Robynettely

Daily efforts Bonechill (that horror novel): The scene I’m working on is earlier than I thought. Also came up with some backstory. I need to put this on hold because I   can’t take the distraction. And what I need to focus on is WWS. That huge pile of notes: Just gets bigger. Also figured out how to fix a short story. Or something to do with it to entertain myself, anyway. Not sure it’s better, just different…  Accomplishments “Wind/Water/Salt”. So close to posting Chapter 11. I also made a schedule for taking up the other stuff in OWW, because it’s stupid to post things and then never take up the comments. And this was how I got through Chapter 1. Connecting Critted  7 Got back nothing because I didn’t post anything. Subs Same one is still out there… Knitting Celtic Gang Girls of the 70’s (Rowan and me). Started the month with the sleeves and half the back done. Finished the back and started the front, so I’m on schedule....

Why I read it: I'm back from my vacation visiting my dad and seeing my sisters, and almost all the reading I did was probably about 100,000 words of my dad's novel mark VII. That means there are six predecessors (although he claims to have "lost" the first one). That 100,000 or so words was 230 pages. There are supposedly another thousand pages. I read maybe 32 chapters. there are over a hundred. It was really long. I suggested he take out about ten of those 32 chapters. I hope he does. Tastes like chicken: maybe Rick Blechta's book, because it takes place largely with North Americans trying to find their way around in Europe (the parts I would have him keep, anyway). Bookmark: none. Loose sheets. What I liked : There are two storylines that converged a few chapters before I stopped reading. I liked the one about the Gutenberg bible, or maybe the weapons. Not so much : The storyline that followed the messed-up teenaged girl had way too much repetitive detail. W...

Why I read it: Last March I wandered over to the Chapters across from the YMCA, and I went up the stairs to where the good books are, and there, sitting at the signing table, was Rick Blechta . I played for him years ago at the RCM, and I'd bought one of his books then, and read it, and it was great to see him again. And of course I bought a book. It's kind of scary to read a book by someone you know and like. What if I hate it? What if it sucks? So it took a little while to get around to it. Also, crime fiction isn't really my genre. Bookmark: Promo for "A Case of You", Rick's latest book. Tastes like chicken: Probably the other book by Rick that I've read, "The Lark Ascending", which features the same characters. Other than that, well, I dunno. I don't read much crime fiction (I generally find the hard-boiled voice not florid enough. Not enough metaphors or something. Too many short sentences, not enough commas). What I liked: First, I ...

Why I read it: Several weeks ago the author was at my local Chapters, sitting at a table, saying "hello" to the people walking by. So I wandered over and made some comment about "the glamorous life of the writer." After a while I let him sign a book for me. He looked like he figured I was going to ditch it in a stack on my way to the cash. He asked me if I was a writer. I said that yes, I write computer manuals. He asked if I'd written the manual for his blender. I said no. He asked if I wrote other things on the side. I said yes, but my team leader says that TWs can't write anything fiction, and the other writer I work with gets grant money occasionally to write pilots of TV shows. And he said "That's all very interesting, but what do you write?" so I confessed to writing short stories that I keep in a filing cabinet, because they are crap. That's kind of sad, isn't it? I shouldn't tell people that. Tastes like chicken: Reminded ...

Why I read it: I've known Dom for maybe seven years, because he's a senior sempai in my karate club. What I liked: The poems about Japan and karate and Cole -- especially the one about Sensei, because I know both Sensei and Com; and the poem about the man Dom roomed with in Japan. I think I liked the japanese stuff because the "outsider looking in" stuff was more relevant to me. What I hated: Well, I didn't really hate them, but the poems that were about being Italian growing up in Toronto or Saskatchewan or wherever, because I'm not and I didn't. Poetry is like that -- sometimes it just doesn't resonate. Actually, the one about Saskatchewan, where it mentioned that everyone looked at them like they were the local mafia, that one made me laugh out loud. Because every town needs a tiny mob family made up totally of outsiders with no connections. They would have been like the opposite of mafia, in my opinion. But anyway, the ones I didn't like as ...