Happy December!
December had come in with a coldfront, which is just how I like it. I need to dig out my advent calendars. But today I'm just enjoying the fact that I am Done With Things. For the last two months solid I have been working on something or away from home every single day. But now I am done! I can turn my attentions to the Grim Reaper book, which I'm converting to a middle grade. I'm excited about this and I have a soft spot for middle grade and always have, but I have to admit I probably only read about 10 MG a year, as opposed to like, 40-50 YA novels. So part of me keeps thinking "Is this how MG is supposed to sound?"
But I'm trying to chase that away because I don't to write a book based on how it is SUPPOSED to sound. That's how people end up with manuscripts that are...well, awful. And derivative.
Anyway, despite some doubts, I'm enjoying this book as a MG much more than as a YA.
Since I have free time again, I've also gotten back to my ukulele. I'm practicing "chunking" this week, which sounds very unattractive, but it's a kind of strum-and-slap-the-strings percussive move, and I'm learning about...like, music stuff. Like how chords work. I know nothing about music. It's blowing my mind a little bit, all, "whoa, it's like math!" It feels a lot like when I learned to cook and you feel like a complete idiot at first who doesn't know how to cut an onion, and then you get these revelations like "OHH, BROWNING makes things TASTE GOOD", and eventually you are a good cook. Maybe eventually I'll be good at the ukulele too. I'm good enough to keep up with songs now, at least, as long as they don't involve the more difficult chords, which brings everything to a halt as I contort my hands...
And I've been reading! Lots of reading! I'm finally reading LINGER, like a million years after the rest of the world, which seems positively shameful of me, but I've barely read a thing over the past few months... And "What I Eat: Around the World in Eighty Meals", where Peter Menzel and Faith d'Alusio (Material World; Hungry Planet) went around the world and photographed a day of food as eaten by eighty people, organized from least amount of calories to most. I love all their books. The photographs are always lovely and the cultural details are fascinating. You realize how much meat and sugar we eat here in America, and wow do people drink a lot of tea, but it's just a neat glimpse into people's lives, not something merely to make one feel gluttonous.
But I'm trying to chase that away because I don't to write a book based on how it is SUPPOSED to sound. That's how people end up with manuscripts that are...well, awful. And derivative.
Anyway, despite some doubts, I'm enjoying this book as a MG much more than as a YA.
Since I have free time again, I've also gotten back to my ukulele. I'm practicing "chunking" this week, which sounds very unattractive, but it's a kind of strum-and-slap-the-strings percussive move, and I'm learning about...like, music stuff. Like how chords work. I know nothing about music. It's blowing my mind a little bit, all, "whoa, it's like math!" It feels a lot like when I learned to cook and you feel like a complete idiot at first who doesn't know how to cut an onion, and then you get these revelations like "OHH, BROWNING makes things TASTE GOOD", and eventually you are a good cook. Maybe eventually I'll be good at the ukulele too. I'm good enough to keep up with songs now, at least, as long as they don't involve the more difficult chords, which brings everything to a halt as I contort my hands...
And I've been reading! Lots of reading! I'm finally reading LINGER, like a million years after the rest of the world, which seems positively shameful of me, but I've barely read a thing over the past few months... And "What I Eat: Around the World in Eighty Meals", where Peter Menzel and Faith d'Alusio (Material World; Hungry Planet) went around the world and photographed a day of food as eaten by eighty people, organized from least amount of calories to most. I love all their books. The photographs are always lovely and the cultural details are fascinating. You realize how much meat and sugar we eat here in America, and wow do people drink a lot of tea, but it's just a neat glimpse into people's lives, not something merely to make one feel gluttonous.