Robynettely

“Flex” by Ferrett Steinmetz. He was in my Viable Paradise class, so how could I not read this? The boy saw it and said the cover looked cool. I read the scene where Valentine and Aliyah made up while I was sitting in the coffee store, and tears ran down my face, so way to go Ferrett. So proud to know him!  “The Darkest Part of the Forest” by Holly Black . The boy has an unexpected hatred for the Spiderwick Chronicles that he’s never explained. So this book didn’t attract him at all. Me, on the other hand… I couldn’t put it down. I especially loved how Hazel and Ben had the shadow of their parents’ neglect hanging over them, which got fixed about when they didn’t need their parents anymore. I also loved Ben and Hazel’s relationship so much.  “The Maltese Falcon” by Dashiell Hammett. Last week I read a quote from William Gibson that referred to DH and plot, and it seemed worth reading something. This book was published in 1929! It held up just fine, seemed like rea...

First Draft   “A surprising Number of Crows”. Short story. “Food Insecurity”. So, I had finished this kinda crap short story last month, and then the boy told me a strange tale out of his own life, and I realized that was the plot of this story, so when the previous-mentioned was done, I went back and restarted this. It’s a fun exercise because I have the character and setting development largely done separately, so I sat down trying to just write the plot, which I can merge with the other stuff later in a fantastic edit-straganza. Editing “Wind/Water/Salt ”. Finished that spreadsheet with all the chapter data.   “Food Insecurity”. Started typing but never got around to taking apart the crap part. “Lucky Kate”. I came across a market with a deadline that looked good for this, and I thought it wasn’t in that bad a shape, so I pulled out the folder. And I must say, my process is not nearly as awesome as I thought it was. The last time I looked at ...