Better, stronger, faster.
October 14th, 2009 by SaraThis past summer, my beloved puppy dog passed away, leaving a corgi-shaped hole in my life. My husband and I’d had her for almost as long as we’d been a ‘we.’ Together, we’d moved across the country 3 times and lived in 5 different apartments. We’d been camping up in the mountains and out on the beach. And we’d curled up on the couch with hundreds of books. So it was hard to get used to life without her.
Around the same time, I started working on a new book, replacing familiar characters with new ones. Then my computer died, taking some of my writing with it.
It wasn’t until my friend Edith, who I wrote with twice a week, announced she was moving that I recognized everything in my life was shifting. I was not impressed.
Change is hard. And it seems to come all at once, disrupting your schedule, switching the scenery, and upsetting the balance. This is just the way life works. To move forward, life must change. Sad or happy, it’s inevitable. And this is true with writing as well.
Except with writing, we’re inflicting the change on ourselves. We rearrange the furniture. Kill off characters. Add new ones. It’s the nature of revision, but at times I find myself hesitating. What if I mess it up? What if the things that are good about my story get lost? Sometimes the story seems so close to being right, that it feels risky to change it.
But we have to.
If we want our stories to be everything we’ve imagined them to be in our heads… if I want the chance to share that story with the world… then we have no choice but to step forward. We have to take our story apart and put it back together again, trusting that what we rebuild will be stronger than before.
And the same is true with life. I will always miss my puppy. I will miss Edith and typing away next to her at the coffee shop. I will even miss my computer, bulky and covered with stickers. But as pieces of my life fall away, I have to believe that what is left, that what is coming next, will be strong and beautiful too.
Posted in Not-so-nifty happenings, Revision, SCBWI
October 14th, 2009 at 6:21 pm
Awww!!! Now you’ve made me cry! I love this pic of us. You should tape it to your new fridge & I’ll tape one to my new fridge when I get one. Best friends forever!!
October 15th, 2009 at 12:35 am
I love that picture too! You got a deal with the fridge pictures! Maybe I’ll put one on BOTH fridges:)
It feels like when it rains it pours, but we both have to have faith that this storm of change is shaking up our world and clearing the way for incredible things!
October 15th, 2009 at 2:30 am
Oh and when you come visit me in Somerville wear the Max suit! It’ll keep you warm. ;)
October 18th, 2009 at 8:11 pm
Okay, now I have the opening from the 6 million dollar man TV show going through my head… “We can re-build him. Better. Stronger. Faster!”
I love how (once again) you tied it all back to be about writing, and your process. I believe in you, and know all this change is going to bring you to amazing places!
Go, Sara! Go!!! (chu-chu-chu-chu-cha!) – err.. that’s my imitation of the sound Steve Austin made when running – or was that the sound that Jaime Sommers made when jumping?)
Namaste and a giant HUG,
Lee
October 20th, 2009 at 10:54 am
I like your sound effects! Nice! I’m totally picturing it now:)
One Penguin at a Time…
September 30th, 2009 by SaraDoesn’t this picture make you ANGRY! I mean how dare donkeys go to the police with their problems! Do they even pay taxes?
What?
Oh. What I meant was how dare William Steig portray the police as pigs! That is outrageous.
And this poem… it just really gets under my skin.
Clearly, it’s teaching materialism by advocating shopping as an exciting activity.
What?
Oh. I meant that Shel Silverstein is teaching our children to be disrespectful and downright malicious! This is terrible.
And how about these cute penguins?? They really make my blood boil! Cause they’re cute and they look like they’re smiling and we all know that penguins don’t smile.
And… um… tell me again what was wrong with the cute penguins?
Oh right. I hate it when books show happy families that love each other. Especially when they’re based on true stories. Those are the WORST.
Clearly picture books are tearing apart the fabric of America, one penguin at a time.
Posted in Banned Books, Books, Nifty happenings, Not-so-nifty happenings
September 30th, 2009 at 7:25 pm
Okay, I LOVE this post! What a great tribute to Banned Books Week. And aren’t those Penguins just outrageously cute?
Your Fan!
Lee
Laptop Noir: Part Deux
September 18th, 2009 by SaraOne broken hard drive. One stripped screw. One man with a mission…
Laptop Noir: Part Deux
Tools: Pliers, business card, hammer, screwdriver, drill.
Time: 2 Days, 2 fed-ex packages, and 1 trip to Home Depot.
Who: Previously mentioned Uber-Geek:Wizard of Ingenuity
*No dogs were harmed in the making of this film*
Posted in Nifty happenings, Not-so-nifty happenings
September 18th, 2009 at 11:34 am
i have to say, this turned out way better than i thought it would. thanks to Gawker (sourceforge project) for the time-lapse recording, ifixit.com for the excellent guide and map to tape down the 7 types of 22 different screws i had to pull, and amazon for the sweet torx set. no thanks to home depot for being a bunch of can-i-see-your-receipt-sir thugs, but thanks to dewalt for the sweet drill. oh, and to scott joplin for the inspired music (taken from the original player piano scrolls!)
September 18th, 2009 at 11:36 am
Thank you Tony! Nice rehearsal for your Oscar acceptance speech:)
What? No thank you to Swanya Thai for awesome Pad Thai and spring rolls?
September 18th, 2009 at 6:15 pm
What fun. Love the story and the time lapse video. Hate that you lost your draft.
I’m sure the new version will be much better anyway.
September 19th, 2009 at 9:10 am
Fantastic! I LOVE THIS. Tony, you are amazing – what a lucky girl Sara is. And I loved seeing the dogs in the background every once in a while. Brilliant. Five stars out of five. ;0)
September 21st, 2009 at 2:50 pm
Glad we can all find amusement in my pain;) At least it’s good for something!
Technical Tap
September 16th, 2009 by Sara
It was a Sunday, you see. A day so overcast it would make a raincloud wanna go tanning. Every hunch I ever had told me not to go into the office that morning. But I had a character stuck in a jam and stories wait for no woman. So, even though my nose was so stuffed it could’ve passed for a carnival prize, I still made the long trek across the house to get to my office.
But hunches never lie.
I heard the noise before I saw the trouble. A horrible gunk-gunk-gunk-gunk-gunk-gunk-gunk coming from my computer. Then I saw the screen. Frozen like a popsicle in the middle of winter.
Terror struck at my heart. Ice filled my veins. The truth cut at me with a horror so cliche that it would leave you all speechless.
I hadn’t backed up my new story.
“Help!” I screamed.
The door burst open and in strode my technically-adept husband, a man so geeky that Velociraptors mongoliensis run in fear. But it turns out, even the good guys have their kryptonite.
“Hard drives…” he gasped. “My only weakness.”
“Keep it together man!” I said, giving his handsome mug a smack.
He shook off the panic and glared down at that computer like it was a gunslinger a second after high noon. “Maybe I should teach it a lesson it won’t soon forget.”
And without flinching, he gave my computer a technical tap.
Wham!
Gunk-gunk-gunk-gunk-gunk-gunk-gunk.
My husband shook his head, turned his back on the sound, and ordered a new hard drive at the first stop off the information superhighway.
Sometimes the bad guys get thrown in the slammer. Sometimes the guy does get the girl. Sometimes the good guys do win the good fight.
But today wasn’t one of those days.
I sighed, slumped in my chair, and pulled out a pen. It was time to take matters into my own hands.
Posted in Not-so-nifty happenings, Writing
September 16th, 2009 at 4:13 pm
Oh no! That’s awful! So there’s no hope of recovering the data?
September 16th, 2009 at 4:22 pm
No, sweetheart. It’s gone like an ice cube in a volcano. Like a shoeshine after recess. Like health insurance when you need it. Gone!
But that’s okay. At least it was just first draft stuff… it was chapters I’d written quickly to figure out plot. Only real problem is facing that blank page again! Thanks for the sympathy!
September 16th, 2009 at 11:49 pm
Awesome ending, awesome voice. What could be more noir.
Funny, when I had my hard drive problem, one of my most technically savvy friends gave me the sage advice that some hard drives really do respond to a “technical tap.”
Mine was not one. But it’s good to know you tried everything!
September 17th, 2009 at 7:48 am
Hahahaha! This is awesome! Well, not the situation, but your retelling of it. Dark humor can save us from even the most horrible of fates! I have every confidence that your book will come out bigger and better in round two. And as someone who’s recently faced a blank page after god knows how many revisions, if I can do it, you, my far braver and more fabulous, friend can too!
September 17th, 2009 at 8:31 am
Far braver and more fabulous, Edith? I think not! Thanks for the confidence though:)
Rita: I’ve seen the ‘technical tap’ work a few times… most recently with the hard drive in tony’s ipod. It’s a sight to behold!
September 18th, 2009 at 5:17 pm
my dear,
only you could turn a tragedy into an engaging page turner!!
oh, and “Yay” for son #1!
No One May Ever Have the Same Knowledge Again
September 2nd, 2009 by SaraAs I write this, the historic Mt. Wilson Observatory is in danger of being overtaken by fire. The “Station fire” has been burning for more than a week in southern California and it’s been an exceptionally terrible fire, consuming houses, leading to the death of firefighters, and turning the afternoon light a very wrong color of orange.
Through all this, the Mt. Wilson Observatory has been a focus, partly because, until yesterday, it had a webcam that updated every 2 minutes, giving you a kind of real time stop-motion animation of the fire. But while most people have been talking about the communication towers that are at risk on the mountain and what a fire might mean to television stations, radios, and cell phones, my mind keeps going back to a strange little exhibit I saw at the Museum of Jurassic Technology.
Now for those of you who have never been there, the Museum of Jurassic Technology is one of the weirdest place perhaps anywhere. Squeezed in between a run-down rug store and an office building is the museum’s ornately gated doorway with a little fountain decorating the wall. When you step inside, the line between reality and fantasy instantly blurs. Most of the museum has a slightly turn-of-the-century, occultish feel to it. The exhibits, while factual in nature, are designed in a way that make you question the meaning and realness behind them.
For example, one exhibit chronicles, in detail, the life of two people who never met but who, at a one pivotal moment in their lives, were at the same place at the same time. An operatic concert performed at the Igassu Falls in Argentina.
Another exhibit shows micromosaics by Henry Dalton, created entirely out of butterfly scales, which you can only view using a microscope.
But the exhibit I’m thinking of is in a small, closet-like room. Its walls are covered with letters sent to the Mt. Wilson Observatory between 1915 and 1935. They are strange rambling notes from different people, all who had discovered the secrets of the universe and felt compelled to share them with the scientists at the observatory.
It sounds crazy, but there’s a conviction, and often a poetry, to the letters that makes them cling to your mind. For example, in one letter, a man, Edward, writes, “Etholeum – The base of all existance – it is One with Electricity and There is no place where It does not exist. It is the conduit of The Light between all of the planets and thru the telephone and the radio and without it There would be no Earth Because there would be No sound. to be transferred between”
In another letter, Mrs. Alice May Williams urgently writes, “I want to tell you I am not after money & I am not a fraud. I believe I have some knowledge which you gentlemen should have. If I die my knowledge may die with me, & no one may ever have the same knowledge again.”
The writer in me wants to know what this woman knew, who she was.
Did she hold some secret that is now gone forever? Is the world a lesser place without it? A lump of a sadness forms inside me for the possibilities that have been lost.
As the fire rages here in the hills outside of Los Angeles, consuming buildings and lives, that sadness becomes a tangible pall over the city. Ash drifts down on us and an amber moon holds vigil. Homes and forests and people are gone that should not be gone. And no one may ever have the same knowledge again.
Posted in Not-so-nifty happenings, Writing
September 2nd, 2009 at 7:28 pm
Beautifully said, Sara.
The orange light.
The knowledge lost.
poetic.
Sigh.
Thanks for sharing,
Namaste and a Hug,
Lee
September 2nd, 2009 at 11:44 pm
Thanks, Lee! The fire has definitely put me in a pensive mood. And your comment was pretty poetic itself:)
September 4th, 2009 at 2:00 am
This is great, Sara, because now when people ask me about the fires and if they’ve impacted me, I’ll just say “What she said!”
I have seen that exhibit, too, though I didn’t remember that quote. But it is perfect for the occasion. If you could’ve gotten the guy howling like a wolf into the post, too, that would’ve been even more impressive than it already is….
September 5th, 2009 at 12:49 am
Greg, I can’t even tell you how hard I tried to work that howling guy into the post…I even have a postcard of that exhibit. But I just couldn’t explain it in ANY way that made sense. Hmmm… maybe cause it doesn’t? But it is definitely my favorite thing at the museum:)
Oh… and Thanks:)
September 5th, 2009 at 12:52 am
I had forgotten the letter until I read your post which makes me hopeful the knowledge is not lost, just forgotten until a spark ignites a memory in someone, somewhere.
Thanks for the post Sara, it beautifully sums up the surreality of the last week.
September 5th, 2009 at 12:53 am
Very beautifully written-thanks!
To Mary: interesting choice of words–I hope memory is the only thing “spark”ed . . .
September 5th, 2009 at 12:54 am
Beautifully written. Sad to think of all the wonderful places and things that have been lost forever, except hopefully in memories that can be captured.
Tricksters Afoot?
August 14th, 2008 by SaraSo I was out jogging this morning… or is it ‘yogging’ with a soft J?
Well, anyway. I was out jogging and a RAVEN (yes, that’s right, a giant, fat raven) landed on my head.
Out of friggin’ nowhere!
As you may guess, I shrieked like a little girl and batted at my head, though by then the raven (not crow or cuddly pigeon or anything) had already taken off.
Then he just sat there on a nearby fence, pretending like nothing’d happened. But I knew it and he knew and my poor head knew it. Their claws are very sharp, take my word for it.
Just in case it was the Angel of Really Bizarre Warnings or a trickster god in disguise, Tony and I turned around and jogged the other direction. You don’t want to mess around when there are foreboding avians on the loose! Maybe today’s a good day to go back to bed…
Posted in Not-so-nifty happenings
August 15th, 2008 at 1:03 am
Hahahahahahahahaha!! I told Damon about this, and he laughed very hard.
Did the trickster get you to agree to any deals or bets while you were shrieking and waving? ‘Cuz I’d watch out for that, next time . . . :D
August 15th, 2008 at 9:14 am
Hehe
At your expense… that’s delightfully bizzare :)
August 17th, 2008 at 11:16 am
I like the theory that it was trying to mate with you!
Sigh….
April 25th, 2008 by SaraSigh…
Today in the mail, I received the bane of a writer’s existence. “Your work was given careful consideration by one of our editors, and we are sorry to say that we do not feel like it is right for our list.” ARGGGGGGG!
The form letter has the power to derail you like nothing else. That’s because it is exactly that, nothing. You can’t fight back against it. You can’t rage against its harsh judgment. You can’t even scream ‘THEY’RE WRONG.” It’s pretty hard to argue against a non-opinion about your work.
And, of course as writers, we start imagining. Picturing the assistant editor’s assistant who looked at your pages. She sneered at them. She didn’t even bother getting to the second paragraph. She just cackled evilly to herself.
“I wouldn’t sully my pen by writing a single word on this manuscript. The ink would probably eat through those terrible metaphors anyway. How dare such filth be sent to this fine establishment! Ban the Sara-woman for life!”
I will not let the reality of my experiences and conversations with perfectly nice editors get in the way of my imagination either. The assistant is actually a dragon, sitting in her cave, surrounded by manuscripts instead of treasure. She roasts the truly despicable ones… I can even see the singe marks around the edges of my story now. Can’t you?
Whew. I’m actually feeling pretty lucky now. I’m sure the worst authors get kidnapped and skewered for dinner. At least, I escaped that fate.
Flap. Flap. Flap. Do you hear that strange noise?
AHHHHHHHHHHH!
Posted in Not-so-nifty happenings, Writing
April 28th, 2008 at 9:26 am
Sara,
let’s take a little of that WHUMP! WHOMP! energy from the drumming and open up the can of WHUMP *$$ motivation they mailed you with that lame form rejection letter.
Think about this: the best revenge will be success, HUGE success!
You are a great writer, and they just lost out on something really special.
So, WHUMP! WHOMP! On to the NEXT prospect – you’ve got the gold, you just need to find the right editor, editor’s assistant, and assistant to the assistant editor who KNOW treasure when they’ve got it in their hands!
So take that rejection letter, put it on the floor, and STOMP on it!
WHUMP!
YOU ARE A DRAGON, TOO!
WHOMP! WHUMP!
And you’ve GOT the treasure, by golly!
WHOMP! WHUMP! WHOMP!
GIVE A GOOD ROAAAR, AND SOAR INTO THE SKY!
You’ll get there. I KNOW it.
Your fan,
Lee
“I’m drivin’ on sunshine. Oooo-ooo.”
December 5th, 2007 by Sara
Biodiesel.The great misunderstood nectar.
A year and a half ago, Tony and I bought a 2003 Jetta Volkswagon so that we could run biodiesel. Luckily, in Califonia there are quite a few gas stations that sell B99. We’ve been running the car almost completely on biodiesel since, with the occasional emergency diesel fill-up.
It’s been great… until 2 weeks ago. Then our lovely Jetta, the glorious ‘Dr. Who,’ wouldn’t start. The problem probably has to do with the kind of diesel California used to sell before we bought the car having a argument with the kind of diesel California sells currently, being mediated, unsuccessfully, by the biodiesel. Love triangles always end in tragedy!
We talked a friend into helping us change the fuel filter (thanks Ryan!), but that was a no go. Then we towed it to the Volkswagon dealership. 2 days later they tell us, first that it might be a $2500 job, then that they won’t touch our car because it runs biodiesel. Yeehaw!
So we’re doing what we should’ve done in the first place. Taking it to an independent mechanic that has experience with biodiesel and no prejudices (or corporate lines).
Has any of this soured me on biodiesel? No.
With biodiesel, I can feel good about my choices. The fuel is usually reprocessed waste oil from vegetable products. When it burns, I’m returning the same oxygen and CO2 that was used by the plants in the first place. The crops used the gases from the atmosphere to grow, my car put the gases back into the atmosphere, and future crops will take it out again. Anyone else hear “The Circle of Life” playing in the background?
I’m functioning inside a closed system, instead of adding gases and pollutants from oil that has been in the ground for millions of years. Biodiesel’s not perfect, but it’s a start. And also, no one is invading Kansas in order to gain control of its soybean fields.
So. Hopefully, our clean vehicle will be back on the road soon and, even more hopefully, for less than $2500 dollars. Cross your fingers and eat your vegetables. Or at least let your car eat them.
Posted in Nifty happenings, Not-so-nifty happenings
December 11th, 2007 at 11:35 am
Great title for this post.
Great post!! Sorry to hear about your car troubles. You know I’m a big fan of your veggie car!! (So is D!)
:D
R
Let’s put the dishes in the dishwasher!
December 3rd, 2007 by Sara
*****
Ewwww! Slimy. Grimy.
Oooey. Gooey. Sink stacked full.
Think I’ll get take-out.
*****
Posted in Not-so-nifty happenings
December 5th, 2007 at 11:33 am
It’s a great picture and I know that you asked out of curiosity… but thanks for being my artistic conscience:) I ‘borrowed’ it from another website that had ‘borrowed’ it, uncredited. I can plead being in a hurry, so I didn’t track down the source, but really it was laziness. But without much trouble I found the artist, as I should have the first time. Leigh Wiener is the photographer and if you click on the picture it will take you to the fantastic website. Thanks Rita!
December 8th, 2007 at 10:11 am
Ha!
I wonder how she got into my apartment 12 years ago to take that photo! (Married life had made me sooo much neater!)
Lee
What would you bring?
October 24th, 2007 by Sara
I stare mesmerized at the tv. Orange flames erupt from everything. Skeletons of houses blaze and tumble into ashes. All those homes. All those people.
I wrack my brain, trying to think of where all my friends live. Who might need help. Who might need a place to stay. Meanwhile, the days stay hot. Golden light filters 
through the clouds. Like it’s late afternoon all the time. Like some holy sign will be delivered from heaven, any second.
What would you take if you just had a minute? How about five minutes? An hour? I load up imaginary computers, manuscripts, stuffed animals, photographs into my imaginary truck as I go through the fantasy again and again. Switching love letters for a picture album this time. Leaving my favorite necklace that time.
Over and over again. Until it’s a mantra. Until it’s a story.
As a story, I can understand it. Wrap my head around it. What would this character save? Who started it? Did they feel guilty? Happy? Terrorized? I create a parallel world inside my head, but in this one, I have control. I can let everyone escape unharmed. I know the awful mistake that started it all. I can douse the flames when I need to.
But it is only the illusion of control. So I go over the scenario again. The dogs, my laptop, medicine… What would you bring?
*Pictures from the Los Angeles Times*
Posted in Not-so-nifty happenings, Writing
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