Leigh Bardugo's Blog, page 888

Weekend reading: The Young, the Restless, and me

I like genre bouncing. Keeps me spry. On my list this weekend: A friend's dystopian manuscript,  Donna Tartt's THE SECRET HISTORY, and another friend's "The Young & the Restless" script.

The dystopian is great and THE SECRET HISTORY is, thus far, amazing–  lulls you into a wingtip-wearing intellectual stupor, then rocks you to the core. But let's talk about the Y&R spec because I know nothing about soaps and I found it totally fascinating.

1. Soaps have a very peculiar pace: Big revelations followed by incremental change. The plot moves so slowly that that it can seem like nothing is happening at all, but watch closely– every single scene advances the story. It's like time lapse photography but with more adultery.

2. That slow crawl is tolerable because the stakes are so high. Something major is always hanging in the balance (a life, a marriage, the family business) and, even if the characters are just ordering pizza, the emotional pitch of a scene is always ratcheted up to somewhere between "omg" and "s*** is about to get crazy."

Move the plot forward. Keep the stakes high. Good lessons from Genoa City.

If you kiss me, I turn into a watch.

Picked up this ring by local designer Kiki at UniqueLA. She makes a lot of massive, marvelous, sparkly pieces and each is unique, but I instantly knew this was the ring for me. Frog, lily pad, and pond included.

New Year Nouveau

Here is another shot of the headdress I assembled for the New Year Art Nouveau Bash. The headband is by local designer Kittinhawk. The rest is just faux flowers, baubles and a lot of hairpins.

The inspiration: Alphonse Mucha

And the original shot I posted to twitter with some color tweaks:

That's how it starts

"Auld lang syne" translates as "olden times" or "days gone by." But I just found out that it's also the Scots equivalent of "Once upon a time" (or, if you really want to stretch it, "In a galaxy far, far away").

Last year, I spent New Year's Eve with friends in Palm Springs. At some point, a list of resolutions made the rounds and I wrote, "Finish my novel." I don't know what happened to that piece of paper, if they burned it or laminated it or made it into an origami swan, but that may be the first (the only?) resolution I've ever kept.

This has been a magical year. I finished my book, got a wonderful agent, got a book deal. I couldn't be more glad and grateful, and it feels very right that, when midnight rolls around, I will start the New Year singing, "Once upon a time."

Holiday post-mortem: Songs that don't make me stabby

I actually don't hate Christmas music. "Jingle Bell Rock" used to make me want to do murder, but I guess the brainwashing is complete because it's grown on me in recent years. That said, I also like a hefty dose of melancholy with my holiday cheer. (Do I feel like dancing or drowning myself in the punchbowl? Hard to say.)

These are two favorites from this year's Christmas playlist:

Winter Song by Ingrid Michaelson and Sarah Bareilles

All that I Want by The Weepies