Sunday, May 25, 2008

Triangles and stripes forever

How to stripe a tiger in three easy steps:

1) Simplify - my god, if I have to stripe the tiger fourteen times I am going to go out of my mind (Keep thinking about where Waldo might be...my favorite Martin must be twice shy of insane..you can do it you can do it!!)

2) He is young thus fewer stripes...heh heh heh...use triangles (really, it works here)

3) He is angry. He just might lose a few. Especially with little Ms. Monarch the perfect little flutterby.

I feel great! Wonderful, productive day!!

Earning my stripes!


Thursday, May 22, 2008

A tiger in my tank

I've spent months and months and months looking at my tiger illustration trying to get an inkling of where I am going to take this. And today...holy shit...it came to me... the emotional core to fit the tiger happening on the page and me(and it is different... the image, I mean). Now I have to plot it. The fun part. Heh.

Hint hint. He's having a bad day and he's pissed off.

Tuesday, May 20, 2008

I think I know what literary is...gasp!

And it has taken me a long, long time to grasp the asp.

And it didn't kill me. But I think I was afraid of it. It might have been afraid of me.

It has meaning. It has an emotional, lasting story which hovers over plot. It has beautiful, sensitive language and substance. And it is put together in a well thought out, creative, respectful and deliberate way. And that is where I want to be.

Commercial is great if it is literary. Most commercial for commercial sake deserves a snake bite, though.

I feel good and confident and I know what I want and am looking for same.

Monday, May 19, 2008

Is a spondee some kind of underwear elastic ?

Is a trochee some kind of condom?

Is an Iam(Bic) some kind of cat food with a free pen?

Is molosses some kind of syrup?

Is metynomy some kind of self loathing?

Mais non....I LOVE myself...IAMmeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee


I naively suggested some thoughts on the finalists in EA's non-rhyming poetry challenge, and one of them completely threw me for a loop. One LONG loop.

But I admit...I am all ear. Not terribly analytical (in anything). And when Mr./Ms. anonymous enters the scene completely prepared, and by the last two paragraphs has reiterated my suggestions exactly (obviously, more explicitely) I felt kinda like "I may be dumb...but I am not stupid." He/she said what I heard. Cool.

I ain't no dummy. IAMme...IGOTTABEme

Sunday, May 18, 2008

I rained

during her "Parade." Everybody did.

Six shows. Two weekends. One final song that made me fall apart.

What a wonderful, beautiful, sad and important musical.

I am an emotional wreck, right now, but so proud of these kids and the crew and directors for producing such a brilliant, BRILLIANT production ...and all the tears and LOVE after.

And my daughter who says she can't act gets all these compliments. You, my darling CAN. You can. You can.

Sometimes,often it is hard to believe in yourself. I know. I know. But you must. Six times over.

Sunday, May 11, 2008

Less between words

Reading comprehension was a problem for me as a child.

Funny thing, is now when I write I don't give the reader everything there in words. I leave enough there for the reader to form his/her own conclusion....or to form his/own imagery. I say enough to start a dialogue in the readers brain and and try to leave out description.

I wonder if the reason it took me so long to find books that I loved was because 'that' writer knew this is what hooked me.

I can't get past a first page of description. And I wonder how many kids labeled as reluctant readers would be 'unlabeled" if they were given such books.

Just a thought.


And these are the books I pick up. And they win awards and last.

Different minds. We are not all the same.

Friday, May 9, 2008

Writing while waiting

up for my daughter to come home from her post show romp.

"Parade" premiered this evening at the HS. A true story. Sad, dark, edgy, angsty. I'd never heard of it which is always nice.

My husband asked a friend why this musical never really made it on Broadway...yet it won a Tony?? I think.

His friend answered,  "Well, musicals about hangings are a dime a dozen."

LOL.


Anyhow, well done. Might as well be a Broadway production. These kids are good. They work hard and it shows.

I work hard and I am tired and I want to go to bed. 

But there is no clock in the adolescent head.

She's home!!