I'm back. .. and I didn't actually finish my novel, but I got the first third of it down, at least the draft of that first third. Actually, I'm sort of saying it's the first third because it makes me feel cool and organized and all sorts of in control.
The first time I went for a songram when I was pregnant with Christopher, the incredibly dour ultrasound tech barked at me to "evacuate your bladder until it's only one third full." She was one of those efficient human machines who work in medical lab kinds of places and she scared me more than the whole business of pregnancy did. I remember standing in the bathroom, wondering if other people (even you men) knew how to do such a thing.
So what does that weird anecdote have to do with writing? Well, I never really know how long or short anything is going to turn out until I'm done, and it was the same in that bathroom. (Just in case you're wondering, I was sent back to the bathroom because I had not estimated correctly) Some writers know they are writing a 50,000 or a 120,000 word novel. I just know I'm writing a story.
Anyway, I've been spending a lot of time reading books I don't normally read, like chic lit (sorry, not a fan), steampunk which I'm undecided about, a couple of mysteries which I found formulaic, then back to YA and MG which I loved. The problem with broadening your horizon is it makes you that much more comfortable to stay in your own little spectrum of color. Really, who can beat the likes of Robert Cormier or Harper Lee?
And I've been spending a fair amount of time walking with the kids on the Atlantic City Boardwalk. This is pretty much what it looks like:
What have you guys been doing this summer? I have to visit everyone's blog to see what's been going on. It's nice to be away from the Internet, but it's also nice to come back.
What are you doing this Fourth of July weekend? Anything fun?
K and I saw fireworks from where we think was Central Park last night. It's our second week staying on the Upper East Side (like, 3 blocks from Bloomys) and we're going back to Brooklyn this weekend to get mail, see the kitties, etc. I still haven't gotten used to having an elevator man or being up so high (21st floor), but I do love the view and spending time with Gram has been great.
I got up early to write and want to keep going, but share your weekend plans!
xo
This summer seems to be flying by … probably because we’re having so much fun with our annual programming! Things will continue to heat up through July, with a Special Summer Event and two more picnics in our annual Summer Literary Picnic series.
Special Summer Event with Tess Gerritsen
On July 12th, Thurber House will host international bestselling author Tess Gerritson, whose brand new novel, The Silent Girl, will hit bookstores just days before she comes to Columbus. The Silent Girl is the latest installment in Gerritsen’s popular suspense series featuring Detective Rizzoli and medical examiner Isles. The books have been translated into 37 languages and have sold 20 million copies worldwide. Plus, the TNT-TV series based on the books, Rizzoli and Isles, just entered its second season. The Silent Girl is sure to follow in Gerritsen’s bestselling tradition.
The special event begins at 7 p.m. at the Canzani Center Auditorium at the Columbus College of Art and Design. Tickets for this event are $15 in advance and $18 at the door. Visit http://www.thurberhouse.org/tess-gerritsen.html for more details and ticket information.
Summer Picnic Series
In the third event of this year’s Summer Picnic Series, Leah Stewart will make her way to Thurber House on July 6thto read from and discuss her newest novel, Husband and Wife. A happily married mother of two children, Sarah Price’s world gets turned upside down when she finds out that her husband has been unfaithful.
Next, the New Voices picnic takes place on July 20th. This picnic will celebrate three emerging Ohio authors: novelist Amanda Flower, essayist, and former Thurber House young docent, Ellen Waddell, and non-fiction writer Lee Kravitz.
Flower’s novel, Maid of Murder, was nominated for a 2010 Agatha Award for Best First Novel, and tells the story of a college librarian in Ohio who must hunt down the person who murdered her childhood friend and framed her brother for the crime. Waddell, who just graduated from New Albany High School and will be entering John Hopkins University in the fall, will read from her senior project, a published book of essays entitled, She Said, Looking Forward. Lee Kravitz, from Cleveland, will finish up the evening discussing his first book, Unfinished Business, which records an entire year doing the most important things in his life and reconnecting with those close to him.
Both picnics begin at 6:15 pm and takes place on the Thurber House lawn, with tours available before and after dinner. Tickets are $15 for the reading only or $25 for both dinner and the reading. More details and ticket information can be found at http://www.thurberhouse.org/2011-season.html.
Will we see you there?
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We'll spare everyone pictures on this rainy, humid day, but today Carrie Hagen came into the Overlook offices to work with our new editor, Stephanie Gorton. (Welcome, Stephanie!) She has a book coming out this August called WE IS GOT HIM: ABDUCTION, MURDER, AND FEAR OF THE EVE OF AMERICA'S CENTENNIAL.
We launched this title last week, and everyone is waiting impatiently for the manuscript to be finished so we can start reading! It's true crime in the vein of Devil in the White City, and the story is absolutely fascinating. It's 1874, and a young boy named Charley Ross (learn more about him here) was snatched from his front yard in Philadelphia in what became the first kidnapping for random in America.
The title "We Is Got Him" comes from the famous random note, which we'll just preface with one [sic]:
Mr. Ross- be not uneasy you son charly bruster he al writ we as got him and no powers on earth can deliver out of our hand. You wil hav two pay us befor you git him from us. an pay us a big cent to. if you put the cops hunting for him yu is only defeeting yu own end. we is got him fitt so no living power can gits him from us a live. if any aproch is maid to his hidin place that is the signil for his instant anihilation. if yu regard his lif puts no one to search for him you money can fech him out alive an no other existin powers don't deceve yuself and think the detectives can git him from us for that is one imposebel
yu here from us in few day
Philadelphia was preparing to celebrate the American centennial after decades of civil war and recession, and Hagan weaves the story of this kidnapping--and how it threatened to unravel social confidence and plunge a city into despair--into the fight by the Philadelphia mayor to preserve the city's stature and other politicians using the Centennial as a chance to show America's endurance.
The research that went into
We Is Got Him is incredibly daunting--Hagen worked on it while earning her MFA in Writing Nonfiction from Goucher College. We're absolutely thrilled to be publishing this--mark your calendars for August!
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Welcome back to blogging!
I'm conscious of pages, rather than word count. And my outline tells me where I am.
I've been walking along the beach and bay.
Happy writing.
I think I kind of know my book length (in process) far better than my my bladder capacity!!
I can't believe that nurse. She belongs in a book somewhere.
I am only 1/5 the way through a new WIP due to revisions with other stuff...ugh.
Happy Summer!
Definitely more conscious of pages rather than word count, Medeia.
At least you have an outline to help you. I just scribble notes and type.
That nurse was a legend, Shelley. We used to sit in the waiting room and exchange stories about her.
1/5 done? Wow. I just can't tell these things. Writing has so many different approaches.
Nice to see you back Anne! I've been mostly away too and actually finished revisions of my little novel and finally feel like I've got it where I want it.
What else have I been doing? Reading a lot. I tried reading an award winning *adult* novel and it was so encumbered with back-story and flash-back from like paragraph one, page one, I threw it across the floor. I kept wondering when the story was going to start happening. Give me kid-lit ANY day!
I don't outline either - I enjoy telling the story and seeing where it takes me.
I laughed at your sonogram story - I remember asking the tech during an ultrasound how I was supposed to know something like that! :)