writing

I see a pattern here

My San Francisco time has become far less exciting now that I’ve fallen into a pattern of days of writing broken up with errands and working out.

Last week I went to Japantown a couple of times. I always think I’m going to find lots of groceries I want, but I never really do. If I want all the Pocky and seaweed snacks in the world, then I’m set. But I’ve yet to find something like M2M and their great wall of instant noodles.

Ah, M2M, how I miss thee.

A couple of weeks ago, I went to Chinatown looking for a good grocery store, but couldn’t really find one. There are tons of markets, but they were all sort of, well, gross. But I only looked on Stockton Street. If anyone knows of a good (clean) supermarket in Chinatown, let me know.

Other big events last week, aside from my trip out to Haight Street, included eating lunch with MB (we like to get Japanese curry from Muracci’s), taking myself out to lunch at my favorite crepe place, Honey Honey, and buying a blanket. In our sublet we have a down comforter, which is way too warm. Hence, the blanket.

I went to the gym three times, and ran outside once. There are two routes I’ve come to like. Both start on Van Ness and head towards the water. One path leads me to the Fort Mason Center and this very steep hill; the other goes down Bay Street and to the Marina, towards the Golden Gate Bridge. I want to build up my endurance to reach the Bridge and back, which would be over six miles. When I was running a lot in Central Park, I easily did the six-mile loop, but I’m out of practice.

This weekend MB and I spent a lot of time in the apartment working. It’s good when he’s here because then I’m apt to work more. On my own, I get cabin fever faster. Saturday night we went to a party his workplace was hosting. It wasn’t too exciting, but fun to talk to new people. Also, it was my first time watching people play Rock Band. I can see how it’s addicting.

Afterwards, MB and I saw Astro Boy. It starts off incredibly boring, but turns out mildly entertaining. There were some noisy kids in the audience, but that didn’t bother me since it wasn’t like I was missing some riveting dialogue.

Yesterday we took a break by walking out to Office Depot in Union Square. I don’t really have a good work area set up. The coffee table is too low, and the desk is tiny and flimsy. The kitchen table isn’t bad, but I also want something like a simple folding table, basically a TV dinner tray, that I can put away while I’m not using it. I also want to invest in a printer. I’m kinda old school and like working off hard copies when I’m revising, and printing at FedEx Kinko’s all the time will add up.

That’s a long way of saying Office Depot was closed when we got there. Closed on Sunday! But people shop on Sundays! We weren’t the only ones to stop there and be surprised.

Apropos of nothing, last weekend we went to this cafe to hang out, and the barista was the worst. He served up our order just fine, but he talked constantly in this loud, game show host voice. “Hi, and how are you folks today! What can I get for you! While you’re deciding, let me tell you about today’s prizes. . .a brand new car!!!” The couple next to us were totally annoyed as well.

I’ve gotten a lot of work done. For my memoir I’ve entered the revisions for parts one through three. Today I expect to finish four and five, which leaves me the rest of this week to do a final (fingers crossed) polishing before submitting to a contest that’s due on the 31st. I’ve written four essays, which need revision.

As for errands this week, I need to return some jeans (thought I liked them; don’t) and possibly look for an aviator cap. If we go out for Halloween, I may go as Amelia Earhart. I got a bomber jacket for pretty cheap, and I think I can get away with clothes I already have for the rest, especially if I’m able to find an aviator cap. Haight Street seems to be the place to look for something like that. Too bad I didn’t think of it while I was there.

nanowrimo / writing — 6 Comments
21
Oct 09

Writing Madness

One of my goals during my time off is to submit pieces to magazines and enter writing contests. I’ve revised my essay based on the The Ring blog entry about a billion times, and have another piece for this online travel magazine. I wrote it a while ago and was able to improve it (hopefully). The online travel magazine has a lot of opportunities. I have two more essays planned that I want to submit to them.

As for The Ring, first I’ll try Modern Love in the NY Times, ie, the long shot, and then look for other places that might publish that type of essay.

I also want to try Hyphen, NPR’s This I Believe, Newsweek’s My Turn, Nerve, and a few lesser known ones. I like when a magazine offers a theme: it helps me to narrow down my ideas.

In addition, I’m in the process of revising my memoir AGAIN. (Billionth time’s a charm!) I’m glad I’ve been posting exerpts because I got some feedback that the order is confusing. What I tried to do was go back and forth in time: the relationship-with-Joe stream, and the China stream, mostly because I thought people would get bored reading it chronologically. But now I’m thinking it was mostly me who was bored because I’ve read it so many times.

So I’ve decided (and hopefully won’t change my mind) to reorder it so that it’s purely chronological. There are still flashbacks and foreshadowing, and you know right off it’s about a husband who has cheated on his wife, but I’ve basically broken it into five parts:

Part 1: The Rat and the Horse
Joe (the horse) and the narrator (the rat) meet.

Part 2: The Rat and the Monkey
The narrator (still the rat) goes to China and meets her cousin (the monkey).

Part 3: The Rat and the Rat
Joe and the narrator’s marriage; taking care of the Joe’s mother (also a rat).

Part 4: Rat, Horse, Rat
Joe’s affair and the aftermath. The second rat refers to Joe’s mistress (what is it with this guy and rats?).

Part 5: Rat
Divorce and the aftermath.

The rat/horse/monkey stuff is tentative. Right now I like those for subtitles, but I’m not 100% sure. It’s good to read the manuscript in order because I didn’t realize I repeated myself several times. When it’s out of order, it’s easy to forget I’ve already written something and repeat it in another section.

There are three memoir contests I’ll be entering. The first deadline is October 31 so I’ll be working like crazy for the next couple of weeks.

Finally, November is National Novel Writing Month, or NaNoWriMo, as the cool kids call it. I did it twice, and both those novels sucked. But this year I’ll have so much more time. I have to think carefully about this because once I commit, I’ll want to finish it.

It is just one month, and I don’t have any contest deadlines in December. I could write short essays in the morning, then do NaNoWriMo in the afternoons and evenings. And I do have an idea and have yet to start it. Hmmm. . .

awareness / rant and/or rave / work / writing — 2 Comments
27
Sep 09

Beginning of a life of leisure. . .and boredom?

Friday was my first day without work. It was partially enjoyable, and partially worrisome.

It began great. I got up around eight, had a leisurely breakfast, checked email and blogs, and packed a little before heading uptown to drop off donations at Housing Works. You couldn’t have asked for better weather. Sunny and cool. In fact I needed a jacket. The bus ride was quick and relaxing compared to crawling through massive traffic during the week (the U.N. was in session, and the President was in town), and then ridding myself of three heavy bags of clothes. Yay!

Next I picked up copies of my patient records from my doc, and then a bagel with lox cream cheese from Pick-A-Bagel and an overpriced mocha from Le Pain Quotidien. I mosied on over to Central Park and had my lunch by the Conservatory Water. Central Park is definitely something I will miss about New York, especially in autumn.

I had planned on going straight home and packing some more, but then I decided I’d visit the Met one last time. I made sure to check out the new American Wing, a light-filled open space with lots of sculptures and statues, as well as the Vermeer exhibit, which was just okay. There were not that many paintings and it was very crowded. Plus I had seen all of that and more at the Rijksmuseum in Amsterdam years ago.

I also visited a couple of old favorites: the Asian hall with all the Buddhas, and the Greek and Roman hall, what I like to call The Hall of Perseus’ Rock Hard Booty. I tried to be discreet as I stared at that statue from behind (pun intended).

I got home around 3, and after chilling out a bit, that’s when it started: the boredom. I should have known. That listless feeling always starts for me then. At work it’s not bad because I’m surrounded by people, and I can easily go for a quick workout. But on my own, if I don’t remedy it immediately, it gets bad.

I started to think, Is this how it’s going to be in San Francisco? Energized in the morning, and then blah and lonely in the afternoon, EVERY afternoon, not just on Sundays after a weekend with no plans? Was this going to be good for my writing, or detrimental? I remembered, as though it had been weeks since I stopped working, instead of of less than 24 hours, the relief of a peaceful Friday night after a busy week. Some philosopher said pleasure is merely absence from pain – with no pain, would I know pleasure again? Or would the days just blur into each other?

By 5:30 I decided enough is enough, and got out of the house. I didn’t really have any errands to run so I just took a long walk out to Chelsea Market. (I actually wanted to go for a run, but in my packing frenzy, I brought all my workout clothes to SF.) That did the trick. It helped clear my mind and get my confidence back about my writing as I imagined a routine of writing in the morning, then leaving the house by lunchtime and writing in a cafe or something for a couple of hours before going for a run or heading to the gym. I envisioned taking some classes at the gym as well as a writing class, to have some social interaction.

I realized I was putting all this pressure on myself to GET OUT THERE immediately, meaning network and socialize in ways I haven’t really done before, like going to writing events and schmoozing, and that doing something I’ve done before, like simply taking a writing class, was a cop out.

But why? My time off should be fun, as well as productive. It’s as though now that I don’t have the pressure of work (and school), I’m creating this pressure. I’m making up something to worry about.

~ ~ ~

Anyway, my weekend in SF has been lovely as usual. My flight was good, aside from my rowmate who was a complete asshole. Since I switched flights at the last minute, I had a window seat instead of an aisle, so I had to unfortunately climb over my row mate for my many trips to the bathroom. The second time I had to wake him up because his legs were positioned in a way that there was no way I could climb over him. After I woke him up, he just stared at me and held out his hands, like what am I supposed to do?

“Can you move your legs a little?” I asked.

He stared at me some more. “I was sleeping,” he said.

Was he really not going to move? “Well, I still need to get out.”

Finally, he was so generous to shift so I could get out.

When I came back, I very politely said, “Would you like the window seat so I don’t disturb you again?” Read: take the goddamned window seat since you’re just going to sleep the whole time and I’m the one who needs to pee every hour. He refused it. Fine, then you’ll have to deal with me.

I actually tried to hold my pee longer than I normally would have, then finally just couldn’t anymore and climbed over him without saying excuse me.

What a fucking dick.

The guy was Indian or middle eastern, and I could picture his mother fawning over him while he was growing up, telling him he was a prince among men, and then his wife doing the same.

Aside from that, I’ve been having fun. Yesterday MB and I walked all over. It was hot! Well into the 80s and very sunny, though in the shade and at night it was much cooler. After dinner we had a quiet night in since I was so tired. I slept like a rock.

Today blogging, unpacking, and running some errands. I’m glad I don’t leave till tomorrow.

awareness / moving / work / writing — 6 Comments
10
Sep 09

Distracted by a few things this week

Packing. This weekend I’m flying out to SF to visit MB, and have been obsessed with what I can bring. I have five space saver bags worth of clothes, some his, some mine. Since I’ll be checking my luggage, I’m bringing a whole bunch of beauty products (mostly mine), as well as a bunch of cords and guitar gear that he left behind. Plus my laptop, PLUS his ukelele. Comes down to one largish suitcase, one duffel bag, one shoulder bag, and his uke case. I think I’ll be okay. Plus I’ll be able to leave almost everything and have a light trip back on Sunday.

I’ve also started attacking the stuff we’ll be moving to my parents’ house. The ‘rents got on my nerves over the weekend about our storing furniture and whatnot there – they weren’t giving me a hard time, but were bickering with each other about asking their painters (they have had the house repainted this week) to move furniture without tipping them. My mom’s theory is that the’re moving stuff anyway, and my dad’s is at least give them a little something for doing something extra.

Then my mother got all up in my grill about what we were keeping and not keeping. For example, the small fridge MB got. I was just going to leave it behind, but my mother wanted me to move it, which meant upping the movers’ estimate, as well as cleaning out, unpluffing, and defrosting the fridge, yet another thing on my long list of things to do. She did finally let up, but it made me not want to deal with them at all and just move our stuff cross country.

Then MB talked some sense into me: when he was moving cross country a few years ago, the estimates he got were in the $3,000 range, too much for me. Plus we’d have to store our stuff for three months, not a lot of money, but then pay movers again in December when our sublet’s up.

“Plus we’ll probably come back to New York,” he said. “It’d be nice to have all this stuff when we come back.”

Okay. Researching cross country movers would have been yet another thing to do anyway.

Giving my notice. Which I did, officially, yesterday. Remote working, even temporarily, is a no go, so my last day is on the 25th. I keep thinking that’s a month away, but it’s only two weeks! Okay, breathe.

I’m past my fear of not having a job, and not too worried about the projects I need to finish up around here. I’ll do my best, and if I can’t finish them in time, then someone else will do it. Oh well.

I’ve realized nothing is forcing me to keep this job. MB is working, we don’t have a mortgage, we don’t have kids right now, and I have some moola saved up. Now’s actually the perfect time to take some time off and write.

Another thing I realized is that nothing around here is a matter of life or death, and yet people get so worked up. My current department isn’t so bad, but my old one, marketing, was always getting in a tizzy over artificial deadlines and deliverables (ack, that word). Why are we working all hours? Cuz the boss said so. I ran into an old co-worker yesterday, who told me about another colleague who is apparently incredibly mean to her assistant. Yelling, hostile emails. I mean, why? What could warrant such behavior? An unexpected meeting? Jeez, lady, get your priorities straight.

Although this job is about a million times better than my previous one, I still worry sometimes. Far less than when I was in marketing, but it’s still there. I realize – a third thing – that I’ve been worried off and on for the past seven or eight years, ever since I moved up from admin. Worried about dealing with unreasonable people, about projects that I’ve put off, about having to present, about having to speak in a meeting, about living up to – or not living up to – whatever expectations my boss and co-workers had. It will be a relief to not have to worry about work, at least for a little while.

Right now I feel like work keeps interrupting my life. What do you mean I can’t work out because I have a meeting? But I need to go to the post office and send more Amazon items. Don’t you see I’m trying to write a blog post here?

Other people’s success. This week I found out two people from my past have had publishing successes, one book and one article in a well-known magazine. I’m really happy for the first person, who is really nice, but I’m blah about the second (okay: it’s someone I dated). I shouldn’t be jealous but I am! Although the book is in a subject that I’d never write about, and it’s not like I’ve been trying to get published, I still feel a pang. I’m trying to take this jealous energy and turn it into something positive – to take a clue from the Secret (shut up) and envision a successful writing career, and work like hell to get myself there.

It’ll take a personality adjustment. While I can get obsessed over projects, I give up sort of easily. With fiction the whole trying to get published process is much slower. You send out your letters or emails, and you wait. With nonfiction you have to move fast fast, especially when writing about timely subjects. You need to network more and get yourself out there. Who knows: maybe it’s the same with fiction, but I just didn’t know it.

writing — Comments Off
25
Jul 09

Angie. . .and Angela?

julie_and_julia_poster So that movie Julie & Julia comes out pretty soon.

Whenever I see a poster (or giant billboard) for it, I think back to when I heard Julie Powell and other bloggers speak. If you don’t already know, Julie Powell had a blog about how she cooked all the recipes in a Julia Child cookbook. From her innocent little blog, she got a great big book deal, and from the book, she now has a gigantic movie starring Meryl Streep and Amy Adams, and directed by Nora Ephron.

Not that I’m jealous.

What I also remember was how annoying Julie Powell was on the panel. While everyone else calmly told their stories, she repeatedly called her experience “lame” and “stupid,” to the point that I had to leave early. I mean, I understand she might have been embarrassed and surprised to have such success, but at some point you just have to suck it up and be gracious. But that was a few years ago. She’s probably an old pro at it by now.

Of course I would love that same kind of success off my blog, but I don’t really see it. What made Powell’s blog so appealing was that it was a clever, succint idea – Julie’s life while cooking Julia Child’s recipes. Genius! I’m serious. My blog, like a lot of people’s, is sort of all over the place. I mean, it’s me. It’s relationships, dating, it’s what I had for lunch. But I guess it was also my memoir in rough draft.

It’s funny to read that blog post from three years ago. I was working on my memoir even then! Who knew it’d take so damned long. I’m a lot more hopeful than I was back then. It’s freeing to not worry about trying to get my book published but to know I have the power to put it out there. Just as long as people are reading it, that’s all I care about.

library / moving / writing — 2 Comments
10
Jul 09

TCOB, San Francisco style

For some reason I’ve been having trouble getting into this blog at work. No problem at home. Either something is up with my work server, or my version of Internet Explorer is just too old, and I don’t have permission to install the new version. So now I find myself typing quickly before I lose connection again. Blah.

The possible move to SF has been dominating my thoughts. I made the mistake of telling my mother, “We’re going no matter what,” ie, even if MB and I don’t have jobs set up, and she basically freaked out. I did some quick backtracking and pretended I didn’t say I’d quit my job if they didn’t let me work remotely. Yeesh. You’d think I’d learn by now.

I mentioned the idea of working remotely to my boss last week, and yesterday told him our move was a go for sometime in September. His only experience with a direct report working off-site was a bad one. The person just sort of announced she was doing it and made arrangements, before getting any approval. I never assumed that, and had found the guidelines and application a couple of weeks ago. He seemed surprised there was even an application, which surprised me quitely fankly.

Anyway, I finished up the application yesterday, basically stating my case for why working remotely would be fine, and we have a formal meeting set up for Monday morning. TCOB!

We also bought our plane tickets for a visit in August. Hopefully MB will have some interviews set up for that time, and we’ll look at apartments. Hopefully we’ll have both a job for MB and an apartment by the end of our visit, but at least an apartment. And also hopefully by then I’ll know if working remotely is a go or no-go.

Last weekend I entered the final edits to my memoir. As I post sections I’ll probably edit a little more, but just honing – the structure should be all set. I’m staggering the posts a little more now because I want to get the whole book on Scribd and available for purchase about mid-way through my posts. So it’ll be, “You can keep reading once a week for free, or you can buy the whole thing now for $2.” I also changed the template again! It’s back to how it originally was. I found myself getting mixed up between this and the writing blog. I know the look should be the same, but I thought slightly different would be okay.

Crap! I still have my assignments to do for the London class, a journal and a paper on a specific topic. They’re due mid-August, but I want to get them done soon. I can pull a lot from this blog for the journal, as well as from my notes. As for the paper, I have to pick a topic – I have a few ideas – and do a literature assessment. I’m so not in the mood for it.

travel / writing — Comments Off
11
Jun 09

T minus 2 days

Till London!

Yesterday and Tuesday were dead at work, but of course today I get all this last minute stuff. It’s all doable, but still annoying.

I think I have just about everything I need. I got adapters for my computer and other gadgets, a travel alarm clock, and travel size beauty products. Since it’s a dorm with a communal bathroom, flipflops are a must.

Outstanding is another pair of sneakers. Not required but I’d like another pair. The ones I have are pretty worn out, and I’m a girl so I like to wear different shoes during the week. I want brown Keds, which you’d think would be easy to find but are not. I’ve only found brown men’s Keds; women’s are always white or pink. Yes, I’m a girl but not everything I wear is pink. And white shoes get dirty hella fast in the city. So I’ll go with black instead. I think I saw a pair in Footlocker, which is right next door.

I got the class schedule, and while there are a lot of lectures, we also have day trips to Oxford and Cambridge, as well as visits to the British Library, Thomas Reuters, and the Royal Society of Chemistry, and an e-publishing conference at the end. It’s gonna be cool.

The only thing I’m dreading is dragging my crap from Heathrow to the dorm. Apparently taxis are very expensive, otherwise I’d totally take one.

~ ~ ~

As for the memoir, you may have noticed the “memoir feed” to the right. That’s where you’ll be able to find the latest posts, which I’m putting up 2 to 3 times a week, in case you’re interested. You can also subscribe to the feed on the What I’ve Been Writing site itself.

The WordPress writing site is also coming along. MB tore it apart last night, which is good. He’s a pro and I’m not objective, though at first I was like, “Nuh-uh, it’s pretty!”

Eventually I want to have a landing page that will have my pic (maybe) and just a few links: blog (this one), writings (the WordPress writing site), a direct link to the memoir, and maybe a link to a contact page. Then I’ll import this blog into WordPress. I’ve already imported the memoir posts over there.

You definitely have more flexibility with WordPress. I like the ability to include any kind of static pages you want, and the “Read more” widget rocks! I think I mainly went over to WP for that. And the formatting doesn’t get all wonky every time you go in to edit a post. I find that with Blogger, I get all these extra spaces so that suddenly my paragraphs are spaced way far apart. Don’t know if that’s because I’m doing something wrong.

I hope to blog from London if I can find free/cheap internet.

family / weekends / writing — 4 Comments
08
Jun 09

Again with the memoir, and the weekend

Next two memoir installments are up.

MB and I were at my parents’ this weekend, getting in an early Father’s Day visit since I’ll be in London at that time.

Saturday afternoon we went to the mall. It’s fun to show MB my NJ stuff. I didn’t grow up going to that mall, but it’s one I’ve been to a lot. It’s also fun because he finds it fun too. And he’s so easygoing – he had programming to do, but he just brought his computer and sat in the cafe and worked while I was shopping. You’d think that wouldn’t be a big deal, but some people get really uptight about that sort of thing.

Then we got some ice cream, something I never did in high school: getting ice cream with a boy at the mall. It’s like I’m recapturing my youth. :)

My mother cooked a great dinner, as usual, and afterwards we watched a little TV, then worked on our respective stuff. I finally decided to put up a site for my writing. MB helped me with the technical part of it, and I’ve been adding the content. Here it is thus far.

Right now it’s a place for my short stories and essays. Eventually I would like to import the blog posts from here. So I envision the main page to be the “About” page with links to the writing blog and the personal blog. You can also see a list of my stuff under “Published & recognized works.” I imagine there will also be a page dedicated to my memoir once I get it into Scribd.

Sunday afternoon we took a nice walk down the road behind my parents’ house. It’s not that feasible for pedestrians, but at least there’s a bike path and a sidewalk for part of the way. We saw lots of animals – innumerable rabbits and chipmunks (so cute!); one deer, which at first I thought was a long-legged dog; and one turtle, which I had seen from a distance, wondering what it was.

MB was fascinated by the turtle. He picked it up to take it out of the road and onto the grass, and when he did, its head and legs popped out and wiggled around, which freaked me out for a second. Guess I’m not a wild life girl.

We took an eight o’clock train back. It was very crowded, but we managed to find two seats together. When we got back to the city, we took advantage of the cool night and had a little walk.

Oh boy, still lots to do before I leave for London on Saturday. I need a bunch of small things, like a plug converter for my laptop, and to finish up a few projects here at work. Luckily they are, so far, pretty easy, it’s just a matter of doing them. And I still need to get my independent study set up, though I feel less enthused about it. I still haven’t received feedback from my prof on my proposal so I sent him a follow-up checking in and saying I’d be open to doing it in the fall as well, if I’m still in New York. :)

Of course my parents had lots of questions for MB about the possible job. Plus my mother did that annoying thing where she asks a question, you answer it, and then she asks the same thing again just to make sure, as though the answer will suddenly change two hours from now. MB takes it all in stride and is much more patient than I am. In fact, a visit to my parents’ is always more fun with MB around.

moving / writing — 3 Comments
05
Jun 09

Memoir plug, and Palo Alto

Next memoir installment is up.

On another note, MB got an interview for a job in Palo Alto. It seems promising since they say they’re willing to fly him out there.

I think I’ve written that we’d like to live somewhere other than New York. For a while the shortlist included Amsterdam, Prague, and Buenos Aires. I’m flexible. The only requirement is that MB have something secure set up beforehand since it costs money to move.

Of course I’d totally be down with the Bay Area too. It would be easier, but still different from New York. Plus MB would have more of a chance to get a job he actually likes.

As for me, I’d want to see if I could keep my current job and work remotely. In my department people are scattered all over the world. I only see my boss in person two or three times a week, and I do quite a bit of work for someone in the UK. Hell, people down the hall email me. So I have a feeling it would be okay, but who knows.

And I thought we could live in my grandmother’s empty house in Berkeley, if only temporarily. But I talked to my mother and it’s already been put on the market.

It’s still early yet. MB has yet to have the interviews, but it’s fun to think about.

photography / weekends / what i've been watching / writing — 1 Comment
01
Jun 09

Book Expo 2009

This weekend was Book Expo. Last time I went to the whole thing, even taking a day off from work. This year I thought one day would suffice.

I was a little late Saturday morning. The night before 1) YP and I had a our monthly photo expedition (the theme: NYC at Night), which involved sake at dinner, and 2) MB and I saw a midnight showing of Drag Me to Hell, which was good by the way! If you like those kinds of movies.

I was supposed to get to the Jacob Javits Center by 9 but didn’t make it till 10. I caught the last half of The Librarian as Digital Diva, which was pretty good. There was a guy from the Boston Public Library who talked about their work with the Internet Archive, digitally archiving their rare works, which are otherwise not easily accessible to the public (you have to go the library, make an appointment, etc.).

One librarian in the audience hadn’t heard of the Internet Archive, and kept asking, “What is it? The Internet – ” pen poised. I dunno, that kind of seems like basic knowledge for a modern-day librarian.

Next I went to Independent Editors’ Buzz, which meant free books! I was a little disappointed by the offerings – one was a fantasy novel, the other a thin mystery from a debut author – but beggars can’t be choosers I guess. Seems I missed the mainstream editors’ buzz panel, which was Thursday afternoon.

The Authors’ Luncheon made up for that though. The speakers were Ken Aueletta, Dan Pink, Lorrie Moore, and Mary Karr. Lorrie Moore (Birds of America) and Mary Karr (The Liars’ Club) are two of my favorites. It was the first time I had heard Lorrie Moore speak, and she was freaking hilarious! Her writing is very funny, and she’s the same way in person, very droll and sarcastic. Mary Karr is funny as well. Dan Pink has a book about motivation, which actually seems interesting, and Ken Aueletta has a new book called Googled: The End of the World as We Know It, and has also written one on Microsoft and Bill Gates.

The giveaways: Mary Karr’s Lit, Lorrie Moore’s new novel, A Gate at the Stairs, and Pat Conroy’s new book. He couldn’t be there for some reason.

In the afternoon I was going to go to a couple of sessions. I went to one, something about online publishing in China, but it was indredibly boring. Maybe it was because the speaker’s English wasn’t very good, but it was just painful to listen to. So I decided to look at the booths for a change, which I didn’t last time because there were so many people, it was overwhelming. This year there seemed to be fewer.

I kept seeing people standing in line for giveaways, and before I never bothered. But this time I decided to since I was skipping sessions. No luck. The giveaways were only for full-fledged librarians and booksellers. Boo!

I guess it makes a difference if you go to the whole thing. Last time I went to every single editors’ buzz panel and author breakfast/luncheon, and got lots of goodies. Going to just one day doesn’t seem to be enough.

On another note, Ronald Takaki died. He was a premiere Asian American studies scholar and historian. I remember reading several of his works in college, including Strangers from a Different Shore, which I still have. Apparently the cause of death was suicide. He had MS for many years, and according to his son, “He struggled, and then he gave up.” Sad.

Angela Tung Oversharing on the internet since 2005.