The Far Side of the Ocean

"If I rise on the wings of the dawn, if I settle on the far side of the ocean, even there your hand will guide me, your right hand will hold me fast." - Psalm 139:9-10

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Location: Nashville, Tennessee

It started as a Nanowrimo challenge and evolved from there. My current work in process is a cozy mystery.

Wednesday, May 23, 2007

Bookish

I know the blogging has been even less than my usual meager output. I'm sorry. I don't mean to disappoint my handful of readers. I could fill you in on how crazy busy life has been lately, but that is nothing new to anyone. I could tell you how I'm trying to commit to a new fitness routine that has involved major, major walks with Younger Bro over steep mountains and through wooded dales dotted with innocent, Bambi-ish woodland creatures...but I digress.

What have I been up to lately? Well, I've been reading. I'm almost done with Anne Lamont's Bird by Bird. I've stalled out on the end of it, but that is my fault, not hers. It's been one of the few books about writing that I appreciate and enjoy. I am not a non-fiction reader. Life is non-fiction, and there is plenty of it. And most writing books grate and irritate, with formulas and endless questions and, well, they make me feel inadequate. Anne does not make me feel inadequate. Stephen King in On Writing did not make me feel inadequate. So I'm naturally inclined to lean towards them.

I'm also contemplating attending a writers retreat in South Carolina in October. They will have several agents and editors there from some big publishers and you can get your manuscript critiqued and pitch it as well. The workshop classes look intensive and intriguing. And did I mention it is on the beach? In October, but still. I'm the kind of person who should probably see the ocean at least once a year to re-calibrate my equilibrium. (And if you have ever grown up near water, you know what I mean.)

But the retreat is quite a bit for my humble pocketbook, so I am musing and wondering and trying to figure it all out.

And I've also started some research on my book. What? You say. Didn't you just finish the first draft? Yep. But I need to research the technical side of some things, which is why I checked out "Secrets of a Medical Examiner" from the library yesterday. I'm also on a hunt for police procedures in Scotland. So if you know of a source, please comment and let me know.

In other matters, the parents are coming on Friday for a whole glorious week where I am off work. We will watch movies and go to the Renaissance Fair and take a float trip and shop and see historical stuff and swim in the pool and generally eat too much. And we will be happy.

I wish you all the best for a great Memorial Day weekend.

Monday, May 14, 2007

Lightweight

I finished Amy Tan’s Saving Fishes from Drowning yesterday. I’m not often drawn to books where the setting is in Asia. This one was in Burma, specifically, but the premise intrigued me so much since it included a ghost as a narrator and 11 American tourists who disappear on a lake. I found it an excellent read, engrossing, rich in detail, imagery, and characters, and a fascinating look at a country I honestly never think about. It impressed upon me the need to broaden my reading horizons more. I’m really bad about sticking with one genre and not getting out of it, but I’m denying myself so much.

The problem is I get fed up with books whose “big secret” or “reveal” happens to be a case of incest, abuse, or rape. This happens, for some reason, in a lot of the books I stumble across. I’m not able to handle these horrific stories because my imagination is so vivid they stick with me for days. And I end up worrying about the characters - did they receive proper help and therapy? Were they able to extricate themselves from that situation? And then I realize I've spend a couple days of my life being being concerned about people who don't actually exist.

Now this may seem a complete hypocrisy considering my favorite books are murder mysteries. But I would say my taste runs more to “Murder Light” or the cozy variety than Patricia Cornwell procedurals where I get too much detail, way too much detail, about how a person died and then how the medical coroner performed the autopsy.

At the end of the day, I think I may be a literary lightweight after all.

P.S. Writing this, I realize that there was brutality in the Amy Tan book (Burma is, after all, run by a military regime), but that wasn't really what the entire book hinged on, if that makes sense.

Monday, May 07, 2007

Deliciously Irresponsible

Vacuum living room: No
Clean bathrooms: No
Tidy home office: No
Clean off dining room table: No
Wash car: No
Grocery shop: No
Bills paid: No
Clean up garden: No

Wallow on sofa with delicious Diet Coke and good mystery book: Yes
See Spiderman 3: Yes
Enjoy Cracker Barrel breakfast with Younger Bro: Yes
Fit into size 8 capris: Yes! (done before aforementioned breakfast ensued, though)
Talk to Mom to discuss Amazing Race finale, men, and life in general: Yes
Talk to Dad to discuss outings for their upcoming visit, the car, and what’s playing at movies: Yes
Sunday nap: Yes
Saturday morning sleep in: Yes

All in all, I’d say it was a productive weekend.

Thursday, May 03, 2007

Ow, Ow, Ow, Ow, Ow

Indulge me, if you will:
You know that feeling where, deep down under the surface, you already know the answer to this particular situation in your life, like .5% of you understands that you are not headed in the right direction - the resolution you are really, really wanting is not going to go your way - but you ignore it and push on anyway and then one night in the middle of a parking lot God manages to finally drop a huge, you-cannot-ignore-this, Wile E. Coyote-style anvil on your head and you come face to face with the fact that yes, indeed, He answered your prayer and No, sorry, it was not the answer you were looking for?

You know that feeling? The one where you are literally gritting your teeth with a fake smile plastered on your face and all you want to do is just get in your car (the new Honda! a little bright spot in this otherwise hideous tableau) and just maybe get on I-40 heading west and keep on going and maybe grab Mom and Dad in Oklahoma on the way to the coast and don't stop until you hit the Pacific Ocean where you spent many, many happy days as a child and because the ocean somehow calms you down and heals you and connects you and puts you back on your little feet again?

But all you can actually do is get in the car and drive home and load the dishwasher and pretend you are stuffing all that hope and disappointment into it and that perhaps, maybe, just maybe, you can just push a button and your self would come out all clean and fresh and shiny?

Because how to describe that feeling is kind of eluding me at the moment, but that's exactly how I feel.