Below are the 20 most recent journal entries recorded in Sarah Prineas' LiveJournal:

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Wednesday, June 24th, 2009
2:47 pm	The Workshop Curse It was supposed to be different this time!! My first Blue Heaven workshop went well. It's where my peers told me I was ready to sell a novel, so it was a big freaking deal for me. Toward the end of the week, though, I started running a low-grade temperature. Two weeks later, I spent seven days in the hospital with an infection. Ow! My second Blue Heaven workshop was a nightmare! Early on I started feeling dreadfully sick, was taken by ambulance off the island, to a hospital. Turns out I had Lyme disease. (I very much enjoy the irony that my hometown is Lyme, Connecticut, but the tick that bit me lived on an island in Ohio...). My third Blue Heaven was delightful. Until I started getting phone calls from my husband about the disastrous flooding in Iowa City. Not so great, acktually. Now is the Starry Heaven workshop here in Flagstaff. I was very dumb. I gave blood the day before leaving, and then went for a hard five-mile run in the mountains with another writer. Which brought on altitude sickness! I've spent the last two days feeling absolutely crummy--the symptoms are flu-like. My awesome roommates are taking good care of me, thank goodness. But still, argh!!! (45 Comments |Comment on this)
Saturday, June 20th, 2009
10:16 am	Working the 'shop Hello! Here I am at high elevation! I have had coffee, and the air is thin! This week I am at the Starry Heaven writing workshop in Flagstaff, Arizona. They say it takes two and a half hours to drive here from Phoenix, and just two hours to drive back. Which I didn't understand until I realized on the drive yesterday that it's uphill all the way here. Yay! My roommate is the spider goddess, sandramcdonald, also known as my Twin (we are not really twins). Last night a spider crawled on my bed. My first instinct, of course, was to smash it dead-dead-dead, but I deferred to Sandra's good intentions and refrained. It was a swift, leggy spider, but she managed to capture it and bear it to the hallway, leaving it there to invade somebody else's room. So the workshop. Twelve writers. We all submitted the first-50 pages of our novels. After reading and critting them all, we each selected two full novels to critique. And that's what we do this week: critique partials, then critique full novels. We also drink a lot of beer and use the free wireless at either the coffee shop or the brewpub. At some point I will catch my breath and go for a trail run. Looking forward to a great week. Wish you were here! (37 Comments |Comment on this)
Tuesday, June 16th, 2009
8:24 am	Little Creatures When we lived in Arizona, J and I lived in dreadful graduate student housing. Cinder-block walls, sewage backups, moldy carpeting, wonky air conditioning. The worst thing, though, was the... *shudder* ...cockroaches. I had never lived with roaches before, but they infested the entire housing complex. Big ones that came up the drains, little ones that made footprints in the butter and scuttled along the edges of the countertops. They made me twitchy. I'd catch a glimpse of something moving out of the corner of my eye and...yikes! Cockroach! Or, you know, a leaf blowing in the wind. If it was cockroach, I would grab the nearest book and go in pursuit and SMASH it DEAD, DEAD, DEAD. Then we moved to Germany where they don't have bugs. # A dear friend of mine, sandramcdonald, lives in peaceful coexistence with the little creatures in her house in Florida. The other day a spider as big as a dinner plate took up residence behind her grandmother's china cabinet. She is, apparently, okay with this. I am not quite so zen. # What we have here in Iowa is house centipedes. Here is a picture: Do not click this link, I am warning you. Now, I am not one to freak out about little things. But five times in the last three days I have entered the upstairs bathroom and found a big fat hairy house centipede LURKING there. Do I keep my cool? No. I shriek and use bad language and shout for J to come and kill it SMASH it DEAD, DEAD, DEAD!!!!! # When you kill a house centipede, its legs keep twitching for a while. *shudder* # What about you? Do you live with your little creatures? Or NOT? ## (104 Comments |Comment on this)
Sunday, June 14th, 2009
7:47 pm	For locals Tomorrow (Monday) I'll be signing The Magic Thief and The Magic Thief: Lost at the Cedar Rapids Barnes & Noble from 10-2. It's a summer reading event. Other authors/illustrators include Michelle Edwards, Linda Skeers, and Anne Ylvisaker. Address: Northland Square SC 333 Collins Rd NE Cedar Rapids Hope to see you there! You know, unless you live in California, or something... (1 Comment |Comment on this)
Saturday, June 13th, 2009
9:00 am	One year after Exactly one year ago today... (no, this isn't another book-related post!) One year ago, on Friday, June 13, 2008, we had a 500-year flood here in Iowa City. Anything along the Iowa River flooded, including 20 University of Iowa buildings and the houses in the lower part of my neighborhood. I blogged about it here and here. From that second post: [For new readers, my husband is a physics professor; his labs were valued at $3-4 million. I was away at a writing workshop while this was going on.] Last Friday, J sent me an email that said, "Dropped the kids at camp, now I'm going to save my labs." He left the car at the camp and ran to the lab (because the roads were closed; he ran almost 10 miles that day, getting around). The water was pouring in. He started cutting electrical wires, ripping devices (lasers, banks of electronics, computers) out, throwing them on carts, and wheeling them out the door of the IATL (lab building) and onto the street. One device he pushed up the hill and left in the Office of Admissions; he threw boxes of files and computers into the back of his colleague's van. He was still trying to get things out when the National Guard came in--with guns--and forced him out of the building. He said that was the only thing that would have made him stop. Since then, he's been on the phone or on email almost constantly, trying to work out the details of pumping out the labs and getting the decontamination company to start work. He'll head back to Iowa very soon to supervise. # It was a very scary time. We had to leave because our neighborhood was pretty-much cut off by the floodwaters (though our house is on high ground). The city and the university were devastated. My husband's labs--both of them--were totally destroyed. # So then, recovery. It's taking a long time. The arts campus is about two blocks from my house, and the buildings there are still empty, cordoned off with orange safety fences, surrounded by bare dirt or, when it rains, mud. Giant ducts snake out of the buildings' doors, loud fan-motors pumping out moist air. One of the pedestrian bridges across the river is still being repaired (means long walks around). The university is still discussing where to re-build the auditorium (that might happen in the field across from my house, which would mean we'd have to move). The houses in the lower part of my neighborhood--many of them are still empty, the windows boarded up. Others have been raised high on stilts, ready for the next 500-year flood. J's labs. He worked unbelievably hard this year, coordinating the insurance from various sources and all the rebuilding work. He lost over a year of research. He got tons of support from the University administration. He was able to reflect on the directions of his research and, in some cases, redirect them toward more fruitful lines of inquiry. The MBE lab was finally finished in May, but the Device isn't up and running yet. The other lab, the "ultrafast" lab (optics and lasers and stuff) is still recovering. Both should be ready by the end of the summer. # If you're interested, here are during-and-after pictures. ## (31 Comments |Comment on this)
Wednesday, June 10th, 2009
9:25 am	How does their story end? I'm at the university library this week doing research for the next book. The study carrel I'm sitting at is covered with graffiti, most of it raaaather rude. But here's an exchange that isn't: Orange backpack boy--what is your name? --girl "ANDREW" --Andrew Hmmm, I doubt it. You looked like a Joe or Nick in class. Anyway, You = hottie. --girl Hmmm...it's true! ...and, thank you. Andrew My name is Andrea You should say "hi" sometime. I'm pretty nice. Andrew # Do you think she did? (34 Comments |Comment on this)
Wednesday, June 3rd, 2009
9:11 am	Living with the dream At a SCBWI conference a couple of weeks ago, one of the other attendees asked me what it was like to be “living the dream.” And, frankly, I wasn’t sure what to say. # One year ago today--June 3, 2008--my first novel was published. If there is a writer’s dream, I was living it. My book was a lead title from a major publisher. International rights had sold in a bunch of countries. I did a prepublication tour, and then toured for my US and UK publishers. The book got starred reviews and was well received. It was selling very well. July 2008 was the most miserable month of my entire life so far. Yeah, really. # Things have gotten better--a lot better!--but still, living the dream wasn't exactly what I thought it was going to be. Since it's been a year, I thought today would be a good time to look back and reflect on that, to see what I've learned and note what I'm still trying to figure out. One of the first things I learned is that being an author is not the same as being a writer. The writer part is pretty much the same as it always was. Authoring is the add-on to that. Being an author means doing school visits, traveling, giving presentations, being “on” and friendly, spending time and energy on being the human representative of a book. It also means doing interviews, answering questions from foreign translators, dealing with taxes, etc. I happen to be an extrovert, and I love the author part of my job (except for the taxes), and I think I'm good at it. But it requires a completely different skillset than writing does. That was a revelation. The next surprise was the kid readers. I didn't know what I was getting into, becoming a children's writer. Kid readers are the best readers in the world. Enthusiastic, frank, funny, wonderful. That was a lovely surprise. A similar surprise was that booksellers, at both the indies and the chains, are true romantics. They fall in love with books. Then they spread their book-love around. Reviews. I thought the bad ones would hurt. Every now and then a snide comment gets under my skin, but to my surprise negative reviews don't bother me. I truly believe that if the reader didn't like the book then it wasn't the right book for her, and there's nothing wrong with that. Mostly I appreciate that people have not only taken the time to read my book, but to write down what they thought of it. They say “don’t quit your dayjob.” I did, and it was definitely the right thing to do. But I don’t have any more time to write than I did before. I used the term “job,” yet I still don’t really think of writing as work. I worried that having to write to fulfill a contract would block me or pressure me into silence, but that hasn't happened. Writing remains a joy. I still write into the void, write to discover story, write in service to story, and believe me, I thank my lucky stars this is so. Another thing I've learned is that publishers are in this for the long game. Bestsellers are nice, of course, but what they’re looking for is good, solid backlist that will earn them money for years to come. For the author, this means not worrying about how the book is doing day-to-day or even month-to-month. That means never ever ever ever checking amazon rankings. They are meaningless. They are like using goat entrails to predict the weather. No goat entrails!! For me the entrails lead back to July 2008, and that's not a good place to visit. The worry about how the book was doing, the stress of hoping my publisher was happy with it, happy with me. The seeking for external validation. Bad. Very bad. The best advice (directly related to July 2008) I heard all year was this, from author Garth Nix, who says, basically, to shut up and write the next book. Seriously, no goat entrails. They only lead to unhappiness. # Looking back on the first year of my writing career, even though it was a tough year in some ways, and a year that held lots of changes, I do think the ups were better than the downs, and I'm the same essentially happy person I was before. I feel incredibly lucky that things have worked out as well as they have. I feel even luckier to have the support of the friends who lent me shoulders to cry on (via email, mostly). Also, I still write for the love of it. That’s what I did during the first five months of this year. I wrote a book, and finished it yesterday. Even though I’ve got three more books contracted for my publisher, this isn’t one of those books. This one was written on spec. It was written because I love the characters and wanted to tell more of their story. Maybe it’ll never be published. But I’m glad I wrote it. A year into my career, I’m more fulfilled. I love writing, and I think writing for young readers is the best use of my abilities. But, living the dream, living with the dream, I’m not any happier than I was before. Maybe this is a reflection on the nature of dreams themselves. Maybe I need a new dream. ## (106 Comments |Comment on this)
Saturday, May 30th, 2009
9:40 am	For IC/Coralville locals I'm doing a reading/signing/Q&A at the Coral Ridge Barnes & Noble at 2pm today. The big question will be "swordfighting or pyrotechnics?" The summer reading party starts at 4pm, so I'll be there through that. Hope to see you there! (13 Comments |Comment on this)
Tuesday, May 26th, 2009
2:51 pm	German cover, etc Oh you peoples headed for BEA! Have a wonderful time. My book's up for an award being given out at the ABC breakfast on Friday (I think), and I half wish I were going and half thank my lucky stars that I'm staying home. # Here is the cover of The Magic Thief in German. Cool how it's kind of like the U.S. cover, but also a bit different? I love the keys and the halo effect around the picture. If you click through you can see Bertelsmann's catalogue pages (there are six!). It looks like they're doing this promotional thing where they're giving away tiny bound copies of the first chapter, a little booklet. The book will be out there in August. # A couple of people have emailed to ask about this lately, so I post it again. If you want personalized, signed, runed copies of The Magic Thief or The Magic Thief: Lost you can order them from an independent bookstore local to me. I go in and sign 'em, and Shawna sends them off. Contact iowabook@iowabook.com. # By the end of this week, I will be finished with the not so secret and also not-yet-sold, written-on-spec fourth Magic Thief book project and ready to start the next book, the Crow book, which is due to my editor in March, but due to a workshop in September (yikes!). All kinds of ideas for that one have been hatching in my brain. I am so psyched to get started on this book!! ## (10 Comments |Comment on this)
Monday, May 25th, 2009
5:24 pm	WisCon report, w/out complete sentences Home from WisCon. Is convention in Madison. Link: http://www.wiscon.info/ Am too tired to construct complete things. Word things... Sentences! Yes. # Highlights. Chocolate martinis!! Drinking of. Several of 'em. Talking to truly evilorbitalmechanic and tanaise and charmingbillie and msisolak and probably others about secritcrush's mild dislike of Twitter. While Twittering the conversation. Writing workshop. Good group. Plus cake reward. Reading with ansai and dawtheminstrel. Panel thing. Other panel thing. Third panel thing. Was good. Re-enacted "Never Surrender" speech at one. W/out alcohol, however. Parties! Hallway conversations. Strange Horizons tea party. Meeting LJ friends for first time including gbeaverson,j_cheney,jjhoutman (too briefly), maryrobinette (also briefly), mkhobson (ditto), and zeelandia. Also talking with usual friends, am too sleepy to list LJ names here, sorry. You know who you are. Going fangirl on author I admire v.v. much for fifth year in row and having her ask me (!!!) for book blurb. Finally getting over fangirlyness to have decent conversation w/ said author. Um. Something else. Tiramisu. Flourless chocolate cake. Bacon! Oh, and for first time ever, did not get home on way lost from WisConsin. Yay! ## (12 Comments |Comment on this)
Tuesday, May 19th, 2009
12:15 pm	Books out today! Today is a day to be celebrated! My good buddy Greg van Eekhout's novel Norse Code, which Publishers Weekly calls "epic" and "compelling," is out today. If you're a fan of Neil Gaiman's American Gods, this is the perfect book for you. It's got that kind of epic scope. It's also got a sick kind of humor--Ragnarok begins in L.A., of all places. The ravens Munin and Hugin are like a slapstick comedy routine. It's also got guerilla Iowans in Hel, the eye of Odin, a righteous valkyrie, and a scruffy Norse god down on his luck. And his faithful canine companion. And an important sword. Oh, I love this book. It's a great read. Also out today is C.C. Finlay's second Traitor to the Crown book, A Spell for the Revolution. I'm about halfway through the first book, The Patriot Witch, and it is a ripping good read. I kept trying to put it down last night, and had to keep going. So smoothly written. My favorite moment so far: the 'shot heard 'round the world' at Lexington--magic and the American Revolution! If you like the Naomi Novik dragons books, these historical fantasies would be a great book match for you. Go forth and read!! (10 Comments |Comment on this)
Thursday, May 14th, 2009
9:32 am	Crookedy crook Quick, I have to post this while I'm high on endorphins from my run and the day is glorious and bright and full of possibility... This is just a bunch of book stuff. First, for any local peeps, I'll be doing a reading and signing tonight at 7pm at Prairie Lights books with Dori Hillestad Butler (dorihbutler). Next, I will be on Iowa Public Radio tomorrow at 10am--The Exchange with Ben Kieffer. This is podcasted, too. I'm supposed to read for two minutes from The Magic Thief. Plus interview and stuff. Two minutes!! Speaking of podcasts, here is a podcast at the Harper website of me talking about Lost and explaining what pyrotechnics are. Oh, HarperCollins' book website has been updated. Check it out: http://www.magicthief.com. Beware the red! Included in that site is a place to sign up for my probably monthly newsletter. Finally, I have to link to my favorite review so far of The Magic Thief: Lost from The Bookbag in the UK. These reviews are written by kid readers, and they are terrific. My favorite line from this one describes Conn as "a little crook." He certainly is! Cheerio! (14 Comments |Comment on this)
Tuesday, May 12th, 2009
8:35 am	Book day! Wow, does everything look brighter after a cup (or two or three) of coffee! Today’s an exciting, but also trepidatious day for me because it’s the official release date of my second book, The Magic Thief: Lost, the continuing adventures of Conn and Nevery. The book includes pyrotechnics, swordfighting, adventure, traveling on bad roads, friendship, enemyship, peril, heartache, hairsbreadth escapes, cliffhangers (not at the end), sly references to dragons, and not nearly enough biscuits and bacon. My motto when writing this book was, "When In Doubt, Blow It Up!" There's even a recipe for black powder in it. And a recipe for chicken pot pie with a biscuit crust. # As I did with the first book, I want to celebrate the release of the second by reprinting the acknowledgments page here. The author’s the one who gets her name on the cover, but no published book is written or produced by just one person. The Magic Thief: Lost would be just a stack of manuscript pages without the wonderful book-makers at HarperCollins and the support of a community of friends like you. Dedication: To Theo, because the birds were his idea. Acknowledgments: Thanks to… My editors, Antonia Markiet and Melanie Donovan, and my agent, Caitlin Blasdell. And the HarperCollins team: publisher Susan Katz, associate editor Greg Ferguson, associate editor Alyson Day, editorial director Pheobe Yeh, copy editor Kathryn Silsand, designer Sasha Illingworth, artist Antonio Javier Caparo, publicist Cindy Hamilton, sales reps (the ones I’ve met so far) John Zeck, Sue Farr, and Rick Starke. To my first readers and dear friends: Jenn Reese, Heather Shaw, Greg van Eekhout, Steph Burgis, and Chance Morrison. To my twin, Sandra McDonald. And to Haddayr Copley-Woods. To the Dragons of the Corn, the best critique group in eastern Iowa: Lisa Bradley, Rachel Swirsky, Cassie Krahe, and Deb Coates. To the Blue Heaven crew: Charlie Finlay, Bill Shunn, Paolo Bacigalupi, Holly McDowell, Rae Dawn Carson, Toby Buckell, Paul Melko, and Ian Tregillis. But I don’t thank the tick. To Maud and Theo. Most of all, to John, the best husband in the world, and still a very decent critiquer. [Then there’s a rune message for the reader] # I don't think the black powder (from the recipe) would actually blow up... ## (111 Comments |Comment on this)
Sunday, May 10th, 2009
1:28 pm	"No Moss" is my motto. UPDATE: Just came in from doing yardwork to find that all the copies have been claimed. Yay! I stole this idea from ccfinlay. Remember my post the other day where I gave away paperback copies of The Magic Thief to kid readers? A bunch of the emails about that reminded me how fun it was, as a kid, to receive a package in the mail. Or a magazine subscription or a letter from my grandma. Now it's just bills, bills, bills and stupid credit card solicitations and advertising circulars. Boring!! Getting books in the mail is fun for grownups, too. So I have a proposal for you. Same situation as before: knobby kneed UPS guy, small house, box o' books, no room. (Really, author copies [even though I only get four copies of the overseas versions] take up an enormous amount of space. I can see why some authors have to build a library addition onto their houses just for their own books! I would far rather give books away than build an addition onto my house. "No Moss," as I said, is one of my mottos [along with "Never Surrender," "Shut Up and Write the Next Book," and "Eat More Potato Chips"]). This time I'm giving away the hardcover of The Magic Thief: Lost, the second book in the series, which comes out on Tuesday. I will send out 8-10 signed/runed copies of the book. This time to any reader at all (in the U.S. this time--sorry!), doesn't have to be a kid. Can be a teacher or librarian wanting it for a collection. But this time I have conditions. Here are the conditions: 1) If you get a book, you must post a review of it to Amazon and/or Barnes & Noble and/or Borders and/or Powells and/or Indiebound. Also, please post a review on your blog. 2) Post your honest reaction. I don't care what you say about the book. Good, bad, or indifferent--that's totally up to you. (Well, no, of course I care what you say about it! I want you to like it. But if you don't, fair play to you. Do be honest.) To request a book, send your address to [to foil spambots, address elided now that copies are gone]. Excelsior! (12 Comments |Comment on this)
Thursday, May 7th, 2009
1:55 pm	Yikes! All of the copies of The Magic Thief have been claimed. Here is my dining room table: Now, QUICK, I must get the rest of the bubble wrap out of here before my son gets home from school...! *pop-pop-poppity-pop* (18 Comments |Comment on this)
9:49 am	UPDATE!! All the books have been given away!! Whenever I sign books, I scribble my signature, of course, but I also write a secret message for the reader using the magical runes of Wellmet (there’s a key at the back of the book so the reader can translate them). The rune message changes from book to book (I use about 20 different ones), but in general looks like this: Oh, I fly my geek flag high, I do. So anyway, that’s one thing. The other thing is that the UPS man (bless his knobbly knees) brought me this: It’s a lot of books and I live in a small house and have nowhere to put them, and as some of you know one of my favorite things to do is match up books with readers, so here is what I propose to do: If you send (via email to thiefofmagic at gmail dot com) the name of a kid reader, I will sign and rune-message a paperback copy of The Magic Thief for him or her. Include in the email your address or the address of the kid reader, and I will then send the book to you to give to the kid or I will send it directly to the kid (with a note that it's from you). Hopefully that makes sense. Tally ho! (26 Comments |Comment on this)
Friday, May 1st, 2009
6:57 am	Do that indy thing! First a little snippet of good news, and then on to the subject of this post. The good news is that the audio rights to The Magic Thief in German have sold. Apparently the guy who will read my book also did the Harry Potter books over there and I'm told he's very popular. Yay, book! # Okay, now on to the more important thing. Today is May 1st! That means two things. One, that my neighbor left a tiny basket with flowers in it on my front doorstep this morning. Two is that it's buy indy day! On my website, there's no link to Amazon.com for book buying. Nope! That's because I'm an Indybound affiliate member. If you're going to buy a book today (and why not today? The weekend is coming up, and you need something to read, don't you?) see if you can track down your nearest independent bookstore (http://www.indiebound.org/ will help you) and schlep on over and pick up a book. I have a couple of favorite independent bookstores. One is Prairie Lights here in Iowa City, with whom I have a somewhat vexed relationship (they are very slow to support their local children's authors [not just me, I promise]) (they do have a children's section). I love their adult book selection, though, and Paul Ingram's amazing hand-sell (Warning: if you watch that video you will feel compelled to read the books he mentions). Also, they're finally having me and dorihbutler in for a reading in about two weeks, so I'm happy to report that two children's authors have at last stormed that bastion. Another favorite is The Book Barn, which is just down the road from my parents' house in Connecticut. They have 350,000 books!!! And goats and cats and gardens and little shacks stuffed with different reading genres. I love this place and can't wait to visit it again. What about you? Got a favorite independent bookstore? Does it have goats and cats? Does it have an obsessed hand-seller? Does it have an awesome staff, like Little Shop of Stories in Decatur, Georgia? Or influence and great selection like Anderson's in the Chicago area? What's awesome about your favorite indy? (20 Comments |Comment on this)
Thursday, April 30th, 2009
9:34 am	Benet. In my patheticness yesterday I asked for help deciding what to blog about, and gabriel_writes suggested, “how do you develop your characters?" Which I decided to answer, but focusing on one character in particular. Benet. I am an organic writer, which means the book grows as I write it. The characters grow, too. As I write them, I get to know them better; they become more and more real to me as I go along. Benet is a particular example of this. When I first started writing The Magic Thief, Benet was going to be a very minor character, Nevery’s bodyguard and a tough guy, and that was it. One dimensional. He’s described as… ...a thick-necked, tall man with spiky hair and a face like a bare-knuckles brawl ... He wore a plain brown suit with a knitted red waistcoat under it and a wide, brass-buckled belt and, from the looks of it, kept a knife and an almost-empty purse string in his coat pocket. The first thing he does is threaten Conn: The new muscle leaned down and spoke in a low voice, so Nevery couldn't hear him. "Stay out of my way, you." He showed me his fist. And you can hardly blame him, really. When he looks at Conn he sees a typical gutterboy-thief, definitely not somebody to be trusted. Benet knows trouble when he sees it. In the published version of the book Benet doesn’t play a huge role, and he doesn’t talk a whole lot, but he turned out to be a very important character. As I wrote him, I thought about what bodyguards do. They take care of people, basically, usually by banging heads together. And Benet is very good at that part of his job. But what if this bodyguard took care of people in other ways? If Heartsease was going to be a home for Conn and Nevery, who was going to make it a home? Who was going to do all the cooking and cleaning? Well, Benet stepped up. He started spending time in the kitchen, and I realized he was an excellent cook, particularly known for his... ...biscuits. (There’s a recipe for these in the back of the book, by the way) (There’s also a recipe for Conn’s biscuits, which I don’t recommend). A keen reader might notice that Benet accepts Conn as a member of the household even before Nevery does. In chapter seven, before Nevery has taken on Conn as his apprentice, Benet sat with his chair tipped back against the wall. He held knitting needles and next to his chair had a pile of black wool; the needles went tick-click-tick. That’s the beginnings of the black sweater Benet gives to Conn much later in the book. Benet knocks heads, but he also bakes biscuits and knits sweaters. He takes care of the people he cares about. Surely my experience with Benet is not unique. Have you ever written a minor character who took on more importance as you wrote him or her? Or read a character who seems surprisingly important despite his or her minor role? (36 Comments |Comment on this)
Wednesday, April 29th, 2009
11:44 am	Ack! Yes, ack and argh and gnar. It's been a week since my last entry and I have this self-imposed schedule that I will post at least once a week. Trouble is, I can't think of anything to post about. [I'm working on two book reviews and will post them soon, but they aren't done yet] So...a little help? Any questions? Anything you'd like me to blog about? (17 Comments |Comment on this)
Wednesday, April 22nd, 2009
6:39 am	Each one is a story. I'm interested in people. I don't necessarily like them all, but I find them all absolutely fascinating. When I read a book, I read for character; a book lacking good characterization gets set aside. I read my entire LJ friends list, unfiltered, because I'm interested in what you-all think about and do. When I go for a walk at night, I peer at the lighted windows, trying to catch a glimpse of what's going on inside. Yes, I know, you're glad you don't live in my neighborhood. And I read the obituaries in the local paper every single day. It's not because I'm morbid, it's because I love how wonderfully odd we all are, even the most seemingly ordinary among us. For example. Arthur A., age 61, who was born in Solon, Iowa and died in Solon, Iowa. Included in the obit is this: " Art was an avid Volkswagen fan and enjoyed attending many different VW shows when he could." Why, Art? Why did a bearded man from rural Iowa fall in love with Volkswagens? and Ronald R., age 74, who died of cancer at home, surrounded by his family. He was a horse breeder and farmer. "He enjoyed horses, foals, horse shows, raising corgis and watching his grandchildren in the show ring." The picture is of a grand old man, very proud and happy. and Ermei L., 86, who fled China to Laos to escape communism, and--raising nine children--survived and then came with them to Iowa in 1985. What was it like for her, fleeing her home in Asia and then coming to Iowa, of all places? Did she like it here? Did she feel at home? and Raymond W, 86. Born and grew up in Chicago. After serving in WWII, he "embarked on a long and illustrious career in the retail and wholesale meat industry, selling the best cuts of meat to fine restaurants from Chicago to Pittsburgh and from San Francisco to Seattle." He also enjoyed "operating a ham radio, playing scrabble, doing crossword puzzles and gambling." He also appreciated fine wine. In the picture he's wearing a tuxedo. Was it taken at his daughter's wedding? and Barbara M, 67, who was a steel draftsman and detailer, and who "was a regular coffee patron at Happy Chef throughout the past 25 years." I wonder if the other regulars at Happy Chef are lifting a cup of coffee in Barbara's memory today. # Do you do this, too? Read the obits and wonder? (65 Comments |Comment on this)