The Furious Spinner

In times of old, The Furies protected Mother Right. If a mother (or any woman) was harmed, The Furies swooped down and took their vengeance. They were one of the last vestiges of a world that existed before the patriarchy. When we feel righteous anger, it is The Furies who are calling out to us to make what is wrong right again.

Friday, July 20, 2007

The Writing Life

We finally got our house together after the fridge and stove went down. I got my computer back. It started having problem agains. Again. So I took all my photographs off the computer and did a bunch of other things, and it seems to be okay, knock wood. But then I'm hardly using it at all. If it starts acting up again, I just don't have the time to mess with it. I've got too much to do.

On Tuesday I went to a teen discussion of Mercy, Unbound at the Three Creeks library. What a blast that was! The kids were so energetic, opinionated, articulate.

What did they think of Mercy, Unbound? Here goes: They loved Mercy. Liked the father. Liked the dead brother. Some liked the mother. Some wished she would have just backed off. Some wanted a more linear plot. Some loved the nonlinear plot. Everyone liked the girls at the clinic. Some thought they were a little too well-adjusted. Some loved the angel wings. Some didn't get the angel wings. Some were perplexed by the mystical parts of the novel. Some liked the mystical parts of the novel. As far as I could tell, everyone loved Suzy Q and what happened to her. One adult didn't understand why Mercy would think she could/should save the world. Both adults thought the girls at the clinic got away with more than they could have. The kids loved that I swore. I didn't even notice I swore; I didn't mean to. I said that I thought Suzy Q was a smartass not an innocent, which is how one of the girls described her. (That was an interesting insight by her, actually.) I didn't realize that "smartass" was still considered a swear word.

My bad.

I loved spending time with them.

Much fun.

On Wednesday, I spent much of the day on the phone. I talked with my agent. I love my agent. He wants to read something new by me NOW. Ahhhh, what writer doesn't want to hear that? One of my former agents used to say, "Kim, you gotta get a job. Stop writing so much!" I hated hearing that. I had a job, and I wanted him to do his job: sell my books. Anyway, I love my agent now. He loves Church of the Old Mermaids. Anyone who loves the Old Mermaids is my kind of person.

I had an appointment on Wednesday afternoon, and then we met Emma Bull and Will Shetterly at Blossoming Lotus for an early dinner. Their friend Kate was there, too. (BL was not as good as it usually is.) Will and Emma had a reading at the Beaverton Powell's that night. (Go here for their complete tour schedule.) Will and Emma had googled the directions to the Beaverton Powell's and so had we. As we were looking the map over, Kate said, no, I think those are the directions to the old Beaverton Powell's. We thought she was looney. Powell's would not have the wrong address on their website. They'd opened the new Powell's a year ago. But thank goodness Kate was persistent—because Powell's did indeed have the wrong address on their website! Anyway, we got there to the right place; more importantly, Will and Emma got there. The place had the new place smell (outgassing chemicals), and I was a little sick, dizzy, and spacey. Mario thought I should get the hell out of Dodge, but I really wanted to be there for the reading. So I stayed.

Emma sang. It was lovely and fun; we got to sing along. Then Will read from Gospel of the Knife; Emma read from Territory. I felt such affection for them as I watched and listened. It's always great to see your friends happy and successful. We haven't known each other that long, but we live in the same house for a month every year, so I feel as though we've known each other a lot longer.

After the reading, I was first in line to have our books signed. Then we hugged them goodbye and left.

Once we were in the car, Mario said, "So what'd you think?"

"They were really good," I said. "Both books sound intriguing. I bet you want to read Will's first."

He nodded. "Yeah, both novels sound good." And yes, Mario wanted to read Will's first; he was interested in the second person narrative.

On Thursday, I spent part of the day on the phone again. This time it was research for one of my adult novels. I was making appointments to visit some places. Yes, I'm being vague on purpose. I'll tell you more about all of that when it actually happens. I also did research for Chocolate Boys. For the rest of the day, I rewrote Blue Honey Clan. Today I spent the day inputing the rewrites. Then I printed it out. Mario is reading it now. When he finishes, he'll tell me what he thinks and then I'll do more rewriting.

There it is. That's the summary of my week. I'm sure I've forgotten a mess of stuff. Like the heat wave broke. It's been raining off and on for days. We are very happy with this turn of events. The rain will help douse the wildfires. The rain will also help me sleep.

And dream. Last night I dreamed I went to my grandmother's house after she died. The woman who had been taking care of her–maybe one of my cousins—came at the same time. I held onto my grandmother's cat while the cousin opened the door and then we went in together. I kept the cat with me. My cousin, or whoever she was, was very cold. She didn't understand while I was still grieving my grandmother's death. "I miss her," I said. Then I looked around the house for some of her bowls. I thought I'd feel better if I could just get some of her bowls.

Me and bowls. Love to figure out what that's all about one day.

I know this is a "what I did on my summer vacation" post. But sometimes that's all I gots.

May You Cool Off in Beauty!

Labels: writing