Please forgive my extended blog absence. Apparently it takes a very specific posting goal to get me here every day. I am chin-deep in revisions and will be hitting shallower waters very soon!
PS – If you’re in LA, come see me Sunday at the LA Times Festival of Books! I’ll be participating in a fun game show at the YA stage.
3 comments April 21st, 2010
Two random observations:
(1) I’m currently reading Wintergirls by Laurie Halse Anderson. It’s a YA novel dealing with eating disorders. The weird thing is that since I’m working on revisions all day, every day, the only time I have for reading is when I eat. It is very strange and incongruous to read a book about eating disorders while eating.
(2) As usual, trying to get a book out the door means everything else in my life suffers. This includes all kinds of correspondence that it is very bad of me to neglect. So if I owe you a reply or some other thing (Tom and Tracy, I owe you bags for the music meme contest, for instance), please forgive me and know that I have not forgotten. I am only behaving in a shameful manner that suggests I have forgotten.
And that’s all for today! Back to work.
k.
5 comments April 6th, 2010
Is that where you end up when you fall off the face of the earth?
Anyway, the reason I’ve been so out of touch is that I have been working my fingers to the bone revising Book 2. But before you weep for my bony fingers, rejoice! For revising this book has reminded me how much I absolutely adore the process of revising.
I think I even blogged about it a couple of years ago, how much I enjoy the rewriting part of writing. But somehow, even though I’d put it out there on the internet, I forgot it in my brain (sort of like how I forgot that I used to be really afraid of earthquakes! so weird!). But going through the past few weeks of arduous revising has refreshed my mindgrapes. And so there it is: I love revising!
I’d been totally confused by the fact that writing the first draft feels like having my fingernails pulled off but I will happily sit at the computer rewriting it until my eyeballs dry up and fall out. But now the mystery is solved.
Last night, I sent off the draft of Book 2 to the Delightful Editor. So perhaps even now, she is reading this and thinking, “It’s a darn good thing you like revising, Alender.” But we aren’t going to worry about that. Or that fact that I misspelled the word “horror” and discovered it approximately 4 milliseconds after hitting send. (Everybody loves a good horro movie, right?)
Now that it’s sent off, I can attend to other exciting things like choosing a winner for my November contest and sewing stuff that I still owe from October. Oops, and mailing something I was supposed to mail last week. D’oh!
In other news, I have had a very fun and exciting day full of the happies. Here is my Joy List, in bullet-point format.
* My mommy is here visiting! This is very good news indeed.
* Through a totally spur-of-the-moment arrangement, my baby sister is also coming to visit for the weekend! She will be here tomorrow. I am super psyched about this. She’s never even met Winston!
* The holiday season is upon us! First Thanksgiving, then Christmas, or whatever you celebrate. This makes me tremendously cheerful. Almost unbearably so, depending on who you ask. I got out my USB Christmas tree today! It is very beautiful and classy.
* And lastly, I’m pysched about this latest Muppet video! The width might throw off my sidebar, but by gum, it’s worth it.
2 comments November 24th, 2009
So, if it makes anybody out there feel any better, it’s not just the blog that’s being neglected in the post-publication/dog-show haze of activity–it’s also my person. Specifically, my hair. For like two days, I was at a kind of cute in-between stage where I thought it had a kind of cute 50s look. Now it’s starting to take over the house.
Fear not! Relief will come soon, in the form of the awesome girl who does my hair and me finally getting our schedules coordinated. For a day, I thought about growing it out, but now I’m just eager to get it off my head. Although I have been thinking about going platinum blonde for a while… I mean, why not? (Except all the good reasons.)
I’m over at the Debutante Ball today. Click here to visit me. I’m talking about mothers, a topic on which I am well versed.
Happy Tuesday! Later this week, I’m going to do a blog about a quilt I made recently. How old school is that, a crafty post?
Hope you are all very well. And a grateful shout-out to new blog visitor “A Paperback Writer” for recommending my book to her school’s librarian AND her students! Can’t beat that with a stick.
Ciao for now!
k.
Winston didn’t get me anything for Mother’s Day. But I forgot his birthday. So now we’re even.
2 comments May 12th, 2009
The madness of the dog show and a little bit of madness in life are keeping me from the blog for a bit. Thanks for all the comments on my Britney post and sorry I’m not getting around to see everybody.
k.
2 comments December 15th, 2008
This will be quick, since I’m late for work (as usual–just kidding, bosses, if you’re reading this… uh… heh).
I told Adrienne I’d post pictures of my new owl tote that I made. This is a great tote. I used a couple of new techniques to sew it, and it’s a very useful bag–assuming you can be vigilant about not tipping it over, because it’s fairly shallow for how big it is.
Sadly, I can’t find the digital camera, so the photos are going to have to wait.
In other news, Winston decided to play Superdog on the 4th of July. He took a flying leap off a 5 1/2 foot retaining wall and landed chin-first on a small cement curb around a planting bed. Needless to say, he was whisked off to the emergency vet, where he was determined to be fine. He still seems a little sore. He’s on an anti-inflammatory. I haven’t yet taken him back out to the yard to see if he’s acquired a sensible fear of heights (or at least leaps). I guess I’ll get to that before too long.
Other than that, I’m revising like a maniac (Project X) and enjoying So You Think You Can Dance. Now I can add “look for the digital camera” to the list.
Happy Thursday, all!
PS – Have you seen this video? It gave me the happies.
11 comments July 10th, 2008
Somehow, the amount of words I’m writing hasn’t decreased; it’s just that the book keeps getting longer. I am long past (well, 5000 words past) my initial estimate of 60,000 words. I will probably finish up this draft in the neighborhood of 73k, and then by weeding out some subplots that died on the vine, I should be able to get things back to 70k before revising.
I’m sorry to be all missing and stuff, and thanks for all of the encouraging comments. Welcome especially to the new commenters, who have entered the fray right when I’m feeling least likely to win Miss Congeniality. I promise to be better soon.
In the meantime, I have had a lot of excitement in my life this week:
* I don’t care who that governor’s prostitute is, but somehow I know everything about her, including her name and, via some brilliant news headline, that she “left her apartment”. Oh, thank you! Now my day can proceed.
* Winston likes celery. I slice off little moons and feed it to him, and the noise he makes while eating it is about the cutest thing you can imagine. Crunch, crunch, crunch.
* I submitted a complaint to Yahoo! News yesterday about a rather disturbing photo that was kind of shuffled in with a few of their news slideshows. In my complaint, I tried to have the attitude of, “Look, I’m a big girl, but this is inappropriate.” I received a response today apologizing for any inconvenience the matter caused me. I find that really funny, for some reason.
Oh, and under “book news”…
* Bad Girls Don’t Die probably has a cover! I’ve seen it and I looooooove it. Agent M has seen it and he looooooves it. The sales people at Hyperion have seen it, and they loooooove it. I’m not sure when I can share, but it’s so pretty and ominous, not what I was expecting at all. (My expectations were limited by the scope of my design ability.) And it says my name!
I’m off to write. I just figured out a couple of obstacles that were sorely needed at this point in the story. I’m really looking forward to being done with this draft so I can move on to all of the wonderful alternative activities suggested to me in the comments of the last post.
Happy Friday!
5 comments March 14th, 2008
I owe many comment replies and blog visits and even some personal emails (Father V!), but I must beg for a reprieve as we are jetsetting out of town (well, American Eagle commuter jetsetting) to go skiing. Would-be crimemongers, don’t bother, as the homestead will be well-stocked with family members throughout our absence.
I am a terrible skier, which should make for some exciting blog entries next week… hopefully not typed on a laptop from the traction bed at the hospital in Tahoe.
In other news, thank you so much for sharing your opinions, especially since you all told me what I wanted to hear in the first place. Is there any sweeter sound? I have decided that I will, in the very near future, combine the two blogs into one monstrous chronicle of my so-called creative life. Which is good because I have to brag about the AWESOME muff I made for my hands. Last March in New York, all I wanted was a pair of boots that would keep out the snow and a muff so I didn’t have to keep taking off gloves and putting them back on. I’m so set on both counts, so I’d say this trip is off to a grand start!
Happy weekend, all!
k.
5 comments January 17th, 2008
…my true love gave to me… one liar lying.
Yes, yes, so I failed.
I thought about picking up with “three French hens”, but when I tried to look up the symbolism, my sources said, “This probably refers to a variety of hens from France.” FAIL.
Let me instead pepper you with excuses. The dog show is in full dog-show swing, and just yesterday I sent off the next revision of TGLL to the Delightful Editor, who apologized, saying she will not have a chance to read it until the day after Christmas because she has something else due on Christmas Eve. I am shocked! I can’t believe these poor editors are working in sweatshop conditions. I always thought that scene in “Elf” where the guy (a publisher) has to work on Christmas Eve was a sick joke. But no.
Poor, poor Delightful Editor. I think it’s for the best. Supernatural thrillers don’t generally add to one’s sense of celebration, although maybe she will read it and enjoy the gift of Not Having to Do Any More Notes.
Let us all add this requests to our letters for Santa, please.
In spite of my failure as a blogger, as a human, I am having a pretty good week. I hope the same for all of you.
k.
10 comments December 20th, 2007
It has been brought to my attention by a committee of concerned… uh… Robin that I have been a blogging slacker. And it’s so true! The reason, of course, is that I finally stopped being a slacker in some other areas of my life, such as (1) going on cruises, (2) going to Ohio, (3) revising my manuscript, and (4) going to… (insert scary Halloween music) work.
Revisions are due at the end of this week, so until then, I’m up early to take care of that.
So I promise I will blog more soon! And I promise the fires haven’t gotten us. We are actually quite far away from them, last time I checked, although we have friends in a few of the afflicted areas. None of them has lost any property or been injured or in danger or anything as of yesterday.
One of my uncles in Ohio was telling me about his long-ago trip to Los Angeles, where he was warned against mudslides, earthquakes, gangs, carjacking, smog, etc., and I laughed and said, “Oh, it’s not so bad.” I’m afraid I damaged my credibility the next day by spending so much time on the phone asking my friends if their houses were on fire.
Hope you are all well!
6 comments October 24th, 2007
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