writing

Or as I affectionately call them, the booty awards. (Technically, the Book of the Year Awards.)

Since I put my name on the judging sheets and since I suspect I judged them harder than others did, I thought I'd write a note here about my philosophy on judging them.

To me, it's like judging the Olympics rather than the five-year-old competition or judging for the spot in the symphony rather than high school State orchestra. It's judging the books as published books, not against anyone who's ever typed a phrase.

On The Writer's View 2 (a yahoo group for writers where we discuss craft, market, and career), Cecil Murphey asked:

"'I want to be an excellent writer,' he said.
'What qualities make a writer excellent? How do I develop as a writer?'

Yesterday was a treat. The hot fudge sundae kind (with extra whipped cream).

I went to Dallas Theological Seminary to interview three professors (two of whom are also artists) for upcoming art and theology podcasts (keep a weather eye out for 'em!). These three people have influenced my life, my theology, and my art (in other words, me--if you can find the separating line between those three aspects, let me know). We had great conversations, the kind that makes you feel like home (and red ruby shoes).

My Name Is Asher Lev by Chaim Potok is a book I could read over and over and over again. There are so many levels. I can read it as a Christian in regards to living out my faith. I can read it as an artist in regards to working out my art and faith.

I've decided that any updates I find regarding art, writing, contests, etc., I'll keep up with on my Intersection blog so as not to crowd things around here (you wouldn't believe how cranky the owner here gets about crowding--she starts charging these extra squatting fees).

You can find that blog here. 

She read it with Grover's voice. Then, after straining her vocal chords, my mom usually lost her voice for a period afterward. (In fact, I'm not sure if my sister and I begged her to read the book because we loved the book or because we loved the after effects. Often, when she came to the end, we'd plead Read it again! Read it again! I see now how cruel we were.)

The book was about Grover not wanting to reach the end of the book because there was a monster at the end of the book! Oh, please, please, please don't turn the page, he'd say.

We'd turn it anyway.

Because I leave for Jersey tomorrow (yay!) and probably won't be able to do much with my blog until I get settled in Ocean City on Saturday, I thought I'd leave you with two posts on writing to check out:

Glimmer Train has a great article by Frederick Reiken, Separating Author, Narrator and Character, which is especially helpful for writing unreliable narrators, something I'm working on now.

Oh, and the author has a book called  The Lost Legends of New Jersey. You can bet I'll be checking that one out!

I started a new book last week! Writing the first few pages helped deteriorate the fear crippling me. I stalled and stalled knowing that what comes out on the page will never be what's in my head. It'll never be good enough.

I have to write anyway.

With that in mind, here's a peek into my life:

HarperCollins Gets into Social Networking

Millions of Readers Are Not Wrong 

What do you guys think?