09
Apr
Friday 5: Spring & Revisions & Romance
0
1. Between the tourists and the pollen, DC has been pretty hazardous this week. Last night a thunderstorm swept in, and now it’s about 30 degrees cooler, springy and cool and lovely. I’m actually going to walk home this afternoon, allergies be damned.
2. Our friend Meg is visiting! She works for the Blue Man Group in New York and now she’s temping for another theatre too and she never gets vaca. I haven’t seen her since November. She’s hilarious and smart and so much fun. Tonight we’re going out for happy hour with other grad school folk and then to try a new Ethiopian restaurant.
3. I have a growing sense of hope about my Garolass revisions. I’ll be honest, I procrastinated doing them for about two weeks, overwhelmed by the fear of suckitude. Nevermind that my fabulous agent and the editor I talked to liked my revision ideas. Nevermind that I know said agent won’t send it out again unless he thinks the revisions are good. Nevermind logic! All I could think was, What if it’s not enough? What if the editors who want to see the revisions don’t think it’s good enough and pass outright this time and then it never sells and I die? Which is an impossible frame of mind to work in. Steve helped me gain perspective. His suggestion was that if it doesn’t sell, I could always quit writing and move to Idaho and become a potato farmer. He said this with a completely straight face in response to my whining. This is why I love him.
4. In the last week I’ve buckled down. I postponed date night with my bestie. I bailed on seeing a play last night. I let the house go to hell and the laundry pile up. But I’m 1/3 of the way through the revisions, I like the new material and new details about this world that are woven through it. This weekend I get to write a whole new chapter! My protagonist’s seemingly innocent lunch with a friend gets way dramatic between getting kicked out of the restaurant, shoplifting, and solicitation. And she gets to see the discrimination and ghettoized living conditions that Giovanti face in the capital city.
5. Last weekend I read Sarah MacLean’s 9 Rules to Break When Romancing a Rake. And then reread it because it was so fun. I was in love with the Marquess of Ralston, yes, but really I was in love with Callie, who comes to realize some truths about her passionless passive life, then goes about rectifying the problem by having adventures. She’s bold and insecure and brave and vulnerable and awesome. I’d forgotten how much I love historical romance. That was all I read for awhile in high school–Judith McNaught, Alexandra Ripley, Barbara Taylor Bradford, Danielle Steel’s early historical stuff. I gobbled it up the way I devour YA now. Anyway, now I’m in the mood to read more. I’ve heard really great things about the Lauren Willig Pink Carnation series. I’m particularly interested in Regency or Victorian or Gothic. Anyone have any suggestions?
