storytelling

With the Mathematician's (long distance) help, numbers were crunched and some how or another entries were heaped into an imaginary computational hat, one for each post on the forum. I don't really understand the technical end of things, because well, he's the one with the doctorate in pure math and I'm the one with the doctorate in squishy feely social sciences. So I'm trusting him with this and you have to, as well.

And so the winner is: Kathy J (her user name on the forum). I have to hear from Kathy by Monday with mailing instructions, and if I don't, I'll ask the Mathematician to pull another name.

In the next couple weeks I'll be drawing names for:

(1) a signed first edition/first printing of Queen of Swords (which should be showing up on my doorstep by the third week of September).

(2) a box o' books -- five or six of my all time favorite novels, most of which are out of print

Posted by at 3:38 PM | Permalink | Comments (10) | TrackBacks (0)

I've been writing all day, and I'm pooped. However, I wanted to point to PBW's post on personal ads for your characters.

As she points out, it is a revealing and fun way to figure some things out about the people populating your work, but personal ads often figure into storylines more directly. PPW mentioned Desperately Seeking Susan, but there's also Sea of Love (not nearly as much fun as DSS), and more recently the very regrettable Must Love Dogs (why, John Cusack? why?) I know there are others but they aren't coming to mind.

I believe there may also be collections of short stories that start with personal ads. Or if not, I dreamed it and I should probably put that project on my list of books to write down the line. Certainly I've read some personal ads that scream STORY. There are a number of books out there which provide a selection of the quirkiest such ads, for example:

Bitter, unsuccessful middle aged loser wallowing in an unending sea of inert drooping loneliness looking for 24 year old needy leech-like hanger-on to abuse with dull stories, tired sex and Herb Alpert albums.

To be truthful, this is not an exercise that works for me and my characters. I can't imagine John Dodge or Julia Darrow putting a personal out there. Same for Angie or any of the major characters in TTTT. Except maybe Patty Cake, but that would be far too easy.

Posted by at 1:31 PM | Permalink | Comments (2) | TrackBacks (0)