Whittling Away NaNo09

This week saw me start to edit, if that's what you can call it at this stage, my NaNoWriMo from 2009. The story I wrote that year was one I had in my head for a few years, and I used November as a chance to finally blurt it all out on paper. This first process of editing involves me rereading the story, deleting the silly NaNo bits and making notes where there are plot holes, events that need foreshadowing, reworking, removing, etc. I worked on it Wednesday night and Saturday night; I'm 35 pages in (the whole thing is 85 pages). Once I get to the actual rewriting bit, I'll start posting comparisons. One of the interesting things about this process is finding actually half-decent bits that I'd totally forgotten about. There are ridiculous silly NaNo-type sentences that make me laugh out loud and then delete them, but there are also bits where I think 'Oh! That's not half-bad, is it? I wouldn't have thought of that if I tried. I can use that if I fix it up.' Those moments are really wonderful, and pretty much make the whole process worth it.

This editing is one of two major writing projects I wanted to tackle this summer. The other is to finish The Carving. I will keep careful log of how those projects go here.

Extra Books - to May 28

(I didn't read these all in the past week, they're from the past who knows how long [as well as this week], but I'm finally noting them down now.)

• Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire by J.K. Rowling
• Published: July 2008
• Genre: Magical fantasy
• Why I picked it up: Rereading the series
• Rating: 3 stars
• Challenges: Harry Potter 2011 | 100+
• My Thoughts: 
• Ehm. I read this a month or two ago and didn't make any notes...not my favourite Potter book. I didn't really care for the 'romance' bits, but as usual I liked the interaction between Hermione and Ron. That's all I can say. ^^;
• Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix by J.K. Rowling
• Published: June 2003
• Genre: Magical fantasy
• Why I picked it up: Rereading the series
• Rating: 3.5 stars
• Challenges: Harry Potter 2011 | 100+
• My Thoughts: 
• What I like most about this series is probably the cast of characters. So many! All diverse, with distinct personalities and names, even if some of them are stereotypical. I like the balance between children/kids/teens and adults. I love stories where each age group is engaged with one another and well matched.
• It's in this book that a lot of the characters mature; there is definitely a lot of teenage angst on Harry's part (but who can blame him?). Another thing I enjoy about the series, following the cast of schoolmates and watching them grow and change and mature. 
• I like the bit with Aunt Petunia near the beginning - what a great hook! I know she has a pretty important role later on, but I can't recall it, so I am looking forward to that.
• I remembered while reading this book that the HP series was where I learned the term 'sacked.' By the way. I also remember that this was the first HP that I waited for (as in, by the time I started paying attention to the series, the first four books were out). I can't remember how I felt at Sirius' death, though. Probably pissed off.  
• I loved the scene where Harry is raging in Dumbledore's office. I think that was brilliantly done.
• A Sign of Four by Arthur Conan Doyle
• Published: 1890
• Genre: Mystery
• Why I picked it up: Reading through the Holmes stories

Walter Mosley - The Last Days of Ptolemy Grey

 Author: Walter Mosley

Title: The Last Days of Ptolemy Grey

Published: November 2010

Publisher: Riverhead

Length: 277pages

Genre: Fiction

Why I picked it up: Liked the title
Rating: 3.5 stars
Challenges: 100+  

Buy: Barnes and Noble | Chapters | Check your local bookstore!

Over the past year or so, I've found myself appreciating novels such as this one more than I ever have before. I used to find these books dry and uncreative and dull, dull, dull but now I am enjoying them (oh, growing up. I never could have predicted what an impact maturity would have on my reading habits! ;P).  By 'these books', I am referring to stories centred on complex family dramas and problems of the common person (hah). I think I like reading about people nowadays because it helps me to observe and/or understand people in the real world; the kind of people who I would normally never interact with, such as the main characters of this novel: a 91 year old black man who has experiences I could never imagine and a tough teenage black girl who gets nervous around white people who form a unique relationship. I learn about other people, experience situations I will never encounter in real life and get to peak into stranger's lives, getting some sort of understanding of why. Even though the characters aren't real, I know that people like them do exist somewhere and that's what draws me into the story. I also just like reading about old people, to be blunt. I think it's interesting to peer so far ahead into the future, thinking that one day, hopefully, I will be an old person just like that, living out the last of my days.

Now, onto the contents of the book! The story focuses on the very elderly Ptolemy Grey and his efforts to regain his failing memory in the last days of his life (hence the title...I really liked the title, it's the sort of thing I fall for). This leads to, obviously, many snapshots of memories throughout the novel. These memories are what I liked most about this story. I love the idea of an old Ptolemy reflecting on his life and what events and people were important to him, what had an impact on him. I loved reading about this character experiencing these memories he had tried to recall for so long, and then finally be able to reflect and realize them. A lot of the memories are bittersweet, poignant, melancholic, stirring, thoughtful, all of those lonely words. I ate those up, those bits of memories. Short stories within a story.

I preferred the character of Ptolemy over Robyn (sweet old man character over tough teenager any day, thanks, haha), but I did like what she added to the story (I mean, aside from her obvious main role as one of the characters who creates the story). I was interested to see how she acted in front of an old man vs. how she would act with her boyfriend vs. how she acts in the street (I just used three tenses there, huh). This sort of thing intrigues me because I generally act the same in front of all sorts of people. It still shocks me when I see how people behave when I working with them and how they behave outside of work. I'm trying to understand that better. Gangsta Robyn vs. sweet Robyn vs. hurt teenage girl Robyn...the layers, I'm trying to understand the layers, I suppose.

Three more minor notes. There was lots and lots of slang and dialects. Every character pretty much spoke in one. Usually this sort of thing drives me crazy, but I barely noticed it in Mosley's writing. Everything felt very natural. Another interesting style bit was that mostly every black character had a different skin tone description; they were never just 'black'.  If it was white people being described differently each time (olive, peach, snow white, etc.) I probably wouldn't have even noticed. I guess that says a lot more about me than the writing, though I'm not quite sure what...Final note: I had never heard of the author before, but since his name was bigger than the title I figured he must be somewhat well-known. I looked him up, and apparently he's best known for his mystery series! Fun tidbit for you there. I never would've guessed it.

I did like this book; I enjoyed it greatly while I was reading it (clearly it gave me lots to think about!) and I was planning on giving it four stars (plan to buy) but by the end of it...I'm not sure. The story seemed to lose whatever it was that I loved about it. It just didn't grab me in a way that most books I plan to buy do. What a vague conclusion. Still, I recommend this book, I suppose, but don't hold out for a fabulous ending! (I think it was the ending that killed it. I can't stand a bad ending; they ruin all the good feelings I had about what came before.)

Eric Schlosser - Fast Food Nation

 
Author: Eric Schlosser

Title: Fast Food Nation

Published: January 2001

Publisher: Houghton Mifflin

Length: 288 pages

Genre: Non-fiction (investigative)

Why I picked it up: I can't remember...^^;
Rating: 3.5 stars
Challenges: 100+ | Foodie's 

Buy: Barnes and Noble | Chapters | Check your local bookstore!

This was my third book for Foodie's Reading Challenge, which means that with my target of five books, I am over halfway there! :P This is the first food book I've read in a long time that wasn't a memoir. It was told in first person, but not invasively so. Schlosser's comments popped up occasionally, but he often used a more journalistic tone during the 'expose' segments of the book. While it is clear where Schlosser's opinions lie (even before the epilogue where he explains what changes he would like to see in the industry), he doesn't quite beat the reader over the head with them (until, again, the epilogue). The way he presents his discoveries make it clear as to what opinion the reader should form, so it's not necessary for him to spout his own conclusions.

I liked the range of topics that Schlosser covered. The first half of the book covers a history of the fast food industry itself and it's developments over the years while the second half looks at the industries that support fast food, such as meat packing and potato growing (I particularly liked the bit about International Flavors and Fragrances). I would have liked to see him cover the environmental and health impacts, though. The focus was mainly on the impact of fast food nation on the American culture/society, hence the title, I realize upon reflection. :P

It's important, however, to remember that this book is ten years old. It isn't quite the big revelation that it might have been at the time. I wasn't shocked by anything I read, although I was thoroughly disgusted. It's embarrassing and awful and terrible what greed leads people to do. It's also fascinating to see how much of an impact politics have, and how things can change so drastically when the power of the US government switches parties. I wonder how things have changed since this book was first published (and as a Canadian, I wonder how the situation in the US compares to the situation here). I recommend this book if you eat fast food often, or even just a little more than you should. Hopefully it will encourage you to change your habits for the better!

Sleepless - Complete Draft

I last posted about this story towards the end of February (click here). I wrote a lot more and finished it up on March 22 and 29 but never got around to posting it (oh, exams) so here it is! It needs one final edit and I'll probably do that some time this summer, i.e. in the next four months...I'm pleased I finished it at least, though.
_____

My eyes are watering again. I crush them with the heel of my hand, trying to press back the tears but they keep coming. Ignoring my burning eyes, I brush strands of hair from my forehead. Too hot, too hot. There is a glass of water on my bedside table. If I want to reach it I will have to roll over. I do not want to turn around. But it's too hot. I close my eyes, even though darkness already blinds me. I roll over slowly, trying not to shift the blankets. The silence, the stillness, makes me nervous. I reach my hand out, guiding it towards where I believe the glass is but I am shaking and my hand jerks and I hit the glass, the crystal glass, and it falls to the floor, smashing into a hundred pieces. The water that touches the floor vanishes with a sizzle. Shards of glass fly up towards me and bury themselves in my ears. I clutch at my ears but I am too slow, they are bleeding already. Blood trickles down the side of my face, drips onto my lips and into my mouth. Even now I can still hear the ringing echoes of the crystal shattering. It’s so warm. I can’t resist now, it's too damn hot and besides, the glass already made more of a disturbance than I ever will. I pull off my blankets and toss them to the ground. Stagnant air reaches my skin. It does not provide the cool relief I had hoped for. What’s that sound? Hissing. I can hear them moving. [The sound, the rhythm of movement is hypnotic.] I look over the edge of the bed. Snakes, masses of snakes, cover the floor, some twisted together in knots but most writhing over the others. The broken glass must have woken them. I am still and silent but then I blink and every creature stops moving and stares at me. Their heads are disproportionately large for their slender bodies, those heads that are oddly shaped like that of a human newborn. My stomach churns as the tiny mouths on these human-snakes open simultaneously and begin to wail. I clutch at my blankets and tug them over my head and bury my face in the pillow. The snakes leap up, launching themselves towards me just as the glass did. They scream and cry and howl as they land on the bed. I can feel them ripping the blankets. I push my face deeper into the pillow. Go away, go away, go away. My body is [heating] up and I do not want to hide under these blankets for long. The weight lifts from my bed. The screams fade. Thank God. I peel back the covers and try to give myself to Sleep, but now I hear music. A deep, booming sound that shakes the bed with every not. A song I know all too well: [Bach’s Toccata & Fugue], coming from an organ. The sound is octaves lower than any I have ever heard before, beyond any frequency human ears can detect, but I hear the song. I sit up. The sound resonates within me, rattling my bones and heart and soul. I reach my hand to the top of my head. The music drives me to this. I hold a strand of hair between two fingers and tug. My scalp stings for a moment where the hair comes out. I grab another strand and I [yank] again. As the song swells and fades and pounds on, I clutch more strands of hair, bigger clumps, and continue to pull. The music stops. My hair lies on the blankets around me. I feel a touch cooler now that I do not have [that weight upon] my head. A drop of water falls on my forehead. Water? In this heat? I gently touch the drop with my finger and place it in my mouth. Not water. Blood. My eyes are drawn upwards. The ceiling is no [longer miles above me. Now it is so close I could reach it if I stood and raised my hand. It is still dark] but I can make out strange shapes above me...a bent elbow, a crooked knee. Limbs, nailed to the ceiling. I shut my eyes. The droplets of bloods [fall faster now], splashing my skin and my [cover]s. It is not long before [the thin blanket] that covers me is soaked through. I toss it to the floor. I feel sticky from the blood. And hot. My skin burns. The heat refuses to give way. I can feel the moisture leaving my skin. I move my fingers. They crackle. My mouth is so dry, I cannot move my tongue. It is as though I stand at the centre of a fire, yet I do not see flames...but now I can hear them. [The sounds of fire reach my ears: Painful pops and snaps, a slight breeze coming up from the sides of my bed]. I lean over the edge and see wisps of flames licking the air. The heat is even more unbearable (how can that be?), but I must look. I gaze under the bed, my hands gripping the edge. Beneath me, violently bright flames dance towards the wood bed frame. Embers glow white-hot. Now that I can see the fire, the subtle sounds it creates seem magnified a thousand times. I am hypnotized by the sight. The light and the heat make my eyes water, but I cannot look away, I cannot blink. I see the demons dancing among the coals. They sing in their dark language of terrible deeds with a joyous glee. Their music is a hypnotizing as the visual sight of the inferno. I cannot fathom why the heat had bothered me so earlier. Why should I fight such a glorious thing? The fire and the demons call to my soul and I see no reason to resist them. I roll off the bed and curl up beneath it. Let the fire take me.