Left-brain novel took a giant step forward today. I did add word count, but a lot of the progress was hidden; that progress entailed removing a friend's true-life story from a few years back. I had been using it as a place-holder, and today I rewrote it from memory, changing as many details as possible, and adding a batch of new ones, in a way that made it mine.
I also received an unexpected offer to write a piece for hire for a new sexuality website that debuts soon. Now that I am done novel-writing for the day, I am going to submit one of my memoir pieces and offer to rewrite it to meet their needs.
I saw a new green bird today, but I could not get a picture of it, so here's another shot of our favorite femme fatale, the female cardinal (the one I call "alpha female") to dress things up a bit.
And here's a shot of her male counterpart, looking particularly bedraggled as he splashes in the bath. Actually, this is a giant lava rock that we use for run-off from our gutter's overflow during storms. We think it's an ancient Hawaiian grinding stone. Oh, and don't miss the other bird right behind him — a little brown one. Kind of like a mascot to Big Red here. Can anyone identify this little bird? I'd love to know who she is, and why the big boy is two-timing on his missus up above. Wink, wink. (Gag, gag. Clearly I need to get out more often. But not until July 17!)
Last night, I finished Ariel Gore's book, 
How to Become a Famous Writer Before You're Dead: Your Words in Print and Your Name in Lights, and I hope to post a review sometime soon. The book is chock-full of good mind-over-matter advice to help the aspirant triumph over adversity until Lady Luck spreads her lovely wings to enfold hir. (No, that last word is not a typo, just my attempt at gender neutrality in a gender-polarized language.)
Gore (who, like me, is an editor and publisher as well as a writer), says something profound in the book about the writer's need for left-brain / right-brain balance that vindicates what I've been saying here all week, but of course I didn't mark it, so pffft. (Surely left-brain will be a bit more on top of things when I re-read the book for my review.)
Last but not least, YouTube turned up two romantic tunes from the 1970s that sound as if they came from a different era entirely, since I was writing a memory piece for the left-brain novel today, and I thought it might coax the right-brain into gear a bit if I replayed some tunes from my childhood. I was right:
Hopeful romantics, unite.
- Japanese cheesecake slideshow. The jaunty outfits are priceless. Check out that sheath dress....
Hopeless romantics, untie.
- Live version with John Farnham.
The original 1978 promo video is also on YouTube (and in the original key of D, not F), but the sound quality is even poorer than this.
"But, anyway ... what would you say" ... to today's tally? A 1,200-word net gain on that left-brain novel (and a few new lines for the right-brain novel):
Bill's Left-Brain Novel,
as of June 12, 2007:
Bill's Right-Brain Novel,
as of June 12, 2007:
(Just don't ask about the shaggy lawn, the shaggy hair, or the shaggy whiskers, please....)
Wishing you a beautiful day,
Bill Brent
[this page last updated: 2007.06.12, 8:20 p.m. Hawaii time]
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