The last five days or so have prevented me from providing the high quality distractions from whatever-it-is-that-you’re-supposed-to-be-doing-instead-of-reading-things-on-the -nternet, and for that I apologize. Rather than fix that by delivering actual content, I thought I’d just talk about what’s been keeping me from updating.
My daughter has contracted … something. The doctor believes it’s shingles, but is also testing to make sure it’s not a staph or strep infection (I didn’t even realize you could get a strep infection externally), which are both a bit more of a problem. Shingles (think localized chicken pox) is apparently more painful in adults, and the girl has been in remarkably good spirits despite itchy spots on her side and a slight fever. The biggest problem at this point has been daycare, which she can’t visit until everything she’s recovered.
In canine news, Dizzy has a pretty serious series of ‘attacks’ on Saturday, involving a lot of muscle seizures and utter disorientation and loss of equilibrium. I was able to narrow down the cause of that to dehydration, but the reason for the dehydration (she still won’t go anywhere near a bowl — I have to give her water with a turkey baster) is still up in the air. The most recent news from the vet’s test is good; it looks like it’s some kind of thyroid gland under performance, which can be treated with supplements in her food. I’m already inclined to believe that diagnosis, as it would explain some lingering questions regarding her general fitness. (The fact that when she and Jake eat the same amount of food, and are the same size, she gains weight while he loses it.)
That’s been most of my spare time in the last few days. Whenever I’ve had a few minutes to myself I’ve worked on the new website layout and cleaned up some old directories on the server that desperately need it.
Things to do this month: revisions on Hidden Things and scheduling flights to New York (both for the end of this month and in April). I’m looking forward to meeting with my agent, face to face.
Things not to do this month: devote any more brain power to wedding reception seating arrangements.
Much sawing and hammering
We’re working on a pretty hefty remodel of the original site design. Please bear up under the strain and shivering anticipation with the same level of stoic amusement we’ve come to expect.
Agent of change
Some of you have already heard the barest whisper of this, but it’s (much) more official now, so I thought I’d share.
I have a literary agent. I may or may not link to some kind of
website for the agency in question at some later date, but for now, I
think I’ll say only that they come highly (and often) recommended by a
number of folks in the industry.
She uses words like “delighted” and “thrilled” and “formal
representation” and “series.” I like these words. I particularly like
when they’re pointed at me.
So… yeah. A big step.
I think I will let is count as my ‘third sold story’ of the year.
The holiday movie-watch concludes, and the winner is…
Juno, by a landslide.
Don’t misunderstand: I thought I Am Legend was a wonderful adaptation and update to the original story, well-acted and scary; Sweeney Todd was a horrid delight; and even Golden Compass was an enjoyable romp (kudos to Meera, I think, (or De) who summed it up as ‘great frosting, white cake’).
But for sheer joy of watching, truly laugh-out-loud moments that made me cover my mouth to keep everyone else from losing the dialog, heart-warming, heart-wrenching, touching, smart, true film making? (With perhaps the best soundtrack I’ve heard in years as an added bonus.)
Juno. Number one with a bullet. I highly, highly recommend you go see it, if you have the means.
Subtle editor compliment
One of the book series editors that Kate and I have sold stories to in the past has, it seems, added us to the list of writers they solicit directly for upcoming anthologies.
It’s a bit like being asked in for a reading by the studio rather than having to stand in line for the open auditions; definitely feels nice, but doesn’t actually confer any assurance of a role.
Still, it’s nice.
Catanification, Paint, Revisions, Champagne, and a battering ram named Grond
As I may have mentioned, I got most of the expansions available for Catan during the holidays, and we’ve had a chance to play a couple times since then.
Current tally:
– me: 1
– kate: 1
– champagne: 2
I hope everyone had a happy New Year’s Eve Arbitrary Calendar Event Celebration. We had Kaylee, so the evening was a relatively quiet one spent at home, working on a Super Secret Web Project, and then curled up on the couch to watch the extended director’s cut version of Return of the King until well into the night (Denethor was taking a flaming header off Minas Tirith when midnight rolled around).
There are worse ways to see in the New Year.
Tomorrow, it’s back to the grindstone, not to mention a new agently-originated series of revisions for Hidden Things. Evenings, I suspect, are going involve more work on the kitchen/family room project, which ended up being much more involved than we’d anticipated. More on that (with videos!) later.
Movies? We’ve got movies.
So in the last few days we’ve seen Sweeney Todd and the Golden Compass — both adaptations of works designed for another medium.
My personal opinion? Sweeney Todd was wonderful and entertaining and totally at home on the screen. The Golden Compass was annoyingly reminiscent of the fourth Harry Potter installment — short-shrift summary, like a visual cliff notes version of the original text.
Now, I’ve heard from folks who haven’t read the book, saw the movie, and really enjoyed it, so perhaps some of my impressions comes from having seen the whole cloth the shortpants suit was cut from, but that’s my impression — they could have done better than they did. I was particularly annoyed by an unnecessary inclusion toward the end of the movie that actually introduced a fairly obvious plot hole that doesn’t actually exist in the book it’s based on. That’s just sloppy.
Still: armored bears, Sam Elliot, and clockwork technology — there’s a lot to like in what you get. (Even with Nicole Kidman and her distracting plastic face getting in the way.)
PoV
Something that occurred to me regarding my writing a couple weeks ago: one of the things I’m ‘encouraged’ to do by those folks who are reading and giving feedback on my stories is to reduce the number times I switch the point of view during the story.
What I mean is this: we meet the main character. We hang out with them for awhile. Then there’s a little side thing with another guy. Then back to the main character. Then back to second guy. Then main character. Then we meet a third guy…
… and that’s Chapter One.
And I realized why I do that. It’s entirely from running roleplaying games for so many years. I’m automatically cycling through all the main characters and trying to make sure that (a) I don’t ‘play’ with just one character for too long and (b) everyone gets a turn.
It’s generally a good thing in games. It doesn’t translate well in fiction.
It does WORK, but you need to structure it very clearly. It took me three or four passes on Hidden Things before I started to feel like I really had a strong pattern established for when the Point of View switched away from Calliope… and, like most of the book, I’d already unconsciously established the pattern in the second two-thirds of the book, and simply needed to reverse-apply it to the first third. (Here’s a hint: the camera only leaves her when she’s asleep.)
I’m beginning to think that eighty percent of the work during revisions lies in looking at the good patterns that developed later into the book, and trying to apply all that good stuff to those first five chapters where you were flailing madly at the keyboard like some sort of fox hunt brush beater, hoping a feral story would flush out and make a break into open territory where it could be gunned down in a proper, civilized fashion.