This & That
It’s SO hard to focus. We’re trying to get ourselves up to speed on the new book—it’s simmering, and we need a rolling boil about now. But as usual, life in all it’s unpredictability, has a way of short circuiting the writing process.
Life has been quite a roller-coaster. We know—what else is new—for any of us?
There’s the personal stuff: Virginia’s mom, who right after her 85th birthday celebration had cataract surgery. Then she made a routine trip to the dentist who found a “suspicious lesion” on her tongue. The word “lesion” conjures up enough worry to feed all the fears you accumulate from gorging on episodes of ER, House, and Grey’s Anatomy. So many gruesome diseases to choose from! And even before the dentist said the next bad word, “biopsy”—you’re heading down the chute—it’s dark and scary and only bad things like cancer could possibly be at the end of that tunnel. Fortunately, in this case, that was not the case! Virginia noted on a status update several days ago, that her mom’s biopsy was negative! WooHoo! Turns out the “lesion” was the result of an ill-fitting partial dental plate which has now been corrected.
Whew.
Let’s get back to the new book.
Ooops! Not so fast.
Because just when we thought it was safe to go back in the water, Donna finds out her mom, who is still recovering from her car accident from last year, has to have---cataract surgery. And yes, it could be worse, we know that. And yes, an ophthalmologist recently said to Virginia that cataracts were a good thing—it meant the person had lived a long life and that everyone who lived long enough would get cataracts eventually. There’s nothing like the Asian perspective on aging to set you straight. Oh, and did we mention she also has to have a tooth extracted, and start the process of getting a dental implant? There’s more on the personal front, but you get the gist.
Then there’s the author stuff.
We got the news that we had received a great review in Publishers Weekly for What Doesn’t Kill You—(January ’09) Yippeeeeeeee! (We’ll post it later this week.) This of course made us very happy. Half hour later, we find out What Doesn’t Kill You will not have the cover we liked—no loved. Powers that be (too long a story for here) decided it wasn’t “quite right” and didn’t capture the spirit of the story, so it will have another cover altogether (We’ll post them both later this week too). Oh well. For those of you who ask if we get to decide our covers—this is your answer!
And there’s the election stuff.
As much as we would like not to be, we are consumed by this election. It’s ups, downs, twists and turns. Since we have been working together, there are just times when you have to stop and stare at the television, because what is happening is so extraordinary. Occasionally the situation is joyful, like watching Nelson Mandela walk out of prison after 27 years. Sometimes it’s surreal, like Clarence Thomas, Anita Hill and those pubic Coke hairs. Unfortunately, more often than not we are stopped by tragedy—watching SCUD missiles streak toward Bagdad during the first Gulf War, watching the aftermath of the Oklahoma City bombing, the first World Trade Center disaster, and the second. During this presidential election season, we have made our position and our candidate clear –we first stated it here a year ago. And what with the debates, the polls and the vice presidential follies there is news that invades our lives moment, by moment. We watch, read and talk. We call and email friends, family and strangers alike. We blog and repost articles. We remind EVERYONE we meet, EVERYWHERE we go to register to vote. Because it matters so very much. And because we will do whatever we can to keep “Caribou Barbie” from being one heartbeat away from the Oval Office and making America a more of a laughingstock to the world than we already are.
So, we do our best to focus, and ignore the 42 emails that come in with the latest political tidbits because we’ve got a book to write, a screenplay to review, other proposals we’re working on, movie money to raise, contracts to review. . .and did we mention the fiscal meltdown. The Dow is down 777 points today (too bad there’s no slot machine involved. Or is the stock market like one big craps table these days?) because the House rejected the economic bailout. Centuries old brokerage firms are DOA, people are losing their homes to foreclosure and what are there, like three banks left. . .
Life has been quite a roller-coaster. We know—what else is new—for any of us?
There’s the personal stuff: Virginia’s mom, who right after her 85th birthday celebration had cataract surgery. Then she made a routine trip to the dentist who found a “suspicious lesion” on her tongue. The word “lesion” conjures up enough worry to feed all the fears you accumulate from gorging on episodes of ER, House, and Grey’s Anatomy. So many gruesome diseases to choose from! And even before the dentist said the next bad word, “biopsy”—you’re heading down the chute—it’s dark and scary and only bad things like cancer could possibly be at the end of that tunnel. Fortunately, in this case, that was not the case! Virginia noted on a status update several days ago, that her mom’s biopsy was negative! WooHoo! Turns out the “lesion” was the result of an ill-fitting partial dental plate which has now been corrected.
Whew.
Let’s get back to the new book.
Ooops! Not so fast.
Because just when we thought it was safe to go back in the water, Donna finds out her mom, who is still recovering from her car accident from last year, has to have---cataract surgery. And yes, it could be worse, we know that. And yes, an ophthalmologist recently said to Virginia that cataracts were a good thing—it meant the person had lived a long life and that everyone who lived long enough would get cataracts eventually. There’s nothing like the Asian perspective on aging to set you straight. Oh, and did we mention she also has to have a tooth extracted, and start the process of getting a dental implant? There’s more on the personal front, but you get the gist.
Then there’s the author stuff.
We got the news that we had received a great review in Publishers Weekly for What Doesn’t Kill You—(January ’09) Yippeeeeeeee! (We’ll post it later this week.) This of course made us very happy. Half hour later, we find out What Doesn’t Kill You will not have the cover we liked—no loved. Powers that be (too long a story for here) decided it wasn’t “quite right” and didn’t capture the spirit of the story, so it will have another cover altogether (We’ll post them both later this week too). Oh well. For those of you who ask if we get to decide our covers—this is your answer!
And there’s the election stuff.
As much as we would like not to be, we are consumed by this election. It’s ups, downs, twists and turns. Since we have been working together, there are just times when you have to stop and stare at the television, because what is happening is so extraordinary. Occasionally the situation is joyful, like watching Nelson Mandela walk out of prison after 27 years. Sometimes it’s surreal, like Clarence Thomas, Anita Hill and those pubic Coke hairs. Unfortunately, more often than not we are stopped by tragedy—watching SCUD missiles streak toward Bagdad during the first Gulf War, watching the aftermath of the Oklahoma City bombing, the first World Trade Center disaster, and the second. During this presidential election season, we have made our position and our candidate clear –we first stated it here a year ago. And what with the debates, the polls and the vice presidential follies there is news that invades our lives moment, by moment. We watch, read and talk. We call and email friends, family and strangers alike. We blog and repost articles. We remind EVERYONE we meet, EVERYWHERE we go to register to vote. Because it matters so very much. And because we will do whatever we can to keep “Caribou Barbie” from being one heartbeat away from the Oval Office and making America a more of a laughingstock to the world than we already are.
So, we do our best to focus, and ignore the 42 emails that come in with the latest political tidbits because we’ve got a book to write, a screenplay to review, other proposals we’re working on, movie money to raise, contracts to review. . .and did we mention the fiscal meltdown. The Dow is down 777 points today (too bad there’s no slot machine involved. Or is the stock market like one big craps table these days?) because the House rejected the economic bailout. Centuries old brokerage firms are DOA, people are losing their homes to foreclosure and what are there, like three banks left. . .
Labels: bail out, Barack Obama, Dow Jones, financial crisis, mccain, mothers, Presidential Election, sarah palin, Wall Street
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