feedRainyday | An Excerpt
The ball you have hidden behind the garage for emergency retrieval when your people go out side for some other purpose is what is known as a Rainyday. You may forget that the Rainyday is there, but when you go outside your dogsense will remind you that there is something behind the garage, and you will retrieve it and bring it to your person who will say something such as “where did you get that ball?” This is known as a “What Does It Matter” comment, because you got the ball and What Does It Matter where it came from? It’s a Rainyday ball, and you will a ball means it is time to play ball, does it not?
Recently Written
It was a prickly Spring day. A kind of golden humidity everywhere. A sticky creature of a humidity. Even here in the forest, where it was naturally cooler, I could feel the humidity, could practically smell it. Though that was probably just some new flower or cone opening up. Or a fungus spore. Or my allergies playing tricks with me again. But the early afternoon light that filtered in through the evergreens was definitely something special, something different than you see just anywhere.
Labels: writing
Before he left for work on the Monday morning
An excerpt from what I've been writing today:
Before he left for work on the Monday morning that he disappeared, he gave me a small box, wrapped in gold paper. I was sitting at the dining room table, eating Cheerios and reading the comics.
“Happy Birthday, Jay.”
“Oh,” I said. “I thought we were doing gifts later on.”
“We are. But this is a special one. Just from me.”
“Should I open it now?”
“It’s up to you. You can open it now, or you can wait until I get home tonight.”
“Okay. I’ll wait.”
A big smile. He was always ready with a big smile. And then he ruffled my hair and said, “Happy Birthday. I’ll see you tonight.”
Stay tuned for more.
Labels: exerpt, fiction, writing
Blogs
I seem to have lost a great deal of my desire to actually "blog." This doesn't, however, mean that I'm not writing. On the contrary, I'm writing more right now than I have in several years. Working on a bit biography project, a few kids' book ideas, wondering about short fiction again, digging through some new dog stuff (Border Collies supply a person with an entirely different sort of material, it seems), twittering (of course) between blasts of longer things, and just generally being glad that the "genius" appears to be happily supplying me with some fodder.
So. Hey, the eggs are done (hard boiled). I've got to go run cold water over them. While I do that, why don't you tell me what you've been up to lately?
Blessings.
Dear Rocket Bakery
If you own a bakery and coffee business, it is not a good idea to rely very so much on the neighbor's wi-fi to support your store.
NaNoWriMo
Four words so far! Are you kiddin' me? Rock on!
Here are the four words, for your edification:
"The Purple Working Title"
That's it. Don't you love it? Am I rocking your world?
Of course I am. Enjoy, okay? And write! More than me!
Nobel Prize? Literature? Doris Lessing.
And thank God.
I haven't read a Doris Lessing book in ages. But just this moment I'm remembering that I need to flip back and do some more of that. A good thing to do.
Blessings.
Labels: author, blessings, writing
Ann Patchett's First Reader on NPR
Ann Patchett reads Elizabeth McCracken first reads Ann Patchett first reads Elizabeth McCracken first reads Ann Patchett first.
Not news so much as a neato story on NPR that you probably already heard. But I always love listening to Ann Patchett's voice. I don't know why. I just really like listening to her talk and say things about life and writing and writing and life.
Do you have a first reader? How influential are they to your writing? Do you take their suggestions wholesale, or do you slice off what rings true and leave the rest for the dogs?
This Is Not a Love Song
For some reason, very often when I start to write something I instead get the PIL lyrics "This is not a love song" in my head, and I very nearly write them out... and, in fact, sometimes I do.
I really dig the Nouvelle Vague version of This is Not a Love Song, as well. So you should give that a listen. Because you will like it. Then tell me if you don't suddenly write that line every time you try to write something else. Because there are times I think I'm goin' nuts. I mean honestly. What's up with that lyric?
Blessings.
O.J. Goldman Book Un-Un-Published
I'm thinking they should retitle the O.J. Book to If I Did (Of Course He Did, Why Else Would He Write This Book, and of Course the Goldman Family Deserves to Profit of the Retelling of His Confession to Murder, Why Wouldn't They) It.I fail to see how turning O.J.'s book into the Goldman Family's book changes it into anything but an opportunistic, trashy scrap of murder-pr0n, but I'm willing to let you tell me how I'm wrong, if I'm wrong:
Bloomberg.com: Muse: "Beaufort Books said late yesterday that it will publish O.J. Simpson's "If I Did It" after acquiring the rights to the controversial title. The book is a supposedly hypothetical account of how Simpson, a former football star, might have murdered his ex-wife, Nicole Brown Simpson, and her friend Ronald L. Goldman in 1994. It was originally backed by editor Judith Regan and scheduled for publication last November by News Corp.'s HarperCollins."Here's what I know. If he did it? Then we are having the wrong discussion. Because the discussion ought to be about how he did it and still gets to play golf during the week.
Don't kid yourself into thinking it can't happen again. It happens somewhere new every freaking day.
Labels: author, book, books, writing
Widgets
Sometimes a person spends too much time tweaking Widgets and not enough time writing.
Why is it never the reverse? I'm not entirely sure. But until such a time as I know, enjoy your Friday. Or your weekend. Or whatever it is you enjoy.
Labels: writing
