Unreliable Characters ...

     Wow. Overwhelming is the only way to describe this week. I feel like I could stay home and work hard for three years, and maybe, just maybe, I'd catch up. The kids had a short school week so that really slows me down, among other unnecessary distractions. Let's see if I can come up with any accomplishments. . .
     I was asked to write the introduction to the 2010 Jazzmouth Chapbook which I got done and am happy to report it was well received. I'll post info when it rolls off the presses, but in the meantime you should be sure to checkout http://www.jazzmouth.org/ . I critiqued one classmate's writing, but have two to go this weekend, and one of them is 20 pages long. I got started on my class reading but have much left to do. I did get sidetracked with my research for my historical novel which is really where my attention wants to be. I tweaked and performed one of my poems at Beat Nite. Very rewarding as always. I scheduled an interview for next week for my next column, and agreed to do a series of gratis articles for the local paper (which really isn't a non-profit), but my nieghborhood asked me to do this and it's about local history which really is a passion of mine. Also got a call about some other free lance work that might be coming my way but is still in negotiations, am just now getting caught up on my blogs, and made a teensy bit of progress in searching for an agent. Considering all of the problems being lobbed at me this week, I guess that list isn't so bad. Is it?
     One other thing I did was attend my library reading group. I believe that being in a reading group is an important part of a writer's work. You can't be a good writer without being a good reader, and I find that whenever I participate in a book discussion group I gain insights about the book that I would not have had on my own. This time we were discussing The Art of Racing in the Rain. I most wanted to talk about the idea of the unreliable narrator which is what really struck me about this book, because the narrator is a dog. I found the weakest part in the book to be when the author actually has the dog give a disclaimer about how he didn't see or hear any of the next few things that were going to happen (because it was a court room scene that he couldn't work the dog into) but had gleaned info about overtime. That really took much away from the story for me which was otherwise a very interesting and witty read. Dog lovers especially will like it. I hear it is being made into a movie starring Patrick Demsey. This is the book's official trailer; http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zZ0CTcU0Fd0  Oddly enough, the voice doesn't sound quite right to me.
     Here's a little more on the concept of the unreliable narrator (which are usually our species) if you'd like to know more, Unreliable narrator - The Art and Popular Culture Encyclopedia

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