Monday, September 17, 2007

So I went to the Muse concert with my friend and woke up deaf. It was a fascinating study on the power of music on human behavior. We had a good time- (Terri provided ear plugs) The opening act was Juliette Lewis and the Licks- she was such an old school poser- but she sung her little heart out, bless her. I like her better as an actress...like in What's Eating Gilbert Grape. Matt Bellamy is the singer and lead guitar for Muse. I have to say that his piano stuff blew me away- he was classically trained before he turned rocker. It was like witnessing Jekyll and Hyde...fascinating.

Sunday, September 16, 2007

Caught Between Worlds


There are not enough hours in the day to read all of the books I would like to read. I can easily devour any number of novels, histories, psychology and philosophy books. While, by the way, attempting to write my own. This has always been my dilemma.
I remember the summer my reading really kicked in. I was probably ten years old. I had started to read a book called The Witch of Blackbird Pond. Inexplicably, I could not put it down. I finished it quickly and eagerly. So one of my older sisters gave me Little Women- I made short work of it and the seven others in the series. I spent a lot of my reading time in a tree fort in the backyard. Well, technically it was just a wooden platform nailed up in the branches of the mulberry tree, but, the surrounding branches served as the enclosing walls. On my back , with the book on my chest, I lost all sense of time- I even tuned out where I was. I remember the sounds of the yard coming through to me as if under water as my mind surfaced from the pages reluctantly, as the sunlight became too low. The dog barked, the bugs hummed and I would close the book and think for awhile- hesitant to wrench my mind out of the world the story had woven in my head. Time stood still while I traveled through the world and through history in the embrace of the mulberry tree. Around that time I realized I had my own stories to tell. I filled one notebook after another with stories and characters born of my imagination. I felt compelled to write, but the feeling would come and go. The call of my books would always return and I would have to re immerse myself n the pages of somebody else's story for awhile before returning to my own.
Now, I sit at a computer and write, surrounded by the siren song of other books. Not to mention the song of demanding children and household duties. I feel keenly grateful for a childhood that was set aside for me as my time to do so much reading, filling my mind with things long forgotten by my conscious mind but contributing to the whole I would become. I tell my children now to read and read and read. Because they have more time for it now...and nothing they read will be wasted; like raindrops filling a bucket. In the end that bucket fills up even if the individual drops are no longer distinguishable from each other or remembered.
There are days that I would give anything for wooden platform up in the branches of a Mulberry tree. Of course, now, I wouldn't mind if there was a comfy chair on that platform. But I suppose I will have to settle for my chair at a computer, while my sons yell "Fire in the hole!" and throw things at the back of my head. The book of their lives, of their childhood is one that I am both reading and writing. The two worlds have collided and I write my own story in the spaces between.

Sunday, September 9, 2007

A Novel Idea

I am currently half way through the first draft of the novel I am writing. This is my second attempt at a novel length story.The process is erratic and manic. There are the nights when the storytelling comes easily from brain to hand to screen. Other times I flop and wander about mentally like a fish out of the water and into the fog. This particular book is a safe distance from my inner sanctum- so that theoretically it should not be as painful or risky. But, even though this is more like telling a story than executing magnificent literature, I worry over details like I would with my own children. I want it to turn out, you see. So, I spend the late night nursing this newborn babe of mine...hoping it will grow up to be something worth while. Something that contributes, even in some small way- even if only to entertain. We shall see. Half done, and going nuts. When it is finished and shined up pretty- I will take it out and try to pawn it off on someone. And if that works- I may even pull out my first attempt, polish that up and do the same. Here's to doing it!