I went to an advanced WordPress class today–even took the whole day off of work to do it. (Go Miranda!) I managed to understand why I have had both a “Home” and “Scribblings” page forever. I’m still not quite sure how to address some of the things I want to do with sidebars, but having a stronger conceptual sense of how Wordpress works gives me a much clearer idea of how to tackle that one.
I’d been rewatching Firefly while working out in recent weeks, and even after watching all of the juicy extras on the Serenity DVD, I was jonesing for more. So as a reward for a long week at work, I ordered the two comic books that Joss Whedon wrote. These bridge the time between the end of the Firefly series and the Serenity film, so I knew that they wouldn’t leave me hanging–the overall story arc is there.
Consistent with my other experiences reading comics, I find that I’m a word-girl and that even though I enjoyed these, they still didn’t make me a convert. I almost wonder if comics are something you need to grow up with to have them tap into your imagination as an adult.
I can say without the risk of spoilers that I enjoyed the exploration of Mal’s personality and his willingness to make choices which wouldn’t necessarily be supported by the other members of the crew (indeed, choices that had negative consequences for the crew), but that did have the effect of keeping Mal’s surrogate family intact. It’s Inara who fittingly observes this, but I didn’t see it coming, so it was fun to be surprised as a reader.
On a related note, I loved watching Joss talk a little bit about his inspiration for Firefly coming out of a non-fiction book he read about the battle of Gettysburg and the fascination that we all have with the South–the losers.
This observation gets lost in romance where there are so many alpha males running around, but there is something very intriguing about the underdog. Lisa Kleypas really taps into this type of hero, but I’m struggling to come up with anyone else who does. Something to ponder this week.
Crazy week–sick kid, kid with oral surgery, work life that seems to have forgotten about the global recession. Bad news i that this was a low workout and writing week. : (
My reward has been to read the last installment in the Gardella series. Mmmm . . . Max.
I also had a bit of a sad discovery which is that the lyrics to my favorite Vampire Weekend song are not at all what I thought they were. Here are the real lyrics to Campus:
I pull my shirt on, walk out the door
Drag my feet along the floor
Then I see you, you’re walking ‘cross the campus
Cruel professor studying romances
How am I supposed to pretend
I never want to see you again?
How am I supposed to pretend
I never want to see you again?
Walked to class, in front of ya
Spilled kefir on your keffiyeh
You look inside and turn to the door
Drag your feet along the floor
Then I see you, you’re walking ‘cross the campus
Cruel professor studying romances
How am I supposed to pretend
I never want to see you again?
How am I supposed to pretend
I never want to see you again?
In the afternoon, you’re out on the stone and grass
And I’m sleeping on the balcony after class
In the afternoon, you’re out on the stone and grass
And I’m sleeping on the balcony after class
In the afternoon, you’re out on the stone and grass
And I’m sleeping on the balcony after class
So instead of the “Cruel professor” line, I thought it was bulletproof vest. That’s exactly the kind of weird stuff one imposes on lyrics, but I love the idea of his ex wearing an emotional bulletproof vest while she’s reading romance novels.
I’m expecting things to be quiet on the blog while I balance the Discovering Story Magic master class and Margie Lawson’s ECE over the next couple of week. (Shhh! Miranda is thinking . . . . Not that there’s normally much of a ruckus in here, mind you.)
During that time, you can imagine me kicking back in the fabulous new chair adorning my office (upholstered in a different fabric that that shown, but this captures its gorgeous lines):
I cruised through Carolyn Jewel’s Scandal yesterday afternoon. It’s such a different romance–very quiet in its tone, but truly a mesmerizing read. I loved this line especially:
She was near enough now to see his eyes. Black rimmed his irises, the color bleeding slowly into a solid and unrelenting gray eerily flat of expression, or rather, she thought, the color, like silver gone to tarnish, made them impervious to reflection of his inner thought.
I think there was another bit about layers of silver tarnish in his eyes that I liked as well, but I couldn’t find that one.
And, I really liked the final reveal that Sophie, although she remained true to her vows in practice, did not do so in principle.
This month is chock full o’ craft. I’ve signed up for a couple of online workshops: Margie Lawson’s Empowering Character’s Emotions and another round of Discovering Story Magic’s Master Class. The latter tends to be hard on the pocketbook, but the feedback is unparalleled (not to mention highly motivational), so I’ve found room in the budget. Based on Margie’s first lecture for the ECE class, that also promises to be pretty intensive. (I spent a good half hour this morning exploring Margie’s website–she’s got lots of great stuff there.)
I have a couple of books sitting in my Amazon cart. Flogging the Quill is the bound incarnation of Ray Rhamey’s excellent blog and is due out in a few weeks.
I’m also planning to buy 45 Master Characters by Victoria Schmidt based on Barbara’s plotting post over at Writer Unboxed, which I found pretty fascinating (despite being a severely left-brained gal myself : ) ).
On a totally unrelated note, I am so thankful that Girl Scout Samoa cookies are only available one time each year and that I only purchased two boxes. They are the devil’s work those cookies.
I had a bunch of things to take care of on Friday afternoon, including school applications and recording my time for purposes of the old secret life. I’ve been excited to watch the Firefly series again. I watched it the first time around over a year ago, but distinctly remember falling asleep during a bunch of episodes. (Such are the pitfalls of late night TV viewing at our house.)
Watching the episode Shindig again, I noticed that there was a Jane Espenson commentary on the DVD, so I chose that version. (The costume designer and the actress who plays Inara also participated.) I loves me some Jane Espenson as previously mentioned here, so you can’t imagine how excited I was to hear her give a nod to Pride and Prejudice when she described writing the dance scene which is one of the central scenes of the episode. I also learned the following Cool Fact: Kaylee wore the crinoline from the original King and I under her dress.
I watched the latest episode of Dollhouse last night, too, but I have to admit that I’m still a bit on the fence about the show. It somehow lacks the other-worldy charisma of Whedon’s other concepts. I have faith, however, so I will stick with it.
Hubby ordered a great new album that came today. It’s a San Francisco band, Rupa and the April Fishes.
The lyrics are fantastic, and we’re especially loving this song, Wishful Thinking. You can listen to it here (fourth song in the playlist), and I’ve transcribed the lyrics below.
wishful thinking
i used to dream of a pirate ship
that would take me away from here
out to the open sea into the biggest blue
complete with a cast of unsavory crew
who’d show me things that i shouldn’t do
the masts were tall and impressive
the old wood creaked perfectly too
and the full sails held promises of something true
and when we’d get bored of the watery view
we’d simply set our course for the moon
to my surprise as i’ve grown older
living these days like dreams with you
i’ve discovered the ship waits inside my chest
and the winds fills its sails on the days i like best
but where it takes me, it takes me alone
to do this strange work i barely know
now i don’t know when the tides will call me
away from this sweet life with you
and i wish that i could stay forever
even though since i was young i knew there was never
such a thing but this wishful thinking
keeps our stories rising as our lives are sinking
in time i will kiss you goodbye
on my way and kiss you goodbye
don’t want to go
and i’ll kiss you goodbye
Ala Brennert’s novel is the book club choice for this month. Leprosy doesn’t normally rank really highly in the list of things that I want to read about, but the book has good reviews and the pages I’ve flipped to prove the book to interesting and accessible. I suppose I also can’t argue too much about reading a book set in Hawaii during the depths of winter. : )
The cover quote from Jim Fergus also reminds me that I never got around to reading One Thousand White Women which is still sitting on my shelf. I wonder what the connection between Brennert and Fergus is?–The books don’t necessarily seem targeted to the same audience.
So my writing partner, Viv, and I went to a book party down at the Tattered Cover to meet Jamie Ford and see him speak about his book, Hotel on the Corner of Bitter and Sweet.
Thanks to the very friendly Kristin Nelson for opening up the invitation to the pre-party to her Pub Rants readers. If you’ve never checked out her blog, you should definitely do so here.
Jamie was a pleasure to speak with beforehand, and a great reader and speaker. To boot, he’s a romantic at heart (to which his wife also attested). Looking forward to delving into my copy soon.