Monday, February 6, 2012

Progress Monday

Dear Ashley,

Sorry I've been terrible about blogging. I've been terrible about keeping up with my other blog too, so I've made a new rule. Mondays are for blogging. At least, as long as I have Mondays off, I have no excuse not to.

The accordion shop is...a job. About once a week I get really frustrated that I'm doing stupid, tedious stuff when I have a $20,000 education, but sometimes it's fun. I like it when I get to do cosmetic repairs on the accordions, instead of just packing and shipping and listing to ebay. I'm getting really good at replacing the tape on the edges of the bellows, and last week Mike (owner, who generally makes me insane because he's so disorganized, but that's why he hired me) and I replaced a whole keyboard. I got to chisel off the old ivory, which was all shattered like the guy had dropped something on it, and then we soaked the white part (plastic, because it was a newer accordion) off of a different keyboard, then filed them all down and made them fit. So this man's accordion has brand new, uncracked, white keys.

Stuff like that keeps me occupied, and feeling like I'm accomplishing something. Wrapping things in bubble wrap and packing tape does not. Testament to how dull my life can be: I got SO. DAMN. EXCITED. when Mike found a tape gun. Makes packing boxes so much easier.

I do miss the dogs occasionally, but not as much as I thought I would. I'm definitely glad I don't work there anymore. It's been ridiculously warm for most of the winter, but some days are still much too cold to be biking around for hours at a time. One of those days was NOT last Friday, when it was so warm outside that when I left the house for work all my windows were steamed up because it was that much warmer outside, than it was in the house. Crazy, stupid, winter. I don't know how people can think that global warming isn't happening.

No new query letters for Rain, because I did submit it to the Amazon Breakthrough Award thing. I'll find out the end of February if I've made it to the next round. I hope to at least make it through the pitch round this year. The more I think about it, the more I know it does need more work, I'm just not sure where to start. I've been reading a lot of Writer's Digest articles looking for the answer.

Right now, I should be working on my Letters pitch for Pitchapolooza. I'm thinking about making Ariah a little neurotic. I'm not sure- I've had a lot of ideas run through my head in the last couple of hours. Her parents could be getting divorced like you said, they could just be totally absent and unintentionally neglectful, she could suffer from depression, she could cut herself and completely over-analyze and internalize things to the point where she almost snaps, or, new thought just now: she could know one of her parents (let's say her mother for the sake of changing it up) is having an affair. But she doesn't know if she should, or how she should, tell her father. It could be a catalyst that drives her to push Tristan so hard about their relationship.

The more I'm thinking about that last one, the more I like it. It sort of fits with my whole running Dorian Gray theme, too. In the movie version, Sybil Vane doesn't know Dorian's name, she just names him Sir Tristan, after a portrait of a knight in shining armor that she has. (In the book he's simply called Prince Charming.) I'd forgotten about this until about 70 pages in though, when I realized that I couldn't change Tristan's name because it worked so beautifully with the recurring mentions of Dorian Gray that I had randomly thrown in (simply because it's one of my favorite books ever). Funny how my subconscious plans far more profound novels than my conscious mind does.

So Ariah can be looking to Tristan to "save" her from this awkward/awful situation that she's in, but at the same time, like Dorian Gray, he's not good for her. Well, he is, but he isn't. You know?

I need to break up all these words with some pictures. That's my new Mobius cowl- I'm addicted to them. It still baffles me how one simple twist means you get to build from the middle and work in figure 8s around the whole outside edge at the same time. Crazy. And this...is the cutest thing I've ever made...


I'm not preggo, I swear. I just know a lot of people who are. Doesn't it make you go "awwwwwww!"


Now, back to the wordiness. I can't remember if I told that I finished The Magician King. I did. I freaking loved it, of course. So dark and horrible, but so good at the same time. I did question whether or not Quentin deserved everything that happened to him, though. I mean, yes, he's kind of a prick, and deserves some punishment, but I thought the end of the book was a little extreme. I felt bad for him, which was not something that I tend to feel towards Quentin.

I've forgotten what else I was going to tell you, since I got interrupted by the arrival of the postman with my new crochet book. You've read A Great and Terrible Beauty, right? I'm pretty sure I've seen it on your shelf. I got the second one (finally, I read the first one years ago) at the library today. I'll let you know what I think when I'm done.

Okay, off to polish draft one of my Letters... pitch and then I'll post it on facebook so you can read it.

Talk to you soon,
-Lizz
PS- I'm still insanely jealous every time I drool over look at your Italy pictures. I need to be there this summer. Need to.

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