More of the Same

Trivia:  My husband seems to be coming to the end of his picture project -- turning his 30+ years worth of slides, which gathered dust in a box, into prints.  He's been putting the prints into albums, one for each of his trips.  

The personal pictures end up on the dining room table for me to put in albums.  I thought I got the things in order by year (about five inches stacked) -- when he scatters another bunch on the table.  Guess, it's nice to get them organized into albums, but I suspect they'll still gather dust.  

(I'm behind at my end of the project, but it's nice to see pictures of the kids when younger.)


Comment:  David Brooks, of News Hour fame, made an interesting observation in the New York Times  yesterday (15 September 2009) in his column. He discusses how we turned from a humble people (WWII, sort of my generation) into a narcissistic one (now).  In the opinion piece, he quotes the London Times to the effect that  "fascism had stood for grandiosity, pomposity, boasting and zeal."  

My thought:  "Ouch!"  If the news media is right. the description fits too high a percentage of Americans to a "T".  



Reading:  Finished Riordan's Percy Jackson series, The Last Olympian.  I liked the twist on the word "last".  The last Olympian wasn't the stalwart warrior standing against all odds against the evil hordes, though that's an important part of the book.  No, she was Hestia, keeper of the hearth.  You know, keeping the home fires burning against all odds.   Incidentally, I thought the ending gave a nice conclusion though some might think it a little long.



I've already started Louise Penny's newest Gamache novel -- a Three Pines mystery away from Three Pines.  Not as much head hopping in this one, but she still uses multiple viewpoints.  I'm liking the linear effect of her writing while getting an insight into all the possible suspects.


Writing:  Poor Emma, she's stuck on a hill waiting to get captured by the spriggens.  Unfortunately, Kerry of Tangled has usurped her.



Wondering when revision is done.  I'm guessing:  not until a story/novel is sold.  

Looked at the short story that was the basis for There Be Demons (unagented, unsold), screeched and revised it.  The 2700 word story now weighs in at 2300 words.  Now, I've gotta do some revisions in the book to include the better ideas I came up with.


Progress:  Working on chapter 6 of "Lost in a Tangled Maze".   Maybe 5,000 words removed. --  An example of how important critiquers are:  By the time my beta readers tagged all the "telling" and other weak points (like adverbs and commas), chapter 2 dropped another 500 words.  They weren't missed when I reread it this morning.


Guess Tangled is the only thing I'm working on for the now, except this blog.