Jul 2009
Fruitful Pursuits
Beans! Beans! Actual, real life, edible beans,
popping out all over the place in our garden. We
already have enough to serve ourselves for a single
dinner. Twenty beans or more! Hooray.
And everything else seems to be coming up very
well too. The tomato plants are about six inches
high, the cucumbers are starting to come along and
I'm honestly starting to think I may have to pull
some carrots soon. Parsley, arugula, thyme also
becoming available for eating. I'm so impressed.
And Patti's experiment with planting nasturtiums along the carport in my recently moved sod has actually produced flowers. Amazing. All the books told us they'd be killed by the grass. Very exciting, to say the least.
In the meantime, work continues to go well on The Silent Goodbye. I am again in a rhythm and things are moving along very nicely. I think I'm going to have some rewriting to do to even out the tone and style but that's okay. I like the flow and I think it's working out well.
I'm not sure what to do about the sexual tension between Gold and the lovely constable Stacey McLean. So far, she's kept him at a distance but...
Of course, some of my hesitation might be
because I'm not sure I can write the romantic stuff.
We'll see.
In the meantime, the writing is flowing and the veggie garden is producing. What more could a guy want?
And Patti's experiment with planting nasturtiums along the carport in my recently moved sod has actually produced flowers. Amazing. All the books told us they'd be killed by the grass. Very exciting, to say the least.
In the meantime, work continues to go well on The Silent Goodbye. I am again in a rhythm and things are moving along very nicely. I think I'm going to have some rewriting to do to even out the tone and style but that's okay. I like the flow and I think it's working out well.
I'm not sure what to do about the sexual tension between Gold and the lovely constable Stacey McLean. So far, she's kept him at a distance but...
In the meantime, the writing is flowing and the veggie garden is producing. What more could a guy want?
Update on all the Stuff in My Life
I have to come clean: I haven't written any Phillip
Gold in three days. Okay, there, I said it. I
admitted my fault. Work has been extremely busy and
so has life in general. Add that the constant rain of
the past few weeks has finally broken out into
glorious sunshine (and the resulting golf game) and
you'll see why I haven't been able to get back to
The Silent Goodbye.
My subconscious has been working on it (or is that my unconscious?) and I expect to be able to get rolling again when I next sit down. Too many things have gotten in the way.
By way of update on other things, however, I still have not heard from the publisher about my Abigail Massey submission. I have also given up trying to figure out what that means: they don't review new submissions very often so they simply haven't taken a look at it; they have looked at it and rejected it but figure bad news can wait; they like it but it has to go through the channels for approvals before they contact me again.
I"ve heard all the possibilities and have no clue which is true. I don't want to give up but I'd feel a lot better if I had heard one way or another.
My vegetable garden is coming along surprisingly well. Although we have little critters that seem to go after certain plants, the whole garden plot (so brown and barren two months ago) is alive with varying shades of green. I even had to go out and do some heartless thinning to most of the rows of veggies but learned from the way the remaining plants suddenly exploded in growth thereafter that thinning is a good and kind thing for plants. No actual, edible vegetables yet but we're getting there.
With regard to backyard birds, I made the mistake of buying the really cheap seed and ended up, perhaps not surprisingly, with a yard filled with grackles, crows, doves and pigeons. I'm surprised the neighbours didn't come to complain. So I took the main feeder down and put it in the shed. Within two days, most of the undesirables had disappeared and, for the last two days, we've enjoyed the company of gold and purple finches as well as chipping sparrows and chicadees at our finch feeder. Much better. Lesson learned.
In the area of reading, well, I've gotten myself caught up in Harry Potter again. In preparation for the disappointing film that came out a couple of weeks ago, I re-read The Half-Blood Prince, then followed the natural course of things and read The Deathly Hallows. Now I'm whipping through the first three books, reading the novel and watching the movie in rapid succession to see the changes. I can't believe I never realised how different the ending of the first book was from that of the first movie: in the book, Harry's battle with Quirrell/Voldemort is killing both of them when Dumbledore intervenes to save Harry; in the movie, Harry is victorious over Quirrell but knocked out by Voldemort's escaping spirit and wakes in the Infirmary. Very different.
And, still on the video front, I am now watching the third season of Star Trek: The Original Series again. You can feel the change in quality from the opening moment. For one thing, Kirk and the rest have been allowed to grow their hair out from the military cuts of the first two seasons to hippie styles of the sixties. It just looks bad.
Anyway, that's the update. Off to the golf course now!
My subconscious has been working on it (or is that my unconscious?) and I expect to be able to get rolling again when I next sit down. Too many things have gotten in the way.
By way of update on other things, however, I still have not heard from the publisher about my Abigail Massey submission. I have also given up trying to figure out what that means: they don't review new submissions very often so they simply haven't taken a look at it; they have looked at it and rejected it but figure bad news can wait; they like it but it has to go through the channels for approvals before they contact me again.
I"ve heard all the possibilities and have no clue which is true. I don't want to give up but I'd feel a lot better if I had heard one way or another.
My vegetable garden is coming along surprisingly well. Although we have little critters that seem to go after certain plants, the whole garden plot (so brown and barren two months ago) is alive with varying shades of green. I even had to go out and do some heartless thinning to most of the rows of veggies but learned from the way the remaining plants suddenly exploded in growth thereafter that thinning is a good and kind thing for plants. No actual, edible vegetables yet but we're getting there.
With regard to backyard birds, I made the mistake of buying the really cheap seed and ended up, perhaps not surprisingly, with a yard filled with grackles, crows, doves and pigeons. I'm surprised the neighbours didn't come to complain. So I took the main feeder down and put it in the shed. Within two days, most of the undesirables had disappeared and, for the last two days, we've enjoyed the company of gold and purple finches as well as chipping sparrows and chicadees at our finch feeder. Much better. Lesson learned.
In the area of reading, well, I've gotten myself caught up in Harry Potter again. In preparation for the disappointing film that came out a couple of weeks ago, I re-read The Half-Blood Prince, then followed the natural course of things and read The Deathly Hallows. Now I'm whipping through the first three books, reading the novel and watching the movie in rapid succession to see the changes. I can't believe I never realised how different the ending of the first book was from that of the first movie: in the book, Harry's battle with Quirrell/Voldemort is killing both of them when Dumbledore intervenes to save Harry; in the movie, Harry is victorious over Quirrell but knocked out by Voldemort's escaping spirit and wakes in the Infirmary. Very different.
And, still on the video front, I am now watching the third season of Star Trek: The Original Series again. You can feel the change in quality from the opening moment. For one thing, Kirk and the rest have been allowed to grow their hair out from the military cuts of the first two seasons to hippie styles of the sixties. It just looks bad.
Anyway, that's the update. Off to the golf course now!
The Work Continues
22/07/09 08:20 Filed in: Writing
I continue to make consistent progress on The
Silent Goodbye. This is somewhat remarkable
considering how much has been going on in my life of
late but, if you can commit time and energy every day
to writing, you can actually create some momentum.
The story continues to unfold according to my plan, with some interesting and unexpected twists arising during the process of writing. I always find it very exciting when, as I write a scene, the characters themselves start to take charge and direct the action. In this case, the scene I was writing involved Gold, his favourite cop and an attractive assassin sitting down to compare notes. Through the course of their conversation, an entirely new possibility for the story announced itself, an exciting interlude that will increase tension and create another opportunity for action.
I had not planned it to happen but suddenly the assassin started talking and out came this marvellous new idea. It was natural to the character, to the conversation and to the situation. So I went with it.
Of course, this new idea requires me now to go back and do a little bit of revision of the earlier parts of the scene but that's okay. And, as I do the rewrite, I have to do some hard thinking about how these three characters would put this particular plan into action.
That's the fun part of the job: the mental work of taking a good idea and making it work, for the characters and for the novel.
The story continues to unfold according to my plan, with some interesting and unexpected twists arising during the process of writing. I always find it very exciting when, as I write a scene, the characters themselves start to take charge and direct the action. In this case, the scene I was writing involved Gold, his favourite cop and an attractive assassin sitting down to compare notes. Through the course of their conversation, an entirely new possibility for the story announced itself, an exciting interlude that will increase tension and create another opportunity for action.
I had not planned it to happen but suddenly the assassin started talking and out came this marvellous new idea. It was natural to the character, to the conversation and to the situation. So I went with it.
Of course, this new idea requires me now to go back and do a little bit of revision of the earlier parts of the scene but that's okay. And, as I do the rewrite, I have to do some hard thinking about how these three characters would put this particular plan into action.
That's the fun part of the job: the mental work of taking a good idea and making it work, for the characters and for the novel.
Some Kid and the Half-Blood Prince
21/07/09 17:05 Filed in: Films
I have been wrestling with myself over how to write
my review of the recent David Yates movie, entitled
Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince,
since I saw the film on Sunday. My major issue seems
to be that, after seeing the movie, I'm feeling,
well, despondent.
I am a huge fan of Rowling's seven Harry Potter books. I have also been favourably impressed with the movie adaptations of those books, even when they slowly devolved into mere "highlight reels" of the books, showing only the action sequences and little of the character development or plot complexity. Even then, the movies stayed true to the original and gave us a "Coles Notes" type review of Rowling's books.
Watching the film versions of Rowling's fourth and fifth books (Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire and Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix) was, to me, like watching the highlights of a fantastic baseball game on the eleven o'clock news: you see the big hits, a defensive gem or two, just enough to get the general idea of what happened.
When a game finishes 1-0 with both pitchers in top form and little in the way of hitting, the TV highlights end up shorter, with more focus on the pitchers. But what do the film makers do when the author pitches a no hitter?
That's what Rowling has handed them in her sixth novel. A gem of a book for literary purists. The book focuses on how Dumbledore sets about preparing Harry Potter for the task of defeating, fully and finally, Lord Voldemort in the seventh book. It is filled with interesting scenes and great writing, some fun character development as the three main figures reach and react to their new-found interest in romance, and very little action.
In fact, in Rowling's book, there are only two real action scenes and they come, one hard upon the other, at the end of the book. The other six hundred or so pages represent well-written back-story and character development.
It truly is the equivalent of a no hitter. If you want action, you'll hate it. If you like to see the craft of writing at its best, to read interesting character development and fascinating scenes, then you'll love it.
Director Yates, screen-writer Steve Kloves and their movie studio apparently hate well-pitched games. So they took Rowling's sixth book and said, "Yikes," then basically chucked it out the window.
Oh, they start in the same place: the wizarding world has finally accepted that Voldemort is back and at full strength. And they end in relatively the same place, with a major character dead and a war breaking out.
But everything inbetween they make up on their own. Honestly. Everything.
They invent scenes (including the first two and one already controversial one in which Bellatrix Lestrange burns down the Burrow, screaming "I killed Sirius Black", an echo of the previous movie). They revise scenes that Rowling wrote so as to completely change the motivations, tensions and long-term impacts of those scenes. They change things that do not need to be changed to translate the book into film.
It's like they're the sports editors for the eleven o'clock news and, when presented with a no-hitter, they decide to insert a couple of home runs from other games, just to make the highlights more exciting.
I might have ruined the movie for myself by seething through scene after scene that is neither based on Rowling's writing nor true to the tone, themes and characters she has worked so hard to create.
I am despondent because this movie is NOT Harry Potter. If I had not expected it to be Harry Potter, I probably would be writing right now that it was a lot of fun, filled with action and romance, great gags and some fantastically beautiful images. I would probably be writing about the pacing of the story, the camera work and framing of the action. Because all of that was exceptionally good.
But it's simply not Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince. It's Some Kid's Big Adventure.
If you are a Harry Potter fan and don't mind a few spoilers, I'm interested in your thoughts on the following points:
In the book, Harry hides his potions text in the Room of Requirement very carefully, so that he can find it back. He places it under a bust upon which he sets a strange tiara-like thing as a way to remind himself where he left it. This becomes very important in the seventh book because the tiara-like thing turns out to be the lost diadem of Ravenclaw and one of Voldemort's horcruxes. Harry finds it because, once he knows what the diadem looks like, he remembers seeing it. In the movie, however, it is made very clear that Harry does not want to find the book back, takes no steps to mark its place and, in fact, closes his eyes while Ginny hides it so that he won't be tempted to find it back. He never sees nor handles the tiara-like thing that turns out to be the diadem. So how will he find it in the seventh (or eighth) movie?
In the book, after they arrive at the top of the Astronomy Tower, Dumbledore takes a moment to immobilise Harry before Draco Malfoy bursts onto the scene. That decision by Dumbledore keeps Harry out of the picture as Dumbledore faces his fate but also allows Malfoy to disarm Dumbledore in his first act upon arrival at the top of the tower. Harry feels guilty later that Dumbledore chose to protect Harry rather than himself but this is part of the pattern that Harry (and later Voldemort) focus on: so many people have sacrificed themselves for Harry. In the movie, however, Dumbledore simply orders Harry to hide and not intervene. What does this do to Harry's level of guilt (now he could have acted but chose not to) and our perception of Dumbledore's character (he attempts to draw his wand later in the confrontation, in a much more aggressive move)?
And it is a key point in the six and seventh books that Dumbledore told Harry to involve Ron and Hermione in the Horcrux search, putting the three of them in a strong moral position to resist the interference of others. The filmmakers clearly make a conscious decision to leave Dumbledore's instruction to Harry out, making Ron and Hermione's participation in the Horcrux quest a voluntary matter. How will this impact the seventh movie?
There are many many more such issues but those are three that stand out for me. What do you think?
I am a huge fan of Rowling's seven Harry Potter books. I have also been favourably impressed with the movie adaptations of those books, even when they slowly devolved into mere "highlight reels" of the books, showing only the action sequences and little of the character development or plot complexity. Even then, the movies stayed true to the original and gave us a "Coles Notes" type review of Rowling's books.
Watching the film versions of Rowling's fourth and fifth books (Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire and Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix) was, to me, like watching the highlights of a fantastic baseball game on the eleven o'clock news: you see the big hits, a defensive gem or two, just enough to get the general idea of what happened.
When a game finishes 1-0 with both pitchers in top form and little in the way of hitting, the TV highlights end up shorter, with more focus on the pitchers. But what do the film makers do when the author pitches a no hitter?
That's what Rowling has handed them in her sixth novel. A gem of a book for literary purists. The book focuses on how Dumbledore sets about preparing Harry Potter for the task of defeating, fully and finally, Lord Voldemort in the seventh book. It is filled with interesting scenes and great writing, some fun character development as the three main figures reach and react to their new-found interest in romance, and very little action.
In fact, in Rowling's book, there are only two real action scenes and they come, one hard upon the other, at the end of the book. The other six hundred or so pages represent well-written back-story and character development.
It truly is the equivalent of a no hitter. If you want action, you'll hate it. If you like to see the craft of writing at its best, to read interesting character development and fascinating scenes, then you'll love it.
Director Yates, screen-writer Steve Kloves and their movie studio apparently hate well-pitched games. So they took Rowling's sixth book and said, "Yikes," then basically chucked it out the window.
Oh, they start in the same place: the wizarding world has finally accepted that Voldemort is back and at full strength. And they end in relatively the same place, with a major character dead and a war breaking out.
But everything inbetween they make up on their own. Honestly. Everything.
They invent scenes (including the first two and one already controversial one in which Bellatrix Lestrange burns down the Burrow, screaming "I killed Sirius Black", an echo of the previous movie). They revise scenes that Rowling wrote so as to completely change the motivations, tensions and long-term impacts of those scenes. They change things that do not need to be changed to translate the book into film.
It's like they're the sports editors for the eleven o'clock news and, when presented with a no-hitter, they decide to insert a couple of home runs from other games, just to make the highlights more exciting.
I might have ruined the movie for myself by seething through scene after scene that is neither based on Rowling's writing nor true to the tone, themes and characters she has worked so hard to create.
I am despondent because this movie is NOT Harry Potter. If I had not expected it to be Harry Potter, I probably would be writing right now that it was a lot of fun, filled with action and romance, great gags and some fantastically beautiful images. I would probably be writing about the pacing of the story, the camera work and framing of the action. Because all of that was exceptionally good.
But it's simply not Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince. It's Some Kid's Big Adventure.
If you are a Harry Potter fan and don't mind a few spoilers, I'm interested in your thoughts on the following points:
In the book, Harry hides his potions text in the Room of Requirement very carefully, so that he can find it back. He places it under a bust upon which he sets a strange tiara-like thing as a way to remind himself where he left it. This becomes very important in the seventh book because the tiara-like thing turns out to be the lost diadem of Ravenclaw and one of Voldemort's horcruxes. Harry finds it because, once he knows what the diadem looks like, he remembers seeing it. In the movie, however, it is made very clear that Harry does not want to find the book back, takes no steps to mark its place and, in fact, closes his eyes while Ginny hides it so that he won't be tempted to find it back. He never sees nor handles the tiara-like thing that turns out to be the diadem. So how will he find it in the seventh (or eighth) movie?
In the book, after they arrive at the top of the Astronomy Tower, Dumbledore takes a moment to immobilise Harry before Draco Malfoy bursts onto the scene. That decision by Dumbledore keeps Harry out of the picture as Dumbledore faces his fate but also allows Malfoy to disarm Dumbledore in his first act upon arrival at the top of the tower. Harry feels guilty later that Dumbledore chose to protect Harry rather than himself but this is part of the pattern that Harry (and later Voldemort) focus on: so many people have sacrificed themselves for Harry. In the movie, however, Dumbledore simply orders Harry to hide and not intervene. What does this do to Harry's level of guilt (now he could have acted but chose not to) and our perception of Dumbledore's character (he attempts to draw his wand later in the confrontation, in a much more aggressive move)?
And it is a key point in the six and seventh books that Dumbledore told Harry to involve Ron and Hermione in the Horcrux search, putting the three of them in a strong moral position to resist the interference of others. The filmmakers clearly make a conscious decision to leave Dumbledore's instruction to Harry out, making Ron and Hermione's participation in the Horcrux quest a voluntary matter. How will this impact the seventh movie?
There are many many more such issues but those are three that stand out for me. What do you think?
Another Challenge Faced
17/07/09 07:10 Filed in: Writing
My pattern for success has been to write, if
possible, during my lunch hour at work and then to
come home and spend between 30 and 90 minutes each
evening at the computer. It's worked well and I've
managed to build up that much-sought-after rhythm in
the writing.
So what happens when the pattern falls apart, when barriers arise in the form of other demands on my time? I guess I shouldn't be surprised that work will often get so busy I don't really take a lunch break and that part of the pattern unravels. It's when work is busy and things come up in the evening that the whole enterprise is threatened.
Yesterday provided an example of the perfect storm. Work began early and kept moving at rapid pace until the end of the day. I had a meeting over lunch so I figured it would be rude to try to write during that. So I got home with not a word written.
Then came life. First, since I haven't been sleeping well, I fell asleep almost as soon as I got home and stayed asleep for three hours. Dinner, then I had realised that one of the reasons I wasn't sleeping well was because Marlee Marie was interrupting my sleep with demands for play. Why was she doing that? Because I hadn't been spending my usual half hour playing with her recently.
So I committed myself to play with her for a while. That was a great idea. She's just been groomed and she's in a very happy mood and we had a lot of fun. At that point it's nine o'clock and ABC has a special on TV about "A Day In the Life of JK Rowling". So I watched that. Great show.
Now it's 10 p.m. and, guess what? A whole day has passed and I haven't written a word. Not good. Rhythm shaken. Progress threatened.
So I plopped myself down at the computer for about 20 minutes and worked. I wrote maybe six paragraphs. But it was a full scene, an important transition scene that shows Gold, on a bus to London, ruminating over what had just happened on the streets of Toronto.
Sure, it's not a lot. But it's something. It's a brief but important scene and it represents continued progress. I felt very good about myself as I lay my head on my pillow: despite a very busy and challenging day, despite the possibility that I would just let it overwhelm me and not write at all, I hung tough. I kept my focus and at least accomplished something.
Sometimes, on the busy days, "something" is a success story.
So what happens when the pattern falls apart, when barriers arise in the form of other demands on my time? I guess I shouldn't be surprised that work will often get so busy I don't really take a lunch break and that part of the pattern unravels. It's when work is busy and things come up in the evening that the whole enterprise is threatened.
Yesterday provided an example of the perfect storm. Work began early and kept moving at rapid pace until the end of the day. I had a meeting over lunch so I figured it would be rude to try to write during that. So I got home with not a word written.
Then came life. First, since I haven't been sleeping well, I fell asleep almost as soon as I got home and stayed asleep for three hours. Dinner, then I had realised that one of the reasons I wasn't sleeping well was because Marlee Marie was interrupting my sleep with demands for play. Why was she doing that? Because I hadn't been spending my usual half hour playing with her recently.
So I committed myself to play with her for a while. That was a great idea. She's just been groomed and she's in a very happy mood and we had a lot of fun. At that point it's nine o'clock and ABC has a special on TV about "A Day In the Life of JK Rowling". So I watched that. Great show.
Now it's 10 p.m. and, guess what? A whole day has passed and I haven't written a word. Not good. Rhythm shaken. Progress threatened.
So I plopped myself down at the computer for about 20 minutes and worked. I wrote maybe six paragraphs. But it was a full scene, an important transition scene that shows Gold, on a bus to London, ruminating over what had just happened on the streets of Toronto.
Sure, it's not a lot. But it's something. It's a brief but important scene and it represents continued progress. I felt very good about myself as I lay my head on my pillow: despite a very busy and challenging day, despite the possibility that I would just let it overwhelm me and not write at all, I hung tough. I kept my focus and at least accomplished something.
Sometimes, on the busy days, "something" is a success story.
Impressive Progress
16/07/09 03:18 Filed in: Writing
Almost a week into the new plan and things continue
to go well. I have made good progress on The
Silent Goodbye, with what I think is some
reasonably good writing along the way.
The key is consistency. Write at least a little bit every day. A second key is setting reasonable goals for each day's writing: I'm finding that I try to start and finish at least one scene every day. Some people say you should leave off in mid-scene, even in mid-sentence, so that you can relaunch fairly easily the next day. That doesn't work for me. I'd prefer to write a scene, then spend the intervening period allowing my mind to work through the next scene or two before I sit down to write again.
Although I do the bulk of the writing in the evening (I set aside between 30 and 90 minutes a night to write — again, I'm setting reasonable goals for myself), I also try to do at least a little bit of writing on my lunch hour at work. This creates a bridge period between the major blocks of writing, a chance to work through the transitions from scene to scene, that kind of stuff.
Once I've done maybe 20 to 30 minutes of writing at work, I block and copy whatever I produce into an e-mail and send it to myself. The first step for the evening session is then to open the e-mail, block and copy the passage into my working file for the novel and, then, as I go through to correct formatting errors caused by the movement from Word file to e-mail file and back to Word file, I also revise the passage. This kick starts the evening's writing session and off I go.
Of course, when my work is as busy as it has been for the past couple of days, I can't always get to the writing. Some days are just train wrecks of meetings, drop ins, counselling sessions, and e-mail correspondence. It can be overwhelming.
Even on those kinds of days, however, it's good to get at least some writing done, if only in the evening. It keeps me sane and it keeps the rhythm going. Writing seems to feed on itself: once you get going, you keep going. If you grind to a halt, it's hard to get started again.
So Phillip Gold is moving along well. Abigail Massey, on the other hand, is still sitting in the Ladies Waiting Room, hoping to hear from a publisher. Soon, we hope.
On the down side, my commitment to my writing has had at least one negative impact: less time to play with the dog. I kind of got that message when Marlee Marie marched into our bedroom this morning at 2 a.m. and dropped a ball noisily at the end of the bed, then let out a big sigh and collapsed dramatically to the floor. Message received, Marlee.
The key is consistency. Write at least a little bit every day. A second key is setting reasonable goals for each day's writing: I'm finding that I try to start and finish at least one scene every day. Some people say you should leave off in mid-scene, even in mid-sentence, so that you can relaunch fairly easily the next day. That doesn't work for me. I'd prefer to write a scene, then spend the intervening period allowing my mind to work through the next scene or two before I sit down to write again.
Although I do the bulk of the writing in the evening (I set aside between 30 and 90 minutes a night to write — again, I'm setting reasonable goals for myself), I also try to do at least a little bit of writing on my lunch hour at work. This creates a bridge period between the major blocks of writing, a chance to work through the transitions from scene to scene, that kind of stuff.
Once I've done maybe 20 to 30 minutes of writing at work, I block and copy whatever I produce into an e-mail and send it to myself. The first step for the evening session is then to open the e-mail, block and copy the passage into my working file for the novel and, then, as I go through to correct formatting errors caused by the movement from Word file to e-mail file and back to Word file, I also revise the passage. This kick starts the evening's writing session and off I go.
Of course, when my work is as busy as it has been for the past couple of days, I can't always get to the writing. Some days are just train wrecks of meetings, drop ins, counselling sessions, and e-mail correspondence. It can be overwhelming.
Even on those kinds of days, however, it's good to get at least some writing done, if only in the evening. It keeps me sane and it keeps the rhythm going. Writing seems to feed on itself: once you get going, you keep going. If you grind to a halt, it's hard to get started again.
So Phillip Gold is moving along well. Abigail Massey, on the other hand, is still sitting in the Ladies Waiting Room, hoping to hear from a publisher. Soon, we hope.
On the down side, my commitment to my writing has had at least one negative impact: less time to play with the dog. I kind of got that message when Marlee Marie marched into our bedroom this morning at 2 a.m. and dropped a ball noisily at the end of the bed, then let out a big sigh and collapsed dramatically to the floor. Message received, Marlee.
One Good Shot Deserves Another
I have received some really positive responses to my
photo of the bald eagle, which I published both in
this blog and on my Facebook page. Lots of people
said they liked it, several made very kind comments,
and several responded with some of their recent
wildlife photos.
My friend Thanna sent along a beautiful
photograph of a Great Blue Heron that she took while
canoeing with her family in the Princess Point/Cootes
Paradise area in Hamilton. She said they had seen
numerous such herons that day.
Another friend, my brother-in-law Gavin, sent along an amazing close-up photo of a fox that he took while he and my sister Lynn had a brief break near Lakefield, Ontario. I am reproducing these photos here without their permission so please don't copy and use them. If you want info on the owners of these photos, e-mail me at mark.walma@gmail.com and I'll facilitate the communication.
And there's good news from the writing front. I have been able to maintain my discipline and work on The Silent Goodbye every day. I got the chance to write four pages on my lunch hour at work today and plan to spend more time tonight. So things are progressing. And, if I do say so myself, progressing quite well.
I also completed my re-watching of the second season of Star Trek (The Original Series), which was easily the best, most consistent of the three seasons. Now I'm on to season three, the worst of the three, which gets off to an inauspicious beginning with an episode entitled "Spock's Brain". This episode is so bad I don't know where to begin. Even the actors seem to recognise it's awful and play down to the material.
And finally I'm in the middle of Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince, a final re-read before the movie opens here in Canada on Wednesday. This is easily my least favourite book of the series but I'm interested to see what they do with it on film. To be honest, the advance glimpses I've had suggest the film-makers have taken a great number of liberties with the source material. In this case, that might not be a bad thing.
Another friend, my brother-in-law Gavin, sent along an amazing close-up photo of a fox that he took while he and my sister Lynn had a brief break near Lakefield, Ontario. I am reproducing these photos here without their permission so please don't copy and use them. If you want info on the owners of these photos, e-mail me at mark.walma@gmail.com and I'll facilitate the communication.
And there's good news from the writing front. I have been able to maintain my discipline and work on The Silent Goodbye every day. I got the chance to write four pages on my lunch hour at work today and plan to spend more time tonight. So things are progressing. And, if I do say so myself, progressing quite well.
I also completed my re-watching of the second season of Star Trek (The Original Series), which was easily the best, most consistent of the three seasons. Now I'm on to season three, the worst of the three, which gets off to an inauspicious beginning with an episode entitled "Spock's Brain". This episode is so bad I don't know where to begin. Even the actors seem to recognise it's awful and play down to the material.
And finally I'm in the middle of Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince, a final re-read before the movie opens here in Canada on Wednesday. This is easily my least favourite book of the series but I'm interested to see what they do with it on film. To be honest, the advance glimpses I've had suggest the film-makers have taken a great number of liberties with the source material. In this case, that might not be a bad thing.
Where Eagles Dare
10/07/09 21:14 Filed in: Birds
A second entry for the day to tell the world that
Patti and I not only saw a Bald Eagle very close up
today as we kayaked down the Saint John River toward
Fredericton, we also got several amazing photographs
of the majestic bird.
It was standing in a tree near the water's edge
and didn't seem to mind when we paddled up quietly. I
just floated and held the camera as steadily as I
could and click click click. Amazing.
Such a beautiful bird. Look at the powerful beak on it. Wow.
We also saw a family of mergansers in the same area. Pictures of the eagle and the mergansers are also available on the Feathers in Fredericton page of this site.
Great day for birding. I'm heading out to the Potato Research Farm tomorrow in hopes of getting a nice shot of a Bobolink.
Wish me luck. And yes, I will be writing too.
Such a beautiful bird. Look at the powerful beak on it. Wow.
We also saw a family of mergansers in the same area. Pictures of the eagle and the mergansers are also available on the Feathers in Fredericton page of this site.
Great day for birding. I'm heading out to the Potato Research Farm tomorrow in hopes of getting a nice shot of a Bobolink.
Wish me luck. And yes, I will be writing too.
The First Real Challenge
10/07/09 15:50 Filed in: Writing
Day three and I have run into the first real
challenge for my plan: a busy day combined with a
stalled narrative.
Even when you have the entire plot planned out very carefully, sometimes it is not so easy to figure out how you are going to move your characters from one major event to the next, plausibly and in an interesting way. I've got Phillip in Toronto to hide for a week before the trial, I've got him set up in an interesting place and I've even provided an interesting woman to distract him. But how do I use the three days he has left in an interesting way that still advances the plot?
That's the problem I'm facing and, since I don't know how I'm going to resolve it, I'm having trouble diving back in. And life isn't helping since it's given me an incredibly busy day: today is our fifth wedding anniversary and we're planning an evening of kayaking/canoeing with friends. So I have to cram all the after-work stuff into a much shorter time, which may mean the writing gets sacrificed.
I've taken ten minutes to write this but, as I look at the clock on the computer, I realise my time's up. Marlee is fast asleep at my feet but I'll have to wake her in order to be there in time to pick Patti up and get us both to the boat launch!
Still no word on Abigail either!
Even when you have the entire plot planned out very carefully, sometimes it is not so easy to figure out how you are going to move your characters from one major event to the next, plausibly and in an interesting way. I've got Phillip in Toronto to hide for a week before the trial, I've got him set up in an interesting place and I've even provided an interesting woman to distract him. But how do I use the three days he has left in an interesting way that still advances the plot?
That's the problem I'm facing and, since I don't know how I'm going to resolve it, I'm having trouble diving back in. And life isn't helping since it's given me an incredibly busy day: today is our fifth wedding anniversary and we're planning an evening of kayaking/canoeing with friends. So I have to cram all the after-work stuff into a much shorter time, which may mean the writing gets sacrificed.
I've taken ten minutes to write this but, as I look at the clock on the computer, I realise my time's up. Marlee is fast asleep at my feet but I'll have to wake her in order to be there in time to pick Patti up and get us both to the boat launch!
Still no word on Abigail either!
Two Days, Not Bad
09/07/09 20:57 Filed in: Writing
I am now two days into the grand plan and things are
working pretty well. I have written two new sections
of The Silent Goodbye and, even better, I am
finding that the story, characters and plot are
settling again into my subconscious and percolating
away in there.
That's a good sign. And it makes the writing so much easier.
On the fun side, Phillip Gold has fled to Toronto to "disappear" for a couple of days in preparation for the trial. That's given me a chance to take him back to some of my old haunts — the University of Toronto law school, the Villager Suite Hotel, the Big Slice — and spend a little time there as well. It's sort of a break for him and a fun moment for me. The trick will be to make sure I keep it interesting enough as a bridge section that readers won't put the book down and never go back to it.
Of course, I will follow the old hard-boiled axiom: every time you wonder what should happen next, have someone come into the room with a gun.
I'm going down now to write some more. It feels so good when the words are flowing. Of course, I'm also still waiting for word on the Abigail Massey submission.
That's a good sign. And it makes the writing so much easier.
On the fun side, Phillip Gold has fled to Toronto to "disappear" for a couple of days in preparation for the trial. That's given me a chance to take him back to some of my old haunts — the University of Toronto law school, the Villager Suite Hotel, the Big Slice — and spend a little time there as well. It's sort of a break for him and a fun moment for me. The trick will be to make sure I keep it interesting enough as a bridge section that readers won't put the book down and never go back to it.
Of course, I will follow the old hard-boiled axiom: every time you wonder what should happen next, have someone come into the room with a gun.
I'm going down now to write some more. It feels so good when the words are flowing. Of course, I'm also still waiting for word on the Abigail Massey submission.
The First Step
07/07/09 17:44 Filed in: Writing
I start the new regimen today.
Moments ago, I e-mailed off my query letter for the Abigail Massey at McAdam Station episodic novel to a Canadian publisher, leaving me free to start focusing on one project: The Silent Goodbye.
I am going to attempt to find at least an hour every day to work on this novel, with a view to completing the first draft by the end of 2009. Patti is on board and supportive and I am committed (or at least I should be). I have set up my laptop computer as my principal place of writing and, at some point in the not too distant future, I will take steps to establish my own office in what we call the "Green Room" of our home.
This time, it's SERIOUS.
I have completed the extended (and action-packed) set up of the novel and, from here on out, I will be weaving together the two major plots: Phillip Gold's duel with Alexander Pim, the professional killer, and the sexual assault trial of gang member Billy Watson, Gold's latest client.
The idea is to have one add tension to the other with the two finally coming together in an exciting climax. We'll see. I have the plot carefully planned and more ideas started coming to me while I was showering this morning (I do seem to do some of my best thinking with the water flowing!). My hope is that, by breaking down the remaining writing into bite-sized chunks, I might just be successful at getting the writing done.
Sounds funny, doesn't it? Writers are supposed to enjoy the process of writing, to love sitting at the keyboard and creating a fictional world. I'm not so sure it works that way. The part I love is the thinking and planning, the mental process of imagining the plot, developing the characters, working through the challenges and problems that present themselves. The writing is, to me, a much more mechanical process. Taking those wonderful ideas and manufacturing them with words.
That actually sounds like a pretty negative characterization of the actual writing. Maybe it explains why I have so many ideas for projects but such problems completing them.
While I am committed to completing The Silent Goodbye in good order, I won't be too upset if my work is interrupted by one particular distraction: a call from a publisher asking me to focus on rounding Abigail Massey into shape for publication!
Moments ago, I e-mailed off my query letter for the Abigail Massey at McAdam Station episodic novel to a Canadian publisher, leaving me free to start focusing on one project: The Silent Goodbye.
I am going to attempt to find at least an hour every day to work on this novel, with a view to completing the first draft by the end of 2009. Patti is on board and supportive and I am committed (or at least I should be). I have set up my laptop computer as my principal place of writing and, at some point in the not too distant future, I will take steps to establish my own office in what we call the "Green Room" of our home.
This time, it's SERIOUS.
I have completed the extended (and action-packed) set up of the novel and, from here on out, I will be weaving together the two major plots: Phillip Gold's duel with Alexander Pim, the professional killer, and the sexual assault trial of gang member Billy Watson, Gold's latest client.
The idea is to have one add tension to the other with the two finally coming together in an exciting climax. We'll see. I have the plot carefully planned and more ideas started coming to me while I was showering this morning (I do seem to do some of my best thinking with the water flowing!). My hope is that, by breaking down the remaining writing into bite-sized chunks, I might just be successful at getting the writing done.
Sounds funny, doesn't it? Writers are supposed to enjoy the process of writing, to love sitting at the keyboard and creating a fictional world. I'm not so sure it works that way. The part I love is the thinking and planning, the mental process of imagining the plot, developing the characters, working through the challenges and problems that present themselves. The writing is, to me, a much more mechanical process. Taking those wonderful ideas and manufacturing them with words.
That actually sounds like a pretty negative characterization of the actual writing. Maybe it explains why I have so many ideas for projects but such problems completing them.
While I am committed to completing The Silent Goodbye in good order, I won't be too upset if my work is interrupted by one particular distraction: a call from a publisher asking me to focus on rounding Abigail Massey into shape for publication!
Selling Abigail
06/07/09 23:20 Filed in: Writing
And so it begins: the process of attempting to find a
publisher for the Abigail Massey stories. I've
drafted a query letter and will add to it my own
resume and a sample chapter. I'm quite hopeful I'll
be able to place it but, as always, getting published
is no easy task.
Despite what I wrote in my last post, I do intend to attempt to focus my efforts on one project at a time. First, once the Abigail query letter is gone, I will settle in to work on The Silent Goodbye in hopes of getting a draft done by the end of the year. That should be do-able if I am successful in carving out at least an hour each day to write. Quite often the hardest part about writing is getting back into a rhythm once you've lost it. If you can start to set a bit of a pace, however, things tend to snowball and you find yourself writing more quickly, more consistently and more effectively.
That's my goal at this point. Focus on one project, create a rhythm, get it done. Set it aside at that point, work on something else for a while to create distance, then go back with a more objective eye for review and rewrites.
I can promise myself I'll do all that. I'm just not so sure I'll live up to my own promise.
And next Wednesday brings Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince, film version. Hoorraaayyy!!!
Despite what I wrote in my last post, I do intend to attempt to focus my efforts on one project at a time. First, once the Abigail query letter is gone, I will settle in to work on The Silent Goodbye in hopes of getting a draft done by the end of the year. That should be do-able if I am successful in carving out at least an hour each day to write. Quite often the hardest part about writing is getting back into a rhythm once you've lost it. If you can start to set a bit of a pace, however, things tend to snowball and you find yourself writing more quickly, more consistently and more effectively.
That's my goal at this point. Focus on one project, create a rhythm, get it done. Set it aside at that point, work on something else for a while to create distance, then go back with a more objective eye for review and rewrites.
I can promise myself I'll do all that. I'm just not so sure I'll live up to my own promise.
And next Wednesday brings Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince, film version. Hoorraaayyy!!!
A New Project
02/07/09 19:17 Filed in: Writing
The other day I had a chat with my friend Ross,
author of the highly successful novel
Tainted. This book, his first medical
thriller, has apparently sold out its first printing
and is now under order for a second printing. Cool.
During this conversation, Ross told me he simply could not deal with the number of projects I currently have underway: he'd prefer to focus on one completely, get it done, then move on. Considering he's now published and in the "highly successful" category, I had to admit that his approach is probably better than my scattershot, multiple project approach.
So what did I do? I immediately went out and started a new project. To add to all the others. In case you've forgotten, here's what I'm working on from a writing standpoint: 1) Phillip Gold, The Silent Goodbye, a novel; 2) Abigail Massey at McAdam Station, a collection of short stories for young readers (ages 9 to 12 or so); 3) the Harry Potter Concordance; 4) The Way Forward, a Rowling-world novel; and 5) this blog.
I'm going to keep the new project something of a secret for now, considering the ones I do talk about never seem to get done. Suffice it to say, it is inspired by how much I enjoy writing the Abigail Massey stories and it will feature a protagonist who is named after two of my favourite people: her name will be Emily St. Clare. That's not to say that my character will in any way resemble Emily or Clare but I like the names and I like the way they come together.
With regard to a status update on the projects, here goes:
The Silent Goodbye: I have written more than 50,000 words of it and recently completed a fairly detailed plot plan for the remainder of the novel. I have dabbled with writing the remainder and will make this a focus for the remainder of the year;
Abigail Massey at McAdam Station: I have written 12 of these stories which, when counted together, total approximately 45,000 words. I am in the process of drafting query letters to several Canadian publishers of children and young people's fiction with the hopes of finding someone to take the project on. I also dream of the stories one day forming the basis for a family television comic drama, in the style of Road to Avonlea and Anne of Green Gables;
Harry Potter Concordance: this is a personal pet project that I'm doing simply for my own enjoyment. I'm part way through The Goblet of Fire and having a great time with it. But it is slow work;
The Way Forward: Despite a very impressive burst of energy when I started it, this project has lost some steam. I will likely get back to it at some point but it is strictly back-burner for now.
This blog: as long as I enjoy writing it, which I do, I'll keep doing it.
In the meantime, I have started posting simple videos on Youtube under the user name "markwwnb": so far, two short, silent vids of Marlee Marie, our puppy.
So I've got a lot on the go, creatively. That's on top of life, the universe and everything.
And I've come to accept that, even with a clear picture in front of me of a brown and white bird with streaks and speckles, I am incapable of identifying it using bird books like Peterson's. I'm hopeless.
During this conversation, Ross told me he simply could not deal with the number of projects I currently have underway: he'd prefer to focus on one completely, get it done, then move on. Considering he's now published and in the "highly successful" category, I had to admit that his approach is probably better than my scattershot, multiple project approach.
So what did I do? I immediately went out and started a new project. To add to all the others. In case you've forgotten, here's what I'm working on from a writing standpoint: 1) Phillip Gold, The Silent Goodbye, a novel; 2) Abigail Massey at McAdam Station, a collection of short stories for young readers (ages 9 to 12 or so); 3) the Harry Potter Concordance; 4) The Way Forward, a Rowling-world novel; and 5) this blog.
I'm going to keep the new project something of a secret for now, considering the ones I do talk about never seem to get done. Suffice it to say, it is inspired by how much I enjoy writing the Abigail Massey stories and it will feature a protagonist who is named after two of my favourite people: her name will be Emily St. Clare. That's not to say that my character will in any way resemble Emily or Clare but I like the names and I like the way they come together.
With regard to a status update on the projects, here goes:
The Silent Goodbye: I have written more than 50,000 words of it and recently completed a fairly detailed plot plan for the remainder of the novel. I have dabbled with writing the remainder and will make this a focus for the remainder of the year;
Abigail Massey at McAdam Station: I have written 12 of these stories which, when counted together, total approximately 45,000 words. I am in the process of drafting query letters to several Canadian publishers of children and young people's fiction with the hopes of finding someone to take the project on. I also dream of the stories one day forming the basis for a family television comic drama, in the style of Road to Avonlea and Anne of Green Gables;
Harry Potter Concordance: this is a personal pet project that I'm doing simply for my own enjoyment. I'm part way through The Goblet of Fire and having a great time with it. But it is slow work;
The Way Forward: Despite a very impressive burst of energy when I started it, this project has lost some steam. I will likely get back to it at some point but it is strictly back-burner for now.
This blog: as long as I enjoy writing it, which I do, I'll keep doing it.
In the meantime, I have started posting simple videos on Youtube under the user name "markwwnb": so far, two short, silent vids of Marlee Marie, our puppy.
So I've got a lot on the go, creatively. That's on top of life, the universe and everything.
And I've come to accept that, even with a clear picture in front of me of a brown and white bird with streaks and speckles, I am incapable of identifying it using bird books like Peterson's. I'm hopeless.