Speaking Of That Weird Genre

Slate just did a memoir week.

Managing Blogs

A few days ago, my computer guy e-mailed me to ask, "how come you don't list motherreader in your list of blog links?" My response was, "I didn't realize I didn't."

I have a long, long list of blogs on my personal favorite list, which is what I use each day (or my blogroll at FlapJacket). I'm kind of overwhelmed and scattered in my reading, as you've probably surmised from other things I've said here. So MotherReader has finally been added to the official blogroll to your left. (Really, I would have sworn she was already there.)

During the question and answer portion of one of the panel discussions I attended yesterday while everyone was discussing work habits, one of the panelists said, "Whatever you do, don't start blogging." The feeling there was that blogging was a blackhole as far as sucking up time was concerned.

Personally, I don't think writing the posts is that bad--it's reading all the other blogs that takes a lot of time. Over the past month or two, I've been trying to find ways to cope with the workload. My newest brainstorm--scheduling. Read some blogs daily, some weekly, some on even days, some on odd days, some during a full moon. I think I'm on to something with this one.

First, though, I'm going to have to take some time to create a spreadsheet or flow-chart or something to work out my schedule.

Memoir--That's One Weird Genre

Not to worry, folks. I am not interested in writing a memoir, fascinating though my life in my cellar office is. What I am interested in is personal essays and creative nonfiction, but no one was running a free symposium on either of those subjects a half hour from my home so I had to go to this one.

The morning panel discussion on truthiness was fantastic. The afternoon discussion on memoir and meditation was not as terrific, though I liked one of the panelists a lot. Why, Gail, you may ask, did you even consider attending a discussion on memoir and meditation? Well, ah, it seemed like a good idea at the time.

I was feeling really stimulated creatively until the question and answer period after the second panel discussion, which drifted off onto "writing practice." Everyone in the whole freaking world has better work habits than I do. In fact, by the time I headed home at 4 o'clock I was feeling quite worn out, an indication that I really am not used to doing much if sitting and paying attention to speakers exhausts me.

Another Day Of No Work

Tomorrow I am off to an event called Giving Voice.
This is a symposium on the art of memoir, which a professor at my own college described as being an event the significance of which is only realized once it has passed. I am going to listen to panel discussions in both the morning and afternoon. I'm so hoping the one on "Truthiness: Memoir and the Facts" won't be overcrowded.

Isn't This How Mother's Day And Father's Day Got Started?

Buy A Friend A Book Week arrives again next week.

Buy A Friend A Book Week appeared around the time the publishing world (especially the part involving authors) was filled with doom and gloom because of studies indicating people weren't reading, because privately run bookstores were folding, and because review journals were not expanding while the number of books being published (though not, evidently, selling) was increasing, which meant many books couldn't get much attention. I'm sure there were many other reasons for the general mood of depression, too. The idea behind Buy A Friend A Book Week was to encourage people to buy books. You went out and bought a book for a friend when you had no reason to do so. You would thus be encouraging people to read and possibly helping to support bookstores and authors.

I've always tried to support Buy A Friend A Book Week because it is an attempt to do something about a situation instead of just complaining about it. Some might find it to be a rather modest attempt, but it sure beats sitting around talking the situation to death.

That being said, lately I haven't had much luck with my book gifts to friends. They haven't been going over particularly well, and the last one the recipients didn't even look at. I've been feeling some frustration. I've also been wondering if maybe it was a mistake to choose my friends from among my family members. We're not a particularly mannerly bunch.

Then I realized, hey, the point of this whole thing isn't whether or not these ingrates appreciate the time and effort I put into a gift for them. Hell, no. The point is that I support the publishing world with my purchase. And I do.

Nonetheless, someone new will be receiving the benefit of my largesse next week. I just don't know who it will be yet.

Memes

MotherReader has tagged me as a Thinking Blogger. This was very flattering, especially since here in the carbon-based world not only do I not get awards for thinking, I am often accused of thinking too much.

Like the blogger who began this Thinking Blogger Meme, I think long and hard (there I go again) before taking part in memes because they usually involve personal material. I try to stay on task and topic, though I know many would argue that going on about my problems with my GPS device was pushing the boundary. I am also aware that this is the second meme I've responded to in the last week. But they were both professional!

So I need to tag some Thinking Bloggers. As it turns out, MotherReader and I are in agreement on one (and more than one, of course) topic--we both think Oz and Ends and Chasing Ray are Thinking Bloggers. They get so deeply into topics that interest me that I frequently have to make hard copies of posts (or posts/articles they link to) to read when I have the time to really get into them. At Oz and Ends, in particular, I feel as if I'm getting an education in fantasy literature.

On the subject of memes, in general, I'd like to suggest that this concept predates blogs. I have a young relative who, say, seven, eight years ago, would receive something that looked like surveys in his e-mail from his friends at school. These things would be lists of questions about his preferences for movies, music, etc., which he would answer and send on to others. These surveys often didn't relate to just one topic the way today's memes often do, but I think the basic point and purpose was the same--to get to know people and create community.

Hmmm. I'm getting some ideas for the new project I'm working on now. Thanks MotherReader.

Me Me Me Meeeeee

I was out for a while today and came home to find a FedEx envelope tucked into the garage door. What fresh hell is this? I wondered.

It wasn't fresh hell at all but a copy of the final jacket for A Girl, a Boy, and a Monster Cat. I'm very happy with it, especially since it has a couple of extra cats sprinkled here and there.

It arrived the day this cover made the news!

We also finally have a page up at the website relating to this new book.

An Innocent Abroad

I received a copy of Monster Blood Tattoo by D. M. Cornish several months ago. I had a hard time working up much enthusiasm for a book with a monster on the cover and a monster in the title. But I started seeing references to the book here and there on the Internet and finally decided to give it a go.

Monster Blood Tattoo took me back to my teenage years when I was reading expansive historical novels about characters' struggling through adventures out in the big world. Except that this is no historical novel. It's set in a marvelously imagined and detailed world in which monsters are very, very real, and people have to watch out for them on a daily basis. It sounds a little bit like the nineteenth century (I've read somewhere that the nineteenth century is a trend in fantasy, a move away from the medieval stereotype.) but not any nineteenth century we've known.

A young orphan leaves the institution in which he grew up to set out on a career. But on his way to the new job, he's kidnapped. And it's one thing after another after that. The book is filled with unusual terminology, some of which is defined at the beginning of each chapter. I didn't find that any more difficult to deal with than the terminology in many scifi book or even some historical novels. But for readers who find themselves lost, there is an enormous "Explicarium" at the end of the book. I don't think it's necessary, myself, though it does give you a little backstory on some of the characters. Some great characters, by the way (my favorite is Europe), who appear in illustrations done by the author.

My only complaint about this book is that it's a "Book One" and doesn't actually end. Oh, I suppose you could argue that it ends because young Rossamund completes the first stage of his journey. But it's very clear that we've been left wanting more. There's not a completed story here.

I will be looking for the next book, though, and I can't say that about a lot of serials that I read.

I Want A Musical!

Last fall, I met Victoria Kann who is the co-author of Pinkalicious. Well, Pinkalicious is now a musical. You can check out a scene on-line.

So This Is Why We All Liked LAWKI So Much

The L.A. Times ran an article on why apocalyptic novels are so popular right now. Briefly? 9/11 and Iraq.

The article doesn't mention Life As We Knew It, but, come on. Let's do a little adding of two and two.