Jamie Patterson's Blog, page 9

When I Write my Master's Thesis

My brother just sent this along, a whole song about writing a master's thesis. I'm going to put that one up there with my serial comma song from Vampire weekend.

These songs bring joy to editors everywhere. And I'm almost serious.

Vampire Weekend - Oxford Comma

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View from Seat 13A (Triple Seven!)

Before Takeoff in Minneapolis

In flight. (That's Russia! Can you tell?)

Landing at Narita.

Trying to Get to Tokyo

I'm all set to go to Tokyo tomorrow to visit James. Huey's scheduled at daycare, I have work covered, I drank the last of my royal milk tea so I'm ready for a new batch. Because I'm flying as an employee I get to go business for $32 roundtrip but I only get to go if there are open seats. Here's the breakdown:

22 open seats in business, -19 seats in coach, I'm number 13 on the list.

Not so good, eh? So I checked through Detroit, Portland, Seattle, LA, Atlanta, Salt Lake City, even JFK. Everything's booked. (Apparently no one is concerned anymore about nuclear waste?) Then I checked Haneda through LA. No go. So I'm ready for a guessing game tomorrow. I get to show up at the airport and see who doesn't show up and if enough people don't show up then I can get on the plane and have a fun weekend in Tokyo. Or, everyone shows and I get to watch the plane push back and then head home.

I know a lot of people couldn't travel like this, but you know what? I sure don't mind. Some days it's nice to see new cities and some days it's just nice to be home. I don't mind one bit if some crazy fly-if-you-can system dictates this for me.

Still hope to see you Friday evening, James!

The Car Behind Us

I still can't shake the need for a venti decaf sugar free vanilla soy latte and, fortunately, my sister uses Starbucks as a nice destination for an outing with her girls. My 2-year-old niece is getting really good at ordering, now: "cold milk, no foam please." Today my sister wanted to go to a drive thru so we could do a good deed and pay for the car behind us in line but not without first sizing up what the bottom line of the good deed would be:

"What kind of car is it?"
"I don't know. An Audi?"
"Dang."
"Wait. A Honda."
"Oh, good! How many people?"
"One."
"Excellent."

And for the price of one drink (whew!) for the one person in the Honda behind us we felt very, very good about ourselves for the day. Try it. You might like it.

Winter is on Vacation

Still no snow that stuck around and the ice on the lake is still just around the perimeter. With temps near the 40s and wet, damp, dreariness this feels way more like winter in Kansas City or London than in Minneapolis....and I dig it.

It's My Life

The nice thing about Lost Edens is that it didn't really involve other people's struggles at all. Actually, not even a little. Other people were part of the story, sure, but all in supporting roles.

Working on the follow-up to Lost Edens (Dunloe Avenue) has been really difficult because it's much, much more than reporting events. In academic writing terms its the difference between summary (Lost Edens) and analysis/synthesis (Dunloe Avenue).

I had a friend tell me today that he absolutely did not want me to write about him. Honestly, writers can write about whomever and whatever they want so if I felt like his story line was critical to the telling of the overall story maybe I'd go right ahead with parts that he's in. He's not crucial to the plot, though, so I'll easily be able to honor his request not to be part of the story in any way.

Which brings me to the other thing I've struggled with: something strange happens when life becomes literature. It's my life but then it's not my life. And now that I'm involving so many other people in the story I don't know when I should let them know that I'm writing about them. Who knows? Maybe more people would be like my friend today who said on no uncertain terms does he want to find himself in one of my books. Better to know in the drafting process? Or better to beg for forgiveness than ask for permission?

Billy Joel - My Life

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It's What I Do

I've heard many times over the last few months since Lost Edens published that my writing it was courageous. I never really knew how to respond because I never felt that way myself but wanted to take the time to consider whether or not I was just too close to the process.

I came across this interview with Nora Ephron where someone says the same thing to her and I love her response. I'll include it below but here are the quotes that are relevant:

Interviewer: It took tremendous courage it seems to me?

Nora Ephron: I don't think it takes courage to write because it's what I do.

When a story happens to you and you're a writer you are someday going to find a way to write about that story.

It was absolutely clear to me that a story had happened to me.

Birthday and a Birth Day

We followed the sun across the Atlantic today and even though it was ridiculously cold when we landed back in Minneapolis it was nice to actually see the sun after a week of rain and dreariness.

Thanks to a lovely early, early breakfast in Paris this morning and the time changes from there forward, I've enjoyed 32 hours (26 waking hours!) of my birthday. So an extra long birthday to celebrate life and to celebrate new life: welcome to the world Harrison Hembree!

Where in the World?

Upstairs at Shakespeare & Company. Very, very good afternoon.

Under the Moon in Paris

Same moon, different city. Very same hotel room as my first visit to Paris, though. Walking through the door to see the room and the balcony brought me back in time three (nearly four?) years. Most of the time life seems to inch along but today I felt like more has happened in the last four years than happened all the years before my first visit. I think travel has been a nice way to escape life the last few years and even though this trip is still an escape it feels a bit different. Today I read the line in Goethe's Italian Journey: "My purpose in making this wonderful journey is not to delude myself but to discover myself in the objects I see." I might be a bit closer to Goethe nowadays. Am ready to be home, though! Maybe tomorrow. Maybe not.