Jennifer Crusie's Blog, page 23

This is a Good Book Thursday, August 22, 2024

I had one job . . .

What did you read this week?

Working Wednesday, August 21, 2024

Bob and I are working on two books at once. It seemed like a good idea at the time.

What are you working on?

Crusie’s Guide to Art 21

That’s The Beloved Portrait, 1783 Jean-Frédéric Schall. She’s holding a letter in one hand and the Beloved’s portrait in the other, but of course my mind went other places.

Also, Cyndi Lauper is a goddess.

Happiness is Laughing Out Loud

What is it about women laughing out loud that some people have a problem with? Is it the old “loud laughter isn’t ladylike” thing? The guy thing that when they hear women laughing, they think it’s about them? (Not everything women do is about men, although in that particular case . . . .) Or do they think mocking a woman’s laughter is a good way to show superiority? Smart women don’t laugh? WTF?

A thousand years ago, I was an art teacher in a small town, and I went out to eat with other art teachers in the system, and as we left the restaurant, somebody said something funny, and I laughed out loud. Really loud. Because that’s the way I laugh. It’s not attractive, it’s kind of a shout, not musical in the least. And one of the other teachers said, “Jenny!” in this scandalized voice, and I stopped laughing, ashamed. At the same time we were going out, some guy in a business suit was going in, and he said, “God, I wish I could still laugh like that.”

In one sentence that guy showed me that anyone who criticizes the way somebody laughs has issues that are not the problem of the person laughing. Do yourself a favor. Laugh out loud today. Laugh like nobody’s watching, like you don’t care if they are. You’ll feel SO GOOD.

So what made you laugh with happiness this week?

Note: Suggestions for laughter inspiration are always good. P.G. Wodehouse. Airplane. Terry Pratchett. Ghostbusters.
Your turn. Go!

This is a Good Book Thursday, August 15, 2024

I haven’t had time to read anything but Very Nice Funerals except that the NYT did an essay on Shel Silverstein that made remember Where the Sidewalk Ends, so I started it again, and it’s still wonderful. Since I’m deep in revisions this poem in particular spoke to me.

(Where the Sidewalk Ends is in Kindle Unlimited right now.)

So what did you read that was wonderful this week?

Working Wednesday, August 14, 2024

I’ve been working on Very Nice Funerals for a thousand years. For those of you wondering why VNF is taking so long, it’s me.

Here’s the deal: Bob is our plot guy, he comes up with the action, the events that make the story zip. I am the structure person. What’s the difference? Plot is event. Structure is pattern. Plot is content. Structure is arrangement. Plot is story. Structure is meaning.

I write in acts, so I look at each act/chunk of story in terms of where it is in the emotional arc of the romance, in the thematic arc of the story. I can only do that once Bob has drafted the plot and we’ve both written scenes that mostly (but not always) fit that plot. Then I go in and look at the arcs: the romance arcs, the character arcs, the subplot arcs, the dog’s arc . . . . It takes me FOREVER. And that’s what I’m doing now.

So Bob sets up the events—in VNF it’s a serial killer plot, which is a problem in Rocky Start because there are so many possibilities—and then I come along and say, “Yes, but what do they MEAN?” At the same time I’m wrestling with theme—which in VNF is change and connection—he’s trying to get a logical action story that makes sense. So we trade it back and forth, and he tells me how many double spaces there were after periods in the last draft, and I tell him I just moved ten thousand words to a different place in the plot and he sighs. Loudly. Sometimes twice.

How do I know when I’m done? When I’m happy. When I read through the draft and I think, No, no, no, this isn’t right, I know I need to keep going. When I read though it and think, My god, we’re geniuses, and feel really good, I’m done. Then it goes back to Bob and we talk about it.

We’re closer, and I’m starting to feel cheerful, so that’s a good sign. Nothing but good times, people.

So what did you work on this week?

Crusie’s Guide to Art 20

All I’ve got for this one is “The Origin of Sculpture” or “Pygmalion in love with his statue,” by Jean-Baptiste Regnault, but it pretty much speaks for itself. This is another myth that has a zillion interpretations in paint. Classical blow-up doll at Versailles.

Happiness is Good Memories

I was reading an article on restaurants, and they mentioned Thomas Keller, and that reminded me of a wonderful memory I have, so I just basked in it for awhile. My cousin Russ Parsons was having a birthday in NYC and his wife Kathy invited me to join them. I’m an absolute idiot about restaurants, and I’m working class to the bone, so I had no idea what she was inviting me to, except it was my cousin’s birthday, and I adore them both, and that was enough to get me to fly to NYC, put on my best black and tell the cab driver the name of the restaurant. When I walked in, all I really saw was my cousin’s face light up when he saw me, and that alone would have made the night right there. But then they showed us to our table and I looked at the table next to us, and it was Robert DeNiro and Bono. The restaurant was Per Se, one of Thomas Keller’s, who had worked with Russ, and he proceeded to lay out a seventeen-course dinner that was mind-blowing. I sat there with two of my favorite people, eating pate that was so good I would have shoved Russ under the table for seconds, and was too overcome to do anything but gape. And then Keller came out and took us on a tour of the kitchens, which was also amazing, and then I went back to the hotel and just sat by myself for awhile because I was so overcome. And happy. Mindblown by my visit to a sphere I clearly didn’t belong in, speechless and stunned, but happy. So when I saw Keller’s name in the article, my mind immediately went back to that night, and with the distance of time, it glows even brighter. I wish I could have pulled myself together and told Russ and Kathy how amazing the night had been, how much it meant to me, right then, but I hope they know it now. Such a wonderful, bright, glowing night, second only to the night I had dinner in their garden.

Happiness is good memories with great people.

What made you happy this week? Or better yet, what’s a great memory that makes you happy now?

This is a Good Book Thursday, August 8, 2024

This week I read quilt patterns and crochet patterns and Very Nice Funerals, over and over and over again.

What did you read?

Working Wednesday, August 7, 2024

This week I’ve been working on VNF, organizing my kitchen, and crocheting afghans, plural. I treated myself to an afghan kit–they send you a kit every month for 12 months and at the end you have afghan–and then hated the yarn when the first kit arrived. I made the middle square anyway, and the pattern was interesting but the yarn was dreadful, cheap feeling and muddy colors. So I dug out some of my worsted–I have a lot of yarn–and did surface crochet to liven things up, and then decided to do a second middle square in my own yarn. MUCH better. Also decided to put two scenes together to speed up the opening of Very Nice Funerals and did a theme outline for the book which Bob approved, I think because he’s exhausted from moving and dental work. The crochet keeps me sane because after so long on a book, you just can’t anymore.

So what did you do this week?