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matrilI just feel like blathering, so I'll write whatever comes into my head.
I'm a few chapters away from finishing my fourth novel...I'm not sure how I feel about it. The previous three have focused on one or two main characters, with the viewpoint only occasionally shifting to others. This one has had...I would estimate four or five characters whose viewpoints show up regularly. I planned on branching out in the this one because everything that happened in previous books is now having a profound impact on lots of people, and I wanted to give an idea of how it's affecting specific characters. I only hope I didn't stretch myself too thin...I've had my my husband and my sister reading each chapter as I've finished it, and they've had some useful comments. Overall they seem to like it. They're biased, of course. In any case it certainly doesn't make any sense without the first three books to back it up. You know, my weird brother started reading Harry Potter with POA instead of PS. He didn't know which came first, so he just picked one up and started on it. Didn't seem to confuse him too much. Well, if it worked for him...
I learned to knit at the beginning of this year, since someone gave me a learn-to-knit kit for Christmas and I figured I might as well pick up a new hobby. I'm still pretty lousy at it. I haven't made anything extraordinary yet...I attempted a hat which is kind of mushy (like Hermione's early, unassisted-by-magic attmpets), and I just finished a purse that's too flimsy to hold much more than my planner and a spare key. But it matches the hat, so that's fun. :P
I'm currently reading The Picture of Dorian Grey. I decided to pick up a classic of sorts that I hadn't yet read; eventually I'd like to be familiar with all the staples of early sci-fi/fantasy/horror. I liked Frankenstein a lot; Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde suffered a bit from having its big mystery revealed before I ever read it (who doesn't know, at this point, that they're the same person? sorry if I ruined it for you...) but it was still a fun read. Dracula honestly bored me. I got halfway through it and just couldn't read another dry description of a blood tranfusion. I will pick it up again sometime; I can't deny its importance in our culture, and I suppose I could get into it if I made an effort. Anyway, Dorian Grey. It's good so far. Not much has happened yet, but there's a hint of something very creepy going on, and it's pretty neat. Good grief, but Oscar Wilde sure liked to insert himself into his work - Lord Henry sounds just exactly like a Wildeish clone, with his cutesy little cynical aphorisms. Ah well.
I don't drive alone in the car very much - usually we're all going somewhere together - but whenever I do, I pop in a John Williams soundtrack and turn up the volume till it fills the car. Golly, I love his stuff. I'm always in a better mood after having some time with myself and my music. And since it's usually SW or HP, it often puts me in a fannish mood. I was getting pretty shippy about Anakin and Padmé the other day, listening to that heart-rending rendition of the love theme from ROTS, with the theme on the woodwinds balanced by a haunting counter-melody on a violin. *sighs blissfully* You know, I just love their cheesy dialogue? It sounds so unpolished and earnest, like two people who love each other too much to care about whether they're being eloquent or clever or not.
So I watched AOTC the next day. It had been a while. I really enjoy waching their relationship progress...first Padmé treats him like he's still a child, then she gains respect for him as a grown man when they begin to confide in each other, then they begin to dicuss the paths their lives have taken and it subtly leads to the implication that they could be together...Anakin moves a little too fast for her, but he respects her hestiation and steps back every time she indicates she wants him to; he never forces a kiss or any advance, and when they've finally reached the point that he can pour his heart out to her, it's so utterly unrehearsed and impulsive and raw, which is the only thing that would seem sincere to Padmé after she's spent her life surrounded by well-spoken, insincere politicians. And she wants to relent; you can see it in every movement of her body, but she's still not ready. Even with her rejection of that advance, though, you can see a change in their relationship. She goes with him to Tatooine without hesitation, she watches his pain as he reacts to the news about his mother and you can see it reflected in her face. Just one word, "Anakin" and a desperate hug is enough to show how much she feels for him as he goes to look for his mother. The confession scene...wow. She is troubled, deeply troubled, but she comforts him because she knows the harsh way he confessed it is a way of disgusing a deep, agonizing remorse, and if she rebukes him for his deeds, it will only convince him that he's beyond saving (which is essentially what happens to him later on...*sniff*). Instead, she comforts him, not condoning his actions, but acknowledging that he has not irredeemably lost his humanity. So it's not really any surprise that, at the edge of death, she tells him she loves him. And there is some heavy-duty foreshadowing going on there "I've been dying a little bit each day since you came back into my life." *wails uncontrollably*
We're dressing as Wizard of Oz characaters for Halloween. It's probably the last year that our kids will passively wear whatever costumes we decide on - Emma, at least, will be aware of her ability to choose her own thing, and I earnestly hope Luke will reach that point by next year as well. But it should be fun this year. Emma as the Lion, Luke as the Scarecrow, my husband as the Tin Man, and me as Dorothy. We've put together the majority of elements for our costumes - we pretty much always make them from scratch, as much as possible. I'm still attempting to made something for the ruby slippers. I got some pieces of red felt that can be attached to my shoes, and I've been sewing tiny shiny red beads on it, but good grief it'll take a million years to cover the whole thing with beads, so I guess I'll have to sew the beads on a bit more sparsely. People will get the idea well enough. I was just being...ambitious. :P
Also, about my fourth novel - it has a couple whose relationship bears a ridiculous resemblence to A/P's. Not exactly the same...certainly not plagiaristically so...but there are definitely a whole pile of parallels. Yeah, I'm pretty fanatical.
'Kay, I'm done for now.
I'm a few chapters away from finishing my fourth novel...I'm not sure how I feel about it. The previous three have focused on one or two main characters, with the viewpoint only occasionally shifting to others. This one has had...I would estimate four or five characters whose viewpoints show up regularly. I planned on branching out in the this one because everything that happened in previous books is now having a profound impact on lots of people, and I wanted to give an idea of how it's affecting specific characters. I only hope I didn't stretch myself too thin...I've had my my husband and my sister reading each chapter as I've finished it, and they've had some useful comments. Overall they seem to like it. They're biased, of course. In any case it certainly doesn't make any sense without the first three books to back it up. You know, my weird brother started reading Harry Potter with POA instead of PS. He didn't know which came first, so he just picked one up and started on it. Didn't seem to confuse him too much. Well, if it worked for him...
I learned to knit at the beginning of this year, since someone gave me a learn-to-knit kit for Christmas and I figured I might as well pick up a new hobby. I'm still pretty lousy at it. I haven't made anything extraordinary yet...I attempted a hat which is kind of mushy (like Hermione's early, unassisted-by-magic attmpets), and I just finished a purse that's too flimsy to hold much more than my planner and a spare key. But it matches the hat, so that's fun. :P
I'm currently reading The Picture of Dorian Grey. I decided to pick up a classic of sorts that I hadn't yet read; eventually I'd like to be familiar with all the staples of early sci-fi/fantasy/horror. I liked Frankenstein a lot; Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde suffered a bit from having its big mystery revealed before I ever read it (who doesn't know, at this point, that they're the same person? sorry if I ruined it for you...) but it was still a fun read. Dracula honestly bored me. I got halfway through it and just couldn't read another dry description of a blood tranfusion. I will pick it up again sometime; I can't deny its importance in our culture, and I suppose I could get into it if I made an effort. Anyway, Dorian Grey. It's good so far. Not much has happened yet, but there's a hint of something very creepy going on, and it's pretty neat. Good grief, but Oscar Wilde sure liked to insert himself into his work - Lord Henry sounds just exactly like a Wildeish clone, with his cutesy little cynical aphorisms. Ah well.
I don't drive alone in the car very much - usually we're all going somewhere together - but whenever I do, I pop in a John Williams soundtrack and turn up the volume till it fills the car. Golly, I love his stuff. I'm always in a better mood after having some time with myself and my music. And since it's usually SW or HP, it often puts me in a fannish mood. I was getting pretty shippy about Anakin and Padmé the other day, listening to that heart-rending rendition of the love theme from ROTS, with the theme on the woodwinds balanced by a haunting counter-melody on a violin. *sighs blissfully* You know, I just love their cheesy dialogue? It sounds so unpolished and earnest, like two people who love each other too much to care about whether they're being eloquent or clever or not.
So I watched AOTC the next day. It had been a while. I really enjoy waching their relationship progress...first Padmé treats him like he's still a child, then she gains respect for him as a grown man when they begin to confide in each other, then they begin to dicuss the paths their lives have taken and it subtly leads to the implication that they could be together...Anakin moves a little too fast for her, but he respects her hestiation and steps back every time she indicates she wants him to; he never forces a kiss or any advance, and when they've finally reached the point that he can pour his heart out to her, it's so utterly unrehearsed and impulsive and raw, which is the only thing that would seem sincere to Padmé after she's spent her life surrounded by well-spoken, insincere politicians. And she wants to relent; you can see it in every movement of her body, but she's still not ready. Even with her rejection of that advance, though, you can see a change in their relationship. She goes with him to Tatooine without hesitation, she watches his pain as he reacts to the news about his mother and you can see it reflected in her face. Just one word, "Anakin" and a desperate hug is enough to show how much she feels for him as he goes to look for his mother. The confession scene...wow. She is troubled, deeply troubled, but she comforts him because she knows the harsh way he confessed it is a way of disgusing a deep, agonizing remorse, and if she rebukes him for his deeds, it will only convince him that he's beyond saving (which is essentially what happens to him later on...*sniff*). Instead, she comforts him, not condoning his actions, but acknowledging that he has not irredeemably lost his humanity. So it's not really any surprise that, at the edge of death, she tells him she loves him. And there is some heavy-duty foreshadowing going on there "I've been dying a little bit each day since you came back into my life." *wails uncontrollably*
We're dressing as Wizard of Oz characaters for Halloween. It's probably the last year that our kids will passively wear whatever costumes we decide on - Emma, at least, will be aware of her ability to choose her own thing, and I earnestly hope Luke will reach that point by next year as well. But it should be fun this year. Emma as the Lion, Luke as the Scarecrow, my husband as the Tin Man, and me as Dorothy. We've put together the majority of elements for our costumes - we pretty much always make them from scratch, as much as possible. I'm still attempting to made something for the ruby slippers. I got some pieces of red felt that can be attached to my shoes, and I've been sewing tiny shiny red beads on it, but good grief it'll take a million years to cover the whole thing with beads, so I guess I'll have to sew the beads on a bit more sparsely. People will get the idea well enough. I was just being...ambitious. :P
Also, about my fourth novel - it has a couple whose relationship bears a ridiculous resemblence to A/P's. Not exactly the same...certainly not plagiaristically so...but there are definitely a whole pile of parallels. Yeah, I'm pretty fanatical.
'Kay, I'm done for now.
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Date: 2006-10-21 02:33 am (UTC)I love your Halloween idea - it sounds so cute! :) My sister and I may be doing a mini version of that ourselves, though HP-themed.
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Date: 2006-10-21 01:31 pm (UTC)When AOTC was on TV, I started going on and on about how P/A's relationship progressed so very nicely (perhaps to distract myself from the hideously choppy editing) and my husband finally had to say, "Um, you've already told me all this before. I agree with you. You can stop now." He used to think he'd never find anyone more obsessed about SW than him....ha! :P