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OMG. Everywhere I turned, there were photos and sculptures and tributes and exhibits related to Dr. Howe, Laura Bridgman, Michael Anagnos, Annie Sullivan, and Helen Keller. I should have taken more pictures, but I was mostly wandering around feeling stupidly joyful at "meeting" so many of my imaginary friends.
In the Samuel P. Hayes Research Library, this was
waiting for me:
Thirty-six binders full of notes and correspondence belonging to Nella Braddy Henney, author of the very first biography of Anne Sullivan. There were dozens of pages of scribbled jottings in Annie's own handwriting. As you might imagine, I got a little verklempt. I also got intimately acquainted with the photocopy machine:
___
*I've neglected to mention Stop/Adventure #2, which was the ALA midwinter conference Boston. More on that later. Maybe. (I didn't take nearly enough pictures.)
I am about to embark on a small adventure that's almost certain to involve authorial shenanigans and will likely disrupt my usual blogging schedule but not necessarily generate a full 10-day hiatus. Updates to follow as blog-worthy events (and time to chronicle them) arise...
Among the goodies under my Christmas tree: the latest fluffed up re-release of Bedknobs and Broomsticks.
Popped the DVD into my computer the other night to discover there are 20-some minutes of "restored" footage incorporated into the feature.
Well. I find myself intrigued and irritated in equal measure. It's always interesting to see what tidbits ended up on the cutting room floor, but to jam it all right back into the film? Blargh. On top of that, the dubbed voices in a few of the restored scenes are downright vomitous.
On the other hand, this makes for a darn good lesson in editing. Since I've got the shorter version more or less memorized, watching the longer cut makes it vividly clear how much you can get away without, in a way that browsing a separate series of deleted scenes doesn't quite convey. Mentally, I'm revved up for the cut to the next scene, the next verse, or even the next line -- and it doesn't come. Instead something extra's elbowed its way in, and to me it feels like tripping over my own feet.
For someone who's trying to cut a manuscript by 15% (and so far achieved only 5%) this is encouraging. As I'm trying to make myself see with OTMA, a single superfluous line can divert the momentum. Fortunately for me, Madame Editor has a hawk-eye for this kind of thing. Click on the thumbnails to have a peek at nips and tucks she made when I asked her to make an example of Chapter 22 and show me how it's done:
pg 189:
pg 194:
pg 195: [The last teensy line's cut off: "Why?"]
Snip, snip, snip...
(For an altogether different lesson in editing, watch the Bedknobs and Broomstickshorror trailer on Youtube.)
*********************** Currently re-reading: The Trial by jen Bryant
0 Comments on Editing with Uncle Walt as of 1/11/2010 8:55:00 AM
I regret to inform you (actually, I don't, but it sounds more polite than squeeing) that as of the first of the year, I'm no longer adding to my online reading journal.
When I launched my website, Halfway Down the Stairs was singing its swan song, and I hated the thought of losing the opportunity to accost strangers with booktalk. So I dreamed up the inline reading journal as an alternative place to sound off about what I was reading. And so for two and a half years I said something about every single book I finished. Every single one.
I'm done with that. My November/December re-read-a-thon showed me just how much I've come to dread composing the obligatory reactions to each book, as well as how much time maintaining the journal with any level of tact or sensitivity siphons out of my week. It's time to just...read. Time to finish a book and simply let myself be done with it.
I still have a GoodReads account for those of you who want to keep up with every last thing I'm reading. I still have a blog, so if I want to say something about a super-duper book, I surely will. You'll be the first to know.
********************
Currently re-reading:
Wintergirls
by Laurie Halse Anderson
6 Comments on De-updating my website, last added: 1/9/2010
While I'm bummed because I really enjoyed reading your thoughts on all the books you read, I COMPLETELY understand. There's no way on earth I could ever review all the books I read, nor would I want to. It would, as you said, make me dread reading. I write about the books I really enjoyed or am perplexed by. The books that are just "meh" or "fairly enjoyable" I don't bother with.
Sarah, All good things must come to an end. Your insights have been wonderful for our library patrons. I will of course keep checking your blog and wait for the new book. That being said I support my "friend" in all she does. Go for it girl. :-)
Quick and dirty (ha!) summary: After a catastrophe leaves him penniless, playboy Don Giovanni makes a bargain with the devil -- in exchange for limitless wealth, he will not wash, cut his hair, or change his clothes for three years, three months, and three days.
If you know Donna Jo Napoli, you know she doesn't flinch. The lady's made a living out of delving into the details fairy tales ignore or gloss over, so brace yourself. There are boils, sores, scabs, bugs, infections, itches, and worse. All 1188 unwashed days are downright tangible. *scratches* There are practical concerns, too: where does a walking accumulation of filth sleep? Where does he get food? (He's not especially popular at inns.) Most of all, how does a man stay human when the world shuns him?
And here's the other thing about Donna Jo: she knows Italy firsthand, and it shows. The colors, flavors, and scents of the food, the cities, and the landscape are every bit as palpable as Don Giovanni's offal. And that makes it just about bearable.
(Available in April)
********************
Currently reading:
Dear Julia by Amy Bronwen Zemser
4 Comments on THE WAGER, by Donna Jo Napoli, last added: 1/7/2010
OMG READING THIS AS SOON AS IT HITS SHELVES. I love Italy, I love debauched playboys and I love deals with the devil! (And Donna Jo Napoli, of course, thanks chiefly to you.)
All the books that have in one way or another found there way into my collection in 2009. And in order of acquisition, because I've been adding to this post for the last 365 days:
The endless arrangement of word never ceases to amaze me. Your poem is beautiful and a little bit spooky (in a good way). Maureen. www.thepizzagang.com
I'm listening to The Evolution of Calpurnia Tate right now. Curious to see how it stacks up to your impression.
Loved, loved LOVED Book of a Thousand Days audiobook! Probably by far my favorite audiobook I've listened to thus far.
I think I'm going to have to break down and read the Books of Bayern. Even though that's normally not my preferred genre, so many people are talking about how much they love them.
I agree with you that Wintergirls was definitely the most intense fiction book of the year. Though, I will say that Columbine by Dave Cullen wins the prize for the most intense nonfiction of the year.
Yes, on Wintergirls. Yes, on Liar. Yes, on Distant Waters. Yes, on Evolution of Calpurnia Tate. And a HUGE YES for Fire - I'm an evangelist for this one.
Marcelo is also one of my favorite covers of the year. It's gorgeous. You can almost hear the crickets.
And it was raunchy and bawdy and gross, but I loved Castration Celebration. It was a hoot.
Unfortunately, this list is also reminding me how much I DIDN'T read in 2009...
So, I'm going through the list, and I'm thinking, oooh! Ohhh! Wow, interesting! Ooooo! And then I get to the end and I nearly start to cry. Not that that's unusual for me, I'm always about to cry, but, well, you know.
Also, three cheers for my agent! You mentioned 3 of her books -- Fire, When You Reach Me, and Marcelo in the Real World.
Hey, Laura Evangelista ^_^, I also love the Marcelo cover, and here's something my brainy sister just pointed out: the tree branches look just like dendrites!
As you are no doubt aware, Christmas is a-coming. Geese are getting fat, and there might even be one on my table in a week or so. (Or maybe a duck -- the jury's still out.)
ANYHOW. As of now, this blog's on vacation. I'll see you all on New Year's eve with my arbitrary list of 2009 bests and favorites.
Anybody here seen Candleshoe? Fun 1970's Disney movie starring Helen Hayes, David Niven and teenaged Jodie Foster. Also featuring a treasure hunt, pirate gold, and an Anastasia-like attempt at conning a rich English dowager. Mystery, comedy, and mayhem ensue.
I've never really grown out of the movie, so I thought I'd have a look at the original novel, Christmas at Candleshoe, by Michael Innes. Just imagine, Candleshoeplus Christmas!
Two unfortunate facts:
Christmas at Candleshoe is not a Christmas book (the title apparently concerns a 17th century monument-carver named Gerard Christmas).
Nor is it a children's book.
In my opinion, it's not even an interesting book. I just barely made it to the second paragraph.
We are looking at an English rural landscape on a summer afternoon. Most of us are urban folk -- we come from New York and London and Birmingham and St. Louis -- and our principle sensation is the comfortable one of getting our money's worth. The Englishness is unchallengable, the rurality unflawed, and the whole effect a landscape in the fullest sense of the word. This last circumstance, indeed, makes a few of us obscurely uneasy.
Delimiting the forest...
"Delimiting the forest"? I dunno about you, but *poof* -- there went my attention span. A grudging flip through the next 80 pages exposed very little adventure, and very much chewy British prose. Phooey.
**********************
Currently reading:
The Wager by Donna Jo Napoli (THANK YOU MELISSA WEISBERG!)
I have never run across anyone else (besides my siblings) who has seen 'Candleshoe' so needless to say I was thrilled when I read your post today. It was (and probably still is) one of my favorite movies. Thanks for the tip about the book, I'll make sure to skip it!
librarymama said, on 12/17/2009 1:28:00 PM
I LOVED Candleshoe growing up!I haven't seen it in YEARS but I can't imagine I wouldn't enjoy it now. There aren't a lot of people who know anything about it though...
In the morning, I wake up, grab the book I'm reading from my nightstand/pillow, and carry it into the other room. While I catch up on email and so forth, it sits on the footstool beside me. When I go downstairs to shower, the book comes with me - to be parked on the bathroom counter. Next I go upstairs to get dressed and make my bed, book still in tow. (It sits on the hamper.) Then it accompanies me back down to the bathroom counter while I play 'beauty shop' with eyeliner and hairspray. After all that's done, it's back to the computer for me, and back to the footstool for the book of the day.
In all this time, I haven't read a word -- just carried the book from place to place.
Same thing happens at lunch time. I put my computer aside, carry the book downstairs and set it on the kitchen table while I eat and watch an episode of Jeopardy. Then, back to the footstool it goes while I tinker with the WIP for the afternoon.
Generally, I don't get around to actually reading until after 4:00 or 5:00.
And...that's all I have to report. I don't dare predict when I will finally reach the end of Straw Into Gold. I had no idea I could dawdle so aimlessly over a book I enjoyed so much the first time around.
ps: Almost forgot -- I killed a yellow post-it flag today.
0 Comments on State of the TBR pile as of 1/1/1900
1. For some fuddy-duddy reason the idea of multi-media fiction makes me throw up a little, and 2. I don't even like Sports Illustrated a tiny bit, but 3. Wouldn't something like this make reading non-fiction wildly awesome:
3 Comments on Mouth-watering Tablet demo, last added: 12/9/2009
This is completely counter-intuitive. Desktop email widgets - those little thingies that make your email inbox more accessible - are helping keep me off the internet.
Peeking at widgets lets me have a little breather without throwing open the door to the endless spiral of procrastination that is the internet. No blogs, no message boards, no sales ranks. Just a glimpse at a few subject lines now and then. And ok, yeah, I do it a lot. But it takes about 5 seconds now instead of, oh, upwards of 20 minutes. It's like playing peek-a-boo.
Widgets, man. They'll save you from yourself.
1 Comments on The joy of widgets, last added: 12/7/2009
I just started using iGoogle yesterday to look at my blog subscriptions. It sure does save time when you're just scrolling through titles (instead of whole posts)!
By: Sarah Miller,
on 1/24/2010
Among the goodies under my Christmas tree: the latest fluffed up re-release of Bedknobs and Broomsticks.
I regret to inform you (actually, I don't, but it sounds more polite than squeeing) that as of the first of the year, I'm no longer adding to my online reading journal. 
THE WAGER
2 Comments on A year of book-gathering, last added: 1/3/2010
I know! I know!
Jeff Daniels and Jim Carrey. Dumb and Dumber.
BINGO.
(Hush up, O'Connor! You cheaterpants.)
I'm trying so very hard not to be jealous of you two having fun together . . .but it's not working.