Hitting the Books

I read an interesting anecdote about Toni Morrison recently. Supposedly, back when she was a struggling new writer, her baby spit up on her notepad, and she kept writing around the pile of gunk rather than lose the flow of the story. Now that I’m a new mother trying to get back into the writing mode while keeping the Punkin happy, I can so empathize with that story. I have discovered that it is near impossible to balance a squirmy 8-month old on one knee, type with one hand (on an ergonomic keyboard no less), and keep said Punkin from lunging at the keyboard with all her little baby strength and stubbornness. (Yes, she’s already figured out that a keyboard is fun to pound on, and all too often her pudgy little fingers come dangerously close to the ctrl-alt-del combination) Place child on the floor to play, and she wails. Wait until the child is asleep to write, and mommy wants little more than to crawl into bed too. Perhaps I should go back to writing out my stories long-hand. At least then I wouldn’t have to worry about baby spit shorting out the keyboard.

I’m faring better at getting in reading time (bottle and child in left arm, book propped open with right hand, or late at night when I’m too tired to be creative, but just awake enough to read). This week I started rererereading Robert Jordan’s excellent (if extremely and overly lonnnnggg–I started reading the series in college!) Wheel of Time series. I’m on Book 4 (The Shadow Rising) now and plan on reading all 10 in a row. Yes, 10. And he hasn’t finished the series yet. But he has time work on prequels (New Spring is the first of a projected 3) and comic book (also of New Spring). Despite how good the series is, I honestly believe he could have told the story just as well in fewer books. The subplots have just gotten way out of hand. Sometimes I have the sneaking suspicion he’s written himself into a few corners, and that’s why it’s taking him so long to wrap up all the loose ends. Anyhow, I plan to write a real review of the series (up to this point) when I finish. Which, at the rate I’m going, should be around the end of the month.

I should also (cross fingers, knock on wood) have S.M. Stirling’s Nantucket series done by then. I’m reading Island in the Sea of Time at our favorite local library–Borders. I almost got the book finished last weekend, but between feeding the Punkin, entertaining the Punkin, and making sure the Punkin didn’t try teething on my sandals, I didn’t quite make it.

Breaking News!!! I just found out that Wheel of Time Book 11, Knife of Dreams, is due out October 11. Perfect timing for me! And supposedly a lot storylines reconverge. Yahoo! Alas, Book 12 will be several months/years down the road. But I’m sure I’ll have plenty of things to occupy myself with in the meantime. Like a toddler and potty training and teaching the Punkin how to use the keyboard, not eat it.

This entry was posted on Thursday, September 15th, 2005 at 1:57 am and is filed under Book Reviews, Thoughts on Writing. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.