Things I Know I Know

[I wrote this about five days ago and forgot to post it. And, luckily, because I have no life, it is still pretty much valid]

I have been re-reading Harry Potter. And reading The Wisdom of Crowds, Terra Antarctica, and Stay by Nicola Griffith.

I've also been watching Ice Road Truckers, Deadliest Catch, Clatterford, the second season of Avatar, the Air Bender, and Pinky and the Brain. I'm not sure if this means I have eclectic tastes or no taste whatsoever.

Billie and I are going to the hospital about once a week right now for therapy dog visits which I think she enjoys. Also, it's kind of fun to watch people's reactions to dogs in the hospital (most people are either surprised or surprised and happy. Although there's one guy who's really really grumpy about the whole thing.)

Posted by debco at 07:32 PM | Permalink | Comments (2)

Just not making much progress. I'm still doodling on the novel, which I thought I needed to outline (and I do) but I also need to work on character interactions which means I need to write. So, I guess I'm stuck writing stuff I hate and pretending I don't hate it until I can fix it late.r

Also, I really need to get Cowgirls in Space finished and sent out. And figure out how to fix What Makes A River, which I tried to change from present tense to past tense but which really, really wants to be in present tense (sorry, Chance) so, hmm...more work to do there.

Posted by debco at 07:26 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

This is my mother's Christmas present. Which she will probably not get this Christmas, though you never know. It's really only about a third done since there's still all the putting together and the quilting and the binding. But the piecing is my favorite part because it's like putting together a great big jigsaw puzzle.

Also, secret lilies!

Posted by debco at 07:19 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

I have a new computer, a new Airport Base Station (because my old one was eleventy billion years old) with a USB port where I have hooked up the hard drive with all the stuff from my old computer.

Billie and I have already been tracking and it's hotter than blue blazes out so while I'm sure I could be working on my yard, I'm not going to.

I have almost no excuse not to work on some sort of writing today.

I do have to go out and buy groceries sometime though.

It is also Iowa Straw Poll day and OMG my eyes are burning from all the Brownback, Ron Paul, Some Guy I Never Heard of signs.

Posted by debco at 11:42 AM | Permalink | Comments (2)

Well, there are better books out there

No, really, there aren't. There are no books better at being Harry Potter books than Harry Potter.

Yes, there are books that are better written. Yes, there are authors you like better (and why you think other people ought to like them better I don't know). Yes, there are other wizard boy in school books. Yes, there are books where whatever thing you don't like about the Harry Potter books did/didn't happen. And yes, I'm sure there are books which you wish had been as widely-read and their authors as well-rewarded as the Harry Potter books and J. K. Rowling.

But, so? None of those books are Harry Potter. And it's Harry Potter that sold 80 gazillion books and inspired people to go to bookstores at midnight. And while some of those people are almost certainly Very Stupid People (I mean, odds are), lots and lots of them are not reading Harry Potter because they're too dumb to read/appreciate/understand anything else.

I don't know why this particular criticism bothers me . Partly, because it implies that all those Harry Potter readers are too dumb to know that other books exist. Or that reading Harry Potter is any kind of judgment on any other book (it's not).

I think, say, Perfect Circle is 500 times better than The Da Vinci Code but I still enjoyed reading The Da Vinci Code (yes, I know this makes some of you think that I am nuts--that's why I used it as an example :-)

This exercise in crankiness is brought to you by the letter 'H.' Or maybe 'P.'

Posted by debco at 08:11 PM | Permalink | Comments (2)