Tag: authors

….so….tired….

Tonight Lindsey and I went to Houston’s Theater District and shot some photos. She’s learning the features of her hot new camera before the trip she and Rhonda are about to take. I wanted to tag along and take photos with my more modest camera while salivating over hers.

A while back, Mark had asked for some downtown shots. Mark, this is one tiny part of Houston we could squeeze in before we lost all light (and before Lindsey bought dinner for all The Compounders and Rhonda–plus Sugar got to hang with Rex, Margot, and Guinness–thanks, Lindsey!).

I keep most of my Flickr photos private, but if you’re interested, feel free to check out the first downtown Houston set. You can see them as a slideshow, or you can look at them individually for identifying comments. If I’ve misnamed any of the buildings, PLEASE don’t hesitate to correct me and I’ll make it right on Flickr. Thanks!

And if you’re not into another damn hibiscus or moon shot, maybe you’d like to check out Mark G. Harris’s Question No. 5 for writers.

Out of the Blue

A reviewer (almost all positive) who scolds us for too much Pet Shop Boy-ness in WHEN YOU DON’T SEE ME cracks me up. One of the good things about being a little further down the writing road and having Tim for a writing partner is that most criticism no longer wigs me out and if it does, he snaps me back to sanity. This time, however, I laughed even without Tim’s rational perspective. I can’t complain. The first reviews are for the most part very good (thank you, reviewers), and the reader mail that’s coming in ROCKS. Thank you to everyone who reads our books and writes us about them.

As you may have gathered from other posts, the Beatles are the theme band for my second Coventry book. I’m not only saturating my environment with Beatles music when I write, but the Beatles mean something to my character, too. (I wonder if I’ll get Beatle-bashed in a review some day?) Back when thirty-five was only some vague, meaningless number in the far-distant future, my friend Riley gave me George Harrison’s All Things Must Pass, but I have been turntable-free for several years so I haven’t been able to listen to it.

Today, while writing, I really needed to hear a song from it, so I splurged and bought/downloaded the whole freaking album (all the original stuff plus whatever was added upon its thirtieth anniversary re-release) online. I am in GEORGE HARRISON HEAVEN. I only wish Riley were hanging out with me right now so we could listen to all these songs together, like the old days, while sandalwood and nag champa scent the air.

These flower child moments are ephemeral, however, as I was reminded when I had to divide up chicken necks for the dogs and EW, Rhonda, it happened to me, too. Tom tried to get me to take a photo, and I hope the Interwebs thank me for restraining myself. Rex’ll be enjoying chicken head sometime next week…

Previous posts about Riley:

December 27, 2006
June 24, 2006
December 8, 2005
September 30, 2005

Thinking about water

Water

It was a Maine lobster town—
each morning boatloads of hands
pushed off for granite
quarries on the islands,

and left dozens of bleak
white frame houses stuck
like oyster shells
on a hill of rock,

and below us, the sea lapped
the raw little match-stick
mazes of a weir,
where the fish for bait were trapped.

Remember? We sat on a slab of rock.
From this distance in time
it seems the color
of iris, rotting and turning purpler,

but it was only
the usual gray rock
turning the usual green
when drenched by the sea.

The sea drenched the rock
at our feet all day,
and kept tearing away
flake after flake.

One night you dreamed
you were a mermaid clinging to a wharf-pile,
and trying to pull
off the barnacles with your hands.

We wished our two souls
might return like gulls
to the rock. In the end,
the water was too cold for us.

—— Robert Lowell

Random Thursday Musing

Today is novelist Anne Rice’s birthday. In honor of the occasion, I’ll share–and probably somewhat repeat past entries–some of my favorite moments with Anne Rice’s work.

Back in the mid 1980s, I made a new friend who, upon finding out that I was an avid reader, suggested that I read Interview With the Vampire and The Vampire Lestat. While anxiously awaiting release of The Queen of the Damned, he wanted someone to talk with about the novels.

I wrinkled my nose. Although I enjoyed the artistry of classic literature with some characteristics of horror or the supernatural–most notably works of Poe, Hawthorne, and the Bronte sisters–my heart and mind didn’t really go in that direction. But I valued his friendship and his opinion, so I said I’d give Interview a go.

read more about Anne and me here

Speaking of writing…

Mark G. Harris recently submitted questions to several writers (including me) about the writing process. There are twelve questions, and he’s apparently going to post them one at a time so as not to overwhelm his readers with the answers.

Here’s a link to the first question. I’ll continue linking to them as he publishes them. And if you’d like to answer these questions on your own blog or journal, I’m sure asking Mark nicely if you can use his questions will get you a “yes.”