Playing Favourites

It seems like one of the most common profile questions on writing-related sites is “What is your favourite book?” It makes sense. After all, we are writers; we must have at least one favourite book. Of course, the more typical problem is narrowing them down. It looks like at Absolute Write I didn’t even try.

Book Country gave us five spaces. These are the five on my list:

  • The Stand by Stephen King
  • Stardust by Neil Gaiman
  • Eyes of the Dragon by Stephen King
  • UFOs, JFK, and Elvis: Conspiracies You Don’t Have to be Crazy to Believe by Richard Belzar
  • The Five People You Meet in Heaven by Mitch Albom

When I was trying to pick one for LitReactor, I also considered Watership Down by Richard Adams and The Haunting of Hill House by Shirley Jackson. In the end I went with The Stand again. I tend to reread the books I really like after a couple of years, and that’s the one I’ve reread the most so far. I guess that’s as good a way to cut the list down as any :)

New Toy (Merit Badge: Writing By Hand)

For the past few weeks, I have been trying a new toy: a LiveScribe Echo Pen. Except for NaNoWriMo, I love doing my first drafts by hand. There’s something about it that is different from typing them into the computer first, and when I tried to switch, it just didn’t work.

The downside, of course, is the extra time it takes to type the first draft into the computer, especially if you’re like me and like to keep track of your current word count. With the Echo pen, I can translate the handwriting into typed text, and it cut down that time. There’s still a bit of touch up — it always reads my sentences that start with “He” as “16” — and it’s forcing me to pay more attention to my handwriting than I otherwise would, but it’s been an beneficial addition to my process.

It will never teach me to stop crossing things out, however, so I’ll just have to get used to deleting the gibberish that results :)

Happy Holidays!

Hope you all enjoy them ^_^

Environment and Expectations

One of my favourite places to write is mall food courts. It’s not because of the people-watching, though that can be fun, but I’m not really sure what it is. Maybe it’s grounded in familiarity, having done it for so long  on breaks and while waiting for friends.

I try to write in the public library, but I find when I’m there the background noises distract me. For example, the man behind me yesterday who alternated between reedy whistling and murmured whispers. I hope the whispers were reading aloud his book, but I have no explanation for the whistling.

They’re little things, really. But people coughing, walking by while they browse the books, or holding conversations (a normal volume) are impossible for me to ignore in the library.  And yet, in the middle of a crowded mall, nothing phases me.

I can ignore the kids who seem incapable of tlaking below a shout. I can ignore the line of people waiting at McDonald’s. I can even ignore the background buzz from having so many people in one place.

I don’t know what the difference is. Perhaps it’s because I expect noise at the food court. Libraries, however, I still expect to be quiet, though the expectation seems to be growing outdated more and more.

Rather than continuing to expect them to be so, I should probably just grab my books and go across the street to work in the food court.

Random LOL

Music Meme!

Yes, I’ve been quiet for weeks and I’m only posting now for a meme *lol*

I’ll work on that ^_^

The rules:
1. Reply to this post and I’ll assign you a letter.
2. List (and upload, if you feel like it) 5 songs that start with that letter.
3. Post them to your journal with these instructions.

zhan_shi gave me the letter K:

  • Kryptonite by 3 Doors Down
    “I watched the world float to the
    Dark side of the moon”
  • Kody by Matchbox 20
    “It was clear to all of us
    We kept this hat of broken dreams”
  • Klavier by Rammstein (I don’t speak German, so my understand is based on the translations here)
    “hinter dieser Tür
    steht ein Klavier
    die Tasten sind staubig
    die Saiten sind verstimmt”
  • Knockin’ on Every Door by Roxette
    “Well, I’m standing in the sun
    But I’m living in the rain”
  • Kick Start My Heart by Alannah Myles
    “You’re kinda cool, a little rough
    You’re skin and bones and you talk so tough”

I was going to post Kathy I by Susan Aglukark, but I couldn’t find a copy to link to :P

Random Thought

Yesterday, rhondaparrish had to point out that I was addicted to the interwebs when I was asked what my vice was.

Is it a bad sign that it’s such a part of my life, it didn’t even make the top three in my list?

Book Meme

Five years ago, I was Cat’s Cradle by Kurt Vonnegut.

I’m gonna say this is an improvement.

Book Me

Preditors & Editors Readers’ Poll

It was just pointed out to me that What We Give is on the list at the Preditors & Editors Readers’ Poll: Fantasy Short Story.

Voting closes tonight, so this is a late notice, but if you haven’t voted in that category and liked the story, please drop by.

At least I’m not this bad

*lol*

funny pictures of cats with captions
more animals