Monday Randomness

I was a bit of a slacker about blogging last week. Sorry about that. I promise to do better this week. One of the reasons was life got a tad busy. Number One Son came home from school, accompanied by about ten boxes of stuff. Thank gawd I de-cluttered about fifteen boxed worth of stuff a few weeks ago or there wouldn’t have been any room.

And speaking of de-cluttering, I did a little more last week, cleaning out all my old writing notebooks, mostly for stories I’ve given up on or books I’ve finished and won't ever need notes on again. I finally allowed myself to throw a ton of them away. Wheeee! It felt so good to admit that they were lost causes; I wasn’t ever going to get back to them or fix them or resuscitate them. They had served their purpose—I learned to write with those stories—but now I'm done with them, so out they went. That giant whooshing sound you heard was space opening up in my life for all sorts of new ideas.

I’m also now officially on deadline for Nathaniel Fludd, Book Three, which is due on Aug 3. There’s no problem making it, but the last week is always all hands on deck time.

I finally got around to reading The Mysterious Journey of Edward Tulane by Kate DiCamillo last week. Wow, terrific book. I am so blown away by the narrative risks she takes. Not to mention pulls off brilliantly.

I also went and saw HP6. I was hugely proud of myself that I saw it its first week out. It was a brilliant movie and reminded me of why J K Rowling was so successful. In the midst of all the drama and the tension and the conflict from every side, and the amazing world she’s built, she’s got her characters dealing with the most human of emotions. The teenage crush thing was so right on. All the teen stuff was so universal and well done. I loved Ron drunk on his love potion and Harry pumped up on his luck elixir. Very well done and a great artist's date.