Map your sin

What? You thought I was kidding? Would be kind of interesting to use that map in a book - 7 characters in the 7 main areas around the country or something like that. 

Looked at the calendar and freaked out - everything for school is due in a few weeks. I have to get busy.

up and running!

No, not me. Though I did go for a 4 mile hike first thing this morning. In another piece of synchronicity, I found this piece on close reading. Nice segue to:

It's the launch of Annotation Nation! (cue applause) Kate Maruyama and I are beginning to post annotations and will soon expand. We found annotating books, mostly novels, helpful for our writing. This is not close reading for literary criticism, but as a tool for writing. Hope you enjoy.

Want to feel better? First, turn off the news, then go here.

I took yesterday to go to a taping, then out to dinner with friends.  Back to work.

L.A. Festival of Books

I vote for football. I concede it was perfect weather for the Festival of Books. Not hot, nice breeze, a little on the cool side. But I hate crowds and it was crowded. The first panel was fine, mostly thanks to David Wroblewski. They each read for a couple of minutes from their books - he also read the best, but I imagine he's also had the most practice. Here are a few of his nuggets: without an element of artifice, fiction doesn't feel real; he likes the narrative tool of a good observer; the elementary structure of the novel is a braid. Plot is a tool for taking stories apart, not creating them - if you use it to create it's like knitting with chainsaws (nice image). A novel = unnaturally long story. And from Joan Silber: plot is about how the writer thinks the world works. Bear in mind, this is a general public event, not one directed at writers.  

Wroblewski recommended So Long See you Tomorrow by William Maxwell. Joan Silber recommended Remembering Babylon by David Malouf.

The second panel was an interview and it was pretty dull. I won't name names. I sat there wondering why I was there listening to some mediocre questions on writing instead of going home to work on the novel. So I'm home now after getting jostled by crowds, eating a mediocre $7 cheeseburger and paying $3.75 for a bottle of water because I forgot mine at home.  I couldn't face two more panels, even if they were spectacular.

I guess it boils down to the fact that I get enough of writers talking about writing in grad school. Time to write.

 

p.s. The San Diego Chargers picked Larry English. Maybe this will finally be the year.

choices

I seem to recall that this happens regularly: the NFL Draft and the L.A. Festival of Books are on the same weekend. This is a problem for me because I love both books and football. Yes, it's possible. Anyway, I'm going to the book fest. I have tickets for 4 of the panels. And I'll settle for the highlights on the NFL network. 

Lot of trouble with my right shoulder - a problem for a right-handed writer. Maybe it's dehydration. I had a quart last night and a couple of glasses of water this morning and it's easing up. That's when you just feel foolish. Oh, water. Okay.