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Back in Ithaca now, and let me just say that red eye flights are both a trial on my circadian rythmn as well as my nerves. This has happened before--I think it has something to do with the stress of packing and travel, coupled with general lack of sleep--that I get rather panicky about Nothing In Particular. Fortunately that's run its course by now. Tuesday and things are looking up.
Went to Monteray Bay Aquarium before I left and saw the great white shark. The only one in captivity. It's only six feet long, a baby, but hell, I've never seen a great white before. Pretty nifty.
I love Monteray. It's such a quirky town, rather like a combination of Ithaca and Berkely (Berkely is the best thing ever). It's on the ocean--major plus--and has stores like Slow Burn, a small store entirely devoted to hot sauce--double major plus. And the general store had swords, flails, katanas, stylized shruikens, bottles of tequila with scorpions in them (for realz!) and...other things. Like fuzzy dice with pot leaves on the sides. And candy, since every general store has candy. Frankly I wasn't looking at the other stuff. Most of the swords were shit, though they looked nice enough (and of course the 'rents would never let me get one), and the katanas were obviously fake, but oh well. The flails (mace, maybe?) and the tequila with scorpions made my day.
We had lunch at a fish place, and oh my god if you ever have the chance to have macadamia encrusted halibut, EAT IT.
About this time last week I was at the P-town Wal-Mart and I saw hippies in the parking lot and gave them money. Because I like hippies. And you don't see hippies in P-town. Ever.
I read all the manga I bought. Liek woah. Black Cat is infinitely better than the anime. FMA and Death Note are progressing. Il Gatto Sul G is hot. And I like D. Gray-Man and Air Gear a lot more now.
As for Death Note, I broke down and downloaded the rest of the manga and finished reading it...two nights ago, I think, and holy MONKEYS. I've heard people say the ending rather sucks, but I thought it worked nicely.
( Spoilers beneath the cut )
Julie's gotten into Melusine and she loves it so far, because really, it's only one of the most brilliant novels. Ever.
I know Jaida loves the "brothers who have each other no matter what" dynamic, so I think I'm going to rec Nightlife to her when I have the chance. I think she'd love it.
I also read The Murder of Bindy MacKenzie by Jaclyn Moriarty, the goddess who wrote The Year of Secret Assignments. It's a toss up to which one I think is better, but Bindy was just so damn awesome. They're both...I guess the term is "epistilary novel," or however the hell you spell it. As in, both books are entirely comprised of letters, memos, e-mails, journal entries, that kinda thing. Bindy is just awesome, both the book and the character. Moriarty has a tendency to have a lot of build-up and then a rapid denoument at the end of her books (all...yanno, two that I've read), which is absolutely fine by me. As for Bindy herself, I love her because she's likable but incredible flawed. Very full of herself. She's so awesome, and the people around her are so awesome. I just love all the details, the connections, and how true to high school life it is.
Plus it's all set in Australia, where Moriarty is from--so you can't go wrong.
As for writing, well. I'm in the process of making a decision. It's getting to the point where I have to start thinking about writing as a career. It's what I'm in college for, after all. So I'm thinking that maybe I'll kind of set aside Mot, Spirits and Desert for the time being, and refocus my attention on Penta. Penta was, after all, the first thing I completed that was actually publish-worthy (Alch just...no). I'm already in the process of the rewrite, and I figure if I can finish editing by summer then I can use that time for finalizing and getting it sent out.
I've said this before, is the thing, but time is running out. I've got to break into the writing world soon. Next year I'll hopefully get an internship somewhere in the business, and right after that is my senior year. After that, what am I gonna do? I don't want to end up in editing. That'll kill me. If I publish a book now or at least in 2007, then I'll get my foot in the door, both name-wise and financially, even if I just do an online publishing thing. Then it'll hopefully be easier to get out something like Mot, at least when that beast is tamed.
Which means I need an agent, a First Reader, and an editor. Which means research. I don't know the first thing about agents, but my uncle wrote a book last year, which means he should know a thing or two about editing. Maybe he can help me, even. A FR will be more difficult. I'm not exactly comfortable with it being my uncle. I can't impose on friends and family who are all busy with other things. Ben and Liz are both out since they won't be interested.
And of course, none of this is decided. Maybe I'll just internet-publish Penta. I might not even do it this summer; I might end up waiting. There's also a lot to work out in terms of the rewrite, and what to cut out, what to insert, that sort of thing. At this point it's just something I'm considering.
And, of course, there's school to think about. Heh.
In any case, I do need to start researching, so I'll get on that today. Figure out agents, figure out publishing houses, look into internet-publishing and see how reliable it is and all that good stuff. And of course get back into the rewrite. This is where the real work begins.
Went to Monteray Bay Aquarium before I left and saw the great white shark. The only one in captivity. It's only six feet long, a baby, but hell, I've never seen a great white before. Pretty nifty.
I love Monteray. It's such a quirky town, rather like a combination of Ithaca and Berkely (Berkely is the best thing ever). It's on the ocean--major plus--and has stores like Slow Burn, a small store entirely devoted to hot sauce--double major plus. And the general store had swords, flails, katanas, stylized shruikens, bottles of tequila with scorpions in them (for realz!) and...other things. Like fuzzy dice with pot leaves on the sides. And candy, since every general store has candy. Frankly I wasn't looking at the other stuff. Most of the swords were shit, though they looked nice enough (and of course the 'rents would never let me get one), and the katanas were obviously fake, but oh well. The flails (mace, maybe?) and the tequila with scorpions made my day.
We had lunch at a fish place, and oh my god if you ever have the chance to have macadamia encrusted halibut, EAT IT.
About this time last week I was at the P-town Wal-Mart and I saw hippies in the parking lot and gave them money. Because I like hippies. And you don't see hippies in P-town. Ever.
I read all the manga I bought. Liek woah. Black Cat is infinitely better than the anime. FMA and Death Note are progressing. Il Gatto Sul G is hot. And I like D. Gray-Man and Air Gear a lot more now.
As for Death Note, I broke down and downloaded the rest of the manga and finished reading it...two nights ago, I think, and holy MONKEYS. I've heard people say the ending rather sucks, but I thought it worked nicely.
( Spoilers beneath the cut )
Julie's gotten into Melusine and she loves it so far, because really, it's only one of the most brilliant novels. Ever.
I know Jaida loves the "brothers who have each other no matter what" dynamic, so I think I'm going to rec Nightlife to her when I have the chance. I think she'd love it.
I also read The Murder of Bindy MacKenzie by Jaclyn Moriarty, the goddess who wrote The Year of Secret Assignments. It's a toss up to which one I think is better, but Bindy was just so damn awesome. They're both...I guess the term is "epistilary novel," or however the hell you spell it. As in, both books are entirely comprised of letters, memos, e-mails, journal entries, that kinda thing. Bindy is just awesome, both the book and the character. Moriarty has a tendency to have a lot of build-up and then a rapid denoument at the end of her books (all...yanno, two that I've read), which is absolutely fine by me. As for Bindy herself, I love her because she's likable but incredible flawed. Very full of herself. She's so awesome, and the people around her are so awesome. I just love all the details, the connections, and how true to high school life it is.
Plus it's all set in Australia, where Moriarty is from--so you can't go wrong.
As for writing, well. I'm in the process of making a decision. It's getting to the point where I have to start thinking about writing as a career. It's what I'm in college for, after all. So I'm thinking that maybe I'll kind of set aside Mot, Spirits and Desert for the time being, and refocus my attention on Penta. Penta was, after all, the first thing I completed that was actually publish-worthy (Alch just...no). I'm already in the process of the rewrite, and I figure if I can finish editing by summer then I can use that time for finalizing and getting it sent out.
I've said this before, is the thing, but time is running out. I've got to break into the writing world soon. Next year I'll hopefully get an internship somewhere in the business, and right after that is my senior year. After that, what am I gonna do? I don't want to end up in editing. That'll kill me. If I publish a book now or at least in 2007, then I'll get my foot in the door, both name-wise and financially, even if I just do an online publishing thing. Then it'll hopefully be easier to get out something like Mot, at least when that beast is tamed.
Which means I need an agent, a First Reader, and an editor. Which means research. I don't know the first thing about agents, but my uncle wrote a book last year, which means he should know a thing or two about editing. Maybe he can help me, even. A FR will be more difficult. I'm not exactly comfortable with it being my uncle. I can't impose on friends and family who are all busy with other things. Ben and Liz are both out since they won't be interested.
And of course, none of this is decided. Maybe I'll just internet-publish Penta. I might not even do it this summer; I might end up waiting. There's also a lot to work out in terms of the rewrite, and what to cut out, what to insert, that sort of thing. At this point it's just something I'm considering.
And, of course, there's school to think about. Heh.
In any case, I do need to start researching, so I'll get on that today. Figure out agents, figure out publishing houses, look into internet-publishing and see how reliable it is and all that good stuff. And of course get back into the rewrite. This is where the real work begins.
