The Offspring of Dorothy Parker

I'm watching Gilmore Girls and marveling at how proud Dorothy Parker would be knowing that her particularly witty and snappy brand of dialogue is alive and well and in syndication.  I love all of the quirky characters on this show, but surprisingly Mrs. Kim and her daughter Lane are my favorites.    The mother, a strict parent and Seventh Day Adventist owner of an antique store is the perfect foil to her secretly rebellious, Joy Division loving, rock band forming daughter who has a whole cache of illegal booty stashed under a board in the floor of her room.

When Lane's cousin from Korea recoils aghast and in horror, in response to the french fries Lane has clandestinely offered her and says with a straight face that Mrs. Kim has told her that french fries were the 'starchy fingers of the devil,' I don't think I could draw breath for a full minute because of the laughter.

Naturally, instead of taking advantage of the few minutes of quiet here in the house by writing, I'm watching television.  Harlan Ellison was right--I think we now know how the death of the dinosaurs occured.  They were caught off guard by the meteor because they were watching I Love Lucy, I bet.

Chicago Tribune Book section needs your opinion

Another perk to being an RWA member is that the chapter sends email with useful, interesting information all the time.  Really.  One of the members sent this link http://www.chicagotribune.com/features/booksmags/ where the Chicago Tribune is asking for opinions on their book section, so if you feel so inclined, click and let them have it.

I myself, am a Chicago Sun Times kind of girl where the awesome Neil Steinberg is a columnist.  If you want to see writing where a turn of phrase or witticism is the order of the day, check out his column.   I also am a great fan of Simon Barnes who writes for the Times in London.  Both these gentlemen have made an art form of both entertaining as well as informing their readers and for that I appreciate and thank them.

Research and then research some more...

In my effort to get my latest story out of my head and onto paper, I've been keeping an alternate plot journal.  What that means is that if I can't see the story through to the end, or if the plot seems more like a premise then, I scrap it and start again.  I've made some minor adjustments to the way things will play out but all in all, I'm on task.

I'm still doing research on some aspects of the mythology that I'm using and I'm excited that I learn something new about world cultures everyday.  My Thursday evening writing class teaches me about writing technique and mechanics,  while still allowing my unique style of sparse prose to flourish.   If only I could be Marguerite Duras.

   And now that Wimbledon is over, I can concentrate and write more often.  If they would just stop showing those USOpen series commercials....

That's Five for Fighting

So Venus Williams put aside her concern for her little sister's feeling for about two hours and won the Wimbledon Ladies Singles title for the fifth time.  She's also made it to the final of that tournament seven of the last nine years.  That's quite the achievement and just proves that she is probably the greatest grass player of her generation and with that wingspan and serve, I might make the case to name her the GOAT on grass.  As a consolation for taking the big dish from her sister, she teamed with her to also win the ladies doubles title.  It was a great weekend for me and I didn't have to  strike a single ball.

Now for the men's single's title--Rafael Nadal wrested the title from Roger Federer in an epic final.  I wanted Roger to win but Rafa deserved the win--he played within himself and showed the kind of toughness that bodes for nothing but success.  Congratulations to him and let's hope that Roger can bounce back and win the USOpen.