The context would suggest that she just wants to talk in her apartment. But this certainly sounds like she's coming on to him, which makes no sense within the story and is just very weird.

(2) Maybe I'm wrong, but I doubt that anyone named Katrina these days gets a conversation about New Orleans whenever they introduce themselves. And I find it hard to believe that someone would legall change their name because of it.

What is your overall opinion of this excerpt?

Apart from the small problems I had with the story, as mentioned above, I really enjoyed this one. I think the writing is good, starting with the description of Kat standing in the rain at the beginning. And I particularly enjoyed the relationship between Kat and Bridget. Hopefully there's more of that to come in the story. I'm not sure what will happen given the drama with which the story starts, but I would definitely keep reading this one if I had the book in hand.

ABNA Expert Reviewer

What is the strongest aspect of this excerpt?

The minutia of the day-to-day grind of the average American hits the reader head-on with an unrelenting encounter of the mundane, tedious toil that makes up life. Incredibly accurate portrayal of time consuming chit-chat, social obligation and random encounters that leave the reader reeling.

What aspect needs the most work?

The excerpt is a victim of its own success...it does such a good job portraying the "common man" (or woman in this situation) that the reader wants to escape the tedium and mindless chit-chat. Also, doesn't seem like it would appeal to a general audience but rather fall into the "chick lit" category or better yet, a movie transcript.

What is your overall opinion of this excerpt?

Soft diversion of modern day working woman. Chick lit that makes for easy reading and comforting commonality among working class young women. For some reason, this seems like it would make a better transcript than a book...high on visualization but low on plot.

How cool is that?  I'm very happy with those 2 reviews (mostly the 1st one).  Dangit -- so I didn't go to the next round!  With reviews like that, I can actually go back and re-edit with those few tips and make it awesome.  And heck, I'll even take the "Chick Lit" category.