sundry snowing down on various

[lagilman]

After a drive up that was just run of the mill snow-falling-sideways, except for the moment when I realized that my driver's side wiper blade hadn't quite made it through the winter, I am now comfortably settled in the Marriot with a large dose of caffeine and a freshly-made chicken ceasar wrap.

Marriot loves me very very much. They gave me a riverside room, which has (duh) a view of the river. Which, with the snow coming down, is a lovely sight. There is also a balcony large enough for several chairs and a table, but it's Too Damn Cold to go out there.

And now I settle in for a few hours of work before I have to go Be Familial and Observant. After which we will have Chinese food. Yay for the Assimilated Eastern American Jew! *grin*


Meanwhile, lifted this from Another Place, excerpting a book I now have to go buy, Walter Mosley's This is the Year You Write Your Novel.

"A novel is a novel is a novel. A crime story is a novel. A romance is a novel. A book about aliens that came to Earth millennia ago and made us what we are is also a novel... All novels have similar elements...

"In these ways all novels are the same, but if you take on the task of writing inside a particular genre, you will do well to pay attention to the conventions of that kind of book."

"If you take on a genre, you should know something about the form, but you shouldn't let the form gain greater imortance than the novel itself."

(pp. 97-98)


Wise words. I might disagree about how much you should know about the form you write in, but that does not negate the usefulness of the advice.

Comments

[kalligraphy.livejournal.com]

Rabbi Cohen was walking through Chinatown when he saw one of the most prominant members of his synagogue enter a chinese restaurant. The Rabbi walked up to the window and stood appalled as this member of his congregation sat there and ate a large meal of chinese food. Later, satiated, the gentleman left the restaurant and Rabbi Cohen confronted him. When the rabbi told him that he had stood watching the man eating chinese food the man replied, "Then it must be OK rabbi since I ate the meal under rabbinical supervision."