A Gorgeous Day

Posted on 03/18/2022 by chick

Today was a gorgeous day, too warm for March, but still gorgeous. The crocuses were popping hard. The bees were busy. The sun–OMG–the sun. I had almost forgotten there was a thing such as the sun, and then there it was, all bright and warm. My husband called me outside to see the woodpecker that he’d spotted in one of our trees. He ID’d the bird later as a pileated woodpecker. He was already pleased to have seen and heard the bird, and when he read in my field guide that it was “a special treat when seen or heard,” he seemed even more pleased. Who doesn’t like a little validation from time to time?

Now here’s a little treat for anyone who hasn’t been lucky enough to see and hear a pileated woodpecker before.

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Geographically Challenged

Posted on 03/12/2022 by chick

My husband is pushing the kids to learn U.S. geography by offering them rewards if they can learn to correctly identify all the states on the map. There’s a website that he’s using for this. I don’t know what it’s called, but it’s pretty cool. It lets you quiz yourself on all the major areas of the world.

My husband presented me the opportunity to take some quizzes on the website, and I took the ones on the U.S., Europe, Africa, and Asia. I like to think that I did better than the average American would, but I didn’t do as well as I should have. In the U.S., I could identify the states if I started with the ones I knew well and then reasoned out the rest, but I struggled with the direct quiz (e.g., “click on Wyoming”). I was utterly clueless about Eastern Europe. Though I knew Asia fairly well in high school, some big gaps have opened up in my knowledge of that area since. My weakest performance was in Africa. There I knew Egypt, Sudan, Libya, South Africa, and Madagascar, and roughly where Morocco, Algeria, and Liberia were. I couldn’t even make educated guesses at the rest. It’s such a massive continent, and I know so little about it!

I’ve managed to get by thus far without knowing geography well. It was a little galling to be confronted with my ignorance, but probably not enough to spur me to educate myself. Too bad no one’s offering me incentives to improve my geographical knowledge!

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Good Words

Posted on 03/12/2022 by chick

I play the NYT‘s Spelling Bee game every day. I play until I hit the Genius level, and then, unless I have more words already in mind, I stop. It’s important to have a stopping place, otherwise I’d spend too much time on the game. Sometimes I find words that the app won’t accept as valid entries. Usually I’m OK with that, because I know a lot of weird words that I shouldn’t expect other people to know. But, if I really feel that the words ought to have been accepted, I send the editors an e-mail. Today I sent them the words MIDDEN (trash heap), UNDIMMED, and MUEZZIN (person who calls Muslims to prayer). All three words are in Merriam-Webster, and I would have finished the game a lot faster if those words had been accepted (though MUEZZIN would have been sort of a cheat, since I initially spelled it wrong and then looked up the correct spelling–it’s a great word, but a doozy to spell!).

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Reading Report: End of February 2022

Posted on 02/28/2022 by chick
  • I’m still working on Parable of the Talents by Octavia Butler (216/406 pages) and On Writing Romance: How to Craft a Novel That Sells by Leigh Michaels (62/246 pages).
  • I finished Attachments by Rainbow Rowell; Grade A-: Coworkers Beth and Jennifer know that they’re not supposed to socialize using their new company e-mail, but they do it anyway. Meanwhile, computer-guy Lincoln has been hired to read employee e-mails and enforce the company rules. But he doesn’t enforce the rules, not for those two, because he likes reading about their personal lives, especially Beth’s. Is that totally creepy and invasive? Yes, but at least he has the good grace to feel bad about it and to come clean, eventually. But if and when he meets Beth in person, will she be able to forgive him?—Because the story takes place during the Y2K panic, it feels dated, and it’s slow-paced, maybe even a little too long, but Rowell writes great dialogue (well, great dialogue-y e-mail exchanges). If you can ignore the stalker vibe, it’s a good read.
  • I try to take a lesson of some kind from every book that I read. Attachments asked me a question (“Have you ever seen The Goodbye Girl?”) and then thoroughly intrigued me with its description of that movie: “Don’t watch it if you still want to enjoy romantic comedies. It makes every movie ever made starring Julia Roberts or Sandra Bullock lash itself in shame. Also, don’t watch The Goodbye Girl if it would trouble you to find Richard Dreyfuss wildly attractive for the rest of your life, even when you see him in What About Bob? or Mr. Holland’s Opus.” Now I simply must see the movie. I ordered a copy from the library, plus the 2004 version (with Jeff Daniels in the Dreyfuss role) for comparison.
  • I also finished reading The Switch by Beth O’Leary. Still reeling from her sister’s death, twenty-something Leena needs a break from her high-stress London job. Eileen, her seventy-something grandmother, is looking for a man to replace her good-for-nothing ex-husband, so they decide to swap lives, so to speak. Grandma moves to London for a few weeks to take advantage of its happening senior dating scene, and Leena moves to Grandma’s house and takes over Grandma’s neighborhood “projects.”—The story is pretty much entirely predictable but also charming. Recommended.
  • I am 2 CDS into the audiobook version of The Unhoneymooners by Christina Lauren. Olive’s twin sister has just gotten married but can’t go on her honeymoon due to a bad case of food poisoning, so Olive takes her place, along with the best man, Ethan, who stands in as her “husband.” She and Ethan don’t get along, but isn’t a free 10-day trip to Maui worth putting up with each other?—One interesting thing about listening to the story, as opposed to reading it, is that I occasionally respond verbally to the narration (remarks like, “Well, that was dumb!” and “Of course he did!”) That’s a little weird. I don’t usually talk to my books, but then again, they don’t usually talk to me either.
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Reading Report: Latish February 2022

Posted on 02/20/2022 by chick

I am still reading Parable of the Talents by Octavia Butler. I’m about halfway through, far enough to be invested and motivated to finish it. But, the story has gotten really grim and violent, and it will be hard going from here, I suspect.

I am also reading On Writing Romance: How to Craft a Novel That Sells by Leigh Michaels. It’s roughly 15 years old, so I have to assume that the parts about the publishing market and the categories of romance are no longer entirely accurate or complete. The rest of it looks like it will be helpful, though.

I finished The Proposal by Jasmine Guillory (grade B+). The story is about Nik, a writer, whose short-term boyfriend unexpectedly proposes to her at a baseball game, as the whole world watches. She says no, and he gets mad, then storms off. Before she can make a getaway, a camera crew swoops in to make a juicy news story out of her. But Carlos, a kind and considerate doctor who is there watching the game with his sister, sees what’s about to happen. He and his sister step in and rescue Nik from the press. So begins a friendship between Nik and Carlos that soon blooms into romance, but can they commit to a relationship, or do they want to keep it strictly casual? Reading this book, I learned a lot about what I like about romance novels, and what I don’t like, and about how I would have proceeded if I’d written the story myself. It was educational in that way, and entertaining.

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That’s Just the Way It Is

Posted on 02/19/2022 by chick

Covid isn’t over, but the people of Rhode Island are over it. The governor has dropped the state mask mandate, and now the school board has voted to make masks optional as of 3/4. I knew this was coming, so it’s no big shocker, and I guess I’m OK with it. If given the choice, Livia will probably ditch the mask and Marshall will probably keep it, at least for a while. Though I’d rather they both continued to wear masks, I’m not sure that forcing it on Livia would be wise. But, we don’t need to decide today. We still have some time to think about it.

The school superintendent also announced that, excepting the new air filtration systems, they’re going back to business as usual (i.e., no more Covid mitigation measures). I guess I should have realized that was coming, too. I’m not comfortable with the idea of dropping all preventative measures. It seems like asking for trouble. But, that’s just the way it is. I have no power to change this, and stressing over it won’t do me any good. The Pandemic has taught me that much.

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Today’s Advice

Posted on 02/18/2022 by chick

I was browsing through some books from my shelves, trying to decide which ones to keep and which ones to donate, when I came across this bit of advice:

If you are planning to write fiction, do not sit around too long trying to think up a good story. If you work hard, the story will come to life as you are writing it. Remember also that all decent fiction has the same inner story: the story of discovery.

Robert Grudin

I agree in principle, and I promise not to “sit around too long.” I know I’m going to have to put pen to paper soon. Right now I’m focused on getting my office and my thoughts in order.

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Big Stack o’ Books

Posted on 02/17/2022 by chick
Research
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Seeking Recommendations

Posted on 02/13/2022 by chick

Here is a crazy idea: I’m going to write a romance novel.

Why? Mostly because I need a quick writing project to build my writing muscles back up. Plus, Hallmark Publishing is having open submissions next month, which is what prompted the idea, and conveniently it also provided a deadline. Strictly speaking, I’d only need three chapters to submit, but I’d like to finish the book by the deadline, because I don’t want another unfinished project on my desk (like I don’t have enough of those already!).

I understand the basics of how romances work. I’ve read more than a few over the years, though not so much recently, and I’ve watched many of them on the screen. But the genre is vast, and I don’t know everything I need to know about it, so I ordered some how-tos. I also downloaded a romance e-book so that I could immediately start reacquainting myself with the form. I picked one with a Christmas theme, because I like watching Hallmark Christmas movies. It seemed like a relatively safe choice.

I started reading the book last night, and it soon reminded me of why I don’t read romances anymore. Most of them stink. The stories are boring, the characters are cardboard, and the writing is ghastly. This is not me being overly picky. When it comes to romances, I’m eager to be entertained. All I want is for two characters who are reasonably likeable to engage in some believable dialogue while circumstances conspire to throw them together, pull them apart, and then bring them together again for a happy ending. The circumstances don’t need to be extraordinary. They just need to be interesting, and almost anything can be made interesting with a little spin. The formulaic plot structure doesn’t have to drag the quality down. If anything, it should liberate the writers to spend more time on getting the details right. And flashy language is not required. Simple, grammatical English will suffice.

That’s not asking a lot, and I don’t understand why the books of this genre tend to be so bad given that the bar is set so low. It’s incredibly frustrating to me, both as a reader who would love nothing more than to curl up with a good romance novel, and as a writer who wants a good model upon which to build one. I know that some authors have managed to get it right, at least often enough to keep the reading population hopeful, but I don’t have time to read through dozens of bad ones in the hopes of finding a few that are good. I could definitely use some recommendations.

So, have you read any good romances lately?

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Reading Report: Mid-February 2022

Posted on 02/12/2022 by chick
  • I finished reading The Dreadful Tale of Prosper Redding (Grade: B+) near the end of January, allowing me to get started on my February reading a little early (hooray!). In this story, twelve-year-old Prosper Redding, born into a powerful and wealthy family, finds out that his inheritance comes with a major downside: there’s a demon inside of him who will take possession of his body on his thirteenth birthday. I enjoyed the conversations between Prosper and his demon, Alastor, as they vied for control over Prosper’s life, but I didn’t connect much with the rest of the story. It felt sort of childish, which would be an unfair criticism to lob at a children’s book, so let’s just say that the problem was me, not the book. Livia read it before I did, and she liked it enough to read the sequel.
  • Note of interest: from Prosper Redding I learned that in Iceland a “skúffuskáld” (translation: “drawer poet”) is someone who writes poems and doesn’t try to publish them. Writing poetry strictly for personal pleasure is apparently a common pastime in Iceland. Nice.
  • I am currently reading Parable of the Talents by Octavia Butler. The title is a reference to a Biblical parable (Matthew 25:14-30). In this parable, a rich man is about to go traveling, and before he leaves, he gives his servants some money in the form of talents (according to www.biblegateway.com, “A talent was a monetary unit worth about twenty years’ wages for a laborer.”). Two of the servants invest their money and, by the time their master returns, they have made more money. The master praises them. The other servant hides his talent away, and upon his master’s return, he is rebuked, his talent is taken from him, and he is cast into darkness. The parable doesn’t make much sense to me, TBH, but the point is, whether it was fear or laziness or prudence that made that servant hide his talent, he got screwed, and one meaning to take from it is, I guess, “Use your talents wisely.” I probably won’t know exactly what Butler was getting at with the title until I finish the book. Because Parable of the Talents is the sequel to Parable of the Sower, I’m not going to say any more about it for now, because I don’t want to spoil anything for my friend who hasn’t read Sower yet.
  • Parable of the Talents is interesting, but also slow-going and grim, so I took a short break from it to read Still Life by Louise Penny. You wouldn’t think a murder mystery would offer a break from grimness, but a single murder that has a rationale is a lot easier to deal with than multiple, senseless acts of violence.
  • I finished Still Life by Louise Penny and gave it an A- grade. In this mystery, a popular former schoolteacher is killed in the woods of a small town in Canada, and Inspector Armand Gamache is called in to solve the case. I gave the story a high grade, but I’m not going to lie–it had some noticeable weaknesses, including a constantly shifting point of view, a sort of weird and mean side plot about a rookie homicide agent, the inspector’s attention to a detail which didn’t seem to warrant it (and which was, of course, a major clue to the murderer’s identity), plus some other odds and ends that didn’t quite ring true. The story succeeded in spite of all those things, testament to other positive qualities of the novel. Honestly, though, I think what I loved most about it was the author herself, whose general attitude seemed kind and upbeat. I will probably seek out more books from this series at some point.
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