Month: September 2006

If the Action Philosophers comic book series had been available when I was in college, I would have been a philosophy major. At the very least, I would have earned a better grade. Seriously – this is great stuff. Thanks to Stef/Jared/Grinch/Dave for making me read it. (Note: the creative geniuses behind the series are grads of Syracuse University.)

I am in Kansas-prep mode, preparing for the conference on Friday. The nice thing about this conference is that there will be teenagers there, in addition to teachers. I am having fun reviewing my material for their presentations. The website for my hotel claims that there is a buffalo herd down the road. I sure hope so.

Banned Book Week is coming up September 23 – 30. I believe that one of the greatest strengths in America is our ability to read and think what we want, without interference from the government. In many places around the world, people do not have that right. Read more about Banned Book Week!!!

The ALA has a great place where you can vote for your favorite challenged book.

My poetical thought for this autumn day:

Gary and Jim sell me thin-skinned apples
– trees bristling like greedy porcupines –
melancholy, sour-sweet apples.
Winter stalks.

September 11th always throws me against a brick wall. I slide to the bottom and bleed a lot.

But I’m better today.

I ran another 5K on Saturday and finally had a decent time. I have insane running goals for myself and am probably 2 years away from making them, but it felt really good to be moving in the right direction.

Last night BH and I watched National Treasure. It took us forever because we kept stopping the film to scream about the plot holes that were large enough to sail a three-masted ship through, and the historical anachronisms. Very entertaining. Read more here. Nick Cage must have really needed the money.

Progress in the new book has slowed because I came across some plot and motivation holes of my own. Had to go back and rework early chapters to set up the big stuff that starts to happen by Chapter 10. Don’t know how much more book work will happen this week. I have to prepare for my trip to Kansas… then I have to take it.

Coolest link of the week: Get your name in a famous author’s book and support the First Amendment!

Does it get any more exciting than that? No, it doesn’t.

The Forest is quiet today. Deep in thought.

Random thoughts today….

1. I hate ragweed.

2. I love old-fashioned diners (great breakfast this morning…. quite possible the best waitress in the world.)

3. Why can’t they make a peanut-butter flavored toothpaste?

Oh crap…. my procrastination alert button is flashing. Must go back to work.

Tell me something random.

The pace of life is picking up again. Saturday will be all family stuff, and three days next week will be spent on the Kansas trip, plus at least a day to prepare for it. The rest of the month should be fairly open for writing, so I’m not stressing too much. Just a little.

A couple updates:

TWISTED – The advanced reading copies are supposed to go out soon. Do not ask me for one – I don’t have any. There is a magician who works at the publisher’s office who waves a wand and the books miraculously appear on the desks of unsuspecting readers. At least, I think how that works. TWISTED will be published in March, 2007 (yes, that is 6 months from now) so I don’t expect to see reviews for a very long time.

HISTORICAL PICTURE BOOK – This was supposed to be published in the summer of 2007, but the illustrator is behind, so the release has been pushed back to Summer, 2008. For therapy, I am gnawing through medium-sized trees. No, I’m fine with this. really, it’s good. Sigh.

NEW NOVEL – I am on Day 5 of Draft 1. The book is more outlined than usual because I have to mesh the story of the main character with the historical events. Of course, the gods laugh at outlines. They laughed so hard, they wet themselves. Chapter 3 turned out to be way too packed and morphed into Chapters 3-5. Yesterday I realized that Chapters 7-10 moved too slowly, so I started hacking away at fluff to even out the pacing. Those are the chapters I’ll be working on today. Probably tomorrow, too. I must admit that despite the long hours (12 of them yesterday) I am having fun. A couple of unexpected characters have popped up, and I’m enjoying delving into the soul of my main character. I am also beginning to have a much clearer sense of the emotional impact of some of the historical events.

A big forest shout-out to Dr. Kim McCollum-Clark who is using SPEAK in a class of hers at Millersville University! (While I am at it, I will make a fool of myself and jump up and down and wave at everybody I know at Millersville. :::jumping and waving:::: Take your vitamins! Get some sleep!)

Last but not least, I have two sites for you about graphic novels: Artbomb and No Flying No Tights. Let me know what you think.

Time to start shoveling words…