Would-be Wayfarer

When I've allowed myself a break this past week, it's been to listen to a Rex Stout book on tape that I found in a used book store. I became a big fan of Stout's eccentric genius detective, Nero Wolfe, and his dapper sidekick, Archie Goodwin, after seeing episodes of the A&E series featuring Maury Chaykin and Timothy Hutton. Listening to the book, I can picture all the principle characters and settings in vivid color. I can see the office, the orchids, Wolfe's yellow shirts, and Archie's swagger so perfectly in my mind. It's a great way to be immersed in a story. What, if any, are your favorite casting choices when it comes to books made into movies and T.V. shows?

(The photograph is from Tulum in Mexico. You can see the ruins in the upper right corner.) So I watched Juno on Thursday night. Terrific movie. Great characterization. I loved the layers. As often happens when I enjoys another writer's work, I took a step back from my own work-in-progress (WIP) to evaluate it. Editing and story analysis are probably not the best activities to undertake while in the midst of trying to complete a first draft, but I have a kind of haphazard writing process anyway. Naturally, a WIP is not as polished as a feature film, and I found myself pouting over my draft. Is this working? If it's not working, should I attempt to fix it today or should I just dive into the stack of books I bought this week to read? And why is writing so hard anyway? I should take up something new. Something easier...like eating Tic Tacs or doing 10-piece jigsaw puzzles for toddlers. That was about the time that I thought about the megalithic, astrologically aligned pyramids ...

Well, this weekend was a ton of fun. Friday night I had some fellow writers to my house for a small reception to welcome Candace Havens to Houston. We drank Tangopolitans, ate all sorts of delicious food, and got into an interesting round of true confessions which will never go farther than my living room. Saturday, Candace shared her tried and true secrets of writing a FAST DRAFT in two weeks. It wasn't unlike the way I spree write when I leave town for a writing retreat or stage one in my house. She also taught REVISION HELL about approaching revisions in the same sort of editing spree. I am going to have to try it. She is definitely a time-management czarina. She was funny and direct, kind yet exacting. I especially found her discussion of high concept very helpful and interesting. (Candy is an entertainment journalist in addition to being a wonderful writer and teacher.) If you are having trouble finishing that book and need support and direction, I recommend that if you can...

Welcome to the weekend, people. :) I was out of town for two weekends (and the week sandwiched between them) at the Marydale Retreat Center in Erlanger, Kentucky. I was part participant, part staff at the Writers Retreat Workshop, originally created by a beloved man named Gary Provost. I didn't know Gary, but his legacy lives on in the form of a wonderful retreat where writers get boot-camp style immersion into the writing craft and obtain more personal feedback on their work than can be imagined. My first ever writing conference was this one and coming back with a soon to be released book on my laptop was great fun. I was reunited with some of my close friends and writing mentors and could not have had a better time. Maybe the ten days should be extended to thirty or thirty times thirty or... forever. ;) See you in the comments! P.S. Nancy's blog re-opens June 15th.