Blog

I write in the loft of our house. It is a timber frame house which means lots of wood, plus amazing stone fireplaces. We are still doing some work up here, so I’m not ready to show you my whole office. But the view out my view is particularly beautiful today, because it is snowing. We had ten inches on Thanksgiving, but that all melted and I was bummed. Today we’re enjoying lake effect snow, with occasionally thunder claps, so we get to call it thundersnow. I adore it. I’ll be spending all weekend up here revising, drinking tea, and watching the snow pile up.

This is what my world looks like today. Beyond the white blowing snow is a grove of maple trees.

So I’m having recurring nightmares again. No, it’s not a crying girl, or tornadoes, or insane dentists removing my teeth with small, silver hammers. Those are my old nightmares. This week I keep having bad dreams about speaking at schools. The school visit nightmare. ::shudders:: Oh, the humanity. The setting and people are always different but two elements are common – the room in which I am speaking has impossibly bad acoustics (frequently a cafeteria) and in the middle of my presentation, the audience and I have to stand up and change locations. In the dream I am frantic and frustrated because I am running out of time and I can’t finish my presentation and the organizers are disappointed because they had heard such good things about me as a speaker and they are less than impressed. (The students are always nice.) I wake up in a cold sweat.

BH suggests my subconscious is telling me to speak at fewer schools. He has a point.

Today is World AIDS Day. If you are a sexually active person who is not in a monogamous, long-term (and by that I mean years long-term) be smart and make an appointment to get tested for HIV today. This year alone, AIDS has killed more than 3 million people. In America, right now there are almost one million people infect with HIV. Half of all the new cases of HIV infection in America happen to people under 25 years of age. I’m begging here, folks – learn about this disease and protect yourself because I do not want you to die.

Looking for a cool thing to do? Grab a couple of your closest friends and get tested together. If you’re sexually active, testing should be a regular thing for you.

I am HIV-free and have been monogamous for years, so I won’t be getting an HIV test today. However, I am going to a doctor who is checking me out for skin cancer lesions. Maybe we should just call this Body Maintenance Day. Do something nice for your body!

The Young Adult Round Table of the Texas Library Association included PROM on their 2006-2007 Tayshas Reading List. Thank you!

Check out the discussion of the SPEAK movie on IMDB. Recent posts have discussed the commentary that director Jessica Sharzer and I did for the DVD. It’s fun to read them.

I spent a boring, irritating morning being tortured having medical tests performed on my body. Nothing scary, just normal mid-life stuff. Still it felt like a total waste of time and energy. Now I will blast the roof off the house with my new playlist, Raw, and make up more stuff for my book. If you like the idea of combining books and playlists, this might be for you.

Today is the birthday of both C.S. Lewis and Louisa May Alcott. Not too shabby.

I am taking both of my parents to the doctor this morning. The wind is howling. Must remember to tie a rope around Mother’s waist so she doesn’t blow away. The wind wouldn’t dare touch my dad. When they are safely home, I go back to revising. I have thrown out almost all of the scenes that needed to be thrown out of the WIP, and have the bones for the new ones. Time to scribble.

Added later A sad moment… Stan Berenstain, co-creator with his wife Jan of the Berenstain Bears, has died. We were always reading their books to our kids…. shedding tears now….

Let the final revisions begin!

Before I dive back into the manuscript, I thought you’d like to know about the very cool SPEAK wallpaper that my Web God, theoblack designed. He is the best Web God ever, I swear. We hope you enjoy. If you reproduce the wallpaper any place besides your computer, please be cool and give Theo credit for his work.

One book thought before I go. I read First King of Shannara, by Terry Brooks, over the weekend. I’ve been wanting to read more fantasy and a friend recommended this. I was not impressed. It had some creative moments, but mostly I felt distant from the story. I was quickly bored with the journey/journey/battle evil/battle evil/journey some more/- plot line that was way too Tokienesque for my taste. Has anyone else read this book? Thoughts on it? Should I read others in the Shannara series?