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It took me quite a while to be able to continue writing the novel again, partly because I had left it out of my mind for so long that I had forgotten a great deal of what I had written. I rarely enjoy reading my first drafts, either, so it wasn't a very appealing idea to have to back over it.
It wasn't as bad as I expected, though, and reading just a few lines here and there brought most of it back to me pretty quickly. Progress continues! I am excited that the book is still alive.
In a completely uncharacteristic move, I offered the print-out of what I have so far to my wife for her to read. I am very nervous about this. She's the only person besides myself who will have read the story in its current state. I trust her to be kind, however.
I've added a field to the left where you can enter your email address if you want, and I'll send you notification when this blog is updated.
So Write Night is upcoming tomorrow; musn't forget it. There are no excuses anymore, remember?
Currently I am reading "American Gods," which won about a gabillion recent awards (Hugo, Nebula, etc.) and which is pretty darned good so far. Very novel concept and excellent writing. It's a bit of a stretch to call it science fiction; I'd say it's more like fantastic suspense. Or something.
The basic concept is that the gods of the old world were imported to the New World by their erstwhile believers. These are the really old gods like Odin, Ibis, Bast, leprechauns, etc. They have since become sort of stranded. They roam around in plain view as taxicab drivers or swindlers or thieves, exerting minor influence on the mortals around them and just trying to survive. They are mostly forgotten and in competition with the new American Gods, which I am just beginning to learn about at this point in the book. They seem to be gods of credit cards and pop culture and things like that.
The main character's name is Shadow, and as the book goes on I'm getting the feeling more and more that he is of some cosmic significance in this world, though I don't yet know what it is. It's great, gradual character development - at the start of the book he's just a convict, newly released from prison, with hardly an identity at all.
Sarah and I took a trip to Barnes and Noble the other day to pick me up some reading material, since I've been without anything decent to read for some time.
One of the books I picked up was I, Robot by Isaac Asimov. It's a classic of science fiction that, inexplicably, I hadn't yet read.
I finished it the other day. I was amazed at how well this book stands up despite the fact that a lot of it was written in the 1940's. If you changed a few dates, there's really not much else that would need revising to enable this book to compete with today's most hardcore sci-fi.
The thematic sides of it were the most intriguing, however. It deals with the idea of the robot more than anything else, from lots of different angles. Its an approach that feels like high philosophy and reminds me of Bradbury in a lot of ways (though probably Bradbury should remind me of Asimov; I'm just getting to them backwards is all!)
I heard a while back that a film is going to be made based on I, Robot. I look forward to that.
Okay, so I totally forgot about Write Night. My friend didn't, though, so kudos to him.
Truth is, I was deeply engrossed in writing a new song, so it could have been worse. At least I was involved with creating something.
I'm feeling the itch to get back to the book more and more every day, though. so I may not wait until next Write Night to have a go at some new pages.
In other news, I've started the other blog I've mentioned a few times in the past. It focuses on my translation business. You can check it out here:
Translate This!
My friend Jason told me last night that he's going to try to make his Wednesday nights Writing Nights. He's an aspiring screenwriter with motivation problems, just like me, the aspiring novelist with motivation problems. I think it's a good idea and I may jump on that train. Stay tuned.
It's been a while since I've posted here. Nothing has been done on the book since I last checked in, except a lot of thinking about it. That may be a good thing.
I kind of stalled out with my site redesign because I can't get things to look right on my Mac. I'm still going to try and overcome that and I am planning on starting a blog related to my business, which will be updated very frequently (hopefully as frequently as my past journals). This blog will continue as well, though only in relation to my book.
Stay tuned.
