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In the end...

8/21/2020

2 Comments

 
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Since March, I’ve watched The Office beginning to end once, and Parks and Rec twice. Both of them, I thought, had perfect endings. 


How I Met Your Mother….did not. HATED the last episode, didn't care for the last season. They really messed up on that.


Friday Night Lights—perfect. Angel, too. Wow, that last season was so intense, and the last words, “Personally, I always wanted to slay a dragon.” 


I remain distressed by Rise of Skywalker, the last Star Wars movie. I won’t go into all the reasons, but I loved Last Jedi. LOVED LOVED LOVED. And all that I loved from that movie was stripped away in the last movie. Rose, the idea that the force was in everyone…there weren’t even cute animals in the last one. 


Look, I get it, endings are hard. (Especially when your star dies before you make the movie.) Every book I’ve had, I’ve struggled with the ending. Sometimes they come together well in advance. The first book I ever wrote (and never published because NO CONFLICT) had the BEST epilogue. Y’all, I based that book on a real place, and every time I drive by that place I think of that ending. It was HAPPY.


But sometimes it’s harder to bring the threads together. Sometimes it’s harder to resolve the conflicts, to make the hero or heroine make up for their transgressions.


In the book I’m writing now, I know the ending. Getting there is a struggle, but I know what the big gesture will be. That’s unusual for me, but I have been writing this book for MONTHS now. 


Huh. Maybe that’s the key. Maybe the longer I write the book, the more real the ending becomes in my head. That’s something I haven’t thought about before, because that first book took me YEARS to write. Maybe I need the characters to congeal a little more before I give them a happy ending. Something to consider.


Well. I didn't plan to have a revelation in this post, lol. I meant to ask what shows/series/books YOU were satisfied with, and which disappointed you.
2 Comments

Antici...

8/11/2020

1 Comment

 
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pation!

Maybe y'all are too young to know the relationship between the ketchup and anticipation--it was an old commercial, before squeeze bottles.

One of the things Covid has disrupted is the habit I have of looking forward to things.

Retirement had already disrupted that to some extent, because when I was teaching, it was a big coping mechanism, but then I mostly looked forward to things being over, like the high-stress performances. 

ANYWAY. This year we haven't celebrated any birthdays, not Easter, Mother's Day, Father's Day or Fourth of July, not my SIL's 50th birthday or my parents' 40th anniversary. There haven't been new movies to count down to, or the new TV season, all the things I used to anticipate. 

I have compensated, I guess, with ordering stuff through the mail and looking forward to getting packages. And I'm looking forward to fall, because at least THAT should be predictable this year. My husband has a vacation week every month for the rest of the year, so I'm looking forward to that, even if it only means we'll be able to take little road trips, or go pick up lunch, just something different.


What are you looking forward to?
1 Comment

Escape!

8/5/2020

0 Comments

 
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Escape….what is taking you out of the stresses of the world these days? 


I’m reading Revolution-era romance.


I’m watching Hamilton, The Mandalorian, and Parks and Rec pretty much on repeat.


I’m playing a ton of phone games, too many, if I’m honest.


I’m buying fabric like it’s going out of style. I went to JoAnn’s twice last week, to a quilt store yesterday, and I had two mail orders this week.


I’m even cross-stitching and crocheting again. 


And I’m writing a fun little stand-alone novella with a spunky heroine with grown kids. I love her.  I’m writing the next book in my series also, but I’m playing with this book, too.


How are you getting through?

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