2008: It sure was a year, wasn't it?

[owlectomy]

I moved to New York, camped out on my sister's futon, started a new job at BPL, haunted Craigslist for apartments.

Found one at long last, and moved into a four-bedroom with what turned out to be five gradually rotating strangers.

I tried to catch my balance, retain my sanity.

Went to Wiscon, which was lovely except for the plague.

Accepted that I would have to go forward, writing or not writing, without the hope or expectation of being published.

And then, quite suddenly: got an agent. Sold two novels.

I didn't have time to come down from that high before Diana came up from Washington to see Equus, and incidentally interviewed for a job. "Roommates," I said: "Best idea ever or worst idea ever?"

Well, if it was the worst idea ever I sure don't know about it yet.

Found an apartment. Broke my finger. Discovered that it was worse than it looked.

Knit on the subway, read many good books and a handful of great ones, haunted Kinokuniya, wandered around Union Square and the East Village, remained infatuated with New York, played a ton of Rock Band, and finally -- at 9:30 last night -- got to the end of one, just one, Japanese novel.

Comments

[worldserpent.livejournal.com]

Congratulations on all of this! Especially selling the novels.

Oh, so what did you think of the first Saiunkoku novel?

[takumashii.livejournal.com]

I'm still undecided, actually. It is very much the kind of thing I like, if only the author wrote a little better and left out the cheap tricks to build suspense. There were some very good parts, and by the end I did care what happened to everybody, so I may as well read another volume or two if I can find them used.

[worldserpent.livejournal.com]

She does become a stronger writer, as far as plotting and characterization go, but yeah, I agree with you on the writing and cheap tricks. Actually what makes her worth reading IMHO is that she's good at building on the previous stuff and making it all very complicated (in a good way), and building suspense within the character relationships. Anyway, if you get tired of reading but still want to find out what happened to the characters, you can try renting the anime or something. The first season is a fairly faithful rendition of the novels, although there are some minor things changed and shifted around.