So, I’m very far behind in my Escape Pod listening but I’ve recently listened to Greg van Eekhout’s story “Will You be an Astronaut” and I loved it.
It starts off rather innocently and gets dark and creepy. By the end of the story you completely understand why Steve Ely warns that it is not a story for children even though it sounds like one.
Start a book and realize it was not very good, but not want to put it down anyway? I’m there right now. I’m listening to a book at http://www.podiobooks.com (no, I’m not saying which one) and it’s been very mediocre all along but last night there was a sex scene that was actually painful to listen to.
The thing is, if I don’t finish the last 8 hours of the book I’ll wonder about it and wish I had.
Should I cut bait and just stop listening or should I look for a good lesson in how not to write?
I think I’ll just keep on listening, using the book as entertainment when I am doing housework because anything that distracts me from mopping floors or washing dishes is a good thing.
I was there only for Saturday (budgetary considerations) but still managed to have a good time. Here’s a video of one of the panels on The Singularity:
Enjoy!
My plow guy has a commendable work ethic for an 18-year-old. He was here at 2:45 this morning, shoveling us out. One of the reasons we hired him was because he was about to become an Eagle Scout and we thought that kind of character development would show in his work.
Unfortunately, he woke me up. As I lay in the dark, listening to him shovel I knew I wouldn’t be able to get back to sleep until he was done, so I got up and read through Chapter 6. I think the novel is starting to pick up in terms of the action and excitement. This is good, but it means everything before this point is on the dull side.
After I finished the chapter, I went back to sleep and dreamed that I was the person who let Benjamin Linus out of jail and I was responsible for all the people he killed.
Then my mother called (it was 9:30) and woke me up. I may never have the chance to fix the Ben Linus problem…
40 more pages read through between last night and this morning. I am taking notes in hot pink pen, to cheer me up and I’m on my second pen. That’s a lot of notes.
I’d like to be done with this tomorrow night, but I think that’s a bit over-enthusiastic as I still have 73 pages to go.
Why yes, it’s a short novel, mostly because I don’t have nearly enough setting and character description. Whole pages have nothing but dialog, and not even dialog tags. I think the next time I edit a Nanowrimo novel I should go back and add in everything I missed first and then worry about fixing it up. Even though it’s only at 54k now, I think it will wind up growing to 75 to 80k by the time I’m done with it.
And did I mention that I know the ending is weak? That will be lots and lots of words added in.
Onward!
I’m starting the revisions to my novel. I’m calling it The Waste for now although I’m not fond of that title.
I’ve read through the first 3 chapters making notes on everything that isn’t working and any place I have contradicted myself.
This is not a pretty process. In fact, after the last chapter I decided to take a snuggle break with Josh just to soothe my soul a bit. This is a seriously flawed novel but I am encouraged to find bits of my characters’ personalities shining through.
7 more chapters to go and the last one is very short so I’m planning to do 3 more today and the last 4 tomorrow. I think it’s best to get it done quickly so I can hold on to the feeling that it can all be fixed up.
Today the kids got a glass goblet with pencils, glow sticks, candy and gum for Valentine’s Day. I made one for me as well, since I don’t think I’ll be getting much from anyone else.
Last year, Paul and I were at Boskone and he managed to hide cards for me all over the place. It was very sweet. I think this year he’s been too busy to orchestrate anything like that. He is, however, making dinner so I can hide myself away and work on revising my novel all day.
This week we finally got our new phones. Mine is the same as Zach’s and I couldn’t let that stand. I don’t want to read the nasty pre-pubescent text messages he sends and receives and, hey, I’m the Mom and I get to have something special.
Scout Shabbat is Friday, February 12th at 7:30 at Temple Emanu-el in Haverhill.
If you will attend Scout Shabbat leave me a comment and I’ll make sure your scouts get a patch. Scout Shabbat is open to all scouters (Girl Scouts, Venturers and Cub/Boy Scouts) so please let me know how many scouts will be attending.
You can find directions to the temple here:
See you there!
Today in Astronomy class, the kids learned the moon will eventually escape the earth’s gravitational pull. I suggested it would be cool if Mars was in exactly the right place to capture the moon so it would be a sharing thing.
Ben says that would be wrong because it would be like your brother dating your ex-girlfriend.
Lisa | 
02 21st, 2010| 