back on track again

For those of you who read stuffwhitepeoplelike.blogspot.com - I found out via my subscription to Publisher's Marketplace that the guy who writes those posts just sold a book. The announcement reads: "Blogger Christian Lander's STUFF WHITE PEOPLE LIKE, satirically exposing a culture that prides itself on individuality and diversity, yet manages to express these beliefs in exactly the same way, to Jane von Mehren at Random House". I love that this guy is going to make a ton of money off of pointing out to people how retarded their culture is.

In other news, I did not watch Drake's heartbreaking last-second loss in the NCAA tournament today - although since it was a buzzer-beater in overtime, with a No. 12 seed knocking off a No. 5, the shot will likely be replayed daily throughout the tournament, so I'll get the chance to see it again. Instead, I talked to Gyre in honor of his birthday - the conversation may not go down in history as well as this year's Drake team will, but it was good to catch up nonetheless.

I spent the rest of the day attempting to work on my romance novel. However, I spend waaaay too much time online. I think it qualifies as an internet addiction. For some reason I don't sign on to chat in the mistaken belief that it will distract me - but then I can spend hours reading about a myriad of topics on wikipedia, or read the blogs of all sorts of published authors (who are published because they actually write their damn books, rather than reading other people's blogs), or check the half-dozen websites that I frequent.

Dad made fabulous pizza for dinner, and I spent the rest of the evening reading part of a romance novel while keeping an eye on the games. I will say that reading other romance novels is good for me - it definitely helps me to see what techniques I like and which ones I wish to avoid. I'm thoroughly annoyed by the one I'm currently reading - it's way too dialogue-heavy, and the plot is extremely thin. In fact, I think this is a perfect book for me to finish, even though I'm not interested, because my book could run the risk of being dialogue-heavy and plot-thin. It's easy to get wrapped up in the 'show, don't tell' maxim of good writing, and end up using far too much character interaction as a substitution for some well-written exposition. And, just like in this book, my characters are only really kept apart by their own competing desires - there aren't any villains or evil family members to throw conflict their way. So, I'm going to finish reading it, take copious notes, and hope to avoid this author's mistakes. However, since she's hit the New York Times bestseller list, I don't want to avoid all of her steps - just the ones that made this particular manuscript vapid and annoying.

Tomorrow's my parents' wedding anniversary, and they're stuck with having both me and my brother in the house - and my sister may come for a visit. Please send them the appropriate condolences; they deserve better at this stage in their lives.