4 November 2009

I enjoyed Animal Dreams and Prodigal Summer, the two Barbara Kingsolver novels I’ve read.  Animal, Vegetable, Miracle is one that’s been recommended to me several times over, so it’s on my (mental) list.  Lots of to-do about her new historical novel Lacuna; Maureen Corrigan of NPR thinks you shouldn’t believe the hype.

Interesting are Corrigan’s comments about Kingsolver as a cross-over writer, between genre — the blockbuster novels that are currently “caught in the cross-hairs” of the Amazon/Target/Wal-mart book price wars — and literary.  Lacuna is the only literary novel among the books being sold en masse/deeply discounted by the big-box stores in the current kerfuffle.  Will be interesting to see other reviews as they accumulate.

1 November 2009

We all know writing is hard.  Lately it’s gotten harder.

I’ve read about writers sinking into writing “furies,” where they work so hard it begins to ravage their health.  I always thought of this as primarily psychological-emotional.  Maybe even psychosomatic. Think Noah Taylor/Geoffrey Rush playing Rachmaninoff in SHINE.

But over the last few months, the back and wrist pain have begun to ossify in a way that is becoming challenging.  Daily-pain challenging.  Today is Day 2 sitting on an exer-ball instead of a chair.   I wonder if there is such thing as a standing desk, which might be even better for the long-term.  Your thoughts/suggestions welcome.

How bizarre.  Most people need to be able to walk, move, climb, lift, swing, throw, push to be able to do their work.  Writers need to be able to sit.   I won’t be using the word “just” in front of the word “sit” (as in, “just sitting around”) ever again.

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