Every year of the past decade, I started a new book on the first official work day of the New Year. The schedule evolved by accident. IIRC, Jan. 1 had been my official due date for my first four books. But there was a scheduling issue in 1999 and I was asked if I could submit my fourth book by Oct. 1. At the time, I was working fulltime AND teaching, so we compromised on Nov. 1. My submission date flitted back and forth between Sept. 1 and Oct. 1 over the next few years. This year, I asked if I could turn my book in later. I turned in my book on Nov. 30, had my editor’s notes back within two weeks. I was shooting for Jan. 4th, but agreed to finish by Dec. 22, so it could get into copy-editing sooner.
So tomorrow, when I would normally be starting a new book, when almost everyone in my life soldiers forward into the new year, I’ll be doing. . . I don’t know. Going to a Body Combat class, most likely. Perhaps reading one of the manuscripts for my annual teaching gig at Writers in Paradise. Definitely gazing on one of my idols as he films a cameo in a television show. But I will not be marching down to the local coffee house, laptop in my knapsack, and getting down to work.
And I am bummed. Truly. That ritual was important to me and it feels dangerous to vary it. Then again, I asked for an extension for the first time in my writing career and I am pleased with the result, so perhaps it’s good to vary rituals. Yes, I’ll keep telling myself that.
What’s everyone else doing tomorrow?
Aw sheet. Well, now I have to check.
I will be waking us much earlier than I have for the past few weeks and working! And probably watching some of season 1 of THE WIRE, thanks to the heading for today’s entry.
So, who is the idol?
After being on leave since 18 December I shall be heading back to work and wading through two weeks of work emails.
First teeth cleaning of the year … woo woo.
The first thing that i will be doing tomorrow is wondering who is doing the cameo on “Treme” (hint, hint) and being sad that HBO is a luxury I can’t afford, so I probably won’t see it. I hope he/she lives up to your expectations. I do love actors. They have some special gene that I don’t.
Otherwise, returning to my day job after 3.5 lovely days off. I will also be deciding if the book that I am 50 pages into (and one that many people have raved about) is worth my continuing to read. That surprises me as it’s the sort of book I should like. (I haven’t listed it on my Goodreads page because I wouldn’t want to make anyone feel badly about it). I also have to do more work (albeit pleasurable work) on the puzzles that I am creating for another author’s website (If you ever were to ask, Laura, I would do it for you, too!). And last of all, I will wonder if I am using too many parentheses in my writing on blogs! Ha! Happy new year.
Resuming homework for night school, back to ye olde day job, and banging away at the novel I abandoned about this time last year. Funny how 11 months off from it made it seem fresh and new.
Elvis Costello with Allen Toussaint. I’ve met Costello very briefly this summer, but all he could do was talk about Mark Billingham and Martyn Waites.
(Okay, the second half is a joke, but both these men have a standing invitation to visit set when Costello is there.)
Gym, then my part time job. Or my part time job, then the gym. Either way, getting out of the house…
Back to school. My juniors spent the holiday with “The Catcher in the Rye,” the sophomores with Roald Dahl’s “Boy” and the seniors with “The Road.” I’ll get to see what they think. I spent two weeks with their writing and they’ll get what I thought.
Routines are comforting. Deadlines give life.
This week I’m going to try for a new ritual, something that helps me draw a real line between work and the rest of my life. It might involve a coffee shop, or it might involve the library. We’ll see how things look tomorrow morning.
I’m going to get up when the alarm says to get up and not sleep in as I’ve been doing for the last month. Then, regular work and a review to finish up and a meeting. So, same old, it looks like…
And you’ll find time for writing fiction, right, Sarah?
NYT crossword, paying work, then structural rethink (maybe using Narrative Design) of book 1.
Coffee shop, food shopping for first really nice meal of the year,
and yoga.
The yoga is the really new part…
Researching where to eat on Thursday and how to persuade you to disclose information about which I am curious.
Ah, sweet serendipity: The Garden District Bookshop just called and a book I ordered just yesterday is there waiting for me.
Ah, Elvis C.! Having nothing to do with the post’s topic but coming to mind when speaking of Elvis, I saw Diana Krall in concert here this summer. She was having problems with the altitude (most singers do) but she brought the house down with her humor anyway. Her best line: She was talking about the little ski resort in Canada where she skis and how guys on the chair lift sometimes suggest she accompany them back to their condo, trying to lure her by saying “I’ve got a hot tub back at my condo” and she politely declines while thinking “No thanks, I’ve got a rock star back in my bed at my house.)
Starting the last month of my gov’t career in 12 minutes. Having lunch at my synagogue(Monday is Soupergirl day) with seniors and job seekers(I may be the first but not the second). Talking to my knitting/crocheting group about Afghans for Afghans.
Say hi to Elvis for us!
It’s so freaking cold here in Michigan that once the chores get done, I’ll probably curl up by the fireplace and read. Found the new Jane Whitefield book by Thomas Perry on Saturday and finished it on Sunday and it was worth the 10 year wait. Now I’m re-reading all of the Whitefield books. I like his stand alones, but I’m very partial to Jane.
yet another futile guitar lesson. I have absolutely no talent but I keep strumming away at it anyway. Actually I keep taking lessons because I have a crush on my instructor. My husband knows, so it’s ok.
Aside from rituals and tasks and other “have to” stuff to think about as the new year unfolds, here’s a “want to” list that I have to prioritize.
For Christmas, and amongst several other excellent books that Santa brought me, I received Charm City, The Sugar House, Butcher’s Hill, and By a Spider’s Thread.
Should I read those in order by copyright date, or is there no particular order that makes any difference, or is maybe one of those best read First or saved for Last?
Just wondering…
Thanks!
I now ‘see my way clear’, as they say (my lovely wife dislikes that saying somewhat intensely, for some reason)
Brian, you have to read them in order of the way that our Laura wrote them! Tess changes and grows and you want to follow along with her travels in the order that they happen. That’s my not so humble opinion. But it’s the right one!
–Marjore
I concur with Marjorie of Connecticut.
Also, in addition to Tess changing and growing, I think the the writing gets better and better.
So I dove right into Charm City, and I’m maybe 40- odd pages in, and Whitney pops up in the sandwich shop and is described as an aristocratic blonde (more or less) – and I had to laugh.
Mind you, I’m not the most observant reader, and Charm City will be only the 4th LL book I’ve read (I’ve read the stand-alones plus Baltimore Blues) -
but I had Whitney in my brain as a no-nonsense aristocratic African American (think of the Princess in Disney’s new The Princess and the Frog), and not a blonde. This almost surely comes from a conflation in my brain, with the friend of the protagonist in Life Sentences, and whatever previous reference there was to Whitney in Baltimore Blues.
Anyway – with all Senator Reid’s troubles* lately – it struck me as mildy funny
*owing to a sensationalist book (by reporters who sandbagged their papers!) and a hungry, wounded and opportunistic Republican party – but we digress!
Brian,
This is fascinating. I often play with race in my books — for example, in EVERY SECRET THING, there is a character whose race isn’t revealed for several pages, and it surprises some readers when they learn she’s African-American — but I never played with race to quite that extent.
In my 2010 book, there’s a minor character who’s black, but I can’t figure out how to tell readers that. And, for now, I’ve decided not to.
So, I finished Charm City – and indeed it is a different experience from the stand-alones. Diane up above mentioned how the writing would evolve from book to book (if read in order), and it’s no criticism to say that, indeed, Charm City has an interestingly different feel, than the stand-alones have.
I think the difference is that there’s such an even-flow (to borrow from Eddie Vedder and Pearl Jam!) in the stand-alones; or, put another way, I think the thing that first drew me into LL books (the stand alones and the short stories) was the utterly seductive sensibility that they have. The characters in them think and act and face consequences in a rational way, and are driven by mortgages and embarrassing secrets and so on – and they exist for the advancement of the story.
But the Tess Monoghan books are seductive in a different way; they are (or seem to be) marvelously character-driven rather than plot-driven. I come into them wanting to know more about Tess (and her peeps) and they absolutely don’t disappoint!
It’s no criticism to say that the narrative in the two Tess books I’ve read so far (B Blues and C City) flows differently than in the silky smooth stand alones; but indeed, they’re scratching a different itch.
And now – on to Butcher’s Hill!