Entries Tagged 'writing' ↓

Apparently Amazon.com pulled all books by Macmillan yesterday in order to threaten them over an ongoing spat about ebook pricing, as they work toward cornering the market in ebooks.

I think this is officially not-cool.

John Scalzi makes some excellent points about it.

Like I mentioned last year, I’m interested in becoming a morning person. I am by nature a night-tinkerer, a fiddler and futzer, a midnight walker and a just-one-last-thing-er. And these night meanderings can last easily until 2, 3, 4am in the morning.

My logic goes something along these lines:

- I’m happier when I’m creating something — specifically, writing every day

- Because of kids and work obligations, I don’t really have time until after the kids are in bed

- at which point, I’m tired enough that I feel like consuming media, not creating it.

So the logical time to do this — when I have no other concurrent obligations — is early in the morning before anyone is awake.

For the last ten days I’ve started my writing schedule at 5:30am, and I’ve been faithfully churning out a thousand words a day. It feels fucking great — partially because I’ve really begun to like the project, but also because no matter what happens for the rest of the day, there’s this pillar of accomplishment there, first thing.

I’ve tried several times to become a morning person and failed — but now I believe I may have found a secret, back-door entrance to being a morning person. I’ll come right out with it, with no extra cost to you. It’s called: SIX HOURS OF JET LAG. Pretty awesome secret, no? All you have to do is have a nice long stay in Brazil (UTC/GMT -3 hours), and then try like hell to preserve that jet lag when you get back.

No, it’s not the cheapest way to becoming a morning person, but it works great and the weather is nice. I find I can barely keep my eyes open by about 9:30pm (3:30am in Rio de Janeiro), and that I’m awake somewhere between 4 and 5am, ready to go. And for whatever reason, months of non-productivity have suddenly given way to a wonderfully vigorous writing routine. Sweet.

I miss Salvador, though.

Arthur

Brigitte (kebab)

Stilt Pirates

I had a blast tonight.

If you’ve found yourself here late in the night of Nov. 20th or early morning Nov. 21st, it’s likely because you found yourself involved in my little after-hours texting thing.

Thanks again for playing along.

For fun – I’ll try to post a few stats here on after-hour participation, if I have them.

It will be long and brilliant and cause us all to weep into our LCDs, but, for his sake, please refrain from asking him about it.

Danger Pony!

1) Couch was selected by Indie-Bound as a ‘Top 10 Reading Group Selection’ for Spring/Summer 2009, as mentioned on the Indie Bound website.  Christian Crider of Inkwood Books in Tampa, Florida said:

“Couch follows the quirky journey of Thom, Erik, and Tree as they venture into the unknown at the behest of a magical, orange couch, which has its own plan for their previously boring lives. Parzybok’s colorful characters, striking humor, and eccentric magical realism offer up an adventuresome read.”

Thanks, Christian! Here’s a link to Couch on Inkwood Books website, which seems a happy place to buy the book, or try the Indie Bound link above if, good god!, you haven’t bought it yet!? Oregonian Molly Gloss’s book The Hearts of Horses was also recommended which Laura Moulton, Kelly Link and Gavin Grant all raved about it.

2) It’s a tad early to mention this, but the Richard Hugo House in Seattle asked me to be a part of their Hugo Literary Series, about which I’m extremely excited. While I was there I saw the ‘My Avatar’ installment, featuring Christa Bell, Jennifer Finney Boylan and Vikram Chandra, super impressive performances all. The theme will be ‘Visiting Hours’ and that will happen in late November of this year. If you don’t know about the Richard Hugo House – spend some time on their website, it’s a powerhouse of a literary organization.

3) A subversive, anonymous, third-person-plural organization who call themselves ‘PDXWD‘  (formed of:  ‘a mash of wires and ponies’) talks about Couch and parking structures today. They appear to be recommending it over War and Peace, subversive indeed!

In a possibly related article: Danger Ponies banned!

4) Can someone please write a comic book called Danger Ponies?