Jul 13, 2005 | Uncategorized
No, Oprah didn't call me, darn it. But, someone who has been a featured guest on her show did. Mr. Wally Amos, formerly of Famous Amos Cookies, called me on Monday morning to apologize personally for missing our meeting on Saturday. What a nice, classy man. He didn't make any excuses. He said he just plain forgot; he had out-of-town company and got busy with them and forgot until the afternoon that he had somewhere he was supposed to be that morning. We are going to reschedule. He said he made a comittment and he honors his commitments. Like I said, classy guy. Wonder if I can get a recipe…..
I finally called my university yesterday and just gave them their lousy $15. Who needs the hassle? Apparently, though the amorphous charge has never appeared on my account, they've put a financial hold on my activities, meaning I can't register or anything. Sheesh. Fifteen bucks, people. And I've already got all the credits I need, with the exception of this blasted 5 hour thesis, so give me a break. I'm not registering for anything, except the thesis anyway.
The point, however, is that the brief contact with the academic world left me panicking about this thesis. I have GOT to get busy on it. I have 7 pages written. I need at the very least 50. Knowing me, it will be nearly twice that. So, I've decided to give myself a deadline. I have to finish my novel by the end of July. Then, I have to work on the thesis and get at least the first two chapters drafted by the end of August. My mentor wants to use my work on the second chapter for a class he's teaching in the Fall. I've known this for months.
I suppose I need to cut myself off from the ‘net for the rest of the month. I probably won't handle that very well. It is necessary, however, so my blog will be on hold, or only populated by tiny entries, for the rest of the month. Okay, yes, tiny entries. That makes me happier. Progress reports, I suppose.
Quick progress report on my WIP: I have 174 pages. I need 280 – 300. I'm on page 83 in my revision with many pages still to be chopped. This is Debra Dixon's fault. GMC has put me in this position. I can salvage some of what I have, but there are some scenes that are completely irrelevant now. I imagine I will lose 40 pages or so of irrelevant stuff. Not really sure yet.
Aloha.
Jul 12, 2005 | Uncategorized
Submarine trip, (c) Lynn Raye Harris 
Jul 11, 2005 | Uncategorized
Not much accomplished over the weekend. I did begin to read the manuscript of Strong Currents 2, the Aloha Chapter's anthology that's been on the backburner for the past two years or so. I am not an official editor of the book, so probably won't appear as such in the credits, but I volunteered to help the current harried editor. Someone else started out as editor a very long time ago, but I'm not sure what happened there. I think she was an extremely busy person with kids and a job and school, etc, and her time to edit wasn't too much, especially when she also needed to write her own work. Me, I'm just a lazy stay-at-home-with-no-income writer who still has very little time to do these things. But, I love my chapter and want to help!
As if I don't have enough to read, I couldn't resist starting The Rule of Four by Ian Caldwell and Dustin Thomason last night. If you remember anything about last year, you probably remember the hype on this book written by two Princeton graduates and lifelong pals. Someone, maybe both of them, is an excellent writer. A sentence in particular that I love: “[…] literature is just an educated man's shell game, three card monte for the college crowd: what you see is never what you get.” LOL, so true! And this sentence on the first page is a beauty: “A son is the promise that time makes to a man, the guarantee every father receives that whatever he holds dear will someday be considered foolish, and that the person he loves best in the world will misunderstand him.” That is poetry, sheer gorgeous writing that is timeless and will probably find its way into the three card monte game at some point in the future.
BUT. (You knew there was a but, right?) I began this book right before bed, lying propped up on my pillows and reading just for a little light entertainment before turning off the light. And you know what? It was easy to put the book down and turn off the light. In spite of gorgeous sentences sprinkled throughout the first 20 pages (I underlined 3, which is not quite usual, especially with pop fiction. It took me 3/4's of the book to underline anything in Willa Cather's Death Comes for the Archbishop, for instance), there was no pressing reason to keep reading. The hooks weren't there. The ending chapter hook for chapter one is that these 4 young men are going into the tunnels to play laser tag. So freakin' what. Ho hum.
I will keep reading, because I am naturally curious about the hype and because someone is, as I said, a good writer. But where's the drama? Shouldn't it appear immediately? Why am I getting backstory (a beginner's mistake for sure) in the first chapter? The prologue is necessary and a teaser, probably, to keep the reader engaged. But chapter one is nothing but setup. Laser tag? I don't care how they got into those tunnels. Get them down there and then tell me about it (assuming the tunnels and this game are important to the book; this I don't yet know). Engage me as a reader first, toss me into stormy waters, yank the liferaft out from under me, and tell me to swim. This is a suspense novel. Where is the sense of urgency?
Okay, I'm bitching because I can, and I do think these guys are talented and will deliver (at least I hope so), but I hope they will in the future cut to the chase a bit sooner. I haven't read that uber-famous novel about a code named after a certain Italian master, but I did once peruse the prologue while standing in the bookstore (I want to read it, but refuse to buy it on principle–how long must you force the masses to pay for hardcover novels when the standard is to move into paperback in a year or so? Do these people not have enough money yet?). Something dramatic happens in the prologue. It ends with a hook. You want to turn the page. I did not want to turn the page after I finished chapter one in this book. I wanted to go to sleep.
I should say, too, that I am a somewhat patient reader (doesn't sound like it, I know). I am willing to give the writer the benefit of the doubt and to believe he or she intends to give me a good story. I will go through pages of set-up with that belief. I get cranky when the set-up drags on though.
Looks like I am running out of time. My kitchen timer has 6 minutes left. Can't believe I've managed to read three NYT articles, read email, read a couple of blogs, and write in my own in an hour. Time flies when you're having fun. 🙂 Aloha.
Jul 10, 2005 | Uncategorized
Yeah, and that means I get to change my mind a million times. Or stand at the Taco Bell counter and try to figure out what I want while my husband taps his foot and tries to rush me because he knew what he wanted before we ever got there. So, I changed my template. The white was getting to be too white, too blah. Pink is so Romance. Who knows what I'll want next week. 🙂
RWA meeting today was good. Guest speaker was a no show. I don't know why. I shall have to suss out this mystery next week. Perhaps his assistant got confused. Perhaps he got confused. Who knows.
The good part was that we have three potential new members, and one visitor who finally decided to take the plunge and join. Of course they have to join National first, which can be a bit daunting for some folks. Still, I think the three today are good candidates.
Lunch after was a hoot. A lot of that had to do with my husband, the non-professional comedian. I dragged him along to swell the audience for our missing guest speaker, so lunch was going to be interesting no matter what. And he was right on cue with the hilarity. I have promised not to bring him again until our end-of-year luncheon in November. Ha!
Not much to say today. I have a headache, brought on by stress. I was pretty embarassed about the no-show since I am the one who is in charge of the speaker program. But, typical to the type of friends I've made over the years in RWA, everyone told me not to worry, it wasn't my fault, and heck we had fun anyway. I love these gals (and guy, since we do have one in our chapter!).
Aloha.
Jul 9, 2005 | Uncategorized
(c) Lynn Raye Harris
