How come no one is up to keep me company when I write late at night? Even my boyfriend and my dog are asleep. Sure it’s less distracting this way, but… okay, no, I know it’s better this way. “Books are written by the alone for the alone,” right? Sigh.

Actually I’m finding that I write really well at night, when everything is dark except my computer screen, and the world is sort of removed, probably doing more interesting things with their Saturday night.

Earbuds (and good music) help provide that sense of isolation during the day, but it’s a little different when a coworker comes up to my desk and asks me to proofread something, or Riley pokes me in the leg with his chew toy. I’m not complaining about those things, just saying they don’t tend to happen at midnight. In fact, if a coworker came up to me at midnight with copy to edit, I might have to call the cops.

In completely unrelated news, 17 Again is a pretty good movie (if you’re into that sort of thing, which I obviously am) and Riley has a new “Shipoo” (Shitzu-Poodle) buddy named Kingston. When they run around in the backyard, they look like two giant, smiling marshmallows with legs. It’s very cute.

Word Count – Aug 29, 2009:

• Finished [Twenty-Somewhere] Episode 29: Escalation!

One night Claudia wakes up alone in bed. Well, alone with the dog Max, anyway. “Eli?” she whispers. If he had trouble sleeping and moved to the couch, she doesn’t want to wake him, but if he’s just wandering for some reason, she’d like to know that he’s there and safe. “Eli?” she calls again.

No answer.

• Typed up all the “Random thoughts I drafted but never posted” for Just Between Us. Here is the first (of four): “Trends”.

• Forgot to publish this post, whoops!

—

“The first duty of the novelist is to entertain. It is a moral duty. People who read your books are sick, sad, traveling, in the hospital waiting room while someone is dying. Books are written by the alone for the alone.”

- From a Writer Unboxed interview with author Anna Elliott, quoting Donna Tartt

Word Count – Aug 27, 2009:

I would love a job like this:

“[Airports] express all the things that make the modern world so strange and horrifying and beautiful and exciting. They’re all about interconnection. They’re about technology. They’re about our loss of contact with nature; they’re about consumerism and our dreams of travel. All of this comes to life at the airport.”

Heathrow officials hired de Botton, an occasional NPR contributor, to spend a week at the airport and write about what he sees. The results will be published next month and handed out free to travelers.

Then there’s the Romanian cleaning woman who passes by every day. “She very much wants to be in my book,” he says, “but she says that if I do put her in, she needs all her details changed, because otherwise it would disappoint many of her friends in Romania who think she’s got a brilliant career in classical music.”

- Terminal Stories of Life and Love in Heathrow (NPR)

I just wanted to give a big thanks to Kirsty Greenwood of Novelicious for featuring me and Twenty-Somewhere today! I think there’s potential for me to win some sort of prize if y’all go over there and show me some love…? Regardless, I’m grateful for the exposure and feedback.

And HI THERE to any new readers who wander over from those parts. Come on in, have a look around, and please let me know if you’d like anything to eat or drink. I try to be a friendly host. :)

Um, in a complete reversal from last night, today I reread a few pages of my manuscript and what do you know? I really liked them! Maybe writing’s not so bad after all.

:P

Word Count – Aug 22, 2009: