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And now for a new feature on Diana’s Diversions: the countdown meter. (If you don’t know what I’m counting, you obviously haven’t been paying attention…)
Hmmm… why can’t I make that look pretty? Oh well, maybe it won’t be a new feature after all. Send me links to meters that work, please! And, while I’m at it, this seems apt:
Goods Bads I’m on the phone with Visa. Nice, lovely Visa, who will help me. I am in the final stretch of my book now. I started this book on February 15th, which means that it will have taken me six months to write, including the month of June, in which I only wrote 8 pages. As with all my stories, I’ve found myself revisiting the beginning more and more as I near the end. This book possesses such a strong voice (indeed, I think that’s why it sold so quickly) that I think it’s important that I don’t alter the voice from the beginning to the end of the book. However, it’s partly inevitable, that as I write more in Amy’s head, her voice evolves. It’s also a matter of the story. As the stakes grow higher, and things grow more difficult for my protagonist, she’s not going to be able to be as flippant and take things as lightly as she did earlier in the novel. her worldview will be the same, her snarky response to things, but at the beginning of the book, she’s on solid ground, and as the story progresses, it’s necessarily yanked frombeneath her. Very difficult to act flippantly on thin ice. In one more chapter, she’s going to break through that ice. This has been an interesting balancing act. I wonder if part of the development is that when I wrote the first three chapters, I was in a hot rush. I had no idea about market, or format, or expectation. I wasn’t setting up a series, I had no editorial input. No rules, just write. I wrote chapters four and five during the whole “get an agent, set up an auction” process. Every chapter I’ve written since has been after the book’s sale to Bantam Dell. Part of the process has involved me trying to make the transition from writing “fun little story” to “contracted book” as seamlessly as possible. I want this book to live up to the promise in the proposal. So there are my early-morning musings. Things have been tough around here for the last few days. A business associate inadvertantly hurt my feelings, and though I understand there was no harm intended, I’m still feeling a bit bruised. It doesn’t help that there’s no one at home to comfort me and make me laugh at the situation. There’s a lot going on out in RWA-land that I feel I should distance myself from if I intend to concentrate on what’s really important (i.e. my book). I let myself get sucked in a bit yesterday, and I regret that. I also lay awake for a long time last night thinking about the fact that those who pay no attention to the lessons of history are doomed to suffer it again. Have fun with that. Sorry for disappearing. Things have been getting really busy Chez Diana. No time to be diverted. I’m down to the final countdown for the book. Seven weeks left before D-Day (Deadline Day). My parents were in town this weekend. We went to the Walter Reed National Museum of Health and Medicine (In passing, I have no idea what they are going to do with that complex now. Practically everyone in my building works for it). We saw the bullet that killed Lincoln, a human hairball that filled a girl’s whole stomach, and a elephantitic scrotum. And I’m wondering why I can’t sleep. Sailor Boy came in for 27 hours. And now, gone again. Okay, must fly. Work’s been gearing up a lot recently. I’ve finally finished the “training” part of my training, and am doing full edits on these papers. It’s fun. The one I’m doing now is by a pair of Australians and it’s about how El Nino affects them. I’ve been tagged by Marley (Vanessa Virtue), on my thoughts on the following things… 1. Myself: Right now, I am very happy. I wish I was a better cook, I wish I was a little neater ( I wish I was a little bit taller, I wish I was a baller, I wish… sorry) but I think everyone has things they’d like to improve about themselves. If they didn’t, what’s the point? But yes, right now, I think I’m on track (this wasn’t always the case). I fave pretty high expectations for myself. People close to me think I put a lot of pressure on myself, so this feeling of “satisfaction” is a rather unusual experience. I like it. 2. Wisdom: It’s a truism that it comes with experience. Also, I agree with my man Socrates that we’re wisest when we realize how little we actually know. (We’re also wisest when we never reveal that.) 3. Regrets: I get a little obsessed about them, sometimes, probably because of the aforementioned high expectations. I spent a lot of time in the past few years regretting the big mistakes I made in life – not attacking college education as I should have, not being mentally or emotionally prepared for certain developments as they came along. I think a lot of my conservative nature comes from how much I tend to regret bad decisions. I don’t take anything lightly. (And, because I’m in a Latin mood, Vergil was right with his ironic “Forsan et haec olim meminisse iuvabit” (a favorite saying around the house when I’m in a particularly bad mood). 4. Family: I love my family. We’re very close. In fact, my parents are in town right now. I think family is one of the most important things a person can have. And your family doesn’t have to be someone you’re related to. It has to be someone who loves you unconditionally, and is there for you when you need them. My mother comes from a huge family, and she has grown closer to her sisters as she’s gotten older, though they all lead very different lives. I think, in the end, I trust my family like no one else. 5. Films: I’m a movie buff. I love the fact that I there is such thing in this world as Netflix, and I practically live on IMDB. Am I supposed to pick favorites here? Forget that. 6. Faith: I am a woman of extremely strong, and extremely private faith. 7. Blogging: It’s fun. A bit of a distraction. I don’t know how important it is to me, though. If I didn’t blab here, I’d be doing it on lists, so I guess that’s good. I can say what I want here and if people don’t like it, they can just not visit (here that, various anonymi?) My opinions aren’t being delivered to inboxes, or on other people’s websites. 8. Words: Horace said it best: Exegi monumentum aere perennius. (I have erected a monument more lasting than bronze.) Okay, no more Latin, though they had some of the best words! 9. Friends: I love my friends, and consider each one a gift from heaven. Connections in this life are so rare — it’s amazing when you can make them and keep them. I miss my writing friends in Florida, but one of the best things baout being in D.C. is that I’ve made so many friends my own age, and I’m with a bunch of my best freinds from college again. I missed them so much. I’m very outgoing by nature, and so like to be with *people*. 10. Ideas: Fabric of life, baby. And if you got ‘em, flaunt ‘em. I tag Gena. Will look like this. Seven days until delivery. I *so* cannot wait to get my hands on this thing. By the way, do you like the “(Secret) Society Girl”? She’s my new logo. When I finally get the redesigned webpage up and running, she will be the star. Photography: Tara Kearney Hey, Folks! Today we have a very special treat: a virtual “book tour” in blogs with Chick Lit author Alesia Holliday. Alesia’s second chick-lit novel, Nice Girls Finish First (Berkley), is on sale today! Today, Alesia (pronounced Uh-LEES-uh) joins Diana’s Diversions to discuss the inspiration behind Nice Girls Finish First. So one day I was thinking about today’s woman, as I often do, considering that I write funny books about the everyday (and not so everyday!) things we all go through, and I was wondering about that perpetual dilemma – the Myth of the Nice Girl. Somehow, through a peculiar evolution of the professional environment, women today are finally recognized (mostly) as equally competent, ambitious, and dedicated as men in the workforce. (We’ll leave the “we have to work smarter and harder” argument aside for now.) But yet, we have an added burden: we have to be NICE. Now, this isn’t really tough for most women, most of the time. We were raised to be nice. That’s what little girls do, right? “Play nice!” “Be nice!” Except, well, there are times when you can’t be all that nice . . . Boyfriend cheating? Kick him to the curb! Um, in a nice way? Opposing counsel trying underhanded tactics? Notify the judge and get him sanctioned! Er, nicely? The idea of a character who is very ambitious and a great person, but a little bit of a tough chick on the surface, really intrigued me. And I had the perfect character in Kirby Green, newly-hired exec at the Whips and Lace Co. She’d pretty much stolen every scene she was in in AMERICAN IDLE (Double RITA finalist, how cool is that??). Then I wanted to compare and contrast Kirby with a character who was so nice that she was in danger of becoming a doormat. Brianna sprang to life. My good friend who is an opera singer (no, really!) provided some great background for her. Then I set the two of them loose to play on the pages – each helping the other learn something about life, and about herself. That’s how NICE GIRLS FINISH FIRST was born. Can we be successful as women today and still retain some of that niceness that was so valued in earlier years? I think so. But nice doesn’t mean dumb, and today’s nice girls DO finish first. They might just have to kick a little ass along the way. Nicely. Thanks for helping me celebrate the release of my second novel!! (p.s. This nice girl is frantically polishing some pages due to Hollywood interest – you can see the details at http://www.alesiaholliday.com/blog/) Since Pam hasn’t updated efoodie in more than a month (hear that, Madam Cumin and cinnamnon-scented turkey meatballs?) it falls to those of us with fewer culinary skills to pick up the slack. And thus, I bring you Diana’s Diversions’s first food blog. But first, a bit of backstory dump (noooooooooooo!): One of the best things about writing a book set at my alma mater is that it has given me the opportunity to wax nostaligc about college life, and even better college food. New Haven had some freakin’ great food. Food that its four-year denizens remember decades later, entire culinary vocabularies borne of our experiences eating at Yale. We had amazing pizza, unusual burgers, more Thai than you can shake a chopstick at… there was a bookshop on Chapel Street that served the best black bean soup in the world. A bookstore! I’ve already covered some of these gastronomic delights in my book, but since it is not a story about food, it isn’t my focus. But thinking about my time at school, remembering the smell of the streets, the lay of the shadows, everything that helps insert me back in that world, it should not surprise anyone that I developed a very strong craving for some of my dishes from those happy, golden bygone days. (Sorry, broke into a bit of the alma mater.) So, last Friday, consumed with craving, I called up one of my old college roommates (whom we shall call henceforth G-Lady), a brilliant lawyer-type who mixes her entirely within-graps efforts to save the world with a lovely taste in miniskirts, and told her about my craving. She instantly agreed that nothing made these hot, muggy July days in D.C. worth living like a Raspberry Chicken Explosion, and immediately agreed to meet me to concoct our own version. Flashback to New Haven, circa 2000 He’d return with two Sammy Smiths Nut Brown Ale. The Rainbow Cafe has several delicious dishes. Their twice-baked potatoes are delicious, and I’ve always been partial to their blue burger (gorgonzola, not coloring). However, what every Yalie worth his or her college affiliation remembers about the Rainbow Cafe can be summed up in three words: Raspberry. Chicken. Explosion. This dish is a simply amazing invention. even in the dead of a New England winter, it brightens the day. And even in the heat of a D.C. summer it cools you off. G-Lady and I immediately set our minds to recalling its exact ingredients. Spring greens, that was the easy part. And chicken, natch. Fruit, the titular explosion of it, was also very important. Were there actual rasberries in it, or was that ingredient relegated to the dressing? Finally, we divined the appropriate proportions: Spring greens Lay down a bed of spring greens, pile the next four ingredients in a jumble on top of it, sprinkle with a healthy serving of gorgonzola crumbles, and drizzle with the raspberry dressing. The croissant is used to sop up whatever remaining blue cheese-raspberry mixture is left at the bottom of your plate, and the oranges are for afterward. Ah, Raspberry Chicken Explosion, how I adore thee. You were the best meal I’ve had in weeks. I want to give a special thank you to everyone who has responded to the author photo survey, both here and by email. I’ll be posting the results next week. In the meantime, Happy Independence Day to the American readers. This week, I got the results from my photo shoot. I’m pretty happy but naturally, I think I might be a little “too close” to the issue to be able to decide which author photo I like best. When I see how big some people appear on the back of their books (has anyone else been shocked by the ginormous Rebecca Wells on the back of the latest Ya-Ya?) I want to make sure I look okay larger than life. So I’m doing a survey. I’ve narrowed it down to the top six (was going to be top five, but hey, I’m in decisive that way). The contenders are listed in no particular order below. Please note that any of these photos can be cropped and touched up by my photographer, who is an absolute whiz with Photoshop. So any slightly dark circles (I had these taken at the onset of the Cold From Hell) can be erased. Also, if you want a closer look, simply click on the picture for a blown-up version. I’d love to hear your thoughts, either in the comments section or by email to diana@dianapeterfreund.com. Thanks! Photo One: I really like my hair in this one, but I’m a bit worried about the black background *and* the black shirt. I think the photog can probably fix that in photoshop, though. Photo Two: I love this one, but I’m wondering if I should save it until I start writing gritty thrillers or am a shoo-in on the NYT bestseller list. There’s something very “successful” and “serious” about this picture. My friend wondered if I should save this for post-debut books, once I actually *have* a reputation to look so smug about. LOL! Photo Three: I think I look like Scully in this picture. Which isn’t necessarily a bad thing. Kind of a happy medium between 1 and 2 perhaps? Photo Four: I don’t know if I like my hair as much in the “pink shirt” pictures, but these have been most people’s favorites. Something about what the pink does for my coloring, I suppose. And this and photo six have the most realistic smiles. This is my “I got a book deal!” smile. Photo Five: Pink with a smile that doesn’t make my eyes crinkle up. Not as real perhaps, but one doesn’t want to look TOO ebullient on the back of one’s book, right? I think you wouldn’t know it wasn’t as big as I normally smile unless you knew me. Photo Six: I’m partial to this one because I’m wearing very little makeup in it, hence I think I look the most like I “usually” do. Also, the smile is real. My college roommate liked this one and the one of me in pink with eh big smile (4, above) because it was the most “realistic”. But how big do I need to be smiling? I remember during the shoot my friend Sue kept trying to get pictures of me NOT smiling, and I refused to do it. I don’t want to look dour. I write comedy. Okay, that’s it. Love to hear what you think! NOTE: All photos can be cropped. If you like the idea of the close up, any photo can be cropped to be a close up. Thanks! Cece had an excellent post about her accomplishments in the past six months (truly inspiring, go look at it!) and it started me thinking about my own accomplishments so far this year. It will come as no surprise to regular readers of this blog that I have had a banner year so far in 2005 (no lightning bolts from above, please!) I moved to Washington D.C., got a lovely apartment with Sailor Boy, bought my first new car, got a new job, landed a fabulous agent and sold my first novel as part of a two-book deal to Bantam Dell! Things are swell, no doubt about it. I point this out not to be smug or otherwise unbearable, but to contrast it with how hopeless I felt about my future only a few months ago. Don’t believe me? Check this out. (I play it off lightly, and blame it on a little writing snag, but believe you me, there was some serious anguish going on in that restaurant.) My job was torture, my boss, a living hell, I was living with my parents, I was running out of options for my future non-book-writing career, and my book writing career was stuck in neutral. Sailor Boy was a little ill at ease. He’d been running out of ways to deal with my sudden cloudbursts, and I was running out of ways to prevent them. I did not celebrate the New Year this year. I didn’t even want to know that it was occurring. I didn’t drink champagne, didn’t watch the clock, didn’t party, didn’t even recognize it. I disliked the vast majority of 2004. I wanted it gone and good riddance, but from my position (even having made the recent and sudden decision to move to D.C.), I had no reason to suspect that 2005 would be any better. I was beginning to fear for my future. I was worried I was becoming bitter, or desperate. I felt old for my age. I wasn’t even 26. Looking back on that time, I feel like a different person. Last week, I watched Before Sunset, and I was incredibly struck by the scene where Ethan Hawke and Julie Delpy are sitting in the cafe, talking about their age. Delpy’s character has nightmares of being 23 having a nightmare of being 32 (the age of her character). Hawke is supremely comfortable in his skin. He likes growing older, wiser, more accomplished. Hawke’s character has a child he thinks the world of and a bestselling novel. Delpy’s character has a job she clearly enjoys, but is depressed about her role in life and the future. She’s seeing the window of opportunity slip away from her to get married and have babies. Hawke adores being 32. Delpy is terrified by it. I did not want to be in my mid-twenties and be terrified by it. I wanted to be excited by the time spread out before me, not pessimistic about what it would contain. I wanted to be able to celebrate New Year’s both for the passing of the old year and all it contained, and the coming of the new and its wide world of possibilities. In the past six months, I have turned from Delpy to Hawke. And it didn’t take the book deal to do it. A change in latitiude, jettisoning my old, dead-end job where I was treated badly, underappreciated, and regularly insulted by people who had no just cause to do so (see here, here, and the fact that an old co-worker told me when I discussed leaving with him that I’d never be able to work anywhere else, and I should be grateful for whatever crumbs they were willing to throw me — is that textbook abusive husband crap or what?), and in general assserting independence, control over my destiny, and unwillingness to ever “settle” made me into a different person these last few months. I’m now a big advocate of getting rid of things in your life that make you unhappy, especially if there’s not a big happiness quotient to help balance it out. I loved being a food critic. It was a great job. But it wasn’t great enough to be worth it. I think I’m more fun to be around (though I do have a healthy fear of getting tiresome to others through the constant temptation to talk about my book!) I’m looking forward to what’s coming around the corner, I’m happy in my skin. (I am a bit worried of turning back into the other Diana should my fortunes take a change for the worse, but I think that once one has seen the path, it’s a bit easier to get to it. ) So of all my accomplishments in the past six months, that’s the one that I’m most proud of. I’ve turned from a demonstrably depressed person, a bitter person, a person that even I didn’t like being around, into a happy person, and anticipatory person, a forward-thinking person. I should have celebrated the coming of this year. But I have six more months before I have to think about that. Still, one thing I’m definitely doing now is celebrating my independence.
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