Taking a break

Summer has gotten a little crazy and I've found myself busy with a few other projects, so I will be putting this blog on hold for a while. I know you're all crying inside, but rest assured I'll bring it back at some point in the future. Date TBD.

Link of the week

Another link from NPR.

This really has nothing to do with writing, or it has everything to do with writing since it's basically about humanity and earth and all of life. I liked the article, the Carl-Sagan-narrated animation, and the prospect of a new portrait of earth.

A word link and a small update

First, here's a link to 12 famous writers on literary rejection. Makes me feel much better about my own work and my own rejections—and much more encouraged to keep trying. Just what I needed this week.

As far as my own writing goes, I'm working on some small revisions on LITTLE SUN. Just a few tweaks, really. I also had one teenage reader get back to me, and she told me she read the book twice in two weeks! That's a pretty good sign.

Also, I have another project I'm just starting on that is kind of exciting. It has helped me remember that I do, in fact, like to write. I had nearly forgotten. Anyway, it's very fun, but I'll have to write more about it later, as I'm not quite ready to divulge any specifics yet.

This SNL skit is not the same story line as my book.

But it's strangely close. And also humorous.

http://www.hulu.com/watch/489151?playlist_id=1031&asset_scope=all

Word Link For the Day

Here is a delightful link I recently came across:

18 obsolete words, which never should have gone out of style

Love them all, but I was particularly tickled by the mental picture I got of "groak" and the ideas of "tyromancy." And "Englishable." So good. I also geekily loved the names of the books they got these words from. I would totally be proud to be the author of a dialect and speech book.

One thing I thought was missing from this list, however, was sample sentences. But maybe that's what we're here for. I'll try a couple and then you join in, if you want.

Groak: To silently watch someone while they are eating, hoping to be invited to join them 

As I wiped the ketchup from my mouth, I looked up to see her groaking at me with eyes as big as hamburger buns.

Tyromancy: Divining by the coagulation of cheese 

A believer in tyromancy, the old crone considered the curdles, gasped, and then shrieked, "You are the harbinger of death!"

Now that's some good writing.

Harry Potter News: How did I miss this?

I don't know where I've been, but for all you Harry Potter fans, I'm sharing this lovely little link to an interview J.K. Rowling did a few years ago (that I only found out about recently) about what she thinks happened after the epilogue. So fun to see how she thought our old friends ended up.

Then I saw this link from NPR the other day about J.K. Rowling telling Harry Potter back stories — and that's when I knew I needed to post about Harry. There are more details when you click on the link above and when you click on "interactive project" below (which I confusingly got from the first link), but I loved these tidbits they included:

"An interactive project at The Guardian lets you scroll through the annotations online. Among other revelations, the notes on a first edition of Rowling's Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stoneshow that the original Hufflepuff mascot was a bear, not a badger, and that Quidditch was invented 'in a small hotel in Manchester after a row with my then boyfriend.'"

Also, p.s., I love Book News from NPR. The end.

Writing some new proverbs

I don't normally post about my daughter very much on this blog, but we had a recent occasion to do something somewhat literary, and I think it's worth mentioning. I gave Anna the first half of several proverbs and had her come up with her own endings, and it proved to be delightful. I posted about it on my other blog, so take a look if you wish.