No entry
Today and tomorrow are days of blog-silence on my blog to remember those lost, those who volunteered, and those who lost a loved one on 9/11.
9/11/2006
9/10/2006
Wedding
I went to a lovely wedding today in which the bride and groom smiled a lot and seemed very happy together, and everyone enjoyed himself/herself.
This is in contrast to some weddings I've been to, where the bride and groom seemed so nervous about getting everything right that they didn't seem to be enjoying their own celebration. No matter what tradition dictates, a wedding should be a cause for joy, not angst.
I went to a lovely wedding today in which the bride and groom smiled a lot and seemed very happy together, and everyone enjoyed himself/herself.
This is in contrast to some weddings I've been to, where the bride and groom seemed so nervous about getting everything right that they didn't seem to be enjoying their own celebration. No matter what tradition dictates, a wedding should be a cause for joy, not angst.
9/09/2006
Uh oh
Someone told me via e-mail that "in certain shots," a girl named Buckwild from the Flava Flav reality show on VH-1 sort of looks like me. Oh, heavens.
Let's stress the "in certain shots." Hopefully my face is thinner than this. Hopefully.
I liked it better when I was compared to this girl.
Anyway, have a good weekend!
Someone told me via e-mail that "in certain shots," a girl named Buckwild from the Flava Flav reality show on VH-1 sort of looks like me. Oh, heavens.
Let's stress the "in certain shots." Hopefully my face is thinner than this. Hopefully.
I liked it better when I was compared to this girl.
Anyway, have a good weekend!
9/08/2006
This Just In
Reading Carrie Pilby or This Is Chick Lit MAY reduce the risk of heart disease!**
**If you jog 50 miles while reading it
Correction
In a blog entry yesterday, the boyfriend was referred to as "a certain boy." We regret lack of credit given to said boy, and any resulting distress this may have caused.
Reading Carrie Pilby or This Is Chick Lit MAY reduce the risk of heart disease!**
**If you jog 50 miles while reading it
Correction
In a blog entry yesterday, the boyfriend was referred to as "a certain boy." We regret lack of credit given to said boy, and any resulting distress this may have caused.
9/07/2006
Hmmm
A certain boy told me that www.intellicast.com is a good site for people into weather radar. I looked at it, and as usual, he's right. How does he know more about weather stuff than I do? Boys are smart.
9/06/2006
Twivia question update
Congrats to all of you who guessed DWIGHT D. EISENHOWER! You win nothing except my respect, especially for the Canadian who answered.
Here is an educational response:
Has anyone else answered your trivia question yet? It's Ike, our only presidential Dwight. I had the answer without looking it up, but I did Google to find out where his name came from -- this PDF summary of his post-presidential papers hints that he was named after 19th century American evangelist D. L. Moody. (The D. L. stands for Dwight Lyman.) That's the earliest first-name Dwight I can think of, although there were a couple of early Yale presidents with the last name Dwight. On another subject: Your blog is one of the few I regularly read that doesn't offer a site feed. I'm sure there are other readers who would appreciate a feed as well. Setting it up in Blogger involves about six clicks of the mouse, and there's no effort involved in maintaining it. Your barometer blog already has one. Hope you have a good turnout for Tuesday Night Trivia. I've only been able to play once -- living 2,000 miles away puts a damper on participation -- but I enjoyed it a lot. www.batesline.com
On an unrelated note
I got this in my work e-mail and it made me laugh:
I’m Not Loving the Hummer of a Summer Promotion!Action Alert Deadline: September 15, 2006
Dear
This summer McDonald’s really is supersizing it. As part of its “Summer of Happy Meal Fun” campaign, the burger giant is offering toy Hummers in its Happy Meal and Mighty Kids Meal boxes and calling it the “Hummer of a Summer” promotion.
Congrats to all of you who guessed DWIGHT D. EISENHOWER! You win nothing except my respect, especially for the Canadian who answered.
Here is an educational response:
Has anyone else answered your trivia question yet? It's Ike, our only presidential Dwight. I had the answer without looking it up, but I did Google to find out where his name came from -- this PDF summary of his post-presidential papers hints that he was named after 19th century American evangelist D. L. Moody. (The D. L. stands for Dwight Lyman.) That's the earliest first-name Dwight I can think of, although there were a couple of early Yale presidents with the last name Dwight. On another subject: Your blog is one of the few I regularly read that doesn't offer a site feed. I'm sure there are other readers who would appreciate a feed as well. Setting it up in Blogger involves about six clicks of the mouse, and there's no effort involved in maintaining it. Your barometer blog already has one. Hope you have a good turnout for Tuesday Night Trivia. I've only been able to play once -- living 2,000 miles away puts a damper on participation -- but I enjoyed it a lot. www.batesline.com
On an unrelated note
I got this in my work e-mail and it made me laugh:
I’m Not Loving the Hummer of a Summer Promotion!Action Alert Deadline: September 15, 2006
Dear
This summer McDonald’s really is supersizing it. As part of its “Summer of Happy Meal Fun” campaign, the burger giant is offering toy Hummers in its Happy Meal and Mighty Kids Meal boxes and calling it the “Hummer of a Summer” promotion.
'The dream'
When I had just graduated from college and fantasized about someday being a full-time writer, I pictured myself having the following schedule:
1. Roll out of bed, get the New York Times, read it in my kitchen. Listen to the birds in my back yard.
2. Diligently write for a few hours.
3. Go have lunch at a little cafe. People would be used to me there and some would talk to me about what they're writing or reading.
4. Do a few more hours of writing.
5. Eat dinner.
Of course, that didn't take into account many factors:
1) It's risky to live on writing income alone, unless you hit the big time right away. And that almost never happens. If you finally sell a book, the typical first-time writer's advance is about $10K. It is still a dream to get a book published, but you can't exactly live for a year on $10K. Now, it's likely that you'll get a two-book deal, because if the publishing company liked your first book, they want to make sure they have your second. So let's say you get a $20K advance. That means you have a lot of money to play with, but you also now have to write the second book. If that takes a year, you're living on $20K in a year - minus 15 percent to your beloved agent, and minus say 20 percent to Uncle Sam. And if you don't think your second manuscript in good enough shape after you've been writing it for a year, you'll need longer...
(Disclaimer: These do not necessarily represent the advances I got, just giving typical first-time novelist advances. I am also not considering royalties, which you get if you sell maybe 5,000 or more copies of yer book. Because of the chick lit boom when my first book came out, I got lucky in that respect.)
2. The fact that being a "full-time" writer really means you have to be secure enough to pay your own health benefits, etc. etc., otherwise it's still smart to keep at least some sort of regular job. Particularly if you don't know whether your 2nd or 3rd books will be finished and accepted.
3. If you were to have days off completely to write, that dream of reading the Times in the morning might dissolve when you start oversleeping and suddenly get up at 10 and realize you have to get writing done. Ah, the best-laid plans...
4. The procrastination factor -- still need to call plumber, do research for writing, go to library, etc.
5. Staying home all day and not socializing or doing some sort of job could adversely impact your creativity -- especially since sometimes the best ideas come if you're doing other things.
Do you still want to be a full-time writer? It has its plusses and minuses. Even the successful young literary lions sometimes do part-time professorships or have some other income. Look at how Ned Vizzini worries about his finances on his blog a lot.
I still maintain that whatever happens, getting someone to pay you for your words is a near-miracle, and I'm a very lucky person that it happened to me.
Updates
Later today, I will post the answer to the trivia question below. No, it is not Wwarren G. Harding.
I hear that trivia last night had a decent-to-low turnout, because of rain and because it's a short week and first trivia game post-hiatus. I will probably go next Tuesday to show my support. It's time to get trivia movin' again!
One of the team names was reportedly "Six Feet Down Under." Tee hee! ;)
When I had just graduated from college and fantasized about someday being a full-time writer, I pictured myself having the following schedule:
1. Roll out of bed, get the New York Times, read it in my kitchen. Listen to the birds in my back yard.
2. Diligently write for a few hours.
3. Go have lunch at a little cafe. People would be used to me there and some would talk to me about what they're writing or reading.
4. Do a few more hours of writing.
5. Eat dinner.
Of course, that didn't take into account many factors:
1) It's risky to live on writing income alone, unless you hit the big time right away. And that almost never happens. If you finally sell a book, the typical first-time writer's advance is about $10K. It is still a dream to get a book published, but you can't exactly live for a year on $10K. Now, it's likely that you'll get a two-book deal, because if the publishing company liked your first book, they want to make sure they have your second. So let's say you get a $20K advance. That means you have a lot of money to play with, but you also now have to write the second book. If that takes a year, you're living on $20K in a year - minus 15 percent to your beloved agent, and minus say 20 percent to Uncle Sam. And if you don't think your second manuscript in good enough shape after you've been writing it for a year, you'll need longer...
(Disclaimer: These do not necessarily represent the advances I got, just giving typical first-time novelist advances. I am also not considering royalties, which you get if you sell maybe 5,000 or more copies of yer book. Because of the chick lit boom when my first book came out, I got lucky in that respect.)
2. The fact that being a "full-time" writer really means you have to be secure enough to pay your own health benefits, etc. etc., otherwise it's still smart to keep at least some sort of regular job. Particularly if you don't know whether your 2nd or 3rd books will be finished and accepted.
3. If you were to have days off completely to write, that dream of reading the Times in the morning might dissolve when you start oversleeping and suddenly get up at 10 and realize you have to get writing done. Ah, the best-laid plans...
4. The procrastination factor -- still need to call plumber, do research for writing, go to library, etc.
5. Staying home all day and not socializing or doing some sort of job could adversely impact your creativity -- especially since sometimes the best ideas come if you're doing other things.
Do you still want to be a full-time writer? It has its plusses and minuses. Even the successful young literary lions sometimes do part-time professorships or have some other income. Look at how Ned Vizzini worries about his finances on his blog a lot.
I still maintain that whatever happens, getting someone to pay you for your words is a near-miracle, and I'm a very lucky person that it happened to me.
Updates
Later today, I will post the answer to the trivia question below. No, it is not Wwarren G. Harding.
I hear that trivia last night had a decent-to-low turnout, because of rain and because it's a short week and first trivia game post-hiatus. I will probably go next Tuesday to show my support. It's time to get trivia movin' again!
One of the team names was reportedly "Six Feet Down Under." Tee hee! ;)
9/05/2006
Hurricane Florence-to-Be
From the National Hurricane Center as of 11 a.m. today:
"CONVENTIONAL AND MICROWAVE SATELLITE IMAGERY INDICATE THAT TD-6 [Tropical Depression 6] HAS CONTINUED TO BECOME BETTER ORGANIZED AND HAS INTENSIFIED INTO VERY LARGE TROPICAL STORM FLORENCE."
Link to discussion.
Trivia question
Sure, our president is sometimes known as "W," but what American president had a W as the second letter of his first name? Can you figure it out without checking references?
And by the way, Tuesday Night Trivia returns tonight at the Baggott Inn! See below for link.
Update: No, Carl, the answer is not "Gwover Cleveland," but nice guess!
From the National Hurricane Center as of 11 a.m. today:
"CONVENTIONAL AND MICROWAVE SATELLITE IMAGERY INDICATE THAT TD-6 [Tropical Depression 6] HAS CONTINUED TO BECOME BETTER ORGANIZED AND HAS INTENSIFIED INTO VERY LARGE TROPICAL STORM FLORENCE."
Link to discussion.
Trivia question
Sure, our president is sometimes known as "W," but what American president had a W as the second letter of his first name? Can you figure it out without checking references?
And by the way, Tuesday Night Trivia returns tonight at the Baggott Inn! See below for link.
Update: No, Carl, the answer is not "Gwover Cleveland," but nice guess!
9/04/2006
There once was a man from...
Welcome back! Hope you had a good holiday weekend. I was in Nantucket Isle with the Boy. Here are but a few choice pics. I had never been there before, and it's very colonial and beautiful.
(No, I don't know who the kids are in the shots, but they add color, don't you think?)
Welcome back! Hope you had a good holiday weekend. I was in Nantucket Isle with the Boy. Here are but a few choice pics. I had never been there before, and it's very colonial and beautiful.
(No, I don't know who the kids are in the shots, but they add color, don't you think?)
On another note...
Track the future Hurricane Florence. Will ol' Flo come visit in two weeks? Or will she head straight north and become extratropical?
9/01/2006
8/31/2006
Trivia is back!
For New Yorkers wanting to match wits and meet new nerds...Tuesday Night Team Trivia triumphantly returns this Tuesday to the Baggott Inn in the West Village! Be there. http://www.baggotinn.com/trivia.html
For New Yorkers wanting to match wits and meet new nerds...Tuesday Night Team Trivia triumphantly returns this Tuesday to the Baggott Inn in the West Village! Be there. http://www.baggotinn.com/trivia.html
8/30/2006
Who reads short stories?
Once in a while, a beginning writer will ask me: "Is there a point to my writing short stories? Will it get me a literary career?"
There used to be a quarterly literary magazine called STORY that published new writers, and if you got a story in there, it helped you get an agent. But it stopped publishing almost 10 years ago. Fewer and fewer consumer magazines publish short stories these days. There’s the New Yorker, Harper’s, maybe a few women’s mags. But it’s not as if the form ever had a heyday. Even the most prominent writers have very few high-circulation outlets for their short stories.
Of course, you are not supposed to write just to be published. And there are actually hundreds of U.S. literary magazines that publish short stories – it’s just that they are not widely read, and they pay very little, if at all. Most come out of universities and publish during the school year. When’s the last time your cousin said to you, “Hey, did you see the Georgia Review last month”?
There is a benefit to being in there, though. It’s prestigious to get into a review (among fellow writers, anyway), and there’s also the chance to qualify for the annual volume “Best American Short Stories.” Still, those magazines don’t publish any old schlub.
And only a few writers become well known for short stories. You can think of classic novels, but do you know any classic short stories?
Many of us read “All Summer in a Day” in our elementary school anthologies – it’s the 1959 Ray Bradbury story about a bunch of kids on Venus who’ve never “seen it” and they are all excited because they are about to see “it” for the first time. Turns out that the “it” they are waiting for is the sun. It comes around every seven years.
Ray Bradbury, Raymond Carver, and a few others have become famous for their short stories. But if you are a beginning writer, having two or three good short stories rarely gets you anywhere. Agents want books they can sell to publishers and make money on. If you get a story into the New Yorker it’s different – that in itself can land you a book deal (it’s launched careers) and even a movie deal. But for the most part, you’ve got to first have a novel to get anywhere.
So why write a short story? Well, obviously for the pleasure of it. But let’s face it, beginning writers want to get somewhere. The pleasure of writing is fine, but everyone wants to be read!
Still, if you meet enough writers, you may be asked to contribute to an anthology like This Is Chick Lit. You can enter contests. You can, if you become a published novelist someday, hopefully try to sell a collection of connected short stories, if that’s what you want and you’ve written a lot of good ones. Generally they have to have a common theme so that readers will want to stick with them. Recent collections like that have included Melissa Bank’s “The Wonder Spot” and “The Girls’ Guide to Hunting and Fishing,” and David Schickler’s “Kissing in Manhattan,” the latter of which is highly recommended by me. Just good, clean writing.
I’m rambling, but I guess my point is: No, writing one or two really great short stories probably won’t immediately land you a career. But there’s no harm in writing. It’s a form that has a lot of merit. It just won’t make you rich in itself, except in very very rare cases (David Schickler’s one short story in The New Yorker got him a book and movie deal). Then again, what in writing DOES make you instantly rich?!?
A response from Andie:
I'm not a writer and this is only partially relevant to today's post. I don't particularly like to read short stories because they are short. If I read something good I want it to last.... However, my favorite show on NPR (I listen in the car) is "Selected Shorts." I have heard some wonderful stories. Most recently I listened to "The Appropriation of Cultures" by Percival Everett. It was replayed at a different time when I happened to be in the car with my husband. He doesn't generally listen to NPR, but he did on this occasion. He enjoyed the story too. I enjoyed sharing it with him.
Interesting!
Once in a while, a beginning writer will ask me: "Is there a point to my writing short stories? Will it get me a literary career?"
There used to be a quarterly literary magazine called STORY that published new writers, and if you got a story in there, it helped you get an agent. But it stopped publishing almost 10 years ago. Fewer and fewer consumer magazines publish short stories these days. There’s the New Yorker, Harper’s, maybe a few women’s mags. But it’s not as if the form ever had a heyday. Even the most prominent writers have very few high-circulation outlets for their short stories.
Of course, you are not supposed to write just to be published. And there are actually hundreds of U.S. literary magazines that publish short stories – it’s just that they are not widely read, and they pay very little, if at all. Most come out of universities and publish during the school year. When’s the last time your cousin said to you, “Hey, did you see the Georgia Review last month”?
There is a benefit to being in there, though. It’s prestigious to get into a review (among fellow writers, anyway), and there’s also the chance to qualify for the annual volume “Best American Short Stories.” Still, those magazines don’t publish any old schlub.
And only a few writers become well known for short stories. You can think of classic novels, but do you know any classic short stories?
Many of us read “All Summer in a Day” in our elementary school anthologies – it’s the 1959 Ray Bradbury story about a bunch of kids on Venus who’ve never “seen it” and they are all excited because they are about to see “it” for the first time. Turns out that the “it” they are waiting for is the sun. It comes around every seven years.
Ray Bradbury, Raymond Carver, and a few others have become famous for their short stories. But if you are a beginning writer, having two or three good short stories rarely gets you anywhere. Agents want books they can sell to publishers and make money on. If you get a story into the New Yorker it’s different – that in itself can land you a book deal (it’s launched careers) and even a movie deal. But for the most part, you’ve got to first have a novel to get anywhere.
So why write a short story? Well, obviously for the pleasure of it. But let’s face it, beginning writers want to get somewhere. The pleasure of writing is fine, but everyone wants to be read!
Still, if you meet enough writers, you may be asked to contribute to an anthology like This Is Chick Lit. You can enter contests. You can, if you become a published novelist someday, hopefully try to sell a collection of connected short stories, if that’s what you want and you’ve written a lot of good ones. Generally they have to have a common theme so that readers will want to stick with them. Recent collections like that have included Melissa Bank’s “The Wonder Spot” and “The Girls’ Guide to Hunting and Fishing,” and David Schickler’s “Kissing in Manhattan,” the latter of which is highly recommended by me. Just good, clean writing.
I’m rambling, but I guess my point is: No, writing one or two really great short stories probably won’t immediately land you a career. But there’s no harm in writing. It’s a form that has a lot of merit. It just won’t make you rich in itself, except in very very rare cases (David Schickler’s one short story in The New Yorker got him a book and movie deal). Then again, what in writing DOES make you instantly rich?!?
A response from Andie:
I'm not a writer and this is only partially relevant to today's post. I don't particularly like to read short stories because they are short. If I read something good I want it to last.... However, my favorite show on NPR (I listen in the car) is "Selected Shorts." I have heard some wonderful stories. Most recently I listened to "The Appropriation of Cultures" by Percival Everett. It was replayed at a different time when I happened to be in the car with my husband. He doesn't generally listen to NPR, but he did on this occasion. He enjoyed the story too. I enjoyed sharing it with him.
Interesting!
8/29/2006
Plugs
Finally available for purchase, "THIS IS CHICK LIT," including a short story by yours truly. (I'd give you one, but I only got three of my own from the publisher):
http://www.amazon.com/This-Is-Chick-Lit/dp/1933771011/sr=8-2/qid=1156877591/ref=pd_bbs_2/104-5368498-8985503?ie=UTF8
Also, if you are a writer, you could buy the following book by the lovely Farrin Jacobs and Sarah Mlynowski, on how to write Chick Lit:
http://www.amazon.com/See-Jane-Write-A-Girls/dp/1594741158/sr=1-2/qid=1156877638/ref=pd_bbs_2/104-5368498-8985503?ie=UTF8&s=books
Finally available for purchase, "THIS IS CHICK LIT," including a short story by yours truly. (I'd give you one, but I only got three of my own from the publisher):
http://www.amazon.com/This-Is-Chick-Lit/dp/1933771011/sr=8-2/qid=1156877591/ref=pd_bbs_2/104-5368498-8985503?ie=UTF8
Also, if you are a writer, you could buy the following book by the lovely Farrin Jacobs and Sarah Mlynowski, on how to write Chick Lit:
http://www.amazon.com/See-Jane-Write-A-Girls/dp/1594741158/sr=1-2/qid=1156877638/ref=pd_bbs_2/104-5368498-8985503?ie=UTF8&s=books
8/28/2006
8/27/2006
Monday again!
Just when you thought it wasn't Monday again, it is.
Next week, Monday is a holiday. Isn't it ironic that there's no work on Labor Day? Maybe Labor Day should be the ONLY day we work.
Rain
"Whenever I turn up my windshield wipers, the freakin' rain slows down! What's up with that? People's out to get me!" -- The Boy
I told him I'd blog this.
Just when you thought it wasn't Monday again, it is.
Next week, Monday is a holiday. Isn't it ironic that there's no work on Labor Day? Maybe Labor Day should be the ONLY day we work.
Rain
"Whenever I turn up my windshield wipers, the freakin' rain slows down! What's up with that? People's out to get me!" -- The Boy
I told him I'd blog this.
8/25/2006
8/24/2006
How authors drive themselves craaaazy
Someone posted an e-mail to a chick lit listserve saying she saw this on the website of a literary agent she wants to send her stuff to:
"Please send us a query letter of no more than two pages, which includes your credentials, an explanation of what makes your book unique and special, and a synopsis."
She wants to know: Is the synopsis included in the two pages, or is that separate?
Various writers contradicted each other.
This concludes today's broadcast of, "How authors drive themselves craaaazy."
Someone posted an e-mail to a chick lit listserve saying she saw this on the website of a literary agent she wants to send her stuff to:
"Please send us a query letter of no more than two pages, which includes your credentials, an explanation of what makes your book unique and special, and a synopsis."
She wants to know: Is the synopsis included in the two pages, or is that separate?
Various writers contradicted each other.
This concludes today's broadcast of, "How authors drive themselves craaaazy."
8/23/2006
Wind
Perhaps as a result of Hurricane Katrina last year, newspapers and major internet news sites are quickly reporting that a minor storm has formed off the coast of Africa. It would take two weeks to hit us, if it even survives, but I guess we have to be on the lookout this time of year.
Still, weather forecasters said this would be a bad year for hurricanes, and this is only our fourth named storm. I wonder if they are trying to save face.
The storm was expected to go from Tropical Depression Four to Tropical Storm Debby, then perhaps within four days, to Hurricane Debby.
I've fixed my link at the right to the National Hurricane Center, which has a map of the storm.
Update
Carl in Louisiana writes:
At my first newspaper job in the 1980s, we had a copy editor who designed most of the front pages. He grew up in the age of Hurricane Audrey and often put weather stories on the front, even when tropical depressions formed off the coast of Africa. He was often ridiculed inside the office, as was the local TV station, which some of our editors accused of hyping storm coverage for ratings.
When I went back to the paper after Rita hit and devastated the area last September, a month after Katrina, I didn’t hear a whole lot of giggling when I mentioned the since-retired desk man who was always the first warning about storms that might approach the Gulf of Mexico.
Perhaps as a result of Hurricane Katrina last year, newspapers and major internet news sites are quickly reporting that a minor storm has formed off the coast of Africa. It would take two weeks to hit us, if it even survives, but I guess we have to be on the lookout this time of year.
Still, weather forecasters said this would be a bad year for hurricanes, and this is only our fourth named storm. I wonder if they are trying to save face.
The storm was expected to go from Tropical Depression Four to Tropical Storm Debby, then perhaps within four days, to Hurricane Debby.
I've fixed my link at the right to the National Hurricane Center, which has a map of the storm.
Update
Carl in Louisiana writes:
At my first newspaper job in the 1980s, we had a copy editor who designed most of the front pages. He grew up in the age of Hurricane Audrey and often put weather stories on the front, even when tropical depressions formed off the coast of Africa. He was often ridiculed inside the office, as was the local TV station, which some of our editors accused of hyping storm coverage for ratings.
When I went back to the paper after Rita hit and devastated the area last September, a month after Katrina, I didn’t hear a whole lot of giggling when I mentioned the since-retired desk man who was always the first warning about storms that might approach the Gulf of Mexico.
