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old friends
Apr. 2nd, 2009 10:49 amOld friends are The Best. Many hours spent last night with "Isabel, who listened & ironed" (![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
isabelswift) when I was trying to write Swordspoint. (I'll never forget stomping through Central Park with her on a pretty day, worrying about how the novel should start, and she talked about the beginnings of operas: "'Carmen, Carmen, oh, that Carmen -- Why look, here she comes!'" It worked.) She fed me chicken on gorgeous Italian pottery plates. We made pomegranate syrup & Pellegrino fizz. We talked about her projects, and we talked about mine. We talked about the Washington Post's "Date Lab" column, and how to kindly say you won't quote on a novel unless you're really blown away by it, even if it's by a person you like a lot . . . I looked at her and said urgently, "Could you please go back 20 years and tell me that now I never go on another blind date, and instead have to worry about fighting off people wanting me to blurb their books?"
I'm once again stuck on a novel opening - the voice, this time - and also working on 2 stories & a script simultaneously. Out came the Boyfriend similes: "You can date them all, but in the end, figure out which one will really be there for you for the long run." Turns out she's never readlibba_bray's divinely wonderful (and accurate) piece, Writing a Novel: a Love Story - so, as I was looking it up to send her, I've linked to it here, in case you haven't either.
isabelswift) when I was trying to write Swordspoint. (I'll never forget stomping through Central Park with her on a pretty day, worrying about how the novel should start, and she talked about the beginnings of operas: "'Carmen, Carmen, oh, that Carmen -- Why look, here she comes!'" It worked.) She fed me chicken on gorgeous Italian pottery plates. We made pomegranate syrup & Pellegrino fizz. We talked about her projects, and we talked about mine. We talked about the Washington Post's "Date Lab" column, and how to kindly say you won't quote on a novel unless you're really blown away by it, even if it's by a person you like a lot . . . I looked at her and said urgently, "Could you please go back 20 years and tell me that now I never go on another blind date, and instead have to worry about fighting off people wanting me to blurb their books?"I'm once again stuck on a novel opening - the voice, this time - and also working on 2 stories & a script simultaneously. Out came the Boyfriend similes: "You can date them all, but in the end, figure out which one will really be there for you for the long run." Turns out she's never read
libba_bray's divinely wonderful (and accurate) piece, Writing a Novel: a Love Story - so, as I was looking it up to send her, I've linked to it here, in case you haven't either.