Entries Tagged 'writing' ↓

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?

VN-5000 Olympus digital voice recorder. I wanted the simplest, cheapest good device I could find. It cost around $30 – is mono only and doesn’t import audio to your computer. This one is to be used as dictation only, and so far I love it.

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.

Speaking of Laura – she is also working on a novel and we discuss with some frequency how to actually get any writing done with two small children in the house. That’s why we enjoyed reading through Daily Routines - “How writers, artists, and other interesting people organize their days”. We combed through the writers looking for those who have kids. As much as I love TC Boyle – reading two newspapers, writing for four hours and then going snorkeling is not what the shape of our day looks like. And we certainly don’t fly like William Styron (who did have children):

“…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