5/1/07: Home safe

[davidlevine]

Word count: 34944 | Since last entry: 1516

Woke up at 5am in Phoenix yesterday morning, thanks to USAir stranding me on the way home from Palm Springs, but made it home in one piece and got to work by noon. The rest of yesterday was a bit of a sleep-deprived blur. Rather unfocused today as well, but did go to the coffee shop and wrote over 500 words in the company of karindira, maryrobinette, and kateyule who came along to knit while we wrote.

On the plane I was reading Carnival by matociquala and feeling rather inadequate. My stuff is so linear and straightforward by comparison, lacking both the stylistic pyrotechnics and the drop-the-reader-in-head-first headrush of the Bear. But Kate reminds me that my first (still unpublished) novel has an insanely complicated timeline, and although my style is rather vanilla some people do seem to like it.

Tomorrow we'll be at scalzi's reading at Powell's in Beaverton; hope to see some of you there!

Comments

[crazysoph.livejournal.com]

Good to know you got home safe.

Empathies about the feelings re writing when reading some long-established professional. I am trying to form something to say about writing how you are in preference to someone you're not... the words aren't quite coming, though, I'm afraid.

Do wave REALLY BIG when Scalzi takes the "Bookstore says hello!" photo he then posts to his weblog, so I can see you from here.

Crazy(and waving back)Soph

[davidlevine]

I waved really big... and then that lout jaylake put up his hand right in front of my face just as scalzi snapped the picture. scalzi did mention me in the text, though.

[kateyule.livejournal.com]

HIIII! You can just see me between Jay's head and hand. But not the baby blanket I was knitting. I held it up special to show you. :)

[dd-b.livejournal.com]

Was in the Phoenix airport for an hour myself yesterday, but in the evening. We probably didn't overlap (I hope; you would have been stuck there a long time).

Then again I met Brian Westley in the Phoenix airport *last* trip, and he *had* been there all day.

[davidlevine]

I was there from about 7:20 to about 8:30 Sunday night. Could have been a lot longer, but I was near the front of the line for customer service and I had no bags to claim.

[calimac.livejournal.com]

I'm old-fashioned enough to think the first duty of the writer is to communicate with the reader. (I'm all in favor of other duties to sound beautiful and enrapture with complexities, too, but communication comes first.) Your stories do communicate, and they're interesting too, so you go on writing vanilla prose as long as you need to.

[csinman.livejournal.com]

Pour a beer out for St. Chris and maybe he won't pull that layover crap next time. (Or does it work that way?)

I'm reading Carnival too. "Stylistic pyrotechnics" is a great way of putting it.

And have fun in Beaverton!

[chromatomancer.livejournal.com]

ooo, a Scalzi reading. . . wish I could hear him read.

[matociquala.livejournal.com]

Who's the one with the Hugo?

...

Yeah, thought so. ;-)

You do all right.

(...this is not the point to say that I think of Carnival as kind of stylistically plain, is it?)

[jaylake.livejournal.com]

See you there, sir.

And yes, Hugo boy, some people do like your style.

[lovelyangel.livejournal.com]

I wanted to go to the Scalzi reading... but unfortunately I have a prior commitment (church council meeting) that I cannot dismiss. I hope he gets a good turnout in Beaverton.

[thirdworld.livejournal.com]

I went to the local Ruby on Rails meeting instead, but I'll aim to be there next week.