When I heard that John Edwards was dropping out of the Democratic primaries, I felt a little bad. I love Obama, but I like Edwards, and I’m sorry to lose his voice in this part of the process. But Clinton and Obama are certainly sucking all the oxygen to feed their brightly burning stars, and let’s face it, Edwards can’t debate hooked up to an oxygen tank.
When I heard that Giuliani was
It's a great day to be alive, I know the sun's still shining when I close my eyes, There's some hard times in the neighborhood but why can't every day be just this good. --Travis Tritt song
For me, a great day is when I've gotten a lot of art and writing done, and the kids are nearby and safe and I know exactly what work I need to do the next day. Throw in some music I love or my favorite tv show ("The Office") and it's hard to imagine being happier.
Today was just such a day. My new character, Marcella, still needs some work before she's submitted to a publisher, but she's almost there and I know exactly what to do next. Ellie McDoodle's sequel, The New Kid in School, is progressing well. The kids are nearby including one visiting from college. I just rediscovered all my digital music files so now there's music on the jukebox. Life is good.
Most of us were together at my house last night for Family Night. Tornado warnings kept everyone here a bit longer than they wanted (on a school night) but it felt good to know they were all safe while the thunder crashed around us and the tv weathermen kept announcing new threats.
We woke up this morning to news and photos of the destruction just 10 miles up the road. The last time a big storm ripped through here, it took out our screen door. But just a few houses away, power lines and huge trees were down, everywhere, and one neighbor lost his garage.
We've been pretty lucky. It's a great day to be alive.
I'm busy at school lately, whether doing author visits or picking up or dropping off kids or going on field trips or sketching classes or showing a teacher my latest picturebook art. Here's what happened a couple days ago:
That's my grandson, who's in kindergarten, waiting for his aunt, who's in fifth grade, to finish her math so they can walk home from school. He's smart but disruptive.
And that's my dear friend, the fifth grade teacher, who sometimes puts up with a lot.
Her class is featured in the next Ellie book. Attending school is great inspiration!
Back to work...
~no spoilers, but I can't guarantee others' comments~
I just finished book 6 and 7 within the past 2 weeks.
Wow.
Say what you will about the adverbs, J.K. Rowling is one fabulous writer.
Things I loved:
Snape
The underlying message of love
The richness of her fantastic world
Harry isn't perfect
Neville's and Draco's roles
Ginny
Things that surprised me:
The ending
Teddy in the epilogue
Albus's middle name in the epilogue
Less "dumbing down" to American English of British idioms and slang in the later books
Things I guessed before they were revealed:
Snape
The exact location of the last thing Harry sought
The eventual roles of two major locations
Why two of his friends disappeared near the end
Things that angered and disgusted me:
the revelation about Harry's destiny
Harry's plan against the goblin
Things that annoyed me:
Albus Dumbledore's constant referring to his own apparent brilliance
How a character would say, "This must be the answer" and it was -- when I could think of a half dozen other plausible answers.
"He said, sycophantically." Come on. Who talks like that?
Things I wonder about:
Did JKR tell filmmakers what items or characters would be important in later books? Or did she leave it to chance that they would include the most significant bits of her incredibly long stories?
Right after reading book 6 I was depressed for a day. I dreaded the ending of book 7 and the end of the series.
The recurring theme of death in the Harry Potter books reminds me of my own losses, some of them connected to Harry, actually, and it's painful. And the world has put a huge investment of time into reading the books. I'm a slow reader (despite doing well in speed reading in college) and my list of books to read is longer than my list of books I want to write.
I can survive in a world without a new Harry Potter book on the way, but it'll take me a little time to get used to it.
Now, back to my own writing...
I sketch a lot. I rarely had a camera on me, for many years. But I always had a sketchbook on me, so all those school field trips and parties and campouts are pretty much represented by quick sketches rather than photos.
A few months ago I bought a digital camera, thinking it'd be handy for capturing things to eventually paint or sketch.
And I thought I might finally get some group shots of my kids.
How nice it would be to send real photos to friends so they could see how the kids are growing, rather than just sending cartoons.
I didn't realize trying to get photos of all of the kids together, smiling nicely, would be like herding cats.
Here are my kids in the best photo I could find to send to a dear friend who travels a lot and hasn't seen them in a few years...
(the one in the middle, who is almost behaving, is my grandson. Obviously this goofiness is inherited)
Sheesh.
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