Before I got serious about writing I used to wish for a broken leg. I thought it would be the perfect way to write a book. I figured it was the kind of incident that, while painful, would usually not be fatal or even crippling. It would require one to be still and bored. A captive to the muse. I envisioned myself kind of like the Sigourney Weaver character in Working Girl, but not a total see you next tuesday.
In short, I thought it would force me to write a book. I do know, honestly, how stupid this sounds. And I managed to start writing without so much as an ingrown toenail, but I couldn't quite shake the idea that convalescing will lead to getting things done.
This is a fallacy. Duh, when you are recovering you are on crack, or some other medicine. I was on percocet for a week (third hernia operation in three years. I make big babies, what can I say?). When I wasn't slipping in and out of weird dreams I was cranky. Not in unbearable pain, just uncomfy and itchy and annoyed and tired. None of these things is what you want in your writing. I couldn't get my wits together enough to even try to revise until the second week. I even tried to hit one of the two beta reader projects I'm doing but finally gave up thinking that I might accidentally say something enormously stupid or hurtful.
So, here's the short list of things I wanted to do during my recuperation time but didn't:
1) Finish revising BookEnd
Here's a longer list of things I did do:
1) Re-read the Abhorsen trilogy by Garth Nix. So awesome.
2) Watched Let's Make a Deal - think that was the percocet talking.
3) Watched Room With a View (Julian Sands *sigh*) and Sense and Sensibility
4) Watched new version of Jane Eyre
5) Started to read and then abandoned 5 different books
6) Did not wear makeup.
7) Trawled the internet A LOT.
Which brings us to three links to things I found and liked. They're kinda related, but not really at all. I can't blame that on the percocet. So happy to be back in the land of the writing.
Watching Julian Sands in Room With a View made me look him up on IMBD. Doing so lead to finding that he'd done a movie in 2006 with Robert Pattinson based on a book by one of my husband's favorite author, Dennis Wheatley. We got this movie out of the library and watched it during my recovery. It is so gob-smackingly bad that both husband and I were at a loss for words. Luckily we found a review of it on this neat UK site, The Medium is Not Enough TV Blog, that says it all. I especially like the bit about a jar of stunt spiders.
Review: The Haunted Airman
The New Yorker's Adam Gopnik, as always, has a great take on young adult fantasy and what makes it compelling. It may not be what you think. Read The Dragon's Egg.
Finally, I've been playing Aragorn's Quest. A LOT. Slashing orcs is just soothing when you're laid up. That got me in a Viggo Mortensen frame of mind (it doesn't take much) and I love this article in the New York Times T Magazine about him.
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| Photo: Cass Bird |
We had a very quick and casual soup and bread dinner in front of our house is decorated. We wanted to get on the ornaments Here's a shot of our little group.
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Tell me about it. I kept thinking while my son was sick and just laying around with video games that I'd get something done. Nah. Still struggling to pull back my focus. LOTS of easy reading and TV. Hope you're heading back into activity soon!
ReplyDeleteCan I put a caveat on "favorite author"? Wheatley is a lot of fun to read, in spite of (or perhaps because of) his many faults, and nothing is better for a sick bed or a long flight (especially if you're partial to tales of the British aristocracy fighting (a) Satan or (b) Hitler or thrillingly, (c) BOTH, while quaffing copious amounts of Chateau Y'quem '57.) But, I mean, this isn't Kazuo Ishiguro we're talking about here.
ReplyDeleteA favorite, for sure — but I wouldn't suggest Wheatley belongs in any time capsules for future generations.