Oct 2010
Juliet, Naked
27/10/10 10:30 Filed in: Reading
It has been a long time since I've found a "new" book
that has captured my imagination as much as
Juliet, Naked, Nick Hornby's recent novel. A
quiet little book, Juliet, Naked still
manages to tackle major themes while introducing a
number of interesting, exactly right characters.
I read it in three days. That's not surprising for me, since I tend to eat up any book I really like, but what is surprising is how much time I spent thinking about the novel when I wasn't actually reading it. In fact, I actually had a dream about the characters, which is an absolute rarity for me.
JN tells the story of three major characters: Annie, a complicated forty-something woman living in a dreary seaside resort in England, wondering where her life has gone to; Duncan, a college lit prof in the same English resort whose private life is totally taken up by his fascination with a moderately successful 80s-era singer/songwriter who created his greatest album (titled, Juliet, Naked), toured for a while, then suddenly dropped out of life; and Tucker Crowe, that 80s-era singer-songwriter, now facing old age, wondering how he managed to screw up his life so badly.
Hornby manages to weave the relationships of these three characters in a fascinating way, with plenty of humour and lots of tension. Along the way, he delves into issues like "what exactly represents a life well lived?", "is having children the sole and only purpose in life?", "how do we, as we live our own lives, impact on others, both positively and negatively", "do we owe anyone anything?".
I say that JN is a quiet little book because, to be honest, it is. It's a character study, a play of relationships, not an action book. But it's beautifully and wittily written and the characters are absolutely "spot on" for me and people my age.
I am also quite interested in how Hornby deals with this group of people as they come to terms with an internet age where just about anything is possible. Duncan and his on-line community have built up an entire legend surrounding Tucker Crowe -- it's interesting to read how Tucker reacts and responds to it.
It's somewhat ironic that I'm writing a review of the book in an internet blog. But don't worry, Mr. Hornby, I'm not going to go all Duncan on you!
I will read this book again. Perhaps not immediately but soon. I'll be interested to see what I take from it on second reading.
I read it in three days. That's not surprising for me, since I tend to eat up any book I really like, but what is surprising is how much time I spent thinking about the novel when I wasn't actually reading it. In fact, I actually had a dream about the characters, which is an absolute rarity for me.
JN tells the story of three major characters: Annie, a complicated forty-something woman living in a dreary seaside resort in England, wondering where her life has gone to; Duncan, a college lit prof in the same English resort whose private life is totally taken up by his fascination with a moderately successful 80s-era singer/songwriter who created his greatest album (titled, Juliet, Naked), toured for a while, then suddenly dropped out of life; and Tucker Crowe, that 80s-era singer-songwriter, now facing old age, wondering how he managed to screw up his life so badly.
Hornby manages to weave the relationships of these three characters in a fascinating way, with plenty of humour and lots of tension. Along the way, he delves into issues like "what exactly represents a life well lived?", "is having children the sole and only purpose in life?", "how do we, as we live our own lives, impact on others, both positively and negatively", "do we owe anyone anything?".
I say that JN is a quiet little book because, to be honest, it is. It's a character study, a play of relationships, not an action book. But it's beautifully and wittily written and the characters are absolutely "spot on" for me and people my age.
I am also quite interested in how Hornby deals with this group of people as they come to terms with an internet age where just about anything is possible. Duncan and his on-line community have built up an entire legend surrounding Tucker Crowe -- it's interesting to read how Tucker reacts and responds to it.
It's somewhat ironic that I'm writing a review of the book in an internet blog. But don't worry, Mr. Hornby, I'm not going to go all Duncan on you!
I will read this book again. Perhaps not immediately but soon. I'll be interested to see what I take from it on second reading.
A Balancing Act
I've managed something of a balancing act over the
past week, finding time in my busy days both to read
and to write. It's been a most gratifying and
enjoyable period, since I have been able to cruise
through the first three Rowling novels while still
making decent progress on the revisions of The
Silent Goodbye, my mystery novel.
As you know, a very kind publisher has read my novel and given me clear suggestions on how to improve it and improve its chances of being published. As a result, I've embarked on a major rewrite, the most challenging aspect of which is to take the two major plotlines, which were presented consecutively in the first draft, and have them develop in a parallel fashion, so that my major character tackles both at the same time. It's a great idea and will improve the novel immensely but it's not so easy to put into effect.
One plotline involves my main character, Phillip Gold, witnessing the assassination of a police officer, then finding himself involved in a desperate cat-and-mouse game with the professional killer. The other plot has Gold, a lawyer by training, in the courtroom defending a gang leader on a charge of raping the daughter of a prominent local politician. In the first draft of the novel, Gold managed to stay a step ahead of the killer for a week until the trial started, dealt with the trial, then wrapped up the assassin plot once the trial was over. In the new version, the two plots mix and mingle.
I'm well along in the revision but, perhaps not surprisingly, it's the new writing that is slowing me down. In order for the revisions to work, I have to extend the courtroom scenes somewhat and make Gold a more proactive character on the cat-and-mouse front. So that calls for some creative writing. I'm glad to say it's going well but it is slow going.
On the reading side of things, I have now dashed through the first three books of the Harry Potter series. No matter how hard I try, I simply cannot get myself to read these books slowly. Even after five or six readings of each one, I still get so caught up in the action that I bolt right through.
Before launching into The Goblet of Fire, however, I have interrupted my journey through the world of Rowling to read a book that both my sister and my partner have recommended very highly: Nick Hornby's Juliet, Naked. The author of both High Fidelity and About A Boy, Hornby has a wonderfully light, easy style of writing and a firm grasp of the challenges our modern world presents to us 40-somethings. I only picked up Juliet, Naked for the first time last night but I'm already a third of the way through: it's turning out to be an interesting, entertaining study of the impact of the web-world on the lives of average people, their sense of themselves, their interactions with others and their communities.
I'm very much enjoying it. I'm not one to take easily to new novels (I tend to read and re-read my favourites) but this one is certainly a winner. I'll do a more formal review when I'm done but I'm loving it so far.
As you know, a very kind publisher has read my novel and given me clear suggestions on how to improve it and improve its chances of being published. As a result, I've embarked on a major rewrite, the most challenging aspect of which is to take the two major plotlines, which were presented consecutively in the first draft, and have them develop in a parallel fashion, so that my major character tackles both at the same time. It's a great idea and will improve the novel immensely but it's not so easy to put into effect.
One plotline involves my main character, Phillip Gold, witnessing the assassination of a police officer, then finding himself involved in a desperate cat-and-mouse game with the professional killer. The other plot has Gold, a lawyer by training, in the courtroom defending a gang leader on a charge of raping the daughter of a prominent local politician. In the first draft of the novel, Gold managed to stay a step ahead of the killer for a week until the trial started, dealt with the trial, then wrapped up the assassin plot once the trial was over. In the new version, the two plots mix and mingle.
I'm well along in the revision but, perhaps not surprisingly, it's the new writing that is slowing me down. In order for the revisions to work, I have to extend the courtroom scenes somewhat and make Gold a more proactive character on the cat-and-mouse front. So that calls for some creative writing. I'm glad to say it's going well but it is slow going.
On the reading side of things, I have now dashed through the first three books of the Harry Potter series. No matter how hard I try, I simply cannot get myself to read these books slowly. Even after five or six readings of each one, I still get so caught up in the action that I bolt right through.
Before launching into The Goblet of Fire, however, I have interrupted my journey through the world of Rowling to read a book that both my sister and my partner have recommended very highly: Nick Hornby's Juliet, Naked. The author of both High Fidelity and About A Boy, Hornby has a wonderfully light, easy style of writing and a firm grasp of the challenges our modern world presents to us 40-somethings. I only picked up Juliet, Naked for the first time last night but I'm already a third of the way through: it's turning out to be an interesting, entertaining study of the impact of the web-world on the lives of average people, their sense of themselves, their interactions with others and their communities.
I'm very much enjoying it. I'm not one to take easily to new novels (I tend to read and re-read my favourites) but this one is certainly a winner. I'll do a more formal review when I'm done but I'm loving it so far.
Happy So Far
I finished the re-read of The Silent Goodbye
yesterday. I'm pleased to say I'm pleased. Very
pleased. It reads well and has good pacing. The
changes I've made have worked well, I think, and the
result is a tighter, more interesting story.
Now I go back to the writing again. I've got Gold heading into an action scene and the publisher who reviewed the earlier draft of the novel was not very complimentary about my action scenes so I've really got to focus to get it right. I'll try to write a draft tomorrow, sit on it for a while, then come back to it to polish it up.
So I'm happy. And I'm still on a pretty good time-line, which means I should get the next draft done by the end of the year.
My re-read of the Harry Potter series is also well underway. I whizzed through The Philosopher's Stone in 24 hours (well, after all, it is a 200-page book for pre-teens so it's a quick read!) and am now into The Chamber of Secrets. As always, I'm impressed with the writing, caught up in the action and amazed at the number of little details that emerge in the early books and then become major factors in later novels.
And this kind of process also helps to remind me how much better the novels are than the movies. I do watch the films from time to time because the action scenes are pretty awesome and I like the actors but the cut-down versions of the stories drive me nuts. The novels are so rich, full and deep; it's too bad that richness can't be translated to the screen. Makes me a little bit worried about the next movie. I love The Deathly Hallows and am scared that the film versions will be as big a disappointment as was the screen adaptation of The Half-Blood Prince.
The trailers I've seen on-line, however, look great so I am approaching the next movie with cautious optimism. Okay, cautious optimism and a great deal of excitement!
Now I go back to the writing again. I've got Gold heading into an action scene and the publisher who reviewed the earlier draft of the novel was not very complimentary about my action scenes so I've really got to focus to get it right. I'll try to write a draft tomorrow, sit on it for a while, then come back to it to polish it up.
So I'm happy. And I'm still on a pretty good time-line, which means I should get the next draft done by the end of the year.
My re-read of the Harry Potter series is also well underway. I whizzed through The Philosopher's Stone in 24 hours (well, after all, it is a 200-page book for pre-teens so it's a quick read!) and am now into The Chamber of Secrets. As always, I'm impressed with the writing, caught up in the action and amazed at the number of little details that emerge in the early books and then become major factors in later novels.
And this kind of process also helps to remind me how much better the novels are than the movies. I do watch the films from time to time because the action scenes are pretty awesome and I like the actors but the cut-down versions of the stories drive me nuts. The novels are so rich, full and deep; it's too bad that richness can't be translated to the screen. Makes me a little bit worried about the next movie. I love The Deathly Hallows and am scared that the film versions will be as big a disappointment as was the screen adaptation of The Half-Blood Prince.
The trailers I've seen on-line, however, look great so I am approaching the next movie with cautious optimism. Okay, cautious optimism and a great deal of excitement!
The Pleasure of Reading
16/10/10 12:55 Filed in: Reading
A pleasant Saturday morning all around. Despite the
latest hurricane doing its best to ruin our weekend,
it's actually been very nice so far.
I woke up early and sat in a hot bath, launching into Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone, the first book in J.K. Rowling's magical series. What a fantastic book! I know, I know. I've read it a dozen times. It shouldn't surprise me. But it still does. I read almost half the novel before emerging, a little pruny, and taking Marlee for her first walk of the day.
A little shopping followed, one of those miraculous shopping trips where everything you want or need just happens to be on sale. I even got a brand new pitching wedge for just $10. Cool.
Back home again and, because the sun was coming out for a brief appearance on a rainy day, I took Marlee out again, this time for a run at the potato farm. Beautiful weather, warm even. Yes, there was a little mud and her feet are now pretty dirty but, still, it was good for both of us to get out.
Finally, back home. Patti's sitting in our new red leather chair, reading Nick Hornby's novel, Juliet, Naked, and apparently thoroughly enjoying it. Her laughter is interrupting me as I plunge back into Rowling's world. Hornby apparently wrote About A Boy and High Fidelity, both of which turned into successful films. Patti said she's finding it fun to read a novel like this by someone who is her age, sees things in much the same way she does, shares her experiences of the world.
She tells me I will enjoy it and, from the way she's responding to it, I no doubt will. I'll read it after I race through Potter again. All seven books. Cuz the movie is coming soon!
I woke up early and sat in a hot bath, launching into Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone, the first book in J.K. Rowling's magical series. What a fantastic book! I know, I know. I've read it a dozen times. It shouldn't surprise me. But it still does. I read almost half the novel before emerging, a little pruny, and taking Marlee for her first walk of the day.
A little shopping followed, one of those miraculous shopping trips where everything you want or need just happens to be on sale. I even got a brand new pitching wedge for just $10. Cool.
Back home again and, because the sun was coming out for a brief appearance on a rainy day, I took Marlee out again, this time for a run at the potato farm. Beautiful weather, warm even. Yes, there was a little mud and her feet are now pretty dirty but, still, it was good for both of us to get out.
Finally, back home. Patti's sitting in our new red leather chair, reading Nick Hornby's novel, Juliet, Naked, and apparently thoroughly enjoying it. Her laughter is interrupting me as I plunge back into Rowling's world. Hornby apparently wrote About A Boy and High Fidelity, both of which turned into successful films. Patti said she's finding it fun to read a novel like this by someone who is her age, sees things in much the same way she does, shares her experiences of the world.
She tells me I will enjoy it and, from the way she's responding to it, I no doubt will. I'll read it after I race through Potter again. All seven books. Cuz the movie is coming soon!
Mostly Harmless? Mostly Charmless
15/10/10 08:30 Filed in: Reading
I have just finished reading the fifth novel in
Douglas Adams' Sci-Fi-Silly trilogy, Mostly
Harmless. And, as the title above might suggest
to you, I didn't like it.
In fact, the book was an exercise in boredom and frustration. I honestly had to force myself to sit down this morning and slog through the final 30 pages of it, just so that I could put it aside and get on to something better.
Again, the novel was mostly plotless and the characters who had so capably carried earlier volumes in the series were clearly not up to the task this time. Mostly Harmless finds luckless Arthur Dent finally lucky, a revered Sandwich Maker on a faraway, peaceful planet. He leads an idyllic, happy life until, out of the blue, his old flame Trillian appears out of the night sky to dump on him a daughter he didn't know he had. Well, of course he didn't know he had a daughter: Trillian had obtained some of Arthur's sperm from a galactic sperm bank (his was the only deposit that was an appropriate biological match for her).
So Arthur's life is suddenly shamblised by the unhappy Random, a girl of indeterminate age (caused be the fact that she is the daughter of her space-travelling, time-travelling cosmic news reporting mother) who desperately wants to fit in somewhere. Just when Arthur starts to make progress in building a relationship with the young lass, Ford Prefect shows up and ruins the whole thing.
It all ends with the end of the Earth (again) and Arthur Dent finally accepting his own death.
Uplifting.
Too bad Adams fails entirely to incorporate into this charmless book any of the pithy, surprising life lessons (or at least observations) that he sprinkles liberally through the earlier novels. Too bad Adams was too lazy to come up with a good way to separate Arthur from his life-love Fen of the previous novel (he simply has her disappear during a spaceship ride). Too bad Adams apparently decided, after the sales of the first four books started to dwindle, to dilute the brand with this one last, desperate gasp to recapture the magic.
Thankfully, I'm on now to Harry Potter in preparation for the seventh movie!
In fact, the book was an exercise in boredom and frustration. I honestly had to force myself to sit down this morning and slog through the final 30 pages of it, just so that I could put it aside and get on to something better.
Again, the novel was mostly plotless and the characters who had so capably carried earlier volumes in the series were clearly not up to the task this time. Mostly Harmless finds luckless Arthur Dent finally lucky, a revered Sandwich Maker on a faraway, peaceful planet. He leads an idyllic, happy life until, out of the blue, his old flame Trillian appears out of the night sky to dump on him a daughter he didn't know he had. Well, of course he didn't know he had a daughter: Trillian had obtained some of Arthur's sperm from a galactic sperm bank (his was the only deposit that was an appropriate biological match for her).
So Arthur's life is suddenly shamblised by the unhappy Random, a girl of indeterminate age (caused be the fact that she is the daughter of her space-travelling, time-travelling cosmic news reporting mother) who desperately wants to fit in somewhere. Just when Arthur starts to make progress in building a relationship with the young lass, Ford Prefect shows up and ruins the whole thing.
It all ends with the end of the Earth (again) and Arthur Dent finally accepting his own death.
Uplifting.
Too bad Adams fails entirely to incorporate into this charmless book any of the pithy, surprising life lessons (or at least observations) that he sprinkles liberally through the earlier novels. Too bad Adams was too lazy to come up with a good way to separate Arthur from his life-love Fen of the previous novel (he simply has her disappear during a spaceship ride). Too bad Adams apparently decided, after the sales of the first four books started to dwindle, to dilute the brand with this one last, desperate gasp to recapture the magic.
Thankfully, I'm on now to Harry Potter in preparation for the seventh movie!
Getting Back Into It
13/10/10 08:25 Filed in: Writing
It has been about a week since I've had a chance to
work on the revisions for my Phillip Gold mystery
novel, The Silent Goodbye. Life has been so
busy that I haven't had a chance to sit down for any
reasonable period of time to work on it. I have
managed to read some of Douglas Adams' Mostly
Harmless here and there in the five and
ten-minute breaks in life but the writing project has
been unreachable.
It's very frustrating. I had been making excellent progress and had really found a groove. Now I'm out of it and trying to find a way back in.
So yesterday I decided that step one would be to re-read what I've already completed. Remember, I'm currently attempting to re-weave the two plots of my novel into a differently coherent whole. Though there is quite a bit of writing involved, there is also a great deal of blocking, copying, revising and editing to make it hang properly. It's a tough job, tougher than I had expected.
I am about a third of the way through and I think it's working well. I re-read the first three sections and enjoyed them. I had to do some fine-tuning, however, to catch minor inconsistencies that have cropped up due to the re-ordering of scenes and the reduction in the roles of several characters. For example, in the first courtroom scene, as Gold is giving his opening address to the Jury, I had forgotten to edit out his reference to his old friend and mentor, Bob Smythe. The reason: Smythe has not yet appeared in the novel at that point in the revised version.
Little things like that keep cropping up: scenes that were moved from evening to morning needed polishing to remove references to the "thickening darkness" and stuff like that; I'm finding that I missed the odd reference to a character by her old name; or I find that a character will refer to something that hasn't yet happened.
That's why the re-read is so important. I had the old plot structure very clear in my mind. I have to replace it, now, with the new structure so that I can make sure the novel flows in a clear, consistent fashion.
So now, in order to write, I have to read. There are worse fates, I guess.
It's very frustrating. I had been making excellent progress and had really found a groove. Now I'm out of it and trying to find a way back in.
So yesterday I decided that step one would be to re-read what I've already completed. Remember, I'm currently attempting to re-weave the two plots of my novel into a differently coherent whole. Though there is quite a bit of writing involved, there is also a great deal of blocking, copying, revising and editing to make it hang properly. It's a tough job, tougher than I had expected.
I am about a third of the way through and I think it's working well. I re-read the first three sections and enjoyed them. I had to do some fine-tuning, however, to catch minor inconsistencies that have cropped up due to the re-ordering of scenes and the reduction in the roles of several characters. For example, in the first courtroom scene, as Gold is giving his opening address to the Jury, I had forgotten to edit out his reference to his old friend and mentor, Bob Smythe. The reason: Smythe has not yet appeared in the novel at that point in the revised version.
Little things like that keep cropping up: scenes that were moved from evening to morning needed polishing to remove references to the "thickening darkness" and stuff like that; I'm finding that I missed the odd reference to a character by her old name; or I find that a character will refer to something that hasn't yet happened.
That's why the re-read is so important. I had the old plot structure very clear in my mind. I have to replace it, now, with the new structure so that I can make sure the novel flows in a clear, consistent fashion.
So now, in order to write, I have to read. There are worse fates, I guess.
This Morning, A Merlin
This morning, a Merlin, whistling through the
branches of the trees, keeking out his characteristic
note, chasing songbirds. As I walked Marlee Marie
through the neighbourhood, this powerful little
predator zipped by several times, an amazing sight.
Too bad I didn't have my camera handy. I rarely take it when I'm walking the dog.
I finished The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy's first four books yesterday, finally. I think of the four novels as being part of a single whole simply because I have a hard-cover edition from the mid-1980s, which includes all the books that had been written to that point: The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy; The Restaurant at the End of the Universe; Life, the Universe and Everything; and finally So Long and Thanks for all the Fish.
The first of them is also the best of them. I felt that the third book was extremely weak and the only reason I enjoyed the fourth book as much as I did was because it is actually something of a love story, an unusual one to be sure, but a love story nonetheless. It has no real plot but to see Arthur Dent in love with a woman who matches him so well is quite enjoyable for me.
Now I've started the fifth novel in the trilogy, Mostly Harmless, written in 1992. I'm kind of wishing I hadn't. Though it seems to recapture much of the wonderful silliness of the first novel it also tends to pick up some of the irritating writing habits Adams developed in the middle books. Habits like hinting at where the book is going, then spending annoying series of pages avoiding getting there. It's cleverness that's kind of lost itself in itself. In other words, Adams indulges his own cleverness to no good effect.
Oh well. I'm already a third of the way through so it won't take long to finish. And I've got the anticipation of getting back to Harry Potter to push me along.
Too bad I didn't have my camera handy. I rarely take it when I'm walking the dog.
I finished The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy's first four books yesterday, finally. I think of the four novels as being part of a single whole simply because I have a hard-cover edition from the mid-1980s, which includes all the books that had been written to that point: The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy; The Restaurant at the End of the Universe; Life, the Universe and Everything; and finally So Long and Thanks for all the Fish.
The first of them is also the best of them. I felt that the third book was extremely weak and the only reason I enjoyed the fourth book as much as I did was because it is actually something of a love story, an unusual one to be sure, but a love story nonetheless. It has no real plot but to see Arthur Dent in love with a woman who matches him so well is quite enjoyable for me.
Now I've started the fifth novel in the trilogy, Mostly Harmless, written in 1992. I'm kind of wishing I hadn't. Though it seems to recapture much of the wonderful silliness of the first novel it also tends to pick up some of the irritating writing habits Adams developed in the middle books. Habits like hinting at where the book is going, then spending annoying series of pages avoiding getting there. It's cleverness that's kind of lost itself in itself. In other words, Adams indulges his own cleverness to no good effect.
Oh well. I'm already a third of the way through so it won't take long to finish. And I've got the anticipation of getting back to Harry Potter to push me along.
The Beauty of Fall
10/10/10 14:39 Filed in: Birds
Even though Norway Maples are not indigenous to NB and even though, on the advice of many people, I'm patiently cutting most of them out of our backyard property, you have to admit that they are pretty glorious when they turn colour. The first photo in this entry is of the leaves at the top of one such tree, bathed in the early morning sun, a splendid salad of reds and oranges and yellows. A beautiful sight!
I was stunned by his sudden appearance and, for several long minutes, watched entranced as he made his way up and down the trunk of the tree. Then, carefully, I made my way into the house to get my camera, hoping, praying he'd stick around long enough for me to get a picture or two.
Thankfully, he didn't disappoint. In fact, he made himself available to my lens with better profiles than I could have dreamed. What a beautiful bird. I love the colour of his crown. I've added two photos of him to this page and a third on my "Feathers In Fredericton" page. So please do enjoy them all.
Later in the morning, a surprisingly blue nuthatch (a white-breast) appeared at our feeder but, unlike the woodpecker, he came and went so fast I couldn't get the camera in time. Still, a pretty great day for mid-October. Even more to be thankful for on Thanksgiving!
So Much To Do
Life has been a bit busy of late. I still cannot
believe, however, that it's been 16 days since my
last post. Wow.
Outside of work, family and personal commitments, I've been pulled in two different directions lately: continuing the revisions on my Phillip Gold mystery novel, The Silent Goodbye, and reading Douglas Adams' five-part trilogy, The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy.
Work on my novel has been going well but I am plagued by the inability to find decent blocks of time in which to work. I have found recently that, once I get the chance to bury my imagination in the task, I can go for hours without looking up. That's a good sign. But it means I have to set aside longer periods in which to work. My last writing session was unsatisfactory, mostly because I felt rushed (I was trying to grab an hour between commitments) so I worry the writing is stiff and unimaginative. I'm about to add a scene or two where Gold actually attempts to track down and confront his enemy and I think I'm going to need to be really focused to make it work.
On the reading front, I am enjoying Adams' work quite a bit but it is not as fun nor as funny as I remember it to be. There are still laugh-out-loud moments in it but the general frivolity is starting to grate on my nerves. I've just finished the third book so I just have two to go.
Next on my list: Harry Potter, in preparation for the release of the film version of the first part of The Deathly Hallows. I've seen the trailers on the web and I am pumped for this film. Of course, that probably means I'll be disappointed. Oh well.
I have also seen the Oprah interview with J.K. Rowling, which I thought was just great. It must be hard for Oprah and J.K. to find people to talk to with whom they can relate. Both are intelligent, talented women who, by hard work and a world of luck, have become phenomena in the entertainment business. They are rich beyond their wildest dreams but also appear to care very deeply for their craft and for the dedicated millions who love their work. I found the interview fascinating for that reason: they seemed to feel at home together, to recognise in each other a fellow traveller, a person with similar extraordinary experiences, feelings, fears. And every time I see J.K., my respect for her increases.
I have to admit, I'm actually impatient to get through Adams and back to Rowling's magical world.
Outside of work, family and personal commitments, I've been pulled in two different directions lately: continuing the revisions on my Phillip Gold mystery novel, The Silent Goodbye, and reading Douglas Adams' five-part trilogy, The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy.
Work on my novel has been going well but I am plagued by the inability to find decent blocks of time in which to work. I have found recently that, once I get the chance to bury my imagination in the task, I can go for hours without looking up. That's a good sign. But it means I have to set aside longer periods in which to work. My last writing session was unsatisfactory, mostly because I felt rushed (I was trying to grab an hour between commitments) so I worry the writing is stiff and unimaginative. I'm about to add a scene or two where Gold actually attempts to track down and confront his enemy and I think I'm going to need to be really focused to make it work.
On the reading front, I am enjoying Adams' work quite a bit but it is not as fun nor as funny as I remember it to be. There are still laugh-out-loud moments in it but the general frivolity is starting to grate on my nerves. I've just finished the third book so I just have two to go.
Next on my list: Harry Potter, in preparation for the release of the film version of the first part of The Deathly Hallows. I've seen the trailers on the web and I am pumped for this film. Of course, that probably means I'll be disappointed. Oh well.
I have also seen the Oprah interview with J.K. Rowling, which I thought was just great. It must be hard for Oprah and J.K. to find people to talk to with whom they can relate. Both are intelligent, talented women who, by hard work and a world of luck, have become phenomena in the entertainment business. They are rich beyond their wildest dreams but also appear to care very deeply for their craft and for the dedicated millions who love their work. I found the interview fascinating for that reason: they seemed to feel at home together, to recognise in each other a fellow traveller, a person with similar extraordinary experiences, feelings, fears. And every time I see J.K., my respect for her increases.
I have to admit, I'm actually impatient to get through Adams and back to Rowling's magical world.