Thursday, October 7, 2010

 On the Writing Front

VIRTUOSITY Revisions: ACCEPTED!!!  I’ve been sweating bullets over my new ending, but my editor loved it (thank you, Anica!) and the manuscript has been sent to copyediting.  Whatever that is.  Or maybe I should say wherever that is.  Maybe there’s a whole copyediting land with unicorns and cupcakes and free massages.  Hmmm, if so, I hope I get sent to copyediting someday…  (I'm not sure if I actually need to explain that I do have some idea of what copyediting entails or not.  Guess I just did.)

So just when I thought I could stop checking my email four times a minute, Anica told me they were having an open casting call for the cover model, and that if she's allowed to, she’ll send me a picture of the girl they choose!  Back to refreshing the inbox.  I really hope my Carmen doesn’t have a snaggletooth and a monobrow.   

The WIP.  I have got to name this thing so I can stop calling it that.  I’m rewriting, because apparently that is what I do.  My writing process needs some serious tweaking, but I’m not sure how to fix it.  I guess I write books by writing 80,000 words, then realizing I’ve finally found out who my character really is, but that isn’t the same person she was at the beginning of the book, and her story needs to be different too.  So I rewrite the book.  Totally.  It’s not that I don’t outline.  I just have to get to know her really well, the same way you get to know a real person, and that takes me a long time.  Maybe for the next book I’ll do some intensive Daniel Day Lewis style become-my-character-for-a-week instead.  Seriously, that would be easier.  Let’s hope it’s not a book about a serial killer.


Ode to Watching TV with my Husband

I hate COPS.  The show, not actual police officers—I like them just fine.  I’m watching the show right now because I like to be in the same room as my husband in the evening after the kids are down.  Hard to say whether or not this counts as quality time together or not.

Anyway, I hate the show.  At first it’s hilarious (I mean, are people really that stupid?), but then you realize yes they are, and what you’re watching is happening all over America, that there are thousands and thousands of huffers/DUI-ers/wife beaters/tranny prostitutes getting arrested right now.  And that’s sad.  Then you realize there are way way more out there not getting arrested right now.  And that’s scary.

I prefer it when he watches Telemundo.  I don’t speak Spanish, but I get significantly more out of it than ESPN, which is the other go-to.

Clearly, I need to reclaim the remote.

Why I Don’t Reclaim the Remote

I’d much rather make fun of his shows than listen to him make fun of mine. 

3 comments:

  1. Cops? Seriously? Is Mark depressed? You guys should do what Brig and I do: he watched tv while I waste time on the internet. When we put the tv in the same room with the computer, Brigham declared that our two vices were together at last.

    Congrats on the completion of edits!

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  2. Yeah for VIRTUOSITY and for you!!! I'm still going to recommend "On writing" By Steven King for your writing dilemma. Not that I plan to write like Steven King, but after reading it I had a better idea about where my hang ups were and things I could do differently. As for the TV watching husband, Jacob and I used to be just like you and Mark. Yes I even stopped watching TV shows because of all of his unsolicited mocking comments!

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  3. I would like to see you become Captain Jack Sparrow for a week - not because I think you should write a book about a pirate, but because I think your kids would really like it and you could make extra money at the mall or something. I also hate cops, but hate Dog the Bounty Hunter more. All the same reasons apply, except that I think it is really unfair when he tries to convert those criminals to Jesus when they are on their way to jail and he has a gun - not a very even playing field if you ask me.

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