Hope no one was expecting me to get any work done this weekend

Because I may be getting the pre-lim galley copy this weekend. To be sent on to the galley printers next weekend.

Gulp

Plus, we just started a weight loss program. Mainly in preparation for the book tour. How doomed are we?

The main character of Death Wishing is a guy who is trying to lose weight in New Orleans.

"First Anniversary," Story 18

"First Anniversary" went live today. It's based on our real life adventure of having found a guy out in the snow with a broken leg. I'd say almost all of it is true except the end, the car models, and the fact that Dean and I are not quite as old as Linda and Red.

Only one more week of these to go. Also, I think I figured out/fixed most of the large edits for the novel--there were about 25 pages of scenes that needed pov shifts and re-ordering, plus a sex scene that needed better integration. I feel good about how I've solved these problems, but I know I need to do the finesse work now and that means I have to be damned good to myself to reclaim my frame of mind.

Next steps

Dean just finished reading the whole draft of Social Aid & Pleasure, my New Orleans sort-of-fantasy novel, and he's given me brilliant suggestions. He's a poet and he hates novels, but he's always right about my work. Erin Fitzgerald (I love name dropping) read the first four chapters and gave me great notes. I think that I can make the fixes in short time (by early august?), after which I'll start the query process. Query One being, What kinda book is this? Sections of it have already appeared as short stories in Juked, Barrelhouse, Pank, and a forthcoming Killauthor.

Writing the synopsis for this project has been easy and straightforward. I think that's a good sign.

I just got done reading a damp gothic about conjoined twins. I don't want to talk about it. Am now reading Eggars' Zeitoun, which is riveting. I'm only 50 pages in, but the idea of a professional and responsive contractor is deeply romantic.

grown up week

We filed for the deed, so the land is pretty much ours.

I re-wrote the first 50+ pages of the West Virginia novel to seriously up the suspense.

Am working on the summary, and I feel I have another really hard day to go on that. I can't remember being this stupid.

Have totally neglected my students, family, friends, etc. I don't remember what I do for a living.

I'm Juked!!!

I'm in Juked with "Do you know what it means to miss"--this story comes from my New Orleans novel, and the timing is great since we are entering Mardi Gras season.

J. W. Wang at Juked is wonderfully kind, by the way.

forgot how I want to end it

happy new year! I did some writing on the New Orleans novel yesterday, only to discover that I have forgotten how I wanted to end it. My notes are no help either. We're off to the Bahamas this weekend, and I'm taking along Kate Atkinson's One Good Turn and possibly Benjamin Black's Christine Falls (if i can find it--misplaced upon purchase. probably packed away with the christmas junk). Maybe I can steal some ideas from one of those books. It'll be a nice confusion, writing about New Orleans in the Bahamas while reading stories set in Scotland and Ireland.

Yellow Medicine, a Book Report

You’ve already seen reviews that tell you what Anthony Neil Smith’s Yellow Medicine is like, so I’m going to focus on my own interests. I just finished this fast paced thriller, and yet the stuff in it—bad cops, terrorists in the heartland, and general all around punkliness—is not as interesting as its complicated narrator, Billy Lafitte. To put it bluntly, BL is full of shit for two thirds of the book, making a lot of claims about what kind of guy he is, trying to invent a belief system to rationalize his nearly equal capacity for love and violence. He’s so consistently full of shit that the characteristic becomes the crucial vulnerability through which his power is filtered—a feature that makes this book vibrate.

Then, on page 167, Billy does something truly horrifying, and does it with an efficiency that is so unsettling I would argue he is insane until the end of the book. His uncertainties and bluster coalesce over an unspeakable transgression, and from that point on he has “no filter,” as the character Drew, the object of his most tender feelings, puts it.

Three craft notes: 1) allowing Billy to tell his own story is a big, bold move. I’m still mulling that choice, because while he is a fascinating observer, he would also be fascinating to observe. 2) Smith gently manipulates chronology, using a bit of film rhetoric that pairs nicely with Billy’s habit of frequently referencing TV and movie models of behavior. 3) Short book, short chapters, wild mix of sentiment and blood. Yes, that’s how to do it.

oh, and I almost forgot--a perfect last paragraph.

answer key

dean found this in the copy machine at school. a draft of my novel is being used in the class. dean was unable to answer 3 of 5 questions.