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It's a beautiful day and I'm going to see U2--or maybe it's a beautiful day because I'm going to see U2.

Boy, am I excited! We bought our tickets as soon as Internet pre-sales opened months ago. Farthest away ticket--$75! We're talking a huge, outdoor arena in St. Pete--you know, elevation so high you could get vertigo, don't get too close to the edge--look out! So the sweetest thing my husband did was take over the ticket buying. Now we have good seats. Don't ask me how much they cost.

Even so, this day in October will be out of control! I can't wait to see Bono! I'll probably have to use binoculars or look at those huge screens; some people think that's even better than the real thing because you can see their faces, but I prefer to watch the specks on stage because they are the real thing.

We don't have a GPS, so we'll use the old map. But parts of it are tiny, where the streets have no name. Guess if we get lost, we'll have to walk on. Hubby will navigate; I will follow.

I cannot wait!

Bono! I'm wearing my purple shirt!

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Super talents David OReilly and Jon Klassen teamed up to produce this jewel of a video for U2’s new single, “I’ll Go Crazy If I Don’t Go Crazy Tonight”. Beautiful!

(link via CartoonBrew)

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On the difference between motivation and inspiration.

Lisa Schroeder's post about motivation and inspiration, and whether they are the same thing or not, was interesting to me. Here's some of what said:

To me, motivation is what keeps you going - it's the force that keeps you moving forward.

When I'm writing a book, most of the time, there is motivation enough from inside of me to finish it. I love that feeling of accomplishment. I WANT to finish it. When we start out writing a novel, we have to be motivated enough to sit down and put words to the page consistently almost every day. And I think it is important to understand where your motivation comes from.

Now that I'm published, I'm motivated by having editors who want to see other things from me. And I'm motivated by wanting my career to grow.

Inspiration is more about the act of creating. When I talked about praying and hoping for inspiration, what I'm looking for are nuggets of experiences that speak to my heart and soul. That move me in such a way that I, in turn, want to work hard to move others with my words.

. . .

So, I look for things that touch me. That MOVE me. You know what I'm talking about here. It's that sunrise that takes your breath away. It's a music video like this one ["How to Save a Life" by The Fray.] It's holding a precious baby and watching as he reaches up and touches your face. It's watching a movie that moves you to tears. And then I take those feelings of joy/sorrow/regret/pain and try my best to drop them into my story.

On finding satisfaction in the writing alone

The ginormously talented Justine Larbalestier wrote a post the other day entitled "Make it the best book you can", in which she picked up on some of what Elizabeth Gilbert said in her TED speech, which I quoteskimmed in February. I commend Justine's entire post to you. (Hell, I commend her entire blog to you, but that's not the point.) Here, however, is the bit I quoteskimmed:

You can only control the book you write.

You can’t control whether you sell it. You can’t control how big the advance is if you sell it. You can’t control how much is spent promoting it. You can’t control how many copies Barnes & Noble takes or whether they take it at all. You can’t control whether punters buy it when it finally appears on the shelves. You can’t control the reviews. You can’t control the award committees.

Spending time and energy angsting about any of that stuff will only do your head in.

All you can do is write the very best book you can.

It will get published or it won’t. It will find its market or it won’t. It will sell or it won’t. It will win awards or it won’t. None of that matters if you’ve written the best book you can.

Books with huge advances and the biggest marketing and publicity budget in the world sink like a stone. Books with nary a sheckle spent on them take off out of nowhere. Books you think are terrible do great; books you worship sell fewer than a thousand copies. There’s no rhyme or reason to any of it. Do not let it do your head in.

On understanding your characters

First up, a post from , who found writing advice in an inspirational email:

I receive daily inspirational emails from tut.com. This morning, one of the comments in the email was "Sometimes, understanding their fears, Julia, helps you to understand their actions, as well as their pain."

I know what that means on a personal level, as far as people with whom I interact - but, it hit me (since I'm in the middle of revisions) that understanding my characters' fears (from protagonist to antagonist) will help me to make sure that the actions I assign to them are in accord with the fear and pain (or desire to avoid pain.)

As a writer, I know the reason for the character's action. But, in writing down those actions, it's not enough to just write 1) a cool scene, 2) move the plot along, 3) get to 70K, etc. - there has to be a valid basis in the psyche of my character for anything they do. And, I have to give my reader enough information that they will understand why that particular character acts in that way.

For example, it's necessary to be aware that I can't suddenly having someone run screaming from a clown, if I haven't set up their fear. Perhaps at a first grade party a clown trick went bad and scared them half to death. The motivational reveal doesn't need to be more than perhaps a sentence or a comment from another character - like, "Yeah, remember when that bozo dumped the whole ant farm on her? She itched for a week."

Fears and Actions and Pain... intimately intertwined.

On crafting villains

I've been listening to U2's new album, "No Line on the Horizon" in extremely heavy rotation whilst in my minivan. Great album, solid start-to-finish, plus it comes with excellent liner notes (I'm sick of opening those CD booklets to find nothing but photos, sometimes not even good photos - U2 provides lyrics and information about who did what on each track. Happy day!) My favorite tracks are 1 ("No Line on the Horizon"), 2 ("Magnificent" - as you probably guessed if you've read my "Music" line in posts this week), 3 ("Moment of Surrender"), 6 ("Get on Your Boots") & 9 ("White as Snow", the tune of which is based on O Come O Come Emanuel), if you care. That said, this bit at the end of the final track, "Cedars of Lebanon", caught my ear as potential writing advice:

Choose your enemies carefully 'cos they will define you
Make them interesting 'cos in some ways they will mind you
They’re not there in the beginning but when your story ends
Gonna last with you longer than your friend

On balancing craft and mass appeal, and on "boy books"

My friend put up a post earlier this week in which he quoted an answer he gave to a newspaper interviewer (whether the full answer ran in the publication is beside the point, as I believe you'll agree). Here's what David's post said:

I got a chance to really think about the art of balancing craft and mass appeal recently, when I was doing a newspaper interview and encountered this as the first question:

"The recent publishing trend in boys' books has incorporated toilet humor, blood and gore in an effort to gain boys' reading attention. Your Weenies series incorporates this type of humor. Despite what critics say, do you believe that these kinds of books have a place in reading today? If so, why?"

Yikers. That seemed to be a bit loaded, but here's my response:

My first story collection appeared in 1996, so I think I'm safely ahead of the bandwagon. I guess I'm ahead of the meat wagon, too, since there's actually very little blood and gore in my work. The stories have been called "Twilight Zone for kids," by more than one reviewer. While I do have some shocking endings, I tend to pull the camera away before things get graphic. I use some bathroom humor. I also use a bathroom. To deny this part of our existence seems a bit Puritanical. It's definitely not an either/or situation. I might have a story where a kid drops his pants and sits on a photocopier, but I have another that pays homage to Kafka's "Metamorphosis," and one that explores Zeno's paradox. I sneak a lot of philosophy into my work, in an attempt to justify the four years I spent getting a degree in it. The bottom line is that I've had countless teachers and parents tell me that one of my books turned a nonreader into a reader. As for the issue of quality, one of my stories was voted the best young-adult magazine story of 2005 by the Association of Educational Publishers . Others have been reprinted in textbooks. Teachers all over the country are using my story, "Predators," from The Curse of the Campfire Weenies and Other Warped and Creepy Tales, to teach Internet safety. I suspect that many of the critics haven't done anything more than glance at the covers. Admittedly, the Weenie theme suggests a certain level of frivolity. But while the cover gets a kid to pick up the book, it's the stories that hold the reader. And they do this not by virtue of the occasional splash of body fluid or whiff of gas, but by a richness of plot and wealth of ideas.

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As I woke this morning in the barrel and had The Big Sur Writers Workshop on my mind a rare text got through to us here on Pfeiffer Ridge, a noted "dead zone." It was from Mx. She went to Fordham to see U2 in concert there on GMA this morning. TOTALLY. AWESOME. She said after "being raised" on U2 by Joe and I it was a dream come true to see them perform.



Check out Lit2Go a free online download source of literature and poetry, just download the mp3.

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My kids are spending the week their dad, and with my tax bill and the economy being what they are, the Webmeister and I are having a vacation chez moi. He's brought down both of his dogs, so it's just the two of us and the three dogs at home for the holiday. We sat on the sofa on Friday evening after the kids left just listening to the quiet, which was so loud it was almost palpable.

I told the Webmeister how glad I was that he was there with me, because when I was on my own, those transition nights were the absolute worst. After a few days I'd get used to the quiet and start to enjoy the ability to go out without having to worry about a sitter, but that first night was always hell.

Anyway, the dogs are hilarious. Benny is following Hank's dog Roxy around like...well, like a devoted puppy. Roxy is the chief squirrel catcher and Benny trots along after her as her faithful apprentice, trying to learn all the tricks of the trade.



Here's Benny in a rather interesting rest pose on the sofa - with Roxy's little face peeping out from behind the pillow.

Yesterday we went to see the U2 in 3D movie on the IMAX screen in Nyack. I've never managed to see U2 live and this just whet my appetite to so even more such that I've now determined that next time they tour I will pay anything to get a ticket. If you even remotely like U2 you should go see this move - the technology is so cool.

And...how Twilight Zone is this? The concert was filmed in Buenos Aires. And the new book I'm working on is set in...Buenos Aires! (At least part of it is, anyway...cue TZ music)

I've been catching up on some good book reading too.

YA

How I Live Now - Meg Rosoff loved it - great premise and voice

Before I Die - Jenny Downham loved it ditto and had me sobbing at the end, absolutely sobbing

The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-time Indian - Sherman Alexie SERIOUSLY loved it and Markus Zusak now has competition for my author crush affections

Grown-up

The Ministry of Special Cases - Nathan Englander part of my Argentina research brilliant book and I was fascinated (and somewhat heartened, given my lack of research budget) to read an interview with Englander that he didn't go to Buenos Aires until after he'd written the book yet he'd created this really true atmosphere. At least it seemed true to me, as someone whose never been there.

Away - Amy Bloom I loved this book until the last few chapters, and then I felt really let down by it.
I'm not sure why. Anyone else read it who wants to have a discussion?

Netflix Film Watching

Sydney White - Enjoyable fun on my mother/daughter queue. What's not to like when it's got Amanda Bynes in it?

The Third Man - Classic on the Webmeister/me queue. Joseph Cotten and a thin, pre-Gallo Hearty Chablis Orson Welles work their magic in the rain-soaked streets of post-war Vienna. Shadows play a major part.Cinematography is superb.

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The world's greatest rock band received a meager attendance this Saturday at my local theater. My husband and I and four other couples had the place to ourselves when we donned our funky glasses for U23D. The hype promised me I'd feel like I was right there; I loved the film, but 3D didn't bring it for me.

Before anyone eggs my blog, let me state for the record I LOVE U2. I would enjoy their rockumentary in any D--my DVR is set to record all things U2 and Bono (which is how I caught Chastity Bono on Sell This House)--I'm just saying that the 3D effect didn't heighten my experience.

Settling into the beginning of the movie was the same as trying to see a 3D figure emerge from those weird prints in the 1990s. There weren't any affectations for the movie, which I was glad of; it was pure U2. I liked seeing common things, like Larry Mullen Jr.'s iced tea in a glass near his right elbow and a handwritten note taped to the top of Edge's keyboard. In fact, I would have liked to have seen more of this kind of detail. Who handed Bono his bandanna? Who kept refilling Larry's tea? What were they doing right before the show and where did they run to right after? Inquiring fans want to know!

The perspective from the stage was outstanding. Looking at the number of people in the audience and knowing that not one of them was a computer-generated being was overwhelming. Cell phones held in the air caused the arena to look like a perfect night filled with stars. (Sidenote: I once went to a concert where the couple in front of me had no cell phone or lighter. They lit paper matches and held them till the matches burned down to their fingers.)

Audience members' hands seemed to be right in front of me. I hate when anything obscures my vision--like those annoying girls who sit on guys' shoulders. You never see guys doing that. At least, that's what I thought until the film showed three bare-chested guys sitting on top of other guys' shoulders, swinging their shirts around, belting out the words. Wherever Bono went, hands stretched out to him, even from ten or fifteen people deep. At times, the people on the floor ebbed and flowed, like tides in the ocean. I can only imagine what it was like to have been there.

The show ended with Yahweh, a reflective, prayerful song. We stayed (and so did those eight other people) until all the credits rolled. No clips at the end. Just the feeling of wanting more.

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People! Get organized--less than twenty-four hours till the new episode of America's Next Top Model!

The newspaper reports that a local congregation is praising their youth pastor for confessing to a homicide he committed some time ago. One person quoted in the article called this pastor a hero, their position being that not many would confess after getting away with murder.

My new curling iron came with a tag warning me that this product could burn my eyes. There go all my plans to stick it into my eye sockets.

U23D--have you seen it? I will don the funky spectacles this weekend. I can't wait!

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Two disparate things to post under one short heading. First, this exposition of the idea of the toread tag is one that pleases me. Second, if you like libraries and comics, you need TOREAD Bookhunter. I’d suggest buying it, but you can read it online in book or scroll format. It’s seriously great.

bookhunter, jasonshiga, toread

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