(Except that I know the reason for the empty space inside — I need a snack. Crosby, Stills, & Nash, btw, in case you didn’t go to a liberal arts school in New England and hear the song “Helplessly Hoping” sung a million time a cappella. ^_^)
So, I am in a bit of a waiting period. I await the FedEx man (or the Wells Fargo wagon, if you happen to be a fan of the Music Man), who comes bearing Fire. It is time for my second revision.
*pauses to grasp stomach and command self not to cry*
I may never understand why Fire is such a hard book for me to face. The support of my editor, my publisher, my agent, and my readers who like it is enormously helpful, because it reminds me that even if the book sometimes makes me feel horrible, it isn’t necessarily because it itself is horrible. !! Perhaps someday I’ll be struck by some grand metaphorical explanation for my Fire despair — “Ah, yes! The burnt carrot stew on page 125 is reminiscent of the time I watched a dirty sunset over L.A. while a team of doctors at my bedside informed me that my nose job had gone terribly wrong! The memory is too painful!! I cannot revise this book!!!”
(I was making that up. I have never had a nose job. I like my nose. I also like your nose. Please don’t get cosmetic surgery.)
ANYWAY. Writing Graceling was an enormous challenge, and writing Bitterblue has its own headaches and heartaches (is this book about ANYTHING? Have I lost my ability to WRITE?), but neither of them seems to come close to Fire. Thank goodness.
ENOUGH of the angsty. Sorry. While I wait, I’ve been amusing myself with things far more interesting and delightful than this post. And now I’m going to share them with you, hopefully elevating this post. :o)
Exhibit One: Have you seen the animated ads created by Aardman for a British disability advocacy group yet? I believe I have fallen in love with the turtle. Check these wonderful creatures out at at www.creaturediscomforts.org. (Thanks to Lance!)
Exhibit Two: One of my favorite writer’s blogs is that of my friend Tui Sutherland, which is here. Have you been reading Tui’s Avatars series? You should, it’s super (check out her site, she writes under other names and has other books, too!). And her blog is always fun. Here’s an excerpt from a recent post, about her participation in an Erin Hunter online chat (she is one of the writers of the Erin Hunter Seekers series): “I think one of the funniest parts was when I said something like ‘oh, that would be tres exciting’ and someone went ‘TUI SPEAKS FRENCH!’ and then everyone was like ‘oo, je le pas de deux croissants!’ and ‘ah, les poissons sacre bleu baguette!’ (except it was actual French, not my made-up French, which as you can see consists almost entirely of words for food) and meanwhile I’m madly trying to type ‘NO NO WAIT I don’t speak French! That’s all the French I know! I learned it from reading Eloise! The classiness is all a facade! I only wish I were Audrey Hepburn! Zut alors!'”
*hee hee hoo*
Exhibit Three: The (outlandish) folks at Publisher’s Weekly have (misguidedly) named four fall children/teen books that (in a berserk fit of addlepatedness) they are calling “potential hits”: “High Hopes for Early Favorites.” [SPOILER WARNING: In the first paragraph about Graceling, there is what I consider to be a massive spoiler {I admit to being a bit psycho about spoilers}. If you want to avoid it, skip the section called “The hook.” Go straight to “The backstory.”]
Finally, Exhibit Four (please press play below): The reason I listen to Beethoven is because that’s what you do if you are sophisticated.
