I have a list of 25 authors and books sitting next to me, and deciding which one to start with was no easy task. I chose Robert B. Parker for a couple of reasons: first, he passed away on January 18, 2010. Prior to learning of his death, I'd never read one of his books, and I decided I'd read the first Spenser book, THE GODWULF MANUSCRIPT, as a result. I really enjoyed it.
Second, when I had my ACL reconstruction surgery in June, Parker's Sunny Randall series turned out to be an unexpected comfort. During the first ten days of my recovery, I read most of the books in the series, and they were the perfect antidote to the forced inertia I experienced during that time.
What's to like about Sunny Randall? Well, she's a female P.I. living in Boston, one of my favorite cities. She's a strong character, confident and good at her job, but with enough vulnerability so that readers relate to her. For me, the books are like a favorite snack food; delicious, making me want more, but not so complicated that I can't just sit and enjoy Sunny's world for awhile before slipping back into my own reality.
If you're buying books as gifts this holiday season, please consider purchasing from your local independent bookshop. The level of customer service you'll receive is unmatched, you'll have the added benefit of making new friends of the staff, and you'll help support a local business.
When I was a kid, my siblings and I got an advent calendar every year. Beginning on December 1, we'd open a window every day until December 25th to find a little gift, a piece of candy, a coin, etc. It was a fun tradition that I find sadly lacking in my adult life.
This year, I'm taking steps to remedy that by celebrating the upcoming holiday season with a new type of advent calendar. That's right, it's an Advent Calendar of Books. Beginning December 1 I'll highlight a book or an author each day until Christmas, December 25.
I've been fortunate to read so many great books this year, and I can't think of a better way to celebrate the season than by inspiring others to buy and read books.
Please, indulge me for a moment, because for no reason at all, I'm having a bit of a moment.
Except that's not exactly true. There have been lots of reasons for moments lately. This one just came as a surprise.
But it was brought on by a song that always provides me with moments, so I should've known better when I pushed the "play" button for it on iTunes. It's a song that seems to sum up my dark side, at least the way I perceive it, perfectly. It's called "Look Around," by Blues Traveler:
Here are the lyrics:
You'll get no answer from me About what I want or what I get Brave enough to speak afraid to see Confuse the issue till you forget
And I've tried To finally decide Why I'm in your face
And if you can't already tell I am unable to let things go I'm told I do it very well But more important you should know
That all the same You've got no one to blame But yourself If you call that a waste
Cause it ain't me That's been hurting you inside And if you've learned You'll know much more than I
That you're gonna have to go and find it You'll have to dig beneath the ground You'll have to unearth every ugly stone That kept you on your own And simply put them down You're gonna have to look around
You'll get no answer from me About what I get or what I want That was enough to make her leave She's not the first one come and gone
And I don't care Buyer beware Of me Cause it might get rough
If you want peace then live alone If you wanna hide then find a stage Each a brief but perfect home To accommodate your rage
And sometimes In the midst of all my crimes I feel lost Or have I lost enough
Remaining friends Remind me as they say It's up to you The things you throw away
And still you're gonna have to go and find it You'll have to dig beneath the ground You'll have to unearth every ugly stone That kept you on your own And simply put them down You're gonna have to look around You're gonna have to look around
You're gonna have to look around
<END>
Okay, if you've stayed with me this long, do me a favor and tell me your favorite song(s) for moments, good and bad. Extra points for links to lyrics or video.
I haven't been updating my blog in the last few weeks because I've been spending my writing time revising my manuscript. After I finished my first revision, things unexpectedly took off for me–I still find it a challenge to keep my butt in the chair, but the work is moving much faster and feels much less tedious.
I'm also having a lot more of those moments when I read over my work and I think "wow, did I write this?" Moments when I forget I'm reading something I wrote and it feels like a real novel. Moments when I think maybe this is the reason why I've struggled so long to get this done, when I realize maybe I'm good enough to have my work published.
So lately, I've been pretty excited about this whole novel-writing thing. Though it still needs work, I can, with all honesty, say that I have written a novel. It didn't feel that way after I wrote my first draft because the story was just too disjointed and needed too much work to feel anywhere near done. Now, with my mid-October deadline around the corner, I am much closer to the finish line and I see–dare I say it–light at the end of the tunnel.
Why the October deadline? On October 13 I'm travelling to San Francisco for Bouchercon by the Bay. Last year I went having just completed my first draft. This year I want to go with a finished manuscript in hand and be able to report I've started querying agents. This is a huge milestone and it seems appropriate to make Bouchercon the deadline.
I'll see you in mid-October, and in the mean time, I hope you're also finding success in completing your dream projects, whatever they may be.
I got an eggplant in my Farm Fresh to You box this week and as soon as I saw it I knew I wanted to make baba ganoosh with it. I love this simple eggplant dip–I devour it every time we go to Taverna Tony.
Here’s the easy recipe:
Ingredients
1 large eggplant (1 pound)
1/4 cup tahini
2 tablespoons lemon juice
2 garlic cloves, minced
1 tsp salt (or to taste)
Fresh parsley (garnish)
Pre-heat oven to 400 degrees.
Pierce the eggplant 10 – 12 times with a fork and put it in a baking dish. Bake for about 50 minutes or until soft. Let cool and remove skin.
Finely chop the eggplant and combine with remaining ingredients.
Garnish with fresh parsley and serve at room temperature with pita bread or crackers. Or, if you’re like me, eat it plain straight out of the bowl.
I just realized I haven't posted once in the month of August. This is my half-assed attempt to remedy that.
Lately, I've had a lot of trouble shutting my brain up. It's always a problem, but for the last few days, it's impossible. My mind is going a mile a minute, jumping from one thing to the next, and I'm unable to concentrate on the task at hand, which of course, is the book.
Of course, Restless Mind Syndrome is not new to me. In my early twenties, I wrote a poem that included this line:
"Even in the center of the bustling crowd, the screams in my head remain ever loud."
Right now those screams are pretty much blocking out everything else.
I used to go for a run when things got this bad. The fatigue seemed to have a calming effect. But at the moment I'm unable to do any sort of exercise that demands that much physically. A glass of wine helps, but frankly, I have to drink more than a glass to get the desired effect.
So I turn to you, gentle reader, for advice on how to turn off those voices. What do you do when you're having trouble concentrating? A hot bath? A shot of whiskey? A run on the treadmill? Tell me what works for you.
Today Kelli Stanley posted on Facebook she'd reached "The End" of her second Miranda Corbie book, "City of Spiders." The next step, she said, was a week of revisions.
A week? I've been revising for over a year off and on (honestly, more on than off). Clearly I'm doing something wrong.
So the coming week will be me, my manuscript, and copious amounts of coffee (and probably a little wine) to see if I can get through this second revision by the end of the week.
Observation #2:
This one is related to the first. When I was a runner, I had a trick to help make distances seem shorter (or go faster). I'd pick a point in the distance and run as fast as I could until I got to it. Always, about half-way there, I'd ask myself "Can I quit yet?" Then I'd ask myself "Are you there yet?" The answer, of course, was always no, so I had to keep on running as fast as I could til I got to the designated spot.
It occurred to me today I can use this trick for completing my manuscript. I ask myself numerous times during the day "Can I quit yet?" and then I ask myself "Are you there yet?" You guessed it, the answer is no. I can't quit til this is done (or I collapse in an exhausted heap).
"It sure seems like the majority of people in the
world think they can write a book. And not only write a book, but write
it as well as a published author. And not only just as well as a
published author, but just as well as bestselling published authors who
are among the elite in terms of building an audience and having their
work catch on with readers. There are lots of people out there who
think it's easy, think they could do it, and all but a handful are
wrong."
It was part of a longer post about writers having difficulty figuring out if their writing is good or not, which you can read here.
The truth is, I'm not sure if I can write a book worthy of publishing. If I do get published, I'm not sure if Diary of Bedlam will be the book that succeeds or whether it will it become one of those awful novels authors talk about that sit in their desk drawers as a reminder of their early failures. Of course I dream it will be a huge success–I fantasize about winning an Edgar and which actors will play my main characters. Then I set aside the fantasy and get down to work, because dreams will only get you so far.
I know the odds are tough and I know I have a lot to learn about the writing craft. But I admit to having blinders on, because if I stopped to worry too long about whether I can write a book that's good enough (and lucky enough) to get published, I'd give up. If I didn't think I could do it eventually, I wouldn't have even started.
And frankly, I'm not fit to do anything else. It's either this or being a barista at Starbucks, or a greeter at Wal-mart (not that I'm dissing any form of gainful employment since I have not been employed, gainfully or not, in ten years).
If I sound desperate, I am. But it is what I'd call controlled desperation. I know I want to write a novel. I know I want to have it published. I am driven by these wants, but drive is not enough. For me, some amount of desperation is necessary to motivate me to move forward. Sure it would be nice to move before the desperation stage, but hell, the only thing that really matters to me is that I'm moving.
When Diary of Bedlam is polished and ready to submit, I'll go back to work on it's sequel, the first draft of which is about 1/3 finished, called Diary of Deceit. But maybe for good measure I should change to working title to Diary of Desperation.
I think a lot about success, and I also think about failure. But since thoughts of failure come more naturally to me than those of success, I'm careful to shut away those niggling "maybe I can't do it" feelings as soon as they rise up. If it turns out I'm wrong and I can't do it, I'll deal with that later. After all, there's a Starbuck's on every corner, and I hear they're hiring (although in this economy, maybe not).
In the meantime, I'll leave you with this video of Howard Jones performing "Things Will Only Get Better" with Ringo Starr and Sheila E.:
The lyrics in verse two seem applicable to writing: "A lonely path, an uphill climb, success or failure will not alter it."
I just finished the last book in the Sunny Randall series by Robert B. Parker. I can't help feeling a sort of sadness about it. Mr. Parker died at age 77 on January 18, 2010, leaving behind a several series and several well-loved characters, including Spenser, Jesse Stone, and of course, Sunny Randall.
I've said before I came late to the Robert B. Parker party, having only picked up my first Spenser novel, The Godwulf Manuscript, after he passed away. I enjoyed it enough to read more, but it wasn't until I began recovering from knee surgery last month that I got around to it and read all of the Sunny Randall books plus a Jesse Stone novel all in the four weeks since.
Having finished all of the Sunny Randall series, I can't help feeling that Sunny, like her creator, was not quite ready to quit. I'll have to complete her story in my own mind, knowing she must've finally achieved the sense of peace with herself she worked so hard at. And, of course, caught a heap more bad guys.
There are still plenty more Robert B. Parker books for me to read, having not even scratched the surface of the Spenser series. But I'll miss Sunny, and hope she's doing well.
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