Bad Blogger
I know, I've left you all again, to your own devices, to get into trouble. All I can say is I'm sorry, but I've been busy. I started exercising again, which after the initial few days feels good again. I got my bike fixed up, but have only been able to ride once since it's been so dang hot. I don't drop the Boy at Enrichment until 8:50, and by 9 am the humidity has built in too much to think about riding. Which sucks, because I enjoy it. Next week I will take myself to the bike shop and buy a rack for my car so I can take Boy and I and both our bikes out where we can ride together once Enrichment is over. I've also taken over managing the slush pile for Dark Quest Books, and that took a while to organize and sort out. But that is well in hand now, thank goodness.
In between I squeeze in some Italian lessons (Buono giorno!), and housework, and writing. It's going better now, and the book has a certain groove to it that I'm finding. I've also been watching lots of Netflix TV on my computer. My broadband service is still in the process of being updated, which I'm hoping solves the problems I have with watching on Wii. It keeps having to retrieve, every 5-7 minutes, and takes another 5 minute to retrieve, which makes a 2 hour movie take about 3 hours and is annoying as hell. I've been watching mostly Doctor Who and Buffy.
What else? No news on the submission front, really. If you follow me on FB and Twitter, you know I sent out a few more subs to agents. One was a rejection, but no problem, it wasn't his kind of book. I did get another partial request, from the Nelson Agency, and I'm waiting to hear on another I sent out. I am trying not to be nervous and check the email every other minute, but even after all these years it's hard not to. I am keeping a list of agents to send this out to if these are all rejections. I am keeping the number out at a time small for now. This is by design, in case anybody has revision notes.
I think I promised a note about ABC Family's show HUGE. I only got to watch one episode, but I'll tell you what I think. I want to like this show. It's got a good premise - plus-sized teenagers at a weight-loss camp. I found it full of stereotypes:
- the girl who acts like she doesn't care and is angry at the world for not accepting her th way she is so she shouldn't have to change
-the girl who self-actualizes that beauty comes from within, but secretly eats her feelings and then throws up;
- the girl who is so shy because she is afraid of rejection and hates conflict so much she barely talks, and
- the girl who is really pretty if a little plump but insists that she must be thinner. She dresses nicely and wears makeup and is adorable, which makes her hated by some of the other campers becaue she IS beautifu and doesn't see it, and idolized by other campers because she looks the way they want to.
Don't get me wrong - all of these are true. Stereotypes are stereotypes for a reason, after all. Hayley Hasselhoff is gorgeous in this show, and I know that's manipulation, because I've seen Nikki Blonsky look beautiful too, even though her character purposefully does not in HUGE. But what disappoints me is the lack of character depth. I want to see someone that's well-adjusted. Teenagers are hormonal hot-messes, we all know that, and being a large person adds to that pressure. These kids all hate their bodies, which is not necessarily false for any teenager, no matter their size, but these sterotypes cement into us that this is how you are when you have extra weight, and losing weight will make you happy and solve your problems.
I am disappointed that there's not a single character that attends camp to lose weight that's actually happy with the person they are and doesn't tie their self-worth to their weight. They do exist. I exercise five days a week when I can, and I don't lose whole lot of weight. I've learned to deal with that and be happy with it. I'd love to see someone like that on the show - one whole person, instead of various flavors of broken.
I know this is long, and if you've made it this far, thanks.