Row, Row, Row Your Boat
Odd how one finds random connections; strings that connect one thing to the next.
I finished Celestial Navigation last night. Vintage Anne Tyler full of wondeful characters and nary a happy ending in sight.
Much of the second-to-last scene (actually the last scene, as the final short chapter is pretty much an epilogue) takes place in a rowboat.
Started Sue Miller's While I Was Gone (which has been on my to read pile for almost a year now) this morning, and, oddly enough, the first scene takes place in a rowboat.
An odd enough coincidence in itself, but the scene I've been working on is a confrontation between a woman and her mother and takes place in a room overlooking a bay, and the daughter keeps wishing she was in the kayaks she sees out the window, paddling away from the her mother's clutter and coveting the freedom of being alone on the water.
Funny thing is, I started writing that scene before the rowboat scenes drifted into my world.
Everything is connected. Or is it?
January 22, 2010
Procrastination Project 3,917
I want to write an essay about how it would be great if I could find a novel-writing regimen that suited me as well as the marathon training program I'm following.
Or maybe about how training for / running a marathon seems to be easier than writing a novel.
But that would take up valuable time and I have work to do for my job, as well as a chunk of fiction to knock out today, so I'll get back to you on this. And I think that I want to hit a yoga class this afternoon, so I'll be moving right along.
Thanks.
January 12, 2010
Me Being Catty
I did a voiceover for an animation project this morning. It's being considered for a show at the Tate Britain this summer.
Five of us, each in our own soundproof booths, doing silly voices and making each other laugh. There are worse ways to spend a morning.
My character is Lenny, the sardonic American-accented cat of a down-and-out British stand-up comedian.
Weird how projects unexpectedly drop into your litter box.
January 8, 2010
The Power of Music
What? Your firm doesn't have a company song? What better way to build a brand?
Let's all drink to the Russian gas.
January 4, 2010
He's Not Blogging about the Weather, Is He?
Yeah, I'm now that guy. Sorry.
Ah, the beauty of sense/memory.
During this morning's slog lively, energetic jog through the arctic tundra that used to be known as Central London, I was transported back to early spring days in Chicago, when I'd stand on an El platform, the wind cutting through however many layers I was wrapped up in (enough to make me look like the Michelin Man) and think, "it should never be this cold."
So yeah, I guess a winter cold snap in London is the equivalent of spring breeze in the Windy City.
Once I got to work, I saw headlines that there hasn't been such a chill in the London air since Princes Di ran into Camilla at Harrods' 1997 January Sale.
So I wasn't just being a wimp. It is cold out there (for England at least ... notsomuch for Chicago).
On the way home, I stopped by my friends at Runners Need and picked up a pair of glove liners (turns out layers aren't just for the torso), as the wind-proof ones I already weren't quite cutting it. I also got a new hat to my ears warm.
Isn't it ironic that it bears the name of he who says the globe is getting warmer?
January 1, 2010
The Year that Will Be
Oh sure, anybody can look backward and say what the past year has brought them.
So I think I'll try something different. A bit of time travel in honor of the Doctor's last episode.
It's January 1, 2011. Here's what I'm most proud of happening over the past twelve months ...
1. Finishing my novel, which leads to ...
2. Getting my MA in Creative Writing.
3. Finishing the London Marathon (5th marathon, 2nd London)
4. Getting back to a weight I haven't seen for the past five or so years (<190)
5. Logging in more hours on the page than in front of the TV screen ... well, at least changing the ratio
What do you see in your crystal ball?