Spring Break - Day Thre

Already it is just day three of spring break, and I'm going to declare this the utmost of break victories.

This weekend I chipped away 2500 words on my novel, leaving me at about 68,000-ish. Just about got Edmund out of the frustratingly slow situation he was in and back on the road where he should be. Spent most of this time hunched over my laptop at the Magic Johnson Starbucks in East Lansing.

Saturday night I went with my friend James out to the kick off party for an up and coming nonprofit called SCOUT BANANA (Serving Citizens Of Uganda Today Because Africa Needs A New Ambulance). Their website can be found here. It makes me extra happy because it is the continuation of an Eagle Scout project, helping to build necessary medical and educational infrastructure in Uganda. For the educational/informational part I put them in touch with the Community Informatics Corp, a student organization through SI interested in spreading information technology and infrastructure to communities both domestically and abroad. CIC's website can be found here. Best part of the kick off party was a guy in a banana suit rapping. I guess his rapper name was Philthy...

I've been able to enjoy some time to read also. Finished Neil Gaiman's The Sandman for the second time ever, and enjoying it even more this time than I did the first time. I'm also working my way through Alan Moore's Watchmen again in preparation for the movie. Early reviews I've read have said good things, but I still can't shake the nervousness of this so perfect and epic comic becoming another flub on the screen (see all of the comic to movie creations of Alan Moore's others, with the exception of V, which became a fun thing of its own).

Tomorrow morning bright and early (probably not even bright, judging by the departure time) I'll be flying out Los Angeles for the rest of the week, and most of next week. Out there I'll be writing, and relaxing and carousing with friends. Blog updates and pictures and twitters definitely to follow.

Now I have to pack up for lunch with my friend Scott from the Capitol Area District Library about a potential summer internship. More to come.

Am I Pretentious?

I've been reading a ton lately.

I finished the Dark Tower series, the new Dinotopia, the Book of Joby, On Writing, and a drove of comics since September. Being immersed in stories this often has had a huge benefit on my writing. I'm starting to get to the point where I can analyze how books are written without it getting in the way of the story, which is something they've been trying to teach me at Columbia.

Two days ago I started reading Jack Kerouac's book "On The Road." And this morning I put it down. It's the first book I've put down in a while (that's not school related). It makes me feel pretentious to look at what is hailed as a Great American Novel, and by many THE Great American Novel, and just go "meh, it's nothing special." The writing seems amateurish, the story nothing to grab. He does everything that we've been taught against. There are very few actual scenes. He tells us things happen instead of letting the story show it. This means that instead of Character saying, "blah blah blah," we get: and the character told me that "blah blah blah." Maybe I am just pretentious bastard. He even uses the completely unnecessary tag at the end of a story telling us that "it was funny." If it was funny, then you wouldn't have to tell us...

So instead of finishing it (I'll get back to it eventually, I think) I put it down and picked up a "comfort read" in the form of one of my favorite series, the Warlord Chronicles by Bernard Cornwell. This series tells a historically rendered tale of the Arthurian legend. These are some of my favorite books. Check em out.

Stay strong WGA!

194 days (and I'm not counting)

I'm here!

Still plugging away at The Long Goodnight (broke 17,000 words).

I've found it particularly challenging doing research for the ridiculous concept of Goodnight. Every time I google "what if the sun went out" I find unhelpful pages talking about super novas, radiation, and everyone saying that "the sun can't just go out." The closest to interesting fact I can glean is that humanity would only have a few weeks (far shorter than the original three months I had figured (which makes me wonder which website I found the three month fact on)). I've yet to hit that turning point in the story, but it's coming soon.

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I'm currently reading The Book of Joby, which is something that everyone should go and do if they get a chance. It's a whopper of a book, and will require some serious attention in order to get through, but if the conclusion is as good as the first 2/3s than you're in for a treat. A better review of that is on the way.

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I've registered for the last of my classes at Columbia College. It's an odd sensation. Part of me is so ready to graduate that I am floundering in senioritis. The other part of me still is set in disbelief.

On that same note I've started chipping away at the application process for UW:Madison, and UMich. The process is very slow going, and I get the feeling that it is going to continue to feel daunting until one day I'm going to sit down to work on it and realize that "oh my goodness! I'm done!" Then I'm not going to know what to do with my time. Maybe I'll finish The Long Goodnight.