May 15th, 2008
I’ve been out of sorts for the last two weeks, and yesterday I finally figured out why: I miss my novel. I miss my characters.
I didn’t go through this phase much with Jade Tiger back in 2003 because a family tragedy pretty much consumed my life for months after I finished. The post-novel blues are vastly preferable to that nightmare, but unexpectedly powerful in their own right. I find myself desperate to continue writing in the Above World universe. The novel doesn’t deserve fans (yet), but I want to write fan fiction!
(Okay, now that I’ve said that, I’m totally going to do it.)
Help me, friends. How do you get through this?
May 14th, 2008
Before I describe the new pushup torture I witnessed in class tonight, let me first say that I did none of them.*
Level 1: Pushup position, but with your feet flat against a wall. Move your feet about one foot up the wall, and do the pushups from that position.
Level 2: Body folded in at a 90-degree angle, feet against the wall, legs parallel to the ground. Torso and arms are parallel to the wall. Pushups are straight up and down.
Level 3: Body straight and leaning at a slight angle against the wall. Almost a fully vertical (and upside down) position.
It was amazing to see our instructors explain these pushups and then effortlessly pump them out. I felt as if I were watching an old-school kung fu movie. Most of the rest of us played the part of the bumbling class.
Fun, fun, fun!
* I still can’t do pushups because my rotator cuff has been jacked since December. I’m doing exercises, icing it regularly, etc., but it’s still jacked. Although it hurts regularly and still wakes me up at night, at least I’m getting used to it. Some people say it will never heal, and I’m trying to get used to that idea.
May 14th, 2008
I’d never heard of Irena Sendler until I saw this article:
Heroine Who Saved 2,500 Children during Holocaust Dies at 98
From the article:
During the war, Sendler was a social worker and used her position to go into the ghetto and smuggle out children. Because the Nazis feared disease, she went into the ghetto under the pretext of trying to contain an outbreak of typhoid. According to the New York Times she and her team of volunteers, most of whom were women, rescued children through underground corridors, by smuggling them in coffins or under the floorboards in ambulances, or by paper forgeries in the Catholic church near the ghetto.
She was a real-life Scarlet Pimpernel. But, you know, even better.
May 8th, 2008
I got some fabulous news this weekend: My story “Monstrous Love” will appear in the next issue of Flytrap!!!
I’m thrilled that this story has found a home, and ultra-mega-thrilled that it has found such a good one. “Monstrous Love” is another tale in my (hopefully) ongoing “Bulfinch High” series. I read the opening at Wiscon last year. The first story in the series, “Angst in D Minor,” appeared in Lone Star Stories back in 2006.
Yippee!
May 2nd, 2008
Or should that be “sportswomanship”?
For a feel-good Friday read, check out Sportsmanship on display in college softball game (via Salon).
As for the people who say this is just another example of how women aren’t competitive enough for professional sports, I say: Watch more women’s sports and get a clue.
As for the people who say male athletes never display this sort of sportsmanship, I say: Watch more men’s sports and get a clue.
Happy Friday, folks!
