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August 14, 2006
IN AUGUST WE TRUST
Today needs to be recorded in my diary as the day when I thought that I wouldn't be able to write a word but found myself adding my daily (which has become every-other-daily) quota to current novel. I am surprised, given the number of extra tasks that I have to take on for the family business, that the novel keeps accumulating.
A week ago, I decided on a moratorium on social events. Yes, I said, this will not do. All social engagements have to be organized around other necessary activities ( for example, excercise) so all those catch-ups had to be during walks. That went by the wayside because when one is flat-out busy, the time to unwind cannot be pre-planned--it gets taken when it can.
Movies to see: Don't Come Knocking the film from Wim Wenders (also see photos and interview in the summer Zoetrope All-Story). The Australian film Jindabyne was extremely good (except for the music which called attention to itself) based as it was on the Raymond Carver short story, So Much Water So Close To Home. Finally, a wonderful debut film Brick, from director Rian Johnson, a kind of noir mystery, screenshots like panels from a graphic novel.
Seen in Carlton bookshop READINGS: Copies of Agni 63 on the shelves. If you did not know they were there, you do now and if you live in Melbourne, you do not have any excuse now not to go and check it out. Great introduction by Sven Birkerts--I always feel, reading his intros, as if I am sitting inside his head and looking out. Also seen was the new issue of wet ink, a magazine of new writing from Adelaide. Check this one out as well -- it is bound to please (plus they have a poetry comp).
Read recently: An article from William T Vollman in the online Poets&Writers where he talks about 'writing with integrity, bending genres, and humanizing the villains'. Absorbing reading. As is this article here, Leaping the Abyss -- Stephen Hawking on black holes, unified field theory, and Marilyn Monroe -- that I found while I was doing some research for my current novel.
Aside from all of this, I have been perusing maps of the US, realizing that any mental pictures I might have made, any geographical maps based on novels read, might not be the full information. Four weeks from now, I leave for the US to write/collaborate/meet writers and friends, to do readings in New York and Boston and perhaps in Greenwood (?), as well as attend the Words and Music Festival in New Orleans (remember I mentioned being finalist for the Faulkner Awards for the novel).
Busy busy busy.
Posted by girija at August 14, 2006 09:23 PM
Comments
Thank you for the link to Vollmann's interview. Very interesting.
Posted by: Jeremy Hatch | September 7, 2006 04:39 AM
Hi Girija, I'm popping in for the very first time and thought I'd say hi! This is a great looking site, with lots of great writing, too.
Posted by: kathryn | September 9, 2006 01:34 AM