Almost the New Year

Hello. God I'm bad about blogging. I need to just get into the habit of blogging. Period. Though, I really never have much to say about my life, and if anything, it's about a book or film or TV show or band...etc. Well, maybe I'll start blogging about that more often. Right now, during this winter break, I've read a lot of stuff, watched a lot of stuff, wrote a lot of stuff, and thought about a lot of stuff. Plus I went to Vegas.

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I briefly talked about The Road last blog. But I've been thinking about the book and how it was written (I need to read more from Mr. McCarthy), and they way emotion was shown through mostly the outward impression, and the characters--while being the main focus--were just pieces of the landscape. The novel is so bleak, but as a reader I couldn't put it down. It was hope. The hope in the novel is false hope--hope that at the sea things will be warmer and better--because in the end the only hope is to stay alive. There is no colony, there is no group of scientists looking for a way to reboot the world. Everything is gray and disintegrating. There were no explanations, no reasons. Just a boy and his son, trying to stay alive. I found myself constantly becoming a part of the novel. When they found food and stuff, I found it. When they were looking and couldn't find anything, I felt hungry or disappointed. This novel connects you to the characters, but not through their emotion or thoughts, but through their actions; the struggle to stay alive, the struggle to remain hopeful, even if, in the end, it is kind of pointless...or is it?

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I just finished reading The Lovely Bones. Which, by the way, you all need to read if you haven't. See it before the film, because I think it might be different. I think Peter Jackson is great, but I'm afraid the films going to be more of a mystery and a clue-hunt, rather than the story it really is. There are no chases. There are no court justices or revenge. It is all about little victories and enormous tragedies. It's an easy read. Em and I read it in two days each.

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I read three of Ian's stories this week. And they were rad. I actually found myself laughing at loud at some of his scenes. Two seem to fit within a post-college narrative. The stacks however, was a very interesting young-adult story. I dug them and want to read more. So, Ian. Send 'em.

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I just finished the first (readable draft of The Story Thief) and sent it to my friends. For those of you who did not get it and read this, email me and I'll send it. There's a big chunk of the book that I'm thinking needs a lot more work...and I'll probably be working on that pretty hard while the novels in everyone's hands. There's a scene with a gas truck that I forgot about. That I never wrote down, but has been floating in my head, and their's a connection the BIG flashback that I hadn't really figured out, till last night when I couldn't sleep...so...It's exciting. I wrote the first sentence in November 07.: "They were lying boys." I wrote the title that September. "The Story Thief." And started writing the story January 08. I've had a lot of help from my fellow grad students and I don't think it would be what it is without their help (and I wouldn't be the writer I am without them).

It feels good to have that done...for now. I got a good bunch of work once I hear back and once I start working on that bigger section.

But for now, I can breathe.

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My Novel/Collection of Stories/Novella Bumping (aka How we Started Bumping) is in the process of review at a small press. Well, the query's been approved and I'm sending the proposal and first four chapters this week. Now that I started writing in 06...maybe 05. My friend at Home Depot started telling about his life in gangs and drugs in Whittier, CA. I wrote down everything, started writing, writing, writing. I had a ton of stories about the gang stuff, and even wrote a screenplay with him and Caleb. But in the end, the most interesting stuff to me was his time as a tweaker. And that is what happened to Bumping. There's a lot of reference to the loss and violence of their life in Bumping, but it never fully explores it. I wonder what the staff of the press will think. Otherwise, they might make me explore that more. We'll see.

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I wrote a ton, ton, TON of poems over the break. Trying to detached myself from a project (I haven't wrote something outside of a project in over 5 years...everything has been for one project or another). So I wrote a good 70 poems over the break. Honestly, though, I think about 20 were good, which I revised and sent out. The rest need a lot of work. And I'll think I'll bring those into the workshop this semester. I also started taking my old thesis We're Not Murderers (a screenplay) and started adapting it into fiction. I'm not sure how it will work, but we'll see. I think it could be interesting. I want to explore different ways of narrating. Having one section be from the POV from the house, the gun, and the car. I'm not just, though.

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I just started watching the Wire. Jesus. (I'm speechless).

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I got some dishes to do and some cooking, and some cleaning, so I better get going. I'm think we're gonna watch Away We Go tonight or tomorrow. Then, hopefully, more of The Wire.

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Indie is staring at me from the chair. I better go.

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Love,

Joshua