Ever since, it’s taunted me, calling out in its helium voice: “Are you ready to become a smart writer?” Apparently my plodderly, non-smart-writer-footfalls shakes it into sudden, optimistic action. It wants to save me. It wants to pump me up.

Link to file if it doesn’t play
Go head, play it a couple of times. Now a couple of more. Now imagine you’re up in the dark of the morning trying to figure out how in the hell to resolve the inverted convolution that is your plot. That snarled, brambly, thorny patch of chaos? Yes, that one. The cat wants out, the cat wants in, the coffee maker is slowly leaking, and this guy, this guy is asking you if you’re ready to become a smart writer. Well, are you?

Here’s a close-up of his face.

You can tell by his coked-up eyes, he’s quite confident in his own writing ability. He just wants to help you with yours. On the bright side, there’s a button on the gizmo that I’ll be using to write my next book, or possibly I’ll use one of the others to create a smart doodle or a smart shape. The future is mine!

That’s all.

I saw Diana Rowland do this at the Rio Hondo Writer’s Workshop. While hers had way more zombies in it than both our novels put together, it was a very fun exercise. Though made significantly less fun by the fact that no one was eating anyone else’s brain.

Laura’s (and Laura) is on the right. Orange bits represent unwritten scenes — she’s pointing out her strategery here. (you can click the picture to see it larger, but not really large enough to read the text.)

Mine is all in rows on the left, with just those last four pink squares at the end signifying unwritten scenes. Quite by chance our books are at about the same place — just a few short steps away from completed first draft. At one hopeful, innocent moment long ago I thought perhaps that I’d only need a few edit-passes through before completion. Since then, and mid-way through the book, I radically changed what the book was about, so, well, I suppose you could say I’m a lot less innocent now.

I’m not yet sure what I’ve learned from the exercise yet except that Post-it notes make terribly garish wallpaper, and that whenever I enter the room I feel how my book looms there brightly-colored and ominous. Though I do revisit the wall now and then and move the papers around, and then move them back. So I got that going for me.

Also, I put together a ‘works‘ page to keep track of published pieces and other projects. I think I forgot some, but they’ll come to me eventually.

Update: Ah, it appears that Superficial Flesh‘s current issue went live today as well. I have a short essay and photographs on Brazilian graffiti in this issue, and there’s an interview with me as well. Once you register at their site, you can access the entire issue.

Have a great Monday!

But from afar, here are two writer-related items that just makes me feel incredibly happy to have a president that is so radically different than our last.

#1 – Obama sent Yann Martel, author of Life of Pi, a fan-letter. (!)

Martel says:

“If there was a way of tattooing it on my back, I would. What amazes me is the gratuity of it. As you would know, there is a large measure of calculation in what public figures do. But here, what does he gain? I’m not a US citizen. In no way can I be of help to President Obama. Clearly he did it for personal reasons, as a reader and as a father. And in two lines, what an insightful analysis of Life of Pi.”

There is irony here, since Yann Martel has been on a multi-year campaign to send Canadian Prime Minister  Stephen Harper a book a week, along with an inscribed letter from him, in order to raise arts awareness. This is all documented on the website http://www.whatisstephenharperreading.ca. In the most recent post (in which Stephen Harper receives a copy of King Leary by Paul Quarrington, guest author Steven Galloway gives a sort of nice tagline for the site:

“In a way, you’re in what must be the world’s most exclusive book club, albeit somewhat unwillingly. I bet Mr. Obama is jealous!”

Read Obama’s letter on Fiction Writer’s review

#2 – Look at the edits that Obama put on this speech. Just look at them.

I’m sure to someone receiving an edit like this on the job (speech writer Jon Favreau) it must be frightening, but right now the only edits I see are mine. Pages like this are gold — it means that the text has been worked, and worked hard. That someone cares about what is said, and how it is said. The piece has been honed. Bravo.

All other things aside, I really love having a smart president.

Original article here: Editor in Chief found via John Scalzi’s Whatever

I think this is officially not-cool.

John Scalzi makes some excellent points about it.

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.

Brigitte (kebab)

Stilt Pirates

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.

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?

Part of working on a book is remembering to listen to your brain – for when your brain is telling you the story. I woke up at 6am a few nights ago and after about ten minutes I realized my brain was composing. I wasn’t thinking about the book anymore, the book was being written, right then. This gadget is for that – but also for commuting, etc.  I’m not sure yet how the process difference (writing vs. talking) will change things. Guess I’ll find out. But so far it’s made for a nice productivity gain.

“…sleep until noon; read and think in bed for another hour or so; lunch with Rose around 1:30; run errands, deal with the mail, listen to music, daydream and generally ease into work until 4. Then up to the workroom to write for four hours, perfecting each paragraph until 200 or 300 words are completed; have cocktails and dinner with the family and friends at 8 or 9; and stay up until 2 or 3 in the morning, drinking and reading and smoking and listening to music.

With Rose to guard the door, run the household, organize their busy social life and look after the children, Mr. Styron followed this routine over the next 30 years.” William Styron’s routine

I’m glad he could live with himself. Alice Munro and Toni Morrison are much more encouraging.

Last weekend at a signing at the Willamette Store I met Devon Monk who has a new Urban Fantasy series out that looks just great (the first book is called Magic to the Bone) and we talked about, among other things, getting work done. There’s a very funny post on her blog where, under deadline, she slips away from her family for the weekend to work at the Edgar Allen Poe room at the Sylvia Beach Hotel (I proposed to Laura in the F Scott Fitzgerald room!).

All of that is to say, I’m going to become an early riser. You heard it here first. I’m so notoriously not an early riser. When I shared a room with my brother when we were in elementary school he moved his bed out into the hallway because I procrastinated going to bed until it drove him insane. I’m up much earlier now because of the children – but I still find it very difficult to break a late night habit (I heard Michael Chabon works late at night but I’m definitely a sharper cat in the morning. I wrote Couch between 9am and 2pm every day in Ecuador – sans children). Like everything else, there’s a site for how to teach yourself to wake up early: howtowakeupearly.com