Week two of ATP for me. For those not familiar with this workout, it's a bunch of exercises completed in rapid succession that are sure to kick your butt and also sure to embarrass. (Regarding the latter, the flopping fish are the worst.) It's also the second consecutive week that Eric's missed. We can't say for sure, but during the workout were postulating that with fatherhood just on the horizon he's gone soft. First his weekly mileage will drop below eighty, then he'll reclaim MarcFit's old "undertraining" motto, then he'll develop an affinity for lawn bowling. :)
Speaking of running, I got back in touch with a friend from Maryland who's also a runner. She will be running the NYC Marathon this November with Team Fox, which raises money to fight Parkinson's Disease. Good luck, Kate!
Tuesday, July 8, 2008
Monday, July 7, 2008
Sunday, July 6, 2008
Getting Stuck
Today, in working on a story, I did the scroll-down-to-the-document’s-end thing, in the hope of finding notes to tell me where the story should go, or least push it through to the another scene. Sadly, I found nothing. So I switched gears and worked on three short-shorts, all of which went well.
One of them includes a dog, which has been a common component of my recent writing. It’s becoming a bit much. I’d hoped it wouldn’t come to this, but I have no other choice than to issue a moratorium on four-legged characters in my writing. Perhaps I should set limitations of my stories’ settings. Nursing homes, hospitals, restaurants; places where dogs are verboten.
One of them includes a dog, which has been a common component of my recent writing. It’s becoming a bit much. I’d hoped it wouldn’t come to this, but I have no other choice than to issue a moratorium on four-legged characters in my writing. Perhaps I should set limitations of my stories’ settings. Nursing homes, hospitals, restaurants; places where dogs are verboten.
Friday, July 4, 2008
Independence Day
Happy Fourth of July! Today is good day to make sure you're registered to vote. If you want to vote for the first time, have moved, have changed parties, changed your name, et cetera, you can (re)register here. A Google search of your county with the words "registrar voters" will also find your local office.
Wednesday, July 2, 2008
Stories
I recently discovered an HGTV show called "If Walls Could Talk". If you love stories like I love stories, you might want to check it out. The dramatic recreations can at times be a bit corny, but the stories they tell about people's houses (typically the home's history, which also typically incorporates past owners) are fascinating.
The theme of storytelling continues. Today I read a Little Bill book to my Rolling Readers class. Basically, everyone in Little Bill's family has their "thing" (the father, jazz records; the mother, kitchen heirlooms; the brother, baseball cards). Little Bill doesn't. Upon learning of Bill's frustration, his great-grandmother asks him to make up a story for her. What follows is a silly, nonsensical story about a "something" becoming a "no big thing." I read those pages and thought, "This is like ninety percent of my writing."
I have been remiss in thanking Veronika, my mom, and Bryan for their editing assistance (in both English and Spanish) on a story I submitted to the Napa conference. The manuscript is by no means done, but it would be utter crap without each of your help. Muchas gracias!
The theme of storytelling continues. Today I read a Little Bill book to my Rolling Readers class. Basically, everyone in Little Bill's family has their "thing" (the father, jazz records; the mother, kitchen heirlooms; the brother, baseball cards). Little Bill doesn't. Upon learning of Bill's frustration, his great-grandmother asks him to make up a story for her. What follows is a silly, nonsensical story about a "something" becoming a "no big thing." I read those pages and thought, "This is like ninety percent of my writing."
I have been remiss in thanking Veronika, my mom, and Bryan for their editing assistance (in both English and Spanish) on a story I submitted to the Napa conference. The manuscript is by no means done, but it would be utter crap without each of your help. Muchas gracias!
“Palm of the Hand Stories” by Yasunari Kawabata
What a find! Howard Norman tipped me off to these stories last October at Tomales Bay, and I am just now getting around to reading them. The beautiful description of these tiny stories as being “palm of the hand,” is right on, and is in keeping with the charming images contained within:
A woman who arrives at her hotel room and, exhausted, flops onto the bed, ankles dangling off, and shakes her feet until her shoes fall off.
A girl who meets a friend by plunging through his yard hedges, always to be caught by him on the other side.
A young girl who begs the past employers of her ill father for money, while the father waits outside. One boss looks out the window for the father, to berate him, and finds he has collapsed on the sidewalk from a stroke.
Lanterns bobbing in a valley below, the light for children out searching for insects. Then later, one boy offers a grasshopper to a girl. The insect held in his fist, the girl wraps both hands around it, and the grasshopper is transferred in a slow maneuver.
My experiences with translations is small. Paul Bowles’ Moroccan stories. Russian novels. A short list of Japanese and Dutch, and Czech novels. And at my first writing conference, my roommate was enrolled in the poetry translation workshop. From her, I realized that rather than being a conduit, a translator can greatly influence the new version of a piece.
Overheard at Starbucks: Espanol! I was able to understand single words or very short phrases, which isn’t good for much of anything. I studied Spanish so very long ago in high school, but would love to pick it back up. I'm thinking of enrolling in a community college course in the fall.
A woman who arrives at her hotel room and, exhausted, flops onto the bed, ankles dangling off, and shakes her feet until her shoes fall off.
A girl who meets a friend by plunging through his yard hedges, always to be caught by him on the other side.
A young girl who begs the past employers of her ill father for money, while the father waits outside. One boss looks out the window for the father, to berate him, and finds he has collapsed on the sidewalk from a stroke.
Lanterns bobbing in a valley below, the light for children out searching for insects. Then later, one boy offers a grasshopper to a girl. The insect held in his fist, the girl wraps both hands around it, and the grasshopper is transferred in a slow maneuver.
My experiences with translations is small. Paul Bowles’ Moroccan stories. Russian novels. A short list of Japanese and Dutch, and Czech novels. And at my first writing conference, my roommate was enrolled in the poetry translation workshop. From her, I realized that rather than being a conduit, a translator can greatly influence the new version of a piece.
Overheard at Starbucks: Espanol! I was able to understand single words or very short phrases, which isn’t good for much of anything. I studied Spanish so very long ago in high school, but would love to pick it back up. I'm thinking of enrolling in a community college course in the fall.
Tuesday, July 1, 2008
Thank You Sir, May I Have Another
I'd like to thank Veronika, Marc, and Nicole for kicking my butt this evening with an ATP workout. Thank God Eric wasn't there; I might not be able to get out of bed tomorrow.
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