HP Update

I've had some questions on where HP is at. How lovely! Thanks for asking.

This blog was meant to chart HP's progress, along with my thoughts on the struggles and victories found in writing my first novel. But it's turned into a more general "what's going on in mylife" blog. Especially because this has been such a frustrating and tumultuous year, it's been quite therapeutic blogging. Thank you blog! And thank you commentors! And more often than not, I find it difficult to talk about my progress on HP. I mean...I'm at the revising stage, so it's really the writing equivalent of cleaning out and organizing a closet, which is very time-consuming and involving for me but maybe not so interesting to other people. Earlier in the writing process would have been a better time to blog ~ that's when all the exciting stuff happens! But at that point blogging would also have been an unwanted distraction. So I've just been updating about HP when something interesting happens, rather than sharing what's been going on for the last month or two...which includes weeding out excessive "to be" construction, clarifying time shifts, questioning my overuse of adjectives, and other "house-keeping" (boring but necessary) tasks.

As for the blog itself, I'm finding that I'm not sure where I want to keep its focus. If I'll return to focusing primarily on writing/teaching/etc., or if I'll keep it focused on the general doings of my life. I need to think about that. The blog is 1-year old now, so perhaps it's a good time to decide what I really want it to be.

But to answer the questions about HP...I am working on it. Every week. In some cases every day. Never fear! Progress is being made. It won't be long before I'm trying to pawn copies off on people and begging for feedback. So, what IS happening?

Well, I thought the first 100 pages were totally finished. But then I read a printed version of those first 100 pages...and for some reason reading something in print is a very different experience than reading something from a computer screen. I tell my students that all the time. In fact, I go so for as forcing my students to bring actual printed copies of their drafts to their writing groups, and then read those drafts out loud to each other. And when meeting with students, we always start by reading part of their work out loud. The flaws usually become immediately apparent. I'm not sure why that is. Perhaps when seeing something on a computer, your mind goes on auto-pilot and compensates for problems...or at least makes them easier to deny ("hmm, that doesn't seem right but nobody will notice"). But on paper it's far easier to read something the way other people will read it. It's kind of like the difference between purposely looking at yourself in a mirror versus accidentally catching a glimpse of yourself in a mirror. Know what I mean? So when revising this section on the computer, I was like "sure, that's good enough" and felt ready to move on. But by the time I finished reading it on paper, each page was covered with red ink, question marks, and frownie-faces.

Anyway. It needed some clean-up. Nothing creative or fun. Just proofreading. So that's what I'm doing now, and hope to finish today so I can finally move onto the middle part of the novel... which I've been talking about doing since last fall.

All this trouble will serve me well as an example next time I teach, when students suggest you can just read a paper over once and call it "revision."

Tall buildings, Impressionism, and Buddy Guy

Dave and I have returned from our escape to Chicago! What a swell way to celebrate my birthday. I'm going to be a lazy blogger and just list some of the fun things we did on our jaunt.

~ Took Amtrak down and passed the time listening to Devil in the White City on my iPod

~ Ate macaroni and cheese in the dining car (I've always wanted to dine on a train)

~ Deftly avoided most beggars

~ Had popcorn at Garrett's

~ Enjoyed brunch at the Signature Lounge on the 96th floor of the Hancock Building

~ Explored the Rookery and its Frank Lloyd Wright designed lobby

~ Ate hot dogs and chocolate cake at Portillo's

~ Saw authentic pirate ship treasure, dinosaur skeletons, almost every conceivable animal (in stuffed form), Egyptian sarcophogi (sp?), and took a stroll through the Earth's evolutionary history in the Field Museum of Natural History. Oh! They also had those cool plastic-molding machines that they used to have at Como Zoo!

~ Splashed around the fountains at Millenium Park

~ Saw French Impressionist, modern American, and modern European paintings at the Chicago Institute of Art (and yes, we did pose fittingly in front of American Gothic = see photo)

~ Saw these weird minature rooms at the Chicago Institute of Art...I can't describe them, nor did we think to take photos. They're like dollhouse rooms, except made with obsessive authenticity and craftsmanship, each room representing a specific country and time period

~ Saw Buddy Guy perform at his own blues club, and got his autograph

~ Successfully avoided shopping on Mag Mile (ok, I did stop in Macy's and Nordstrom's for somethings in particular but that was it)

~ Took tea at The Drake's Palm Room, and then spent the night (my birthday night) in one of their fancy-shmancy executive suites

~ Received a gorgeous (albeit cumbersome) bouquet of birthday flowers from wonderful Dave

~ At Oak Street Beach we fed a seagull some Garrett's Popcorn. He liked it.

~ On a blustery evening we walked along the lake to Navy Pier

~ Visited Navy Pier's stained glass museum

~ Took a skyline boat tour

Things we wish we had time for, but will have to wait until next trip:

~ Ride the El (didn't do it on this trip...we were within walking distance to just about everything and our hop on/hop off tour did the driving for us)

~ See more of Chicago's neighborhoods

~ Visit the Shedd Aquarium

~ Dave wants to see the submarine at the Museum of Science and Industry

~ Hit more nightlife (I was being kind of Old Lady on this trip; except for the blues club we took it easy at our hotel most nights)

~ Get some deep dish pizza (we did have stuffed pizza on this trip, but didn't make it to Pizzeria Uno or Gino's)

~ Do the architecture boat tour (and a history tour to boot)

~ Get on Oprah