Shanna Swendson's Blog, page 196
August 22, 2013
Rushing!
It's just occurred to me how little time I have left before WorldCon and how much I have to do. On Tuesday, I was thinking the week was going slowly and kept thinking it was Thursday, and now that it's Thursday, I find myself having the "it's Thursday already?" freakout. But I did take care of most of the pre-trip errands yesterday in a shopping expedition. While I was out, I also picked up one of those neck wrap things you microwave, and that was good for first thing in the morning when I woke up a little stiff. I popped it in the microwave and draped it around my neck while I made breakfast. I also got a memory foam contour pillow designed for side sleepers, with the roll on one edge that supports your neck. It has a similar effect as the weird candy cane pillow, but I can turn over and have it still work, and there's less claustrophobia. I think it worked pretty well once I got used to it, and the foam is very comfortable, but I wish they made these things in sizes because this was clearly designed for a man, so it didn't quite fit a small woman. The roll that goes under the neck was just a bit too tall and too wide for my neck. The foam does seem to eventually compress to fit, but it took a little time. I'm almost back to normal, with only some slight stiffness and no real pain.
Meanwhile, I discovered that the "curl definer" I finally found that was perfect for my hair has been discontinued, right as I started to get to the end of the tube I'd bought. This is why it's hard to have product loyalty -- you find something that works, and they discontinue it. Now I have to start all over again with the quest. I think this is going to be home spa weekend. I can use all those products I found in my bathroom decluttering and relax before going to WorldCon. In the meantime, I have to make a few arrangements for stuff, put together a few promo items, think about questions for the panels I'm moderating, plan my wardrobe, do a lot of laundry and take care of some other business stuff that's come up. It's a good thing I talked myself out of trying to finish a book draft by now.
Speaking of which, after talking yesterday about how long it takes to write a book, I found this blog post about a similar topic. Sometimes I get into the "rushing" mode and act like it's a race. Time becomes my area of perfectionism, and I don't seem to care what the result looks like as long as I can say I got to the finish line at a certain time. Sometimes hurrying through a rough draft can give a sense of urgency to the story, but sometimes it just means I'm going to have to rewrite the whole book because I didn't stop to think about it along the way. But since I've also had a bad habit of starting projects and not finishing them in the past, I'm always questioning myself if I do take my time or put something aside to see if maybe I'm afraid of finishing and having to do something with it. I think I'm actually at a point when I'm good about that now. Sometimes, a project shouldn't be finished, and you don't realize it's not viable until you start playing with it. Sometimes a project is worth tinkering with, even if it takes years to get it just right. In the case of my marathon book, I don't think there was fear, just the sense that it wasn't ready and knowing that sending it out before it was ready would shortchange the story. My days of writing two chapters and then moving on to the next shiny idea are long gone, and I think I've made more mistakes in the past ten years or so from either clinging to a non-viable idea for way too long out of stubbornness or from rushing to get something out there, so that what was submitted wasn't fully developed enough to show its potential. I'm at a point in my career when I need to let myself take my time, just as long as I'm making progress.
But for now, I must go get my oil changed and my car checked up before the road trip, and then on to more stuff to do.
Meanwhile, I discovered that the "curl definer" I finally found that was perfect for my hair has been discontinued, right as I started to get to the end of the tube I'd bought. This is why it's hard to have product loyalty -- you find something that works, and they discontinue it. Now I have to start all over again with the quest. I think this is going to be home spa weekend. I can use all those products I found in my bathroom decluttering and relax before going to WorldCon. In the meantime, I have to make a few arrangements for stuff, put together a few promo items, think about questions for the panels I'm moderating, plan my wardrobe, do a lot of laundry and take care of some other business stuff that's come up. It's a good thing I talked myself out of trying to finish a book draft by now.
Speaking of which, after talking yesterday about how long it takes to write a book, I found this blog post about a similar topic. Sometimes I get into the "rushing" mode and act like it's a race. Time becomes my area of perfectionism, and I don't seem to care what the result looks like as long as I can say I got to the finish line at a certain time. Sometimes hurrying through a rough draft can give a sense of urgency to the story, but sometimes it just means I'm going to have to rewrite the whole book because I didn't stop to think about it along the way. But since I've also had a bad habit of starting projects and not finishing them in the past, I'm always questioning myself if I do take my time or put something aside to see if maybe I'm afraid of finishing and having to do something with it. I think I'm actually at a point when I'm good about that now. Sometimes, a project shouldn't be finished, and you don't realize it's not viable until you start playing with it. Sometimes a project is worth tinkering with, even if it takes years to get it just right. In the case of my marathon book, I don't think there was fear, just the sense that it wasn't ready and knowing that sending it out before it was ready would shortchange the story. My days of writing two chapters and then moving on to the next shiny idea are long gone, and I think I've made more mistakes in the past ten years or so from either clinging to a non-viable idea for way too long out of stubbornness or from rushing to get something out there, so that what was submitted wasn't fully developed enough to show its potential. I'm at a point in my career when I need to let myself take my time, just as long as I'm making progress.
But for now, I must go get my oil changed and my car checked up before the road trip, and then on to more stuff to do.
August 21, 2013
How Long Does it Take?
I'm gradually loosening up the neck. Dance last night seems to have helped, and I didn't even have many problems with turning. I really hope to be better by next week or else driving to San Antonio is going to be painful.
One of the most frequently asked questions I get related to writing is how long it takes to write a book, and since that flows naturally from setting goals, I thought I'd address it.
This really is a big "it depends." It depends on the book itself, the deadline, what else is going on in my life, the time of year and a host of other things. I usually time my writing sessions, so I have a sense of how many hours it takes to produce each book, but even that doesn't tell the whole story because there's a lot of thinking that goes on before I start doing anything even resembling writing, and that pops up in random bits and pieces that are impossible to track and quantify. There's also the fact that a book may be produced in stages, especially once you can sell on proposal. You may do some preliminary research and develop a proposal, then work on something else while waiting for the proposal to sell, then go back to writing in earnest. Then things may go much faster when you have a firm deadline you have to meet. That's wonderfully motivating.
I'll give a few of examples from my experience:
I got the very first spark of an idea for my Enchanted, Inc. series in early 2002. I played with that idea off and on over the next year and a half or so. I'd think about it, add a few details, then forget about it for a while. By the summer of 2003, I had a pretty good idea what the story would be about, enough to pitch it to an editor at a conference when she asked me what I was working on. I somehow added a lot more details while talking to her. I started doing real research and development on the idea in August and early September. In late September, I started doing character development and some plot outlining, then took a research trip to New York. I started writing actual words in the second week of October and finished the first draft about a week before Christmas. I did a revision pass (though I'd been revising as I went) in early January and submitted to an agent. After getting an agent, I spent about a week doing revisions based on her suggestions. So, if you asked me how long it took me to write that book, would it be the approximately 2 1/2 months it took to write the first draft or the more than two years between the time I got the idea and the time the book was ready to be submitted to publishers? When it came time to write the second book in the series, I wrote a draft in about five weeks, then took about three months to do revisions. In that case, I didn't have to do a lot of research and development because I was building on existing characters and settings, but the story didn't come together quite as perfectly for me and took a lot of reworking. I think the books in that series all seem to take about four months to write, but it varies whether the bulk of the time comes in the first draft or in revisions. Strangely, the first book was the easiest, but that may be because of all the thinking that went on before I went into writing mode, or else it may be because it was less complex since it was introducing the world and the characters rather than doing a lot of further development.
For my upcoming book, a young adult steampunk fantasy, I came up with the first spark of an idea in the fall of 2009. I toyed with the idea off and on, discussing it with friends and doing some preliminary research and some reading in the genre, until the summer of 2010, when I started researching in earnest. I spent that summer doing extensive research, then late in the summer I started outlining and doing character development. I started writing in September and sent a proposal (the first 100 pages or so and a synopsis) to my agent in October. Since I was having fun with it, I kept writing, and I think I finished a draft, after doing a few revisions on the proposal, in early 2011. There wasn't a lot of positive response in the adult fantasy market, and after discussing it with my agent, I decided that it would make a good young adult novel, since the characters were pretty young and it focused on some coming-of-age themes. I spent the fall rewriting the book, and it first went on submission to the YA market in 2012 before finally selling in early 2013. I don't even really know how to calculate how long it took me to write that book. I think the initial first draft took about 3 months, but there was a lot of research time, and I did still more research before the rewrite.
I've got a book going out on submission that really wins the marathon prize for me. I don't have a clear "this is when I got this idea" moment, as it seems to have started with a vivid mental image I was trying to find the story in, and then it picked up other story and character fragments that had been rolling around in my head for a very long time (the main character had been living in my head since I was in college, auditioning for almost every story I wrote but never being quite right until this one came along). I finally decided to write it in the summer of 2009. I did a lot of research and made a research trip that summer, and I was also doing some brainstorming along the way. I have a notebook full of freewriting of just playing with who the characters were and what was going on. I started writing in the fall, took a break while working on something else, worked on it again in the spring and early summer. I had a full draft by that point, but wasn't happy with the ending, and changing the ending meant tinkering with everything else, so I put it aside to work on the steampunk book. I picked it up again every so often and finally reached a point this spring that I was happy with it. It took me at least four years from research to submission, but I also wrote four other books in the meantime.
I guess the bottom line is that writing a novel takes patience, and there's a lot more to it than typing. I find that the more time an idea has to develop in my head, the faster the writing goes -- except in the odd book that has to find its own shape once I write it. I write faster when I have a deadline. Some books seem to spring from my head, fully formed, while others are more of a struggle and need a lot of rewriting. I don't think readers can tell the difference in the finished product. Generally, count on at least three to four months from the research and development phase to a finished product, and probably longer. For another way of calculating that, it took about 150 hours for me to write Kiss and Spell, the seventh book in the Enchanted, Inc. series. That includes some research and the revision work but not the general thinking about it stuff, and I didn't have to do a lot of character development or world building because it was the seventh book in a series.
If you're trying to set a goal, look at the amount of time you have available and how much you can accomplish in a certain amount of time. You may have to adjust along the way, depending on whether this book fits your pattern. Once you get to the point where you have to set a deadline with a publisher, you'll probably have a better sense of how long it will take you -- and then pad that a little. If you're writing without a contract, you can be a little more flexible with your deadlines, but it still helps to have one to hold yourself accountable.
One of the most frequently asked questions I get related to writing is how long it takes to write a book, and since that flows naturally from setting goals, I thought I'd address it.
This really is a big "it depends." It depends on the book itself, the deadline, what else is going on in my life, the time of year and a host of other things. I usually time my writing sessions, so I have a sense of how many hours it takes to produce each book, but even that doesn't tell the whole story because there's a lot of thinking that goes on before I start doing anything even resembling writing, and that pops up in random bits and pieces that are impossible to track and quantify. There's also the fact that a book may be produced in stages, especially once you can sell on proposal. You may do some preliminary research and develop a proposal, then work on something else while waiting for the proposal to sell, then go back to writing in earnest. Then things may go much faster when you have a firm deadline you have to meet. That's wonderfully motivating.
I'll give a few of examples from my experience:
I got the very first spark of an idea for my Enchanted, Inc. series in early 2002. I played with that idea off and on over the next year and a half or so. I'd think about it, add a few details, then forget about it for a while. By the summer of 2003, I had a pretty good idea what the story would be about, enough to pitch it to an editor at a conference when she asked me what I was working on. I somehow added a lot more details while talking to her. I started doing real research and development on the idea in August and early September. In late September, I started doing character development and some plot outlining, then took a research trip to New York. I started writing actual words in the second week of October and finished the first draft about a week before Christmas. I did a revision pass (though I'd been revising as I went) in early January and submitted to an agent. After getting an agent, I spent about a week doing revisions based on her suggestions. So, if you asked me how long it took me to write that book, would it be the approximately 2 1/2 months it took to write the first draft or the more than two years between the time I got the idea and the time the book was ready to be submitted to publishers? When it came time to write the second book in the series, I wrote a draft in about five weeks, then took about three months to do revisions. In that case, I didn't have to do a lot of research and development because I was building on existing characters and settings, but the story didn't come together quite as perfectly for me and took a lot of reworking. I think the books in that series all seem to take about four months to write, but it varies whether the bulk of the time comes in the first draft or in revisions. Strangely, the first book was the easiest, but that may be because of all the thinking that went on before I went into writing mode, or else it may be because it was less complex since it was introducing the world and the characters rather than doing a lot of further development.
For my upcoming book, a young adult steampunk fantasy, I came up with the first spark of an idea in the fall of 2009. I toyed with the idea off and on, discussing it with friends and doing some preliminary research and some reading in the genre, until the summer of 2010, when I started researching in earnest. I spent that summer doing extensive research, then late in the summer I started outlining and doing character development. I started writing in September and sent a proposal (the first 100 pages or so and a synopsis) to my agent in October. Since I was having fun with it, I kept writing, and I think I finished a draft, after doing a few revisions on the proposal, in early 2011. There wasn't a lot of positive response in the adult fantasy market, and after discussing it with my agent, I decided that it would make a good young adult novel, since the characters were pretty young and it focused on some coming-of-age themes. I spent the fall rewriting the book, and it first went on submission to the YA market in 2012 before finally selling in early 2013. I don't even really know how to calculate how long it took me to write that book. I think the initial first draft took about 3 months, but there was a lot of research time, and I did still more research before the rewrite.
I've got a book going out on submission that really wins the marathon prize for me. I don't have a clear "this is when I got this idea" moment, as it seems to have started with a vivid mental image I was trying to find the story in, and then it picked up other story and character fragments that had been rolling around in my head for a very long time (the main character had been living in my head since I was in college, auditioning for almost every story I wrote but never being quite right until this one came along). I finally decided to write it in the summer of 2009. I did a lot of research and made a research trip that summer, and I was also doing some brainstorming along the way. I have a notebook full of freewriting of just playing with who the characters were and what was going on. I started writing in the fall, took a break while working on something else, worked on it again in the spring and early summer. I had a full draft by that point, but wasn't happy with the ending, and changing the ending meant tinkering with everything else, so I put it aside to work on the steampunk book. I picked it up again every so often and finally reached a point this spring that I was happy with it. It took me at least four years from research to submission, but I also wrote four other books in the meantime.
I guess the bottom line is that writing a novel takes patience, and there's a lot more to it than typing. I find that the more time an idea has to develop in my head, the faster the writing goes -- except in the odd book that has to find its own shape once I write it. I write faster when I have a deadline. Some books seem to spring from my head, fully formed, while others are more of a struggle and need a lot of rewriting. I don't think readers can tell the difference in the finished product. Generally, count on at least three to four months from the research and development phase to a finished product, and probably longer. For another way of calculating that, it took about 150 hours for me to write Kiss and Spell, the seventh book in the Enchanted, Inc. series. That includes some research and the revision work but not the general thinking about it stuff, and I didn't have to do a lot of character development or world building because it was the seventh book in a series.
If you're trying to set a goal, look at the amount of time you have available and how much you can accomplish in a certain amount of time. You may have to adjust along the way, depending on whether this book fits your pattern. Once you get to the point where you have to set a deadline with a publisher, you'll probably have a better sense of how long it will take you -- and then pad that a little. If you're writing without a contract, you can be a little more flexible with your deadlines, but it still helps to have one to hold yourself accountable.
August 20, 2013
Catch-Up Book Report
My neck is a little more flexible today and a lot less painful. Dance tonight should be interesting, but I think if I'm careful it should be good for me. Getting my body that warm may even do the final trick of snapping it all back into place. Turning may be a challenge, though. Not that it isn't usually, but I'll have a different excuse for being terrible.
I've been lax in reporting on my reading, so here's a massive book report:
A Vintage Affair by Isabel Wolff -- She's the author of one of the first "chick lit" books I ever read, and now seems to be transitioning more to "women's fiction," though I think her "chick lit" always had more depth than the genre was given credit for. Her books were never about shoes, shopping and getting drunk and were usually about facing the consequences of one's actions. She still has the same voice but is breaking away from what few genre tropes she ever really followed. In this book, the heroine has opened a vintage clothing store and when assessing a collection of clothes to purchase for the store, she befriends the terminally ill elderly woman who's selling off her decades worth of high-end clothes. This woman's experience with a friend during WWII eerily echoes the heroine's recent experience with a friend, and that may end up helping both of them. There's also a romantic subplot, but this is definitely not a typical genre romance. I read this in just about one sitting and then had an urge to go shopping for vintage clothes (as long as I tend to keep clothes, I can almost do that in my own closet). Now I'm in the mood for that particular kind of book.
The Runaway Princess by Hester Browne -- While I enjoyed this, I'd say it's my least-favorite of her books because while I still love her writing and her characters, this is so not my fantasy. An ordinary gardener/landscape designer meets a great guy at a party and then learns that he's an actual prince from a small country (think Monaco on an island). But then she has to rethink the relationship when being with a prince means being stalked by tabloid reporters, going through a full makeover and not having time for her own career. I think that was my main problem with the story -- the bad parts of dating someone like that were dealt with pretty realistically, which made it hard to believe a truly happy ending would be possible. It was a fun read along the way but left me feeling vaguely dissatisfied.
Revenge of the Girl with the Great Personality by Elizabeth Eulberg -- I grabbed this off a library display in the teen section just because of that title. A teen girl who has overheard a boy she has a crush on describing her to his friend as having a "great personality," which everyone knows is code for "ugly," starts spiffing herself up on a dare from a friend and is surprised by how much it changes the way people see her, which then changes her own confidence levels. But then she has to wonder why the hot guy who asks her out didn't seem to notice her before. Can she trust him if he only likes her because of the way she looks? It doesn't help matters that her mother is an obsessed pageant mom, putting her 7-year-old sister through all the "little miss" pageants while ignoring her, since she's not really pageant material. This was another book I read in one sitting, and it was a fun teen book. I could see this making a good ABC Family TV movie. However, I was a little disappointed that the only "revenge" was wearing more makeup.
But I did have a minor epiphany about all those makeover stories. Thinking about my own past, I realized that, for the most part, most people don't notice even drastic changes. They form an image of you from the start, and then no matter what you do, that's their image of you. I started high school doing the full Merle Norman, West Texas version (subtle blush and eye makeup in neutral tones). Then a male classmate remarked on how girls had it easy because they could wear makeup and cover up their flaws, and there was an implied dare about not having the guts to go without makeup. So I did, for nearly two years. It didn't change anything about the way people saw me or treated me. Then during the summer between my junior and senior years, I got the Merle Norman treatment again, this time the East Texas version, which isn't at all subtle and which involved about three blushers for contouring and highlighting and about four eyeshadows to do the full contoured eye look, with the main color being a bright teal (this was the 80s). No one noticed a difference, and it changed nothing about the way people saw me or the way they treated me. I remember feeling very self-conscious about my weight and thought of myself as chubby, but I didn't weigh that much more than I do now, and I think by the time I graduated I was probably in about the same shape I am now, and losing weight and toning up changed nothing about how much interest I got from boys. So, basically, all those "wear more makeup, do your hair and wear different clothes, and it will change your life!" things are bogus. If it changes the way you see yourself, then great, and it may affect the way new people establish a relationship with you, but don't expect people who've known you for years to even notice a difference.
Handbook for Dragon Slayers by Merrie Haskell -- This was another one that caught my eye on a display in the teen section (which I have to pass through to get from the new books display to the adult section), though it's actually more of a middle grade book, suggested for ages 9-12, and I think it really is for that category rather than being something for "children of all ages" that adults can enjoy equally. I thought it was a cute book, and in that age range I'd have probably become obsessed with it, but I couldn't get past the sense that I was reading a book for kids. Our heroine is a princess who'd really rather just hide away somewhere as a scribe, so when a loathsome cousin pulls an underhanded move to usurp the throne, she's actually okay with it because she'll finally have time to write. But then her friends rescue her, and they set out to become dragon slayers. Along the way, though, they learn that there's a lot they didn't know about dragons. If you've got a girl in that age range who likes fantasy, this is a good read. As an adult, you may find yourself frustrated by the (accurately depicted) decision-making abilities of young teens. I was impressed that the medieval life depicted was a little closer to what we know of reality than in most fantasy novels. It's set in an alternate Germany (in a world with dragons), along the Rhine, and I kept trying to mentally map the book because that's a familiar area. I'll have to look at a map and see if any of the place names in the book translate or correspond to anything in the real world.
And now for an appropriate way to end a book-related post, 17 Problems Only Book Lovers Will Understand. (It loads slowly, but wait because the animations are what make the photos make sense.)
I've been lax in reporting on my reading, so here's a massive book report:
A Vintage Affair by Isabel Wolff -- She's the author of one of the first "chick lit" books I ever read, and now seems to be transitioning more to "women's fiction," though I think her "chick lit" always had more depth than the genre was given credit for. Her books were never about shoes, shopping and getting drunk and were usually about facing the consequences of one's actions. She still has the same voice but is breaking away from what few genre tropes she ever really followed. In this book, the heroine has opened a vintage clothing store and when assessing a collection of clothes to purchase for the store, she befriends the terminally ill elderly woman who's selling off her decades worth of high-end clothes. This woman's experience with a friend during WWII eerily echoes the heroine's recent experience with a friend, and that may end up helping both of them. There's also a romantic subplot, but this is definitely not a typical genre romance. I read this in just about one sitting and then had an urge to go shopping for vintage clothes (as long as I tend to keep clothes, I can almost do that in my own closet). Now I'm in the mood for that particular kind of book.
The Runaway Princess by Hester Browne -- While I enjoyed this, I'd say it's my least-favorite of her books because while I still love her writing and her characters, this is so not my fantasy. An ordinary gardener/landscape designer meets a great guy at a party and then learns that he's an actual prince from a small country (think Monaco on an island). But then she has to rethink the relationship when being with a prince means being stalked by tabloid reporters, going through a full makeover and not having time for her own career. I think that was my main problem with the story -- the bad parts of dating someone like that were dealt with pretty realistically, which made it hard to believe a truly happy ending would be possible. It was a fun read along the way but left me feeling vaguely dissatisfied.
Revenge of the Girl with the Great Personality by Elizabeth Eulberg -- I grabbed this off a library display in the teen section just because of that title. A teen girl who has overheard a boy she has a crush on describing her to his friend as having a "great personality," which everyone knows is code for "ugly," starts spiffing herself up on a dare from a friend and is surprised by how much it changes the way people see her, which then changes her own confidence levels. But then she has to wonder why the hot guy who asks her out didn't seem to notice her before. Can she trust him if he only likes her because of the way she looks? It doesn't help matters that her mother is an obsessed pageant mom, putting her 7-year-old sister through all the "little miss" pageants while ignoring her, since she's not really pageant material. This was another book I read in one sitting, and it was a fun teen book. I could see this making a good ABC Family TV movie. However, I was a little disappointed that the only "revenge" was wearing more makeup.
But I did have a minor epiphany about all those makeover stories. Thinking about my own past, I realized that, for the most part, most people don't notice even drastic changes. They form an image of you from the start, and then no matter what you do, that's their image of you. I started high school doing the full Merle Norman, West Texas version (subtle blush and eye makeup in neutral tones). Then a male classmate remarked on how girls had it easy because they could wear makeup and cover up their flaws, and there was an implied dare about not having the guts to go without makeup. So I did, for nearly two years. It didn't change anything about the way people saw me or treated me. Then during the summer between my junior and senior years, I got the Merle Norman treatment again, this time the East Texas version, which isn't at all subtle and which involved about three blushers for contouring and highlighting and about four eyeshadows to do the full contoured eye look, with the main color being a bright teal (this was the 80s). No one noticed a difference, and it changed nothing about the way people saw me or the way they treated me. I remember feeling very self-conscious about my weight and thought of myself as chubby, but I didn't weigh that much more than I do now, and I think by the time I graduated I was probably in about the same shape I am now, and losing weight and toning up changed nothing about how much interest I got from boys. So, basically, all those "wear more makeup, do your hair and wear different clothes, and it will change your life!" things are bogus. If it changes the way you see yourself, then great, and it may affect the way new people establish a relationship with you, but don't expect people who've known you for years to even notice a difference.
Handbook for Dragon Slayers by Merrie Haskell -- This was another one that caught my eye on a display in the teen section (which I have to pass through to get from the new books display to the adult section), though it's actually more of a middle grade book, suggested for ages 9-12, and I think it really is for that category rather than being something for "children of all ages" that adults can enjoy equally. I thought it was a cute book, and in that age range I'd have probably become obsessed with it, but I couldn't get past the sense that I was reading a book for kids. Our heroine is a princess who'd really rather just hide away somewhere as a scribe, so when a loathsome cousin pulls an underhanded move to usurp the throne, she's actually okay with it because she'll finally have time to write. But then her friends rescue her, and they set out to become dragon slayers. Along the way, though, they learn that there's a lot they didn't know about dragons. If you've got a girl in that age range who likes fantasy, this is a good read. As an adult, you may find yourself frustrated by the (accurately depicted) decision-making abilities of young teens. I was impressed that the medieval life depicted was a little closer to what we know of reality than in most fantasy novels. It's set in an alternate Germany (in a world with dragons), along the Rhine, and I kept trying to mentally map the book because that's a familiar area. I'll have to look at a map and see if any of the place names in the book translate or correspond to anything in the real world.
And now for an appropriate way to end a book-related post, 17 Problems Only Book Lovers Will Understand. (It loads slowly, but wait because the animations are what make the photos make sense.)
August 19, 2013
A Pain in the Neck
I think this may be a "recover from the weekend" Monday. Friday's weather was so amazing (it was cool! In Texas! In August!) that we had to go out to the lake to watch fireworks again. Getting to this time's chosen viewing spot required minor rock climbing. And then it turned out that there was a trail that was much easier. It just wasn't really obvious. Saturday, there was a FenCon meeting and then some hard work/insanity for a side project that should turn out to have a fun result, if we can pull it all off to create a finished product. Then Sunday I woke up with an epic crick in my neck. I could barely move my head and it was pretty sore, so I spent much of Sunday after I got home from church and grocery shopping lying on the sofa with a heating pad wrapped around my neck. It's starting to loosen up a bit, but it's going to take some time, I'm afraid. Last night, I resorted to the strange "side sleeper" pillow my mom gave me last year. It's sort of shaped like a candy cane. The "hook" part goes over the shoulder, with the short end in front and the long end down your back, so that you lie slotted into it (it feels like those packing cases for fragile items where the foam is cut out to the shape of the item). It forces your head, neck and shoulders to align and supports the neck. Under most circumstances, it's not that comfortable, mostly because it doesn't accommodate people who toss and turn a lot, and I've mostly used it for napping on the sofa or as a neck pillow during last summer's bus trip (the reason my mom gave it to me). But last night, it seems to have helped keep the neck from getting worse and may even have helped matters. Taking Tylenol PM took care of the tossing and turning because I just conked out and stayed in one position all night.
So, today I think I'm staying home and doing stuff around the house, mostly because I reek of Ben-Gay. I'll start the errand part of WorldCon prep tomorrow.
Incidentally, I have my final WorldCon schedule, which I'll post later in the week. I ended up with an autograph session instead of a reading, which normally I wouldn't be crazy about because I prefer readings to sitting behind a table, feeling pathetic, but I had a real dilemma about what to read. It's hard to read anything from the last couple of Enchanted, Inc. books without spoiling the previous book or books, and I've had people who hadn't read the new books in audiences. The next new book is more than a year away, and I've been reading excerpts from it for the past few years. Jo Walton is one of the other authors in my autograph session, so I may end up just entertaining the people in line for her and listening to her lovely accent.
And now, since I can't think of anything else to say other than "ow, my neck hurts," I leave you with a handy guide to my personality, otherwise known as 23 Signs You Might Be Hermione Granger. Actually, it's mostly the first 11 that hit uncomfortably close to home. Supposedly, J.K. Rowling largely based Hermione on herself, so the odds are pretty good that if we ever met, we'd either become best friends or loathe each other, since we seem to be essentially the same person (though she's a lot more successful and has a lot more money).
So, today I think I'm staying home and doing stuff around the house, mostly because I reek of Ben-Gay. I'll start the errand part of WorldCon prep tomorrow.
Incidentally, I have my final WorldCon schedule, which I'll post later in the week. I ended up with an autograph session instead of a reading, which normally I wouldn't be crazy about because I prefer readings to sitting behind a table, feeling pathetic, but I had a real dilemma about what to read. It's hard to read anything from the last couple of Enchanted, Inc. books without spoiling the previous book or books, and I've had people who hadn't read the new books in audiences. The next new book is more than a year away, and I've been reading excerpts from it for the past few years. Jo Walton is one of the other authors in my autograph session, so I may end up just entertaining the people in line for her and listening to her lovely accent.
And now, since I can't think of anything else to say other than "ow, my neck hurts," I leave you with a handy guide to my personality, otherwise known as 23 Signs You Might Be Hermione Granger. Actually, it's mostly the first 11 that hit uncomfortably close to home. Supposedly, J.K. Rowling largely based Hermione on herself, so the odds are pretty good that if we ever met, we'd either become best friends or loathe each other, since we seem to be essentially the same person (though she's a lot more successful and has a lot more money).
August 16, 2013
Ikea Dreams
Oh, it was lovely to get to sleep until I woke up this morning instead of waking to an alarm, especially since I ended up reading a book in one sitting and didn't get to sleep until late. And really especially since I had a rather disturbing dream about some of the people I would have seen at church, and I had to mentally rewrite the dream to be more like something that would really happen in order to get past some of the unease related to it. That entailed a lot of lying around, semi-awake, instead of hopping out of bed the moment the alarm went off.
Just as lovely was the fact that there was good sleeping weather, as it was nice and cool this morning. In fact, I had thought about eating breakfast on the patio, but it was a bit too chilly. I think it would have been pleasant if I'd been dressed instead of in my nightshirt and had put on a sweater, but I wasn't in the mood to get dressed before breakfast. Let us pause to ponder the magnitude of this: I would have needed a sweater to sit outside in Texas in August.
Aside from being done with music and art camp, yesterday's big excitement was the arrival of the Ikea catalog. I don't know why that gets me so excited. I've never been in an Ikea store and have never bought anything there. It's not even really my style, since I'm more into the Victorian look with dark wood (my house looks like a Bombay Company showroom). But still, this catalog is to me now what the Sears Christmas Wish Book was to me when I was a kid. I just like flipping through the pages and daydreaming about being all organized and having nifty places to put everything. Then I realized something: one cool thing about the rooms they show in this catalog is that they look like the way people live, not like "catalog" rooms. In the bedrooms, the beds are always unmade, which makes them look inviting. You just want to crawl under the covers and snuggle. When they show bookcases full of books, they're not neatly arranged by color or height. They're piled in every which way, sometimes with books placed horizontally across the top of shelved books. Their bookcases look like my bookcases. Then there are usually books piled up on end tables and coffee tables. It's a rather brilliant psychological sales ploy because it makes their dream home seem attainable. You don't look at the pristine catalog layouts and think "Yeah, that'll never happen." The beds are unmade, books and papers are piled everywhere, and it still looks lovely, so you think you could make your house look like that if you just bought that stuff.
However, it wouldn't do much for me because of that not having walls issue. Going vertically and using your walls to store and organize stuff is a great idea, but doesn't work so well in mostly open-plan houses with few interior walls and exterior walls that are mostly windows.
I may add an Ikea voyage to my list of things to do this fall, just out of curiosity. I do have one underutilized wall in my office and one in my bedroom. I could fit more books in the office and maybe a wardrobe in the bedroom. But I want to redo the flooring in both rooms, so adding furniture is probably not the best plan for the moment.
Just as lovely was the fact that there was good sleeping weather, as it was nice and cool this morning. In fact, I had thought about eating breakfast on the patio, but it was a bit too chilly. I think it would have been pleasant if I'd been dressed instead of in my nightshirt and had put on a sweater, but I wasn't in the mood to get dressed before breakfast. Let us pause to ponder the magnitude of this: I would have needed a sweater to sit outside in Texas in August.
Aside from being done with music and art camp, yesterday's big excitement was the arrival of the Ikea catalog. I don't know why that gets me so excited. I've never been in an Ikea store and have never bought anything there. It's not even really my style, since I'm more into the Victorian look with dark wood (my house looks like a Bombay Company showroom). But still, this catalog is to me now what the Sears Christmas Wish Book was to me when I was a kid. I just like flipping through the pages and daydreaming about being all organized and having nifty places to put everything. Then I realized something: one cool thing about the rooms they show in this catalog is that they look like the way people live, not like "catalog" rooms. In the bedrooms, the beds are always unmade, which makes them look inviting. You just want to crawl under the covers and snuggle. When they show bookcases full of books, they're not neatly arranged by color or height. They're piled in every which way, sometimes with books placed horizontally across the top of shelved books. Their bookcases look like my bookcases. Then there are usually books piled up on end tables and coffee tables. It's a rather brilliant psychological sales ploy because it makes their dream home seem attainable. You don't look at the pristine catalog layouts and think "Yeah, that'll never happen." The beds are unmade, books and papers are piled everywhere, and it still looks lovely, so you think you could make your house look like that if you just bought that stuff.
However, it wouldn't do much for me because of that not having walls issue. Going vertically and using your walls to store and organize stuff is a great idea, but doesn't work so well in mostly open-plan houses with few interior walls and exterior walls that are mostly windows.
I may add an Ikea voyage to my list of things to do this fall, just out of curiosity. I do have one underutilized wall in my office and one in my bedroom. I could fit more books in the office and maybe a wardrobe in the bedroom. But I want to redo the flooring in both rooms, so adding furniture is probably not the best plan for the moment.
August 15, 2013
Seasonal Trends
I'm now through with music and art camp. Hooray! This was a good group. I didn't have any real discipline problems, aside from the special needs kids who sometimes went out of control, and there wasn't any fighting or rivalry among the kids. I never had to intervene on anything that looked like bullying, and there didn't seem to be anyone being shunned. I was so proud of one of my former choir kids when she was paired with one of the special needs girls in the instrument class, and she was so good at helping her and being patient.
But still, they're very, very noisy even when they're being quiet. They got into my game of playing ninja as we went from session to session, sneaking up on the people at the next place, and that meant it went down to a dull roar instead of sounding like an invading army with guns blazing and artillery support.
Then today because we're in an odd August cool snap and I could go outdoors without bursting into flame, I walked to the library when I got home. Now I'm nice and tired.
Because if it's worth analyzing, it's worth over-analyzing, I've been thinking about my writing production this summer. My grand plan was to really work hard this summer and then be able to take the fall off, since fall's my favorite time of year. But then in thinking about when I've done my best writing, it's always been in the fall or winter. I haven't written many books in the summer, and they've usually been a bit of a struggle. That presents me with a dilemma. Fall seems to be my most productive writing time, but it's also my favorite time for doing stuff. Every year when I've been frantically writing in the fall, I say that next year I won't be doing so because there are all those things I want to do.
Well, this year, I don't have an impending deadline. My revisions on the steampunk book are due May 1, according to the contract, and I haven't even received notes yet. I'm working on a book, but it doesn't have an urgent due date. Because I'm more productive in the fall, I can usually get more done in less time. So the Grand Plan for the fall is to plan the things I want to do, and then fit the writing in around those things. I don't have to take the entire season off in order to do fun fall things. In fact, most days, I won't want to go out. It's all about balance, which I tend not to be very good at. Now I need to make a list of things I want to do and look at carving out time to do them. I won't try to schedule them too far in advance because some of them are weather-dependent, but I can make a checklist.
When I look at what I do get done in the summer, it seems to be a good time for brainstorming and research. Putting words together is a challenge, but it's a good time for me to be reading background material, doing plot outlines and character sketches. I started doing the background work for Enchanted, Inc. about ten years ago at this time of year, but I didn't start writing until early October. I did the reading, research and brainstorming for the first book in the series I'm currently playing with in the summer and wrote the first draft in the fall. I did all the research, reading, planning, etc. for the steampunk book during the summer. So, apparently, if I want to start something new and dig into the background, this is a great time to do it. It's not a good time to be working on a first draft.
Unfortunately, I had this revelation after a couple of months of frustration and right before summer starts winding down. I've got less than two weeks before WorldCon, and then when I get back from that, it will be September and while we'll still be having summer-ish weather, my brain will be in fall mode. But next summer, I'll plan some R&D, not a first draft.
But still, they're very, very noisy even when they're being quiet. They got into my game of playing ninja as we went from session to session, sneaking up on the people at the next place, and that meant it went down to a dull roar instead of sounding like an invading army with guns blazing and artillery support.
Then today because we're in an odd August cool snap and I could go outdoors without bursting into flame, I walked to the library when I got home. Now I'm nice and tired.
Because if it's worth analyzing, it's worth over-analyzing, I've been thinking about my writing production this summer. My grand plan was to really work hard this summer and then be able to take the fall off, since fall's my favorite time of year. But then in thinking about when I've done my best writing, it's always been in the fall or winter. I haven't written many books in the summer, and they've usually been a bit of a struggle. That presents me with a dilemma. Fall seems to be my most productive writing time, but it's also my favorite time for doing stuff. Every year when I've been frantically writing in the fall, I say that next year I won't be doing so because there are all those things I want to do.
Well, this year, I don't have an impending deadline. My revisions on the steampunk book are due May 1, according to the contract, and I haven't even received notes yet. I'm working on a book, but it doesn't have an urgent due date. Because I'm more productive in the fall, I can usually get more done in less time. So the Grand Plan for the fall is to plan the things I want to do, and then fit the writing in around those things. I don't have to take the entire season off in order to do fun fall things. In fact, most days, I won't want to go out. It's all about balance, which I tend not to be very good at. Now I need to make a list of things I want to do and look at carving out time to do them. I won't try to schedule them too far in advance because some of them are weather-dependent, but I can make a checklist.
When I look at what I do get done in the summer, it seems to be a good time for brainstorming and research. Putting words together is a challenge, but it's a good time for me to be reading background material, doing plot outlines and character sketches. I started doing the background work for Enchanted, Inc. about ten years ago at this time of year, but I didn't start writing until early October. I did the reading, research and brainstorming for the first book in the series I'm currently playing with in the summer and wrote the first draft in the fall. I did all the research, reading, planning, etc. for the steampunk book during the summer. So, apparently, if I want to start something new and dig into the background, this is a great time to do it. It's not a good time to be working on a first draft.
Unfortunately, I had this revelation after a couple of months of frustration and right before summer starts winding down. I've got less than two weeks before WorldCon, and then when I get back from that, it will be September and while we'll still be having summer-ish weather, my brain will be in fall mode. But next summer, I'll plan some R&D, not a first draft.
August 14, 2013
Picking at It
I've survived another day of music and art camp. One of my special needs girls was a bit more of a handful today. She was a little on the outs with her best friend, which meant she didn't have her usual security blanket, and so not only was she being enough of a pill to her friend that we had to intervene, but she also was unhappy in general. I think she was mostly just overwhelmed. She seems to have the most issues in loud activities like choir and instruments, so I think noise bothers her. By the end of the day, I kind of wanted to join her under the table where she was hiding out. I made the other adults just let her stay there for a while because it obviously soothed her. Meanwhile, I had a few kids who didn't quite grasp the group split for a couple of the activities, so I had some missing. I made sure they were in the other group instead of missing and then left it at that rather than interrupting that class to make them switch. I ended up doing a lot of running around today.
I never did take that nap yesterday because I decided it was better to really be tired so I could sleep well at night, and that seems to have worked, but I'm just as tired today, anyway. This thing only lasts from 9 to noon, but I feel like I've worked a whole day. I have a feeling I'll need most of Friday to recover. Then it will be time to get ready for WorldCon.
I was beating myself up over my lack of writing progress, then I reminded myself that I'm not on a deadline, and the previous book in this potential series took me three years to write, off and on. It was more off than on, as I wrote four other books in that time, but it did take that much time to work it all out. I'm normally a plotter, but plotting fails me in this world. Things just seem to happen that I didn't plan or prepare for. Characters keep secrets, and when I learn those secrets, it changes everything. I keep having those "Oh, so that's what's been going on" moments. So I just have to accept that it will be slow going. I haven't sold the first one yet, so there's no huge rush. I'd just like to have this one finished by the time either the first one sells or I make the decision to self-publish the first one. So I will keep plugging, but this isn't going to be one of those books that practically writes itself in a month. It's a "pick at it a little bit at a time" book.
So now I'll get some tea and try to pick at it a bit.
I never did take that nap yesterday because I decided it was better to really be tired so I could sleep well at night, and that seems to have worked, but I'm just as tired today, anyway. This thing only lasts from 9 to noon, but I feel like I've worked a whole day. I have a feeling I'll need most of Friday to recover. Then it will be time to get ready for WorldCon.
I was beating myself up over my lack of writing progress, then I reminded myself that I'm not on a deadline, and the previous book in this potential series took me three years to write, off and on. It was more off than on, as I wrote four other books in that time, but it did take that much time to work it all out. I'm normally a plotter, but plotting fails me in this world. Things just seem to happen that I didn't plan or prepare for. Characters keep secrets, and when I learn those secrets, it changes everything. I keep having those "Oh, so that's what's been going on" moments. So I just have to accept that it will be slow going. I haven't sold the first one yet, so there's no huge rush. I'd just like to have this one finished by the time either the first one sells or I make the decision to self-publish the first one. So I will keep plugging, but this isn't going to be one of those books that practically writes itself in a month. It's a "pick at it a little bit at a time" book.
So now I'll get some tea and try to pick at it a bit.
August 13, 2013
Fear, Uncertainty, Doubt, and Meltdowns
I survived my first day of music and art camp. It actually wasn't too bad. I don't seem to have any real behavior issues. It helps that most of my teen helpers are guys, and there seem to be fewer behavior problems when there are teen guys around. They're on the same wavelength with the boys and can get them to listen (and came up with running games during recess/snack time, so the boys were too tired to act up the rest of the morning), and the girls want to impress them, so they're on their best behavior. My main challenge is that I have two special needs kids in my group. Apparently, that was interesting on Monday because they made the good-on-paper decision to put one special needs kid in each group instead of both in the same group. Most of the time, the whole first-grade group is together, but there are a couple of activities where there need to be fewer kids, so we split during that time. These two kids are best friends and something like security blankets for each other, so when they split, one kid tried to wander off and look for the other and then had a meltdown when she was stopped. The solution was to put them together, and then they were perfectly happy. I've got a teen helper, one of my buddies from last summer's trip, dedicated to them, and I just had to intervene once when they were dividing the group into teams by counting off ones and twos, which put them in separate groups. Before the meltdown could start, I sent another kid to the other team and kept them together.
Now I'm exhausted from running around all morning. It probably didn't help that I did all the activities with the kids, including the movement session that was mostly dance-like. But I figure it counts as exercise, and I think it's a good example to the kids for the adults to participate. My main problem, though, was that I didn't sleep too well last night. I got all caught up in mentally planning the next scene I need to write and then in mentally composing a response to Best Buy. They had the "how did we do, please take our survey" thing on the receipt, so I decided to tell them what I thought about the way they push the service plan at checkout. The manager of my store responded to ask for the transaction code so he could counsel the employee. That means he missed the point entirely. She was giving the corporate-mandated sales pitch. The problem is that the sales pitch is really stupid. I'm guessing that the service plan and the products are in different corporate silos and they don't think about how one affects the other. They're using the Fear, Uncertainty and Doubt sales technique to sell their service plans, but in doing so, they're attaching the fear, uncertainty and doubt to their products, and they're doing so in their last interaction with the customer before the customer leaves the store. So you go to the cash register all excited about your new purchase only to be told about all the things that could go wrong with it. It's like shopping with Eeyore. This could explain why the store seems to be a ghost town. When you end up feeling bad after buying something, you don't go back to that place. This seems to be new for Best Buy. I shopped there because that was the one place that didn't pull stuff like that. Anyway, I spent a lot of time mentally composing something to that effect because I don't want the cashier to get in trouble for doing what she was probably told to do. She was clearly sticking to a script.
But before I do that, I think I'll take at least a short nap because I'm barely keeping my eyes open and I have ballet tonight.
Now I'm exhausted from running around all morning. It probably didn't help that I did all the activities with the kids, including the movement session that was mostly dance-like. But I figure it counts as exercise, and I think it's a good example to the kids for the adults to participate. My main problem, though, was that I didn't sleep too well last night. I got all caught up in mentally planning the next scene I need to write and then in mentally composing a response to Best Buy. They had the "how did we do, please take our survey" thing on the receipt, so I decided to tell them what I thought about the way they push the service plan at checkout. The manager of my store responded to ask for the transaction code so he could counsel the employee. That means he missed the point entirely. She was giving the corporate-mandated sales pitch. The problem is that the sales pitch is really stupid. I'm guessing that the service plan and the products are in different corporate silos and they don't think about how one affects the other. They're using the Fear, Uncertainty and Doubt sales technique to sell their service plans, but in doing so, they're attaching the fear, uncertainty and doubt to their products, and they're doing so in their last interaction with the customer before the customer leaves the store. So you go to the cash register all excited about your new purchase only to be told about all the things that could go wrong with it. It's like shopping with Eeyore. This could explain why the store seems to be a ghost town. When you end up feeling bad after buying something, you don't go back to that place. This seems to be new for Best Buy. I shopped there because that was the one place that didn't pull stuff like that. Anyway, I spent a lot of time mentally composing something to that effect because I don't want the cashier to get in trouble for doing what she was probably told to do. She was clearly sticking to a script.
But before I do that, I think I'll take at least a short nap because I'm barely keeping my eyes open and I have ballet tonight.
August 12, 2013
Typical Monday
I hope the way the week started isn't going to be an indication of how it goes, since I had a dentist appointment this morning. That meant spending the morning lying upside down with my mouth open. So, basically, the typical Monday. I guess it wasn't too bad. No cavities, my gums are getting better, and since they also check blood pressure, that was good, too. I got the "stick with the flossing" lecture (rather than the "floss more" lecture) and a timer to make sure I brush long enough to avoid the tea stains, and then I'm in the clear for another six months.
After that, I finally bought my birthday present, speakers for my TV. In a fun twist, the ones I'd been looking at last week and didn't get were on sale this week. But shopping at Best Buy has become like buying a car, where the sales guy tells you how great a product is, then when you go to the money person to actually buy, they start telling you how you'd better buy the service plan/extended warranty because it's probably going to blow up and fall apart within about thirty seconds. I'm guessing they're making most of their profit these days on those service plans. You know, telling people about all the horrible things that can happen to the thing they're buying as they're buying it might not be the best sales strategy. They even have a chart of all the potential product failures on the checkout counter. I'm always tempted to say, "Wow, if it's that terrible a product, I don't want it at all," and then walk out, leaving it there. I actually came very close to doing that when I bought my car and they locked me in the room with the guy telling me about all the things that would go wrong if I didn't buy the extended warranty.
Of course, shopping for speakers for the TV made me start looking at TVs and how much better they are now than when I got mine, and then that means I need a new TV stand to hold a larger TV and all the cable boxes, DVD players, etc. When I bought the current TV stand, it held a TV and a VCR. I don't really have time to deal with it all right now, but I may be tempted in the fall, since I'm actually making money this year and should make money next year.
I've just realized that I have two and a half weeks before WorldCon, which means I need to take a look at my pre-travel to-do list. I may have to cross off "finish writing a book" since there are more critical things, like getting my car serviced, doing any necessary shopping, etc. This week is going to be busy, since it's music and art camp at church. I got off today because of the dentist appointment, but then I have to go Tuesday through Thursday. Fortunately, I have first grade, which means mostly the same kids I had in choir for the past two years. I just have to herd them around, not plan anything. However, choir starts the day after I get home from WorldCon, so I have some planning to do there.
Now that I've scared myself with how much I have to do, I guess I'd better get on it, huh?
After that, I finally bought my birthday present, speakers for my TV. In a fun twist, the ones I'd been looking at last week and didn't get were on sale this week. But shopping at Best Buy has become like buying a car, where the sales guy tells you how great a product is, then when you go to the money person to actually buy, they start telling you how you'd better buy the service plan/extended warranty because it's probably going to blow up and fall apart within about thirty seconds. I'm guessing they're making most of their profit these days on those service plans. You know, telling people about all the horrible things that can happen to the thing they're buying as they're buying it might not be the best sales strategy. They even have a chart of all the potential product failures on the checkout counter. I'm always tempted to say, "Wow, if it's that terrible a product, I don't want it at all," and then walk out, leaving it there. I actually came very close to doing that when I bought my car and they locked me in the room with the guy telling me about all the things that would go wrong if I didn't buy the extended warranty.
Of course, shopping for speakers for the TV made me start looking at TVs and how much better they are now than when I got mine, and then that means I need a new TV stand to hold a larger TV and all the cable boxes, DVD players, etc. When I bought the current TV stand, it held a TV and a VCR. I don't really have time to deal with it all right now, but I may be tempted in the fall, since I'm actually making money this year and should make money next year.
I've just realized that I have two and a half weeks before WorldCon, which means I need to take a look at my pre-travel to-do list. I may have to cross off "finish writing a book" since there are more critical things, like getting my car serviced, doing any necessary shopping, etc. This week is going to be busy, since it's music and art camp at church. I got off today because of the dentist appointment, but then I have to go Tuesday through Thursday. Fortunately, I have first grade, which means mostly the same kids I had in choir for the past two years. I just have to herd them around, not plan anything. However, choir starts the day after I get home from WorldCon, so I have some planning to do there.
Now that I've scared myself with how much I have to do, I guess I'd better get on it, huh?
August 9, 2013
The Grand Day Out
I finally had my Grand Day Out. I took the train to near downtown to see the Joss Whedon Much Ado About Nothing. It's playing at one theater in the area, one that's very inconveniently located for driving to, but I can catch the train not too far from my house and the station is next to the theater. There's a new midday fare with unlimited rides between 9:30 and 2:30 for $1.75, which is cheaper than the gallon or so of gas it would take to make the round trip, and the movie was showing at 11 a.m., perfectly in that timeframe. But it does involve leaving the house for an extended period of time, so I've been putting off doing it even when I wasn't waiting for contractors. As the train went through downtown, I noticed a number of changes and things that look fun to do, so I'll have to plan another Grand Day Out for the fall when I can more comfortably walk around outside.
As for the movie itself, I may need to see it again to really judge because I had a bad case of cognitive dissonance. A lot of the actors involved are very familiar to me from one particular role, but I've only seen them in occasional bit parts outside that one role, other than seeing them in person at the Serenity premiere, so it's really hard to mentally separate the actors from those iconic characters. Then because the casting was all in the family, so to speak, they were with the other actors I'm used to seeing them with, which makes it even harder to separate them from the familiar roles.
So it took some getting used to the idea of our sweet, innocent Simon from Firefly (who doesn't seem to have aged a day since then) playing the villain, even though he did so brilliantly. It took me half the movie to get used to Alexis Denisof's American accent. He's the unusual case of an actor who does both British and American and neither accent is really "fake" because he's an American who lived in England a long time, did his acting training there and started his career there. But his American accent seems to come from a different place in his body than his British accent, so his voice sounds entirely different, depending on which accent he uses, and that means not only getting used to the different accent but a different voice. And then the fact that he was playing opposite Amy Acker yet again didn't make it any easier to separate Benedick and Beatrice from Wes and Fred or Illyria.
But once I settled into it and convinced myself of who these characters were instead of focusing on who the actors were, it was a lot of fun. I was really impressed with Amy Acker, who sometimes irks me. Perhaps the fact that it seems to be required by law that she make a guest appearance in every science fiction or fantasy television series made it easier to just accept her character instead of being caught up in her most familiar role. I think the problem with her isn't so much her but the fact that she tends to get typecast in the "manic nerdy dream girl" roles where she's all squeaky and twitchy. Rewatching Angel made me really hate Fred and start mentally rewriting the series to remove her, but then she was amazing when Fred became Illyria the hell goddess (and that was when she and Denisof really hit it out of the park working together). I wanted to shoot her in Once Upon a Time, but she was wonderful as the soccer mom spider woman on Grimm. Her Beatrice here was less bitchy than she tends to be played, more cynical and world-weary, and she sounded so natural that it was easy to forget she was doing Shakespeare.
I think the added implication that Beatrice and Benedick had previously hooked up in a way that ended badly and then still had to associate with each other because they ran in the same crowd helped add some layers to their interaction. I've always loved the Benedick/Beatrice part of this play, and it scratches my romantic comedy itch, and this added layer makes it less of a "hate you, hate you, love you" thing, and less that they're so easily manipulated, and more that they're both masking hurt feelings -- and the hurt comes from the fact that there were feelings to be hurt. More than in most versions, I did get a sense of them coming together and actually liking each other. The physical comedy was hilarious, but when they got serious, it was breathtaking. I will say that Alexis Denisof doesn't photograph well. Yeah, he's very good-looking on film, but that is the most gorgeous man I've ever seen in my life. I actually gasped when I saw him at the Serenity premiere, and not because I recognized him and realized who he was. It was more a case of "Wow, check him out. Oh, wait, that's him?"
The Claudio/Hero story is problematic and will be as long as they're using the original text, not so much because the fact that she's not a virgin is enough to call off the wedding, but because of one of my romantic comedy pet peeves, where there's a misunderstanding in which one party leaps to the worst possible conclusion about the other, refusing to listen to the other person's side of the story, and then when there's evidence that it was all a lie or misunderstanding, everything's okay. The wronged person doesn't have a problem with the fact that this person who supposedly loved her was so eager to believe the worst of her once he realizes he was wrong.
I may get this one on DVD, just because I like that play and I love the feel of this production. I also covet Amy Acker's wardrobe in it, but I'm not sure it would work with my figure. She's about four inches taller than I am and about half my size (I felt spherical in her presence, and my dress size is in the low single digits).
I didn't end up getting my planned birthday present, since by the time I got back to my station, I was tired and hungry. It's something I'll need to get at Target, and that won't be a safe place this weekend because it's the sales tax holiday weekend, with no tax on clothes or school supplies. That always amuses me because if you advertised an 8 percent off sale, no one would care, but people mob the stores thinking this is such a huge deal. Thanks for the iPod info. I may have found a different media player I can use on my phone, but I don't know that it would work for my needs because I know I'd end up leaving my phone connected to the stereo and forget to bring it with me. A dedicated music player would be easier. That's a very low-priority item, though, since about 90 percent of the time, I prefer complete silence.
Now I must get back to the book so I can take Grand Days Out in the fall. My plan was to really push it this summer and then relax in the fall, but it hasn't quite worked out that way.
As for the movie itself, I may need to see it again to really judge because I had a bad case of cognitive dissonance. A lot of the actors involved are very familiar to me from one particular role, but I've only seen them in occasional bit parts outside that one role, other than seeing them in person at the Serenity premiere, so it's really hard to mentally separate the actors from those iconic characters. Then because the casting was all in the family, so to speak, they were with the other actors I'm used to seeing them with, which makes it even harder to separate them from the familiar roles.
So it took some getting used to the idea of our sweet, innocent Simon from Firefly (who doesn't seem to have aged a day since then) playing the villain, even though he did so brilliantly. It took me half the movie to get used to Alexis Denisof's American accent. He's the unusual case of an actor who does both British and American and neither accent is really "fake" because he's an American who lived in England a long time, did his acting training there and started his career there. But his American accent seems to come from a different place in his body than his British accent, so his voice sounds entirely different, depending on which accent he uses, and that means not only getting used to the different accent but a different voice. And then the fact that he was playing opposite Amy Acker yet again didn't make it any easier to separate Benedick and Beatrice from Wes and Fred or Illyria.
But once I settled into it and convinced myself of who these characters were instead of focusing on who the actors were, it was a lot of fun. I was really impressed with Amy Acker, who sometimes irks me. Perhaps the fact that it seems to be required by law that she make a guest appearance in every science fiction or fantasy television series made it easier to just accept her character instead of being caught up in her most familiar role. I think the problem with her isn't so much her but the fact that she tends to get typecast in the "manic nerdy dream girl" roles where she's all squeaky and twitchy. Rewatching Angel made me really hate Fred and start mentally rewriting the series to remove her, but then she was amazing when Fred became Illyria the hell goddess (and that was when she and Denisof really hit it out of the park working together). I wanted to shoot her in Once Upon a Time, but she was wonderful as the soccer mom spider woman on Grimm. Her Beatrice here was less bitchy than she tends to be played, more cynical and world-weary, and she sounded so natural that it was easy to forget she was doing Shakespeare.
I think the added implication that Beatrice and Benedick had previously hooked up in a way that ended badly and then still had to associate with each other because they ran in the same crowd helped add some layers to their interaction. I've always loved the Benedick/Beatrice part of this play, and it scratches my romantic comedy itch, and this added layer makes it less of a "hate you, hate you, love you" thing, and less that they're so easily manipulated, and more that they're both masking hurt feelings -- and the hurt comes from the fact that there were feelings to be hurt. More than in most versions, I did get a sense of them coming together and actually liking each other. The physical comedy was hilarious, but when they got serious, it was breathtaking. I will say that Alexis Denisof doesn't photograph well. Yeah, he's very good-looking on film, but that is the most gorgeous man I've ever seen in my life. I actually gasped when I saw him at the Serenity premiere, and not because I recognized him and realized who he was. It was more a case of "Wow, check him out. Oh, wait, that's him?"
The Claudio/Hero story is problematic and will be as long as they're using the original text, not so much because the fact that she's not a virgin is enough to call off the wedding, but because of one of my romantic comedy pet peeves, where there's a misunderstanding in which one party leaps to the worst possible conclusion about the other, refusing to listen to the other person's side of the story, and then when there's evidence that it was all a lie or misunderstanding, everything's okay. The wronged person doesn't have a problem with the fact that this person who supposedly loved her was so eager to believe the worst of her once he realizes he was wrong.
I may get this one on DVD, just because I like that play and I love the feel of this production. I also covet Amy Acker's wardrobe in it, but I'm not sure it would work with my figure. She's about four inches taller than I am and about half my size (I felt spherical in her presence, and my dress size is in the low single digits).
I didn't end up getting my planned birthday present, since by the time I got back to my station, I was tired and hungry. It's something I'll need to get at Target, and that won't be a safe place this weekend because it's the sales tax holiday weekend, with no tax on clothes or school supplies. That always amuses me because if you advertised an 8 percent off sale, no one would care, but people mob the stores thinking this is such a huge deal. Thanks for the iPod info. I may have found a different media player I can use on my phone, but I don't know that it would work for my needs because I know I'd end up leaving my phone connected to the stereo and forget to bring it with me. A dedicated music player would be easier. That's a very low-priority item, though, since about 90 percent of the time, I prefer complete silence.
Now I must get back to the book so I can take Grand Days Out in the fall. My plan was to really push it this summer and then relax in the fall, but it hasn't quite worked out that way.
