1. I've been abandoning books left and right lately. It's one of the side-effects of being a writer. I'm a far more critical reader than I used to be, and my to-read list is long and intimidating. I give a book about 50 pages and if I'm not hankering to finish it, I'm done and on to the next one. Marcelo in the Real World will not be abandoned. Awesome book--Printz material, I'm sure.
2. I have received Revision Letter #2 from Secret Asian Man*, so for the next couple of months I'll be revising my middle grade yet again. This time, I'm shooting for a blending of the last two versions. Secret Asian Man helpfully included comments from his two interns in this letter, which means that if no other person ever reads the book, it's at least been read by three people in the publishing industry. So that's kind of cool.
3. I started a weight loss program yesterday. I'm sure many of you are thinking, "What? Murph, you do not need to lose weight. Sure, you're no Alexander Field, but you're not that dude from The Goonies either." Thanks for thinking that, but the truth is I'm about 20 pounds above where I should be and with summer here, it's a little depressing. So starting yesterday, I have committed to walking/jogging/running in the mornings and eating better the rest of the day. I've got a calendar printed out on which I'll be recording my time (it's a 2.5 mile route) and my weight. I'll update occasionally so that the fear of public shame and ridicule might have a beneficial impact on my motivation.
*The previous nickname, you will recall, was Agent Guy, but I never cared for it. This new monicker comes from my penchant for mangling lyrics to almost every song I've ever heard. The song is, of course, Secret Agent Man by Johnny Rivers and that seems appropriate. He is a man. His identity is a secret (to most of you). He is an agent. He is not, as far as I can tell, Asian.
12 comments:
It's a good thing that you don't need the popcorn bucket now.
p.s. i like secret asian man. Now, scuse me, while i kiss this guy.
http://www.kissthisguy.com/
Reading is so touchy, for me it has a negative correlation to my WIP: if the writing is speeding along, the reading feels like a clunker going uphill and vice versa. I always want to know why that is. And then it is just chaos theory to try and figure which books are going to click with my process. But I have Marcelo on my shelf right now and I'm excited to pick it up.
Oh, and eating has the same kind of correlation to writing that reading does and probably has a lot to do with fear that I will not even have 3 people in the publishing industry read my book.
Cool and good luck with it all.
Don't give up on Marcelo; it's my favorite book of the year so far.
And yes, I now have Secret Agent Man stuck in my head.
I will TOTALLY ridicule you if you don't lose weight! This is awesome.
Yay, revisions! And I love when people read my stuff--interns or no.
I am also throwing books out the door like crazy. What is up with some of this stuff that gets published.
I love hearing what people come up with when they screw up songs. My husbands' aunt honestly thought our national anthem (yes our national anthem) started out, "Jose, can you see?" Yes, we tease her mercilessly about it.
I started a weight loss goal for myself in January. So far I've lost 4 pounds which is not bad as I still am eating like a pig, but just exercising more. My reunion is in August so that should be motivation enough for me to kick it up a notch this summer!
I'm sure you will do well, men seem to lose weight more easily than women!! Darn you all!
I hear Marcelo is terrific. Can't wait to read it.
Good luck with the walking/jogging/running program! I find sticker charts to be very motivating.
Tracy--Marcelo is one of those books that is so good, you wonder why you're wasting time writing one of your own.
I may in fact also be a secret Asian man...
Apparently since one of my progenitors decided to scrap the classic Irish 'Mc' that used to be at the start of my surname, our family name is shared with some large number of Chinese people... or so my friend Quinn tells me.
I just realized the irony of being told that my formerly-Irish name is now a common Chinese surname by a Chinese guy named Quinn.
My Word Verification: Maties... I may change my first name to this to complete the transformation.
I hear you on the weight thing. Now that Michigan's warm again, I've got everything set up in my garage to start my work-outs back up, only, I haven't actually quite made it all the way out there.
Maybe we should have some kind of summer-weight-loss-motivational-competition or something.
I would be all for it, although, judging by the photos people use on their blogs, we might be the only two competing.
I opted for the strategic use of the Grand Canyon which, when used as a backdrop, makes anyone look svelte.
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