Jennifer Crusie's Blog, page 35

Working Wednesday, March 13, 2024

So I had this great plan: I’d take a picture of the living room/office as it is now and post it today, and then next week I’d post a picture of the cleaned up and organized room. Then I looked at the picture. Isn’t it weird how pictures of disasters often show you the things you didn’t see when you’ve become used to the disaster. You are not getting that picture, at least until I’m sure I can conquer this mess. But I THOUGHT about posting it. And I did some work on it, too. So maybe next Wednesday . . .

What did you work on this week (pictures not necessary)?

Happiness is Taking a Break

I’ve been freaking because I’m so far behind on work, and Bob’s been great. He keeps saying, “We have plenty of time,” and I keep shrieking. But this week he convinced me and I’m slowing down and taking breaks and doing other things besides staring into screens. I highly recommend this. Definitely a path to happiness.

What path to happiness did you take the week?

This is a Good Book Thursday

I’m resting my brain on Aaronovitch Rivers of London rereads this week, but I’m also taking an online class on art crime which is fascinating, and I have a ton of art crime books, so I see that coming up in my very near reading future.

What did you read this week?

Working Wednesday, March 6, 2024

I freaked out today over Very Nice Funerals. I have slowed us down so much because I cannot get Rose right. So I came unglued on Spike, and Bob told me we have plenty of time and if VNF doesn’t come out until 2025, that’s fine. It’s not, of course, we want all three books out together, but it was still a comfort. And then in the middle of the conversation he made a suggestion, and I kind of turned it on its head and thought, “Oh, wait, maybe that’s the problem,” so I’m not freaking any more. Bob Mayer: Master Collaborator.

What did you not freak out over at work this week?

Happiness is a Great Book Cover

So Bob had posted that he thought the cover for Rocky Start should be Max, bare chested, standing in a stream, kissing Rose, a sword in one hand and a flag in the other. Earlier he’d proposed an ending for the series with llamas. So I put all of that on Facebook, and then Bob added that Max should be wearing a kilt (no, I don’t know why), and Devon Thompson, the son of one of the commenters on the Jennifer Crusie page, used AI to make the cover image. And I’m not gonna lie, that cover makes me ridiculously happy. It’s not going on the book, of course, but it is nevertheless brilliant. And thank you, Devon Thompson, for all the smiles this week.

So what made you smile this week?

This is a Good Book Thursday, February 29, 2024

Welcome to Leap Day, your extra GBT for February. I’m not leaping, just re-reading because I can do that in snippets without losing the plot, most Aaronovitch this week, but also Pratchett’s Mort because it’s on sale for $1.99 right now. I already had it, but once I saw the cover, I had to read it again.

What good books did you follow the plot on this week?

Working Wednesday, Feb 28, 2024

Today I am cleaning my bedroom because I’m tired of having asthma attacks. New sheets, new filter for the airconditioner, same dog.

What are you working on this week?

Happiness is Reading a New Book

I’ve been doing a lot of re-reading for comfort lately, but I’ve also read two new books this week, and it’s so good to find brand new stuff that’s really good. One was Susan Eliabeth Phillips new one, Simply the Best, which was simply great. The other was a manuscript from Anne Stuart,Return to Mariposa, which I would talk about but you can’t get it, she’s still rewriting, but once it’s done, you’re gonna want to read it. New books that are good: that’s happiness.

So what made you happy this week?

From a True Story . . .

I did a podcast this week, and the host asked if I’d ever based a character on a real person. I said, “No,” because it’s too limiting, doing that doesn’t let a character breathe on its own. It didn’t occur to me until later that I have stolen dialogue from real life, three times (that I remember). I’ve also stolen T-shirt slogans, but I don’t think that counts. (My fave: “Jesus Is Coming. Look Busy.”) But spoken dialogue? Only three times.

The first time was long ago when I was working on my MFA thesis, on a short story called “I Am At My Sister’s Wedding.” I took a break and ran to the local Kroger’s for something and ran into my next door neighbor who was buying a wedding cake for her daughter. When I admired it, she said,

“Well, she’ll only get married for the first time once.”

That may be my favorite sentence of all time. I almost ran over her to go back home and put that in the story because it was absolutely perfect for the mother in there, especially since the sister in question got married four times in the course of the story. I love dialogue like that, a throwaway line that works on about forty different levels, that has a huge well of meaning underneath it.

The second time, I was at a writer’s conference in South Carolina, having breakfast at a Denny’s next to a family with several kids. There was lull in general noise level and I heard the mother say,

“Justin, I told you, we do not hit family.”

That’s another one that when you start to unpack it, you get an entire novel. I can’t remember if I ever used that one, but I must have, it’s too good not to.

The third one I just used yesterday, from something on Facebook two months ago. I’d posted something and two men answered, two of my favorite people so I forgive them for being smartasses, but I also forgive them because I used the dialogue.

Here’s the FB post and comments:

I couldn’t help it, I laughed when I read that, and again there was so much underneath that spoke to the relationship the three of us have, my collaborator and me, my much-loved cousin and me, and the two guys who know each other and know me and so they can go out skating on thin ice together. The jerks.

But I forgive them because I got this (Rose’s PoV):

“You can tell me now,” I said, biting back my temper. I’d had about enough of men being men. “What’s going on?”

“Relax,” Max said. “We’ve got this.” He noticed Luke wincing by the door which is probably why he didn’t see I was about to rip his face off. “What?” he said to Luke.

“Now tell her to calm down,” Luke said. “Chicks love that.”

I do not use real people as inspiration for characters (although Beelzebub in The Devil in Nita Dodd sometimes sounds like Trump, as in “I have a very large brain”), but I will steal what you say to me right out from under you. You have been warned.

This is a Good Book Thursday, February 22, 2024

This week, I read Susan Elizabeth Phillips’ Simply the Best, and then wrote her an e-mail that included this:

“In other more important news, I finished Simply the Best and loved it. I plan on snarking on my blog about how you wrote a great book just because you wanted to research (aka, eat) chocolate. I was so sure I knew who the murderer was, too, and you got me. Did not see that coming. Anyway, Simply the Best is just more proof that you are simply the best. Still the Queen of the Rom Com, baby, I bow at your feet.”

I had “Still the One” playing in my head while I wrote that because she really is still the best.

What did you read this week that was simply the best?