Sandra Gulland's Blog, page 47
December 18, 2009
Thinking ahead to the New Year
Years ago, I suggested at New Year's Eve dinner with my husband and our two grown kids that we make resolutions for the following year. This met with groans (especially seeing my pen and pad of paper in hand), but we began, going around and around the table. It was charming and challenging.
The following year, I pulled out that list. We laughed and groaned and gloated over resolutions kept, and those completely forgotten. And then we made resolutions for the year ahead...
Now we look forward to the tradition. (Our daughter shocked us all last year by saying that she was going to buy a house -- and she did!) I accomplished my most important goal: to finish the first draft of my next novel. Other goals — those having to do with exercise and weight control — have been, as always, sketchy. We'll cheer and moan over resolutions met or failed, and give careful thought voicing our intentions for the year ahead. I'm thinking about making the resolution to complete the second and third drafts. Gulp.
Get more on Sandra Gulland at SimonandSchuster.com
The following year, I pulled out that list. We laughed and groaned and gloated over resolutions kept, and those completely forgotten. And then we made resolutions for the year ahead...
Now we look forward to the tradition. (Our daughter shocked us all last year by saying that she was going to buy a house -- and she did!) I accomplished my most important goal: to finish the first draft of my next novel. Other goals — those having to do with exercise and weight control — have been, as always, sketchy. We'll cheer and moan over resolutions met or failed, and give careful thought voicing our intentions for the year ahead. I'm thinking about making the resolution to complete the second and third drafts. Gulp.
Get more on Sandra Gulland at SimonandSchuster.com
December 5, 2009
Distracted by software
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I'm on a Mac (I'm one of the Fervent Faithful) and have been using Microsoft Word forever. I use many of its bells and whistles: comments, hidden text, footnotes, styles. My relationship with Word is conflicted, however: I use Word 2004 because I find Word 2008 impossibly confusing. And lately, Word 2004 has been sluggish and — worse — buggy. Several times in a day it has crashed on me; I've lost work and had to retrace. This is a terrible problem!
So I've been looking into alternatives...
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I'm on a Mac (I'm one of the Fervent Faithful) and have been using Microsoft Word forever. I use many of its bells and whistles: comments, hidden text, footnotes, styles. My relationship with Word is conflicted, however: I use Word 2004 because I find Word 2008 impossibly confusing. And lately, Word 2004 has been sluggish and — worse — buggy. Several times in a day it has crashed on me; I've lost work and had to retrace. This is a terrible problem!
So I've been looking into alternatives...
December 3, 2009
Caroline Leavitt on Butler's "From Where You Dream"
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I'm a collector of books on writing, but few "speak" so clearly as Robert Olen Butler's FROM WHERE YOU DREAM. I've mentioned his book a number of times on this blog. It is within reach of my computer now, so I was pleased to see novelist Caroline Leavitt write about it on her blog today: here.
I've a flurry of things to do today. In addition to family and office matters, here's my writing-related to-do list. It's rather long, considering that I'm not, momentarily, actually writing.
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I'm a collector of books on writing, but few "speak" so clearly as Robert Olen Butler's FROM WHERE YOU DREAM. I've mentioned his book a number of times on this blog. It is within reach of my computer now, so I was pleased to see novelist Caroline Leavitt write about it on her blog today: here.
I've a flurry of things to do today. In addition to family and office matters, here's my writing-related to-do list. It's rather long, considering that I'm not, momentarily, actually writing.
Print...
November 29, 2009
Thoughts from an inch-sized heart
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Maybe it's travel fatigue, or maybe it's my advancing age . . . or perhaps it's a malaise many writers are dealing with now (and indeed, most everyone): the sense that things were more happening before. The sense that the peak of success is now in the past.
Wandering in and out of airport bookstores, knowing my books will not be there, telling myself not to even bother looking (and then glancing), and then wandering out, trying not to feel disappointment, admonishing myself for even...
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Maybe it's travel fatigue, or maybe it's my advancing age . . . or perhaps it's a malaise many writers are dealing with now (and indeed, most everyone): the sense that things were more happening before. The sense that the peak of success is now in the past.
Wandering in and out of airport bookstores, knowing my books will not be there, telling myself not to even bother looking (and then glancing), and then wandering out, trying not to feel disappointment, admonishing myself for even...
November 22, 2009
More on Mantel
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My blog posts here get automatically posted to my Facebook home page (but not, BTW, to my "fan" page, as I would like, for reasons I've yet to sort out). Typically, on Facebook, there can evolve quite a discussion, which is what happened to my post a week ago Friday, "Weeping over History." Margaret Donsbach, Katherine Mary Govier and I got into quite an interesting discussion about the POV Mantel used in her brilliant novel, Wolf Hall. Govier has now written an excellent review of that nov...
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My blog posts here get automatically posted to my Facebook home page (but not, BTW, to my "fan" page, as I would like, for reasons I've yet to sort out). Typically, on Facebook, there can evolve quite a discussion, which is what happened to my post a week ago Friday, "Weeping over History." Margaret Donsbach, Katherine Mary Govier and I got into quite an interesting discussion about the POV Mantel used in her brilliant novel, Wolf Hall. Govier has now written an excellent review of that nov...
November 18, 2009
On giving readings
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Since arriving in San Miguel de Allende — in addition to catching up with friends and getting resettled — I prepared for a talk/reading.
I had planned to give the same reading I had given in Toronto in the spring, but realized that I really needed to revise it, make it current.
Of course this meant endless revisions and print-outs in addition to talking it out, timing it, and then, ultimately, practicing it in front of a mirror.
As a rule of thumb, I try to talk it through three times on the d...
.
Since arriving in San Miguel de Allende — in addition to catching up with friends and getting resettled — I prepared for a talk/reading.
I had planned to give the same reading I had given in Toronto in the spring, but realized that I really needed to revise it, make it current.
Of course this meant endless revisions and print-outs in addition to talking it out, timing it, and then, ultimately, practicing it in front of a mirror.
As a rule of thumb, I try to talk it through three times on the d...
November 6, 2009
Weeping over history
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I highly recommend this wonderful article by Hilary Mantel, on researching Wolf Hall. I admire this writer more and more. (I had something to say about her writing in my previous post.)
"How It Must Have Been" is an insightful review of Wolf Hall by Stephen Greenblatt in the New York Review of Books. He has a lot of interesting things to say about Cromwell and the nature of historical fiction.
Greenblatt asks: What is historical fiction? His definition is more narrow than I would have it, foc...
.
I highly recommend this wonderful article by Hilary Mantel, on researching Wolf Hall. I admire this writer more and more. (I had something to say about her writing in my previous post.)"How It Must Have Been" is an insightful review of Wolf Hall by Stephen Greenblatt in the New York Review of Books. He has a lot of interesting things to say about Cromwell and the nature of historical fiction.
Greenblatt asks: What is historical fiction? His definition is more narrow than I would have it, foc...
October 30, 2009
In transit: the world's edge
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On Halloween we hit the road, in transit for several days, heading south. I've chosen Wolf Hall by Hilary Mantel (winner of the Booker prize) for my travel book, and I'm well pleased with my choice.
Before I say something about the novel, I'd like to say something about the production. This is the Canadian HarperCollins edition, and it's gorgeous. The cover is textured and lush — I prefer it to both the U.K. and U.S. editions. It has French flaps, a lovely flexible binding, rough-cut pages...
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On Halloween we hit the road, in transit for several days, heading south. I've chosen Wolf Hall by Hilary Mantel (winner of the Booker prize) for my travel book, and I'm well pleased with my choice.
Before I say something about the novel, I'd like to say something about the production. This is the Canadian HarperCollins edition, and it's gorgeous. The cover is textured and lush — I prefer it to both the U.K. and U.S. editions. It has French flaps, a lovely flexible binding, rough-cut pages...
Why we write
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I've mentioned Lauren B. Davis's wonderful blog on writing here before. Her post today — From this broken hill... — is especially moving. The video clip she includes of a performance of Leonard Cohen's "If it be your will" could be every writer's anthem.
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I've mentioned Lauren B. Davis's wonderful blog on writing here before. Her post today — From this broken hill... — is especially moving. The video clip she includes of a performance of Leonard Cohen's "If it be your will" could be every writer's anthem.
October 29, 2009
French edition cover news, and ... and ... !
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As readers of this blog know, I've been distressed over the cover of my French edition, La maîtress du soleil, which shows my blonde French character with jet black hair.
Now, after several sallies back and forth through my agent, the publisher has agreed to give the novel a new cover next spring, when it will be reissued: a heroine with blonde hair, as well as a more literary design. I'm relieved!
I'm also in the final signing stage for a film contract for a mini-series for the Josephine B...
. .
As readers of this blog know, I've been distressed over the cover of my French edition, La maîtress du soleil, which shows my blonde French character with jet black hair.Now, after several sallies back and forth through my agent, the publisher has agreed to give the novel a new cover next spring, when it will be reissued: a heroine with blonde hair, as well as a more literary design. I'm relieved!
I'm also in the final signing stage for a film contract for a mini-series for the Josephine B...
