RIP: Nyac
Nyac the sea otter passed away on Tuesday. Nyac and Milo were a YouTube sensation, but I got to experience them first hand when we visited Vancouver this weekend. My husband can vouch for the mesmerizing cuteness of these critters. We could not walk past their pool without stopping over and over and over again.
The Vancouver Aquarium has posted a tribute to Nyac here.
Some Fun: A Reading Meme
Welcome to my procrastination. I feel like I’ve seen this meme somewhere before, as I’m definitely not original enough to make it up. Below are the first lines of 10 of my favorite books. See if you can figure out who wrote them and where they came from. Leave your answers in the comments.
- 1801 – I have just returned from a visit to my landlord – the solitary neighbour that I shall be troubled with.
- Sybil Davidson has a genius I.Q. and has been laid by at least six different guys.
- Alice was beginning to get very tired of sitting by her sister on the bank, and of having nothing to do: once or twice she had peeped into the book her sister was reading, but it had no pictures or conversations in it “and what use is a book,” thought Alice, “without pictures or conversations?”
- She hurries from the house, wearing a coat too heavy for the weather.
- Noon. London: my flat. Ugh.
- This is my favorite book in all the world, though I have never read it.
- You will rejoice to hear that no disaster has accompanied the commencement of an enterprise which you have regarded with such evil forebodings.
- The sun sets in the west (just about everyone knows that), but Sunset Towers faced east.
- When he was nearly thirteen, my brother Jem got his arm badly broken at the elbow.
- Parsifal is dead. That is the end of the story.
- (Bonus) When he says, “Skins or blankets?” it will take you a moment to realize that he’s asking which you want to sleep under.
I’ll post the answers later this week. Enjoy!
‘Fess Up Friday
She tried her hardest, but Curtis Sittenfeld did not dissuade me from writing this week. Not to say that I didn’t enjoy American Wife. I did, but I also finished it in just three days.
Writing: Going well. Of course, I’m now on project number three since this ‘fess up series began. That’s three novels started and I think I need to work on actually finishing one of them before starting something else. Focus is a bit of an issue. And I welcome all suggestions for how to focus on just one project at a time.
Submissions: Why hello, rejection letters. Got three back this week. Nary an ink stain on them, all carbon copy slips of paper, most of which were smaller than the envelope they came in. The lowest of the low. Two of them came back last Saturday and getting dual rejection letters kind of sucks. I may have been a little down and self-pitying, but that seems to have shifted.
As for today, I’d be much more productive if I didn’t feel like half of my face was about to explode. Stupid sinuses. . .
Distractions
If I get nothing done this week, it’s all Curtis Sittenfeld’s fault. I started American Wife last night and I’m already 200 pages in. (It helped that I stayed up until 2 a.m. reading.) If you’re a fan of Prep and Man of My Dreams, then be assured that this one is great, too.
I’ve had a run of great luck with books lately. Yesterday I finished Bel Canto. I’ve loved Ann Patchett based on The Magician’s Assistant and The Patron Saint of Liars, but for some reason I skipped Bel Canto. I read it over the weekend for an upcoming book group fell and in love with Patchett’s writing all over again.
I have to say, though, that sometimes when I read a bunch of great books I think, why do I even bother? Why isn’t it enough for me just to read great books, why do I feel I have to try to write them?
Sigh…
. . . And One More Thing
Just in case the Large Hadron Collider does not manage to suck the Earth into a micro black hole in the next month and we still need to pay attention to the election, I encourage you all to bookmark Factcheck.org. With this election being as heated as it is and all the spin coming off the campaigns, I find sites like this very useful. Please go forth and check facts.
This concludes any political speak on this blog. Writing talk will resume shortly.
‘Fess Up Friday: Distracted
Writing/Revising: I’m officially combining these categories for the remainder of my current project. The novel I’m working on was born out of a story, so I’d doing equal parts writing and revising. It’s only going okay this week. I’ve been distracted and most of my concentration has gone right out the window. I’m taking drastic steps to fix that this week. For instance, I’m kissing LJ reading and Twittering good-bye. I’m even cutting back on a lot of blog reading. My internet activity will mostly be reduced to this blog and my email.
The reason for this forced isolation is because I’ve spent a lot of last week and this week angry, sad, and upset. The fact that this coincides with the DNC and the GOP conventions is no surprise. Simply put, I can no longer tolerate the mean-spirited snark and trash talk that both sides seem to spew forth daily. There’s a lot of “we’re right, you’re wrong” out there. It’s odd, I thought the reason we were all so disillusioned with the current administration was because of this kind of black and white thinking. Shouldn’t the answer to it be to try to be open-minded? Isn’t unity about reaching out to others instead of alienating them? I whole heartedly believe that this is the intent of both Obama and McCain, I’m just not seeing it from either of their supporters.
Ugh. Okay, so political rant through. Point being, I’m closing down part of my internet access until November 6. (Yes, I’m aware that the election is Nov. 4 and this should all be over on Nov. 5, but with things as divisive as they are now, I expect the day-after commentary to be worse.) I will not be talking politics on this blog. PERIOD. Exclamation point.
I will, however, be talking about how much I am loving YA right now and how reluctant I am to return to literary fiction (though I really do want to read Joshua Henkin’s Matrimony and Andrew Sean Greer’s Story of a Marriage). And how adding a shitzu (no matter how temporarily) to a two-cat household is nothing short of chaos. And how our house hunt continues, though with less force than before. Oh, and writing. Hopefully, lots and lots of writing.
Happy weekend!
August Reading
Is it September already?
Novels
Galatea 2.2 by Richard Power
Nick & Norah’s Infinite Playlist by Rachel Cohen and David Levithan
After Dark by Haruki Murakami
That Summer by Sarah Dessen
Angus, Thongs, and Full-Frontal Snogging by Louise Rennison
Bullyville by Francine Prose
The Outsiders by S.E. Hinton
When Zachary Beaver Came to Town by Kimberly Willis Holt
Cures for Heartbreak by Margo Rabb
Short Stories
Glory Goes and Gets Some by Emily Carter
Nonfiction
The Tipping Point by Malcolm Gladwell
Understanding Exposure by Bryan Peterson
I had no idea I read that much this month. Obviously, the theme was YA lit. Some raves include: Cures for Heartbreak, Nick and Norah’s Infinite Playlist, and Galatea 2.2. I also started, but can’t seem to finish The Savage Detectives. Oh well.
