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Thanks so much to everyone who offered congratulations on the sale! |
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Paul Tremblay ![[info]](http://l-stat.livejournal.com/img/userinfo.gif?v=92.1) pgtremblayand I collaberated on a story that just sold to Weird Tales.
It's my first collaberation, and I loved it. After the story is published, maybe I'll talk about the story behind the story, which is interesting too, and the end result which, I think, is very sweet for many reasons.
The story is called "Figure 5." Look for it. |
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I think I've managed to get pics up on flickr, for those interested. Try this:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/anaparenna/
or this:
http://www.flickr.com/people/anaparenna/
Let me know if they don't work.
It was a dismal day for picture taking. Has been for a while. Soon, I will add pics of some of the more impressive houses in the area. Once I get this all figured out. Bleh. :D |
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Luckily, it's been raining for three days here, so I don't have to worry about the people setting off fireworks in the parking lot. There were some yelps of slight pain earlier when, I suspect, someone didn't step away from a lit fuse quick enough - nunna my business.
My New Year's Resolutions. I resolve to:
Teach more vocabulary, so students can complain more eloquently to their parents about what an unreasonable hag I am.
Stop baiting the weird science teacher with the wild-eyed, panicked expression every time I see him in the halls. (I grin, and say something as if we've had a previous conversation he should remember. "It's all about the entropy!" "It ain't sublimation until someone's wearing a lampshade!")
Spend more time at my new house. It's difficult...can't take anything there right now, really, because we'll be doing dry-wall soon, and that'll be dusty. So, mostly all I can do is go there and look at it. I can also sit on the floors. Can't wait to get the bathroom done, and I can move in. I filled 2 large garbage bags with leaves last time I was there, and didn't make a dent in the front porch, much less the yard. It's been neglected for 2 years. The neighbors, I think, were snickering at me as they barreled throught just-this-year's-leaves on their riding mowers.
I do resolve to get some pics of this neighborhood up soon as I figure out how to work my father's camera. There are some houses you just HAVE to see. And the ONLY movie theater in town. It's called the "Howard."
I dunno. It was a pretty good year. I did many of the things I wanted to do, or had resolved to do previously. I did something I hadn't planned on doing for another 6 months (buy the house), and it turned out all right. Kind of a no-brainer as far as resolutions go. Maybe I'll write something. Get my new website online, though the content at this point is pretty static. Little stuff. This year did right by me. I'll try to do right by the one coming up. It doesn't always have to end with a bang, I figure. |
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Gort!
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Dec. 27th, 2006 @ 09:55 pm
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I had to go look up "Klute" on the ol' imdb.com. A commentor said "Jane Fonda definitely deserved the Oscar she got for this role. Her portrayal of Bree Daniels, a tragic heroine wracked by inner contradictions is one of cinema's most haunting characters not only in the context of the story but as the embodiment of the immediate post sexual revolution as well."
Huh.
I could play with this one all night. |
| » A Little Christmas Eve Gossip |
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Remember Haven Gillespie? If not, you can check out these pages:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Haven_Gillespie
http://songwritershalloffame.org/exhibit_bio.asp?exhibitId=260
Basically, he's the fella that wrote "Santa Claus Is Coming To Town."
Family legend has it that Haven Gillespie was a friend of my father's step-father. Probably not a best friend, but more than a passing acquaintance. This is all family gossip, mind you. At some time past, I received some old music sheets of Haven's - copied piano scores, and what not - through odd sources that deserve their own story one day, with more explanation than I'm interested in giving here. My father has them in storage for me - they were willed to me by his step-father, back in my piano-playing days, when Grandpa Ted was alive and visited us. Some funny little "copyright cards" to go with some of them. And a wedding song he composed for "Ted and June" - my father's step-father and mother. It's a copy of an autographed copy with his signature and dedication on it: To Ted and June...(happiness and etc. blah, blah)...Haven. But it doesn't appear on any of his song lists, so I don't know the story behind that.
Well. As you can see by the second link, Haven was depressed by the death of his brother when he wrote "Santa Claus Is Coming To Town." The link says he was asked to write a children's Christmas song, and came up with it fifteen minutes later on the subway.
Now to the family gossip.
Family gossip says Haven later told my father's step-father that he was so depressed by his brother's death that he went out and got royally drunk. Absolutely plowed. And as he stumbled back to his hotel, he fell down in the snow. Across the street there was a Salvation Army Santa. And the Santa was ringing his bell up, and down, and up, and down. And saying:
You better watch out. Don't you cry. Santa Claus is coming. Santa Claus is coming to town.
And that's how he wrote the song.
Happy Holidays to everyone!
Dec. 24th, 2006 @ 07:54 pm
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| » In The Clear |
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Thanks so much to everyone for the well wishes! I got the word about an hour ago that the final son brought in his paperwork, so I'm in the clear with the house. Since I won't be moving in for a while, tomorrow I'm going to go play in the yard. :)
Dec. 22nd, 2006 @ 04:38 pm
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| » House Blather |
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( Read more... )
Dec. 21st, 2006 @ 08:29 pm
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| » Move That Bus! |
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They did a segment of "Extreme Home Makeover" just down the street from my mother's house. (I've seen portions of the show about 3-4 times.) Struggling family, 4 or 5 autistic children, Dad working 2 jobs, about to be foreclosed on, etc. A very sad situation. Today, while we had a family Sunday with grandparents and kids, we could hear them doing the "Move That Bus!" shout.
Later, my mother, my littlest cousin Samantha, and I went to see.
I'll say this: the new house is beautiful. But beautiful in a monstrous way.
This is a middle-class neighborhood of small, well-kept houses, built in the 80s I believe. 3 bedrooms, 2 baths, averaging about 1500-1700 square feet. They're mostly constructed of local stone, which is very pale and cut square*, and gingerbread fronts. Yards are neat, but not fancy, very individualized.
Somehow, they managed to put a 4,000 square foot house on one of these tiny plots. Mostly, I think, because they built it UP. It looms. The backyard, which we glimpsed, was cut down to about 7 square feet to fit it. No attempt was made, whatsoever, to fit this house into the neighborhood. It's some kind of dark, orangey-brown stucco with enormous, round, gray and black stones for accents - stone the likes of which don't come from anywhere in Texas. The garage doors are massive, medieval-looking wood with arched tops. There are medieval-looking lanterns hung over them, and another huge lantern hung over the front doorway. Another funny thing - they didn't landscape it well. They chose plants and flowers, trees and grasses which aren't native to Texas. They're going to take a LOT of watering come summer, but I figure most of them will probably die anyway just from exposure to the sun. They're all shade plants, but there's no shade.
I'm sure the family is thrilled. I hope this will be a good thing for them. (I don't want to know what the new utility bills will cost on a house that size, especially the water for the delicate plants and ornamental shrubs.)
But it just looks so ridiculous. My mother and I stood staring at it for a while, then looked up and down the street, then burst into giggles. My mom said, "It's so obvious this is about the show," and she was right. Honestly, with a little effort, they could easily have built a large house like this that at least would look complimentary to the neighborhood. This thing sticks out like a sore thumb, and it's a little surreal.
Also, the front yards of every house in front, to the sides, and for about a block leading to the site were completely destroyed. You could see where gardens had been trampled, lawns were worn down to dirt, and there was evidence here and there of Christmas decorations destroyed - light strings yanked out of trees, displays knocked over, and on one front porch a sad little row of broken things (light-up Santa, mangled wire deer) waiting to be hauled off to the trash. I would assume the show will make reparations somehow, but if their choice for landscaping is any indication, I think a few folks are going to be upset.
Strange world, isn't it?
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*Bit of Trivia:
One of the quarries where they get most of the stone for local housing developments is just behind my school. When they blast, the entire building shudders and, for a moment, feels like it's sinking. It's a weird, vertiginous sensation.
Dec. 17th, 2006 @ 09:36 pm
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| » Overheard |
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The Wag-A-Bag store clerk to the woman in front of me: "Well, I do have a degree in neo-classic literature, so I can pretty much tell you how the whole Stargate saga will eventually end."
I do not make this stuff up, folks. It just happens to me.
Dec. 15th, 2006 @ 07:46 pm
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