SOURCE: The Onion
Author: R.J. Keller
The Movie Fanatic
Just a plug for The Movie Fanatic. I’ve been reading articles there all morning, instead of writing like a good girl should. I particularly enjoyed this interview with ANDRÉ TECHINÉ, director of LES TEMOINS (The Witness).
I find it strange, this constant preoccupation with linking a filmmaker to a character. Finding a connection between somebody’s private life and fiction is a vision of the process that is tainted by the current obsession with celebrities.
Check it out.
Update on The Quest
You may remember that a few weeks ago I let y’all know that an agent requested a partial (a two-page synopsis and the first five chapters) of Waiting for Spring, and then the full manuscript. Today the agent’s rejection came in the mail. She said “it’s not commercial enough for my client list.” Still, I’m not giving up hope.
In the meantime…if you haven’t read it yet, give it a try. Tell your friends. Several people who aren’t related to me by blood or marriage have enjoyed it.
[There’s a link to it on my new website as well.]
Kids as book reviewers:
My kids love books, just like me. They passed the time during yesterday’s inclement weather by reading, and finished their respective books at almost the same time: my son’s being The Outsiders, by S.E. Hinton, and my daughter’s being one of the Warrior Cats books (I can’t remember which one). My son suggested that, since they still couldn’t go outside, they should swap books and continue reading. My daughter read the blurb on the back of the book and said:
“Nope. No way. This book is totally unbelievable.”
Son: “What are you talking about? The author based it on stuff that happened to people she knew!”
Daughter: “No one would ever name their kid Ponyboy.”
That’s right. She has been simply devouring a series of books that revolve around wild cats who fight each other–and apparently humanity–to save their forest home, but can’t suspend her belief enough to accept a human protagonist named Ponyboy.
Baker Towers
I took my kids to Mr. Paperback yesterday and picked up a book for myself (yes, another one): Baker Towers by Jennifer Haigh. I couldn’t put it down. I love that feeling.
“BAKER TOWERS is an intimate exploration of love and family set in a western Pennsylvania coal town in the years following World War II. Bakerton is a town of company houses and church festivals, union squabbles and firemen’s parades. Its ball club leads the coal company leagues. Its neighborhoods are Little Italy, Swedetown and Polish Hill.
For the five Novak children, the forties are a decade of tragedy,excitement and stunning change. George comes home from the war determined to leave Bakerton behind and finds the task impossible. Dorothy is a fragile beauty hooked on romance. Brilliant Joyce holds the family together, bitterly aware of the life she might have had elsewhere, while her brother Sandy sails through life on looks and charm. At the center of it all is Lucy, the volatile baby, devouring the family’s attention and developing a bottomless appetite for love.
BAKER TOWERS is both a family saga and a love letter to our industrial past, to the men and women known as the Greatest Generation; to the vibrant small-town life of America’s Rust Belt when it was still shiny and new.”
Baker Towers
I took my kids to Mr. Paperback yesterday and picked up a book for myself (yes, another one): Baker Towers by Jennifer Haigh. I couldn’t put it down. I love that feeling.
“BAKER TOWERS is an intimate exploration of love and family set in a western Pennsylvania coal town in the years following World War II. Bakerton is a town of company houses and church festivals, union squabbles and firemen’s parades. Its ball club leads the coal company leagues. Its neighborhoods are Little Italy, Swedetown and Polish Hill.
For the five Novak children, the forties are a decade of tragedy,excitement and stunning change. George comes home from the war determined to leave Bakerton behind and finds the task impossible. Dorothy is a fragile beauty hooked on romance. Brilliant Joyce holds the family together, bitterly aware of the life she might have had elsewhere, while her brother Sandy sails through life on looks and charm. At the center of it all is Lucy, the volatile baby, devouring the family’s attention and developing a bottomless appetite for love.
BAKER TOWERS is both a family saga and a love letter to our industrial past, to the men and women known as the Greatest Generation; to the vibrant small-town life of America’s Rust Belt when it was still shiny and new.”
Hubris + insanity = screenplay
From the makers of NaNoWriMo comes Script Frenzy!
Instead of writing 50,000 words of a new novel in a month, the goal is to write 100 pages of a screenplay. I’ve decided to throw my pen into the ring this year in order to bang out a movie adaptation of Waiting for Spring. *
Hubris: because I don’t even have literary representation for the book, let alone any immediate prospects for publication. The idea that I’ll ever need a screenplay is probably pretty remote, and that I’d be asked to write it even remote-er.
Insanity: because I’ve never written a screenplay before.
Sounds like fun to me!
*Speaking of shameless plugs, I’ve got a new website up and running. Still an embryo, but it’s a huge step forward. Much thanks to webmaster Tom Griffin. Check it out if you’ve got a sec.
I detect a dialect
Today I had to put down a novel that I’d been looking forward to reading for a long time. I’ve heard it’s a good book, and I’m sure that–one day–I’ll find that out for myself. Once I can get past one thing.
Dialect. Ugh.
I’m a reasonably intelligent woman. If an author sets his/her story in–for example–England, I have a pretty good idea how the characters are gonna sound. And if I’m further informed that a particular character speaks with a Cockney accent, I can drop the H’s for myself…please don’t do it for me if that character has more than a few lines of dialogue. Pretty please?
Or maybe it’s just me…
Free to good home:
One internal editor.
At this point, I’m willing to let her go free to a bad home. Seriously, abuse her all you want. I won’t care. Just…please come and get her.
Warning: she’s a bitch.
If all she did was pick apart my grammar and spelling and typos, then I’d be all set. A mere, “La la la, I’m not listening to you” while I covered my ears, and then stuck out my tongue, would do the trick. But she’s bound and determined to analyze my every sentence for rhythm and flow, and she delights in reminding me that my exposition is clunky and forced. She’s making it so I can’t write anything at all.
I’ve tried telling her that this is still a first draft, and that perfection isn’t necessary. That the important part is getting the ideas down on the page, and that we can fix it up later; but she won’t listen. And so she needs to go away.
She doesn’t eat much, takes up very little room, and she’s great with kids and pets. So whaddya say?
Note: I’ll need her back once my first draft is completed.
One Step Up
Last month I got another request from a literary agent who wanted a synopsis and the first five chapters of Waiting for Spring. Last week Agent asked for the full manuscript. That makes three requests for the whole thing in the past month.
I’m trying not to get too excited. Still…I’m cautiously optimistic. Or is it optimistically cautious?
In the meantime, here’s the link–once again–where you can read a few excerpts.
R.J. Keller 