An ode to summertime cinema

Can you guess what movie this is?Here's a pair of worthy distractions in honor of the summer movie season foisted upon us. (Was Fantastic Four so good we needed another? Maybe it's just me).

Anyway, despite being a writer, my degree is actually in design. So I'm a sucker for movie posters. And I love these links. One features the 25 Best Movie Poster Ever, and the other offers some grotesquely comical hand-painted movie posters from Belarus. (Home of Andrei Arlovski, for all you fight fans out there).

Speaking of summer movies, anything you'd recommend once I pry myself away from my writing desk?
 

"You'll laugh. You'll cry. You'll kiss eight bucks goodbye."

While I’ve been knee-deep in the edit of The Panama Hotel (which I’ll be renaming by the way, suggestions anyone?) I’ve been asked by my agent to come up with a short-list of authors to hit up for blurbs.

What are blurbs? You know, those single-sentence testimonials about your book. Not only do they make great fodder for dust jackets and intro pages, but evidently they can be helpful in the submission process as well.

So all those kindly (and published) souls I met at writers’ conferences last year will be getting a little nudge from yours truly.

But what makes a good blurb, and do author’s really read the whole manuscript you send them for blurbage? The first part I don’t know, and the second part, I don’t wanna know. What I do know is that I’ll take what I can get, and be deeply appreciative. A few of the folks that I met at Squaw last year have already offered to take a peek and offer blurbs. Maybe it was the altitude. Maybe it was the wine. Either way, thank you.

For the definitive read on blurbs, be sure to check out Joe Konrath's, The Secret World of Blurbing.

In memory of Memorial Day

Nothing says "Memorial Day" like the World's Largest Brat FestIt’s Memorial Day--one of those strange holidays that has all but lost its original meaning. Seems nowadays Memorial Day is the official weekend of the Indianapolis 500. Or the perfect excuse for a 12-hour sale at Macys. It’s even the official kick-off weekend of the Click-It or Ticket campaign, encouraging all of us to wear our seat-belts—while gosh-darn helpful, it all just smacks me as tragically mundane.

Between the BBQs and the waterskiing, this is a day or remembrance. But wait? Isn’t that what Veteran’s Day is all about? Um, well, sorta. Memorial Day is about remembering those who’ve passed away (that’s “died” to you and me), while Veteran’s Day is about remembering living veterans. I know; they show Saving Private Ryan during both holidays—confusing, isn’t it?

So who are you remembering this Memorial Day?

For me it’s my mom. No, she wasn’t a veteran, but she served five kids the best she could and earned her stripes the hard way. She died three years ago. I was there—on the cancer-ward of Harrison Memorial Hospital.

I’ll never forget that time, because I journaled it, several times a day, sitting with my mom while she slept. Or in the hall, watching the other patients come and go—quite literally. I watched them walk the halls in new pajamas, pushing IV stands. I watched their families bring in homemade food, even a rice-cooker. Then I watched the paramedics take them home, on gurneys, to hospice care. And I watched orderlies cart out wastebaskets of deflated helium balloons and crumpled get-well cards.

To keep from going mad with despair I’d wander down to the newborn nursery. It didn’t ease my pain, or make the nights with my delirious parent any easier, but it sort of made sense of the whole mess. It was a tragic, beautiful time, and I wouldn’t have missed it for anything.

So before I head off to the potluck I’ve been invited to, I thought I’d ask again—who are you remembering?

Obedience vs. following your heart

Hey, I just got a marked-up manuscript from my agent (still getting used to saying my agent in any context but insurance).

In addition to countless little marks and notes, Kristin described the theme of the book as "obedience vs. following your heart", which I had never really articulated--but she nailed it beautifully. Which is ironical (my favorite Bush-ism) because I really had to follow my heart rather than my head in choosing an agent. But I made the right choice. She just gets it. And her comments, corrections and suggestions (all done in the track-changes mode of Word) are spot on. But now I gotta get to work on it.

In the meantime, here's an interesting and sobering article from The Guardian entitled, The shocking truth about the slush pile. Enjoy.