Twilight

WARNING: Pessimistic Blog!

So I got this book, young adult, of course, since that's what I write and I like to read my genre. It had several things going for it: 1) Cool cover, black and white image of hands holding a red apple, 2) girl moves to a new town only to discover vampires live there, 3) 570 pages (doesn't that mean a bunch of people thought it would be a worthy volume??), and 4) good press.

It took me forever to wade through the first 300 pages. I don't even know why I kept reading. I liked the characters okay, but it really seemed like the author Stephenie (with all e's) Meyer was trying to write out a girlhood fantasy about loving a vampire boy with beautiful white skin and rippling muscles. He's dangerous and so beautiful. No one understands him. No one knows the pain he's suffered through.

Fine. I can buy into that for a while. But really, after 100 pages or so I started really wondering what the book was supposed to be about. There has to be more conflict than forbidden love in a vampire story. Bella hears all of the stories about Edward Cullen and his family and is intrigued. Okay. What else? So about 2/3 of the way through, there finally was some real drama when a small group of nomad vampires discovered Bella among the Cullen family and the main nomad vampire James wanted to get him some of that.

The book could have been a great suspense tale of about 300 pages, but the author felt the need to set up what I think she thought was some intricate character details. Really I didn't feel like the background of any of them needed to be as drawn out as it was. The humans, anyway. She needed more background on the vampire characters.

But good news! There's a sequel. My Woman says I can't read it. Apparently I bitched too much about this one as I read. But I probably will check it out. I do like the story about the Cullens and their little vampire commune.

Naturally the thing that gets me the most is that this book was published with what I consider MASSIVE editing problems. I think it could have been the stellar read that so many teen girls are saying it is. But as it is, it's far too wordy and convoluted. And it's too bad. I think she's really onto something with her vampire commune. I hope the sequel is better. Maybe she'll pull a JK Rowling and just get better with each book.

There, I tried to end on a more non-pessimist note. Did it work?

 

So you might notice that this is not Lilah. We got horrible news today about Lilah. She has a utero-sphincter disability (which means she can't control when she pees or poops), or so they think. (Remember when she piddled on me the first time I met her? Also check out the poo on my green American Eagle shirt from the second time we met her.) The breeder offered to let us have her for the money we've put down, but she said she'd understand if we didn't want her since taking her would mean $1000 or more surgery and months of problems. We had to decide against getting her. With all of the bladder problems with Riley last year and after just putting Maggie down, we really can't handle anything taxing. Potty training will be hard enough. The good news was that the breeder said they would keep her; they aren't going to put her down, thank God. So we decided today to look at other puppy options. We went out to Princeton today to visit another breeder. This is his only 7 week old female. What's weird is that the moment he handed her to me, I knew she could be my dog. She was sweet and playful and so cute. We spent about an hour there, most of it playing with the dog. Tentatively we have named her Kayleigh. We can't pick her up until next Friday, but I think that'll be good. A week with just Riley and Shelby means I can read a little between trips to school and my dad's. By the way, this picture does not do her justice. She's adorable. And she's "red" or "foxy" as some breeders call it. I don't think she looks very red, but maybe when she's older.  

We're waiting for incoming geese...or an alien ship...or cookies from the sky... 

I think the Woman likes this puppy... 

I already love her. 

So the day is here when we have to let Maggie go. She is 13, has a hefty throat tumor which is pushing on her jugular vein, has fluid in her lungs and abdomen, and has a heart murmur. We keep telling ourselves we're doing the right thing and that she is in pain. It's really hard to let her go after all this time together. We brought her home on August 10, 1993, when we were both only 22 and not even married yet. We knew nothing about raising a puppy and made a lot of mistakes. But Maggie grew into a fabulous dog, despite her extreme fear of electrical cords and football games. We got her a companion in 1995, Shelby. She both loves and hates Shelby. I think Maggie's absence will be felt the most by Shelby, who has only ever known our home with Maggie in it. We have only a few hours left with Maggie. I hope she knows how much we love her and I hope she understands that we think we're doing the right thing for her. Goodbye, Maggie. You were my first dog after I lost my childhood dog. You represent everything good in the past 13 years, and you're an awesome dog. 

Chillin' under the picnic table with Riley. 

Mom gives the girls Frosty Paws. 

Going to the park for the last time with her life-long pal Shelby. 

My little cousin Elle saying goodbye to Maggie last Wednesday. 

Maggie's last walk. 

Heidi, Mariah, and Chris saying goodbye to Maggie on Saturday night. 

My dad saying goodbye to Maggie last night. 

Content

There are some days when life makes sense and when things don't seem like they're going to be that bad. Today was an inspiring day. Nothing big happened, but everything went along smoothly.

This morning, as we have been for the past two weeks, the Woman and I took Riley to Lake Harriet. It's about 3 miles around. We park the car and take the dog and a backpack with water for us all. We go about half way around to the Pavilion where we stop for water, then go the rest of the way back to the car. I sweat like crazy, but I think that's good. Today the Woman and I talked about work. I had to go in for a meeting yesterday, so we talked about some of that stuff. She always seems to know more than I do about education. I use her as a resource, mostly.

After the walk, we had cereal together. We spent the afternoon apart; she had to meet with her new student teacher and I had a meeting with the Yams (my writing group). I got some decent feedback from the Yams and gave them a type-up of the notes I took during my Madison conference week.

Now we're watching rereuns of Smallville and just finished enchiladas for dinner. The dogs are all here and the house is nice and cool even though it's 95 degrees outside.

Nothing much, but I feel inspired to write, and I feel inspired to eventually have a kid. One of the Yams brought her son along. He's a little over one and he's a sweetheart. I've met him off and on over the last year and he just gets cuter each time. I think I could be a decent father if we ever have one of our own. I think the lack of sleep will kill me, but I think I'll be fairly patient.

Big doings on Smallville. Got to go.

Superman Returns

I went to see Superman Returns with Mara and my friend J. (I will use "J" as he refers to me as "M" on his site.) I was expecting nothing.

When I was a kid, I really really liked Superman the Movie with Christopher Reeve and I liked Superman II even more (campy, though it is). I even put up with Richard Prior in Superman III because I liked Reeve so much in the role of Superman. I was devastated when Reeve had his accident, though I never really said anything to anyone and I didn't blog about it. It was so unfair. Such a freak accident. And he was such an athlete. Heartbreaking.

So when Superman Returns finally became a movie (and thankfully without Nicolas Cage as the man of steel), I was prepared to be unmoved as Reeve was no longer Superman (and passed on, to boot). I was so happily surprised. I really enjoyed the movie. Kevin Spacey is always a favorite of mine, and I thought his Lex Luthor was great. He was funny and yet he gave me the creeps at the same time. And Brandon Routh (is it Brandon?) was such a good choice for Superman. I think for some of the movie, he was playing Christopher Reeve, but that was okay with me.

And I was pleased that they didn't cop out and make Richard White a jerk so it would be "easy" for Superman and Lois to be together. Lois wouldn't be with a jerk, and Richard was actually an okay guy who cared about her and their son.

Cool movie. I want to see it again before it is out of theaters. I loved all the little hat tips to Superman the Movie. Very cool.

A picture from the breeder. Lilah with her litter mates. They are all so adorable and so fun. Jesse (black) and Jason (yellow) are both male. Jason is sold, but Jesse isn't, and honestly when we were visiting with them, Jesse was the funnest of the three. So playful and lovable. I wish I new of a good home to give him to. Mara says we can't have him... 

Lilah and me. We're picking her up in a week or so. I'm trying not to think about all of the early mornings and spots on the rug. I'm trying to think about her playing with Riley and looking cute like she does in this (and every) picture. What a little sweetie! 

This is the shot that makes me realize there's no way we can back out of getting this little puppy. Apparently she knows I'm already attached to her. 

Mystery/Horror/Thriller/Suspense workshop

So I signed up to take a writing workshop in Madison at the University there. I was hoping to get some help with a novel I'm working on about a serial killer. So when I saw the listing of thriller and suspense along with mystery and horror, I thought I'd have a good shot at getting some concrete ideas.

The professor I'd met in November at a writing weekend. He was knowledgeable and witty. Unfortunately during the mystery writing week, he seemed more interested in chatting with the stay-at-home moms and retirees than actually giving us any sort of instruction. By the second day, it was a little better, by the third a bit more. But with only five days during the week, we ran out of time for learning before I got much out of him. I went through his guide of curriculum he said he was going to teach, and I circled the things he hadn't covered. I picked three of them I wanted him to be sure to do, and asked him on Thursday. Friday he showed us the structure of a mystery story, and everyone in the class was writing voraciously and asking questions. I wished the professor would have done this on the first day. He was clearly smart and a good teacher...it felt like he'd entered retirement a little early.

I did get a semi-decent plot out of the week. He gave us optional writing assignments each day, and I strung them together into a new novel. It needs massive work, of course, but it could be something some day.

I didn't get much for my serial killer book, though. I've been working on it since I got back from Wisconsin. It's slow going. I wish I had more initiative or motivation or whatever it takes to get going.