Skip to main content

Monday Miscellany

1. I proctored a practice LSAT this weekend and once again, I was cold. Every time I do one of these I think to myself "wear a sweater so you don't get cold" and today, even though it was sunny out and I was warm, I put on a tank AND a really thick sweater (I was sweating in my house and couldn't even put on my coat, I was so warm) and still about halfway through I got cold. sigh. I think it's because I can't move around while students are taking the LSAT -- they don't appreciate that much. :)

2. It was Chinese New Year last weekend, thank god. My friends and I have decided that we are officially starting 2010 over again because the first month? Not so great. So Happy New Year, everyone!*

3. SciFi Channel** has been showing reruns of Joan of Arcadia recently. That was a good show. A little sappy sometimes, and the cop sections were a little...cheesy, but the high school stuff was almost as good as My So-Called Life and grittier than you would have expected from a show so sweet. It would be perfect in an 8:00 pm time slot now.

4. I don't watch the Winter Olympics, so I don't have anything to say about them except wow, Norway has the best curling pants, like, ever. And if you're not reading Linda Holmes' blog on the Olympics (and assorted other things), then you're missing out on a great writer. Here she is on Belgian skater Kevin van der Perrin's skeleton costume:

5. I got my tax return this weekend. YAY! I love the feeling of being rich, even if it's only for fifteen minutes until I pay my bills.

One of my favorite skating costumes in the men's short program on Tuesday came from Belgium's Kevin van der Perren, who wore a skeleton-inspired number. I tried and tried to place it, until it finally hit me: this is the outfit that the Cobra Kai wore to the Halloween dance in The Karate Kid. (You can see the clip here. You will see that I speak the truth.)

The Olympics and The Karate Kid? Come on...that's some good writing.

6. And speaking of good writing, some words of wisdom from Margaret Atwood:

"Anybody who writes a book is an optimist. First of all, they think they're going to finish it. Second, they think somebody's going to publish it. Third, they think somebody's going to read it."

~~~

* Also, I love Chinese New Year because my favorite Chinese restaurant does a special menu for the holiday and it is DELICIOUS.

** I'm sorry but SyFy? NO. I will honor people's rights to call themselves what they want--I'm talking to you "Ghennie" (Jenny. No, really.) -- but SyFy? Suck it.

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

Monday Miscellany

1. I've been watching old episodes of The West Wing on Bravo lately, and have come to the conclusion that I love the character of Sam Seaborn. He's smart, he's earnest, he's a good writer, and he's played by Rob Lowe. What's not to love?* 2. I just bought the cutest jacket at Ann Taylor Loft. I know you care, but it's not every day that one can find a white denim jacket with styling reminiscent of Michael Jackson and a tailored waist. I'm just saying. 3. NaNoWriMo proceeds apace. There is no way that I'm going to be able to keep writing at this pace after this month is over, but I'm on track to finish. It's an interesting project...in some ways the speed is freeing and in other ways it's extremely limited, as to make the word count I have no time to go back and revise. 4. Alien and Aliens are amazing movies. Alien 3 and Alien Resurrection ? Not so much. 5. This week's Glee characterization inconsistency watch: Rache

Jay Takes A Stand

Moonrat, still at Editorial Ass, is making me think a lot lately. She did a recent post here about sexualized violence in print ads, and connected the dots to sexualized violence in books and other media, which got me thinking about how I treat girls and women in my books. To be clear--I'm a feminist. I believe in equal pay for equal work and reproductive choice, and the whole ball of wax. I'm not going to go into detail about all that here because, frankly, there are people out there whose blogs are dedicated to that kind of thing (like Jezebel *) and they do it way better than I ever could. But that's my political orientation, in case you care. So when I was writing The Book, it was very important to me that my female protagonist S did not fall into any of those "heroine needs saving by the hero" tropes that so many books for teenage girls do. Sure, there's something very "romantic" about the hero swooping in and rescuing the heroine, right?

Most. Favorite. Person. EVER.

I've been a regular reader of Lynn Viehl's blog for almost a year now. She's an (incredibly) prolific Sci Fi/Fantasy writer with a zillion novels out (you know, approximately). She's also a really generous author--she spends a lot of time talking about her process, and the publishing business, and most recently ran the Left Behind and Loving It blog workshops for people who didn't go to the RWA con. Seriously, her blog is an invaluable resource for writers looking for a pragmatic, yet encouraging, voice about publishing. She also gives away a TON of stuff. She's always offering prizes for things, which is awesome. Recently, I won a "goodie bag" for commenting on a post (that's all I had to do--comment), and it just arrived in the mail. "Goodie Bag." That's an interesting phrase, right? Suggests something cute and delicious, but not too filling. Like, I knew there would be a couple of books in it, and I thought, like, a coffee