This week I read Arresting Anna over and over and over again, trying to seal up all the leaks and rewrite the weaks. Next up: Getting Carter. That’s half the length, so I should just breeze through that. Argh.
So what did you read this week?
I am a big There Might Be Giants fan, and this video of their cover version of “Istanbul Not Constantinople” makes me happy. I’m not going to explain it, my grasp of the song meaning is fuzzy although I’m good at explaining “Birdhouse in Your Soul,” which Liz does in Lavender’s Blue, but mostly TMBG just delights me. I’m good with the absurd as long as it embraces life and knows its limits: “That’s nobody’s business but the Turks.”
There is something several of you have asked for about the comment list on the right here and I cannot remember what it is although I have asked twice that it be changed. Refresh my memory (a longer list?) and we’ll get it done, along with some other glitches. Actually, tell me what you need done to improve your experience on the blog and we’ll get it done.
I’ve been involved in some kind of schooling for most of my life, so September is my January. The summer’s over, the days get cooler, and I buy new pens. The NYT’s Wellness newsletter feels the same way, and asks these these questions:
I’ve been re-evaluating my life for the past couple of months, so I was ready to answer:
I am reading a series I love, but it has a LOT of books in it. They’re really good, but I’m starting to think I need a series-reading rule. Like stop after six and give myself and the author a break before I go back and finish. It’s hard, good series books are like popcorn, the just-one-more urge is compelling, but when you get into the teens, it’s time to take a break. Which makes me worry a little about more Burney and Rocky Start books. Bob’s talking about doing the sequels as novellas, and his novellas tend to run to about 50,000 words so I think I’m okay with that (I’m arcing YEC here, I need some page space), but I worry about readers thinking, “We did this movie, why are we back here?” I mean, that’s our job, to make the stories necessary not just fan service, but still. Argh.
So what did you read this week?
Getting to a declaration of love in a story is not much fun. Because no matter how you lead up to it, it’s always “I love you.” So sometimes it’s good to have somebody say it without saying it, in a way that both nails their character and shows real emotion. The clip below (terrible video) is one of my favorite examples of that, from a guy who was absolute rubbish at being serious and expressing his feelings. It was killing him to say it, but he was losing her because he couldn’t say it. So he said it his way. This show, Psych, was mostly farce, but I cared about the characters so it worked on other levels, too. (You can skip the ending, it’s just a lot of kissing.). The point here is, sometimes saying it without saying it is better than saying it.
Jennifer Crusie is the New York Times, USA Today, and Publisher’s Weekly bestselling author and co-author of twenty-three novels, one book of literary criticism, miscellaneous articles, essays, novellas, and short stories, and the editor of three essay anthologies. She lives in a cottage in Pennsylvania, where she often stares at the ceiling and counts her blessings.
Find out more about Jenny’s published works by visiting JennyCrusie.com
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