Readers and Writers vs. Editors and Publishers (Day 89)

The book I alluded to this week that got me editing my to-be-read list and contemplating how well I can predict my future desires based on my current ones also got me thinking about publishing in general. I'm an indie so I'm biased, but I think we're increasingly underserved.

I won't name the book, but as much as I didn't like it and dropped it before I had finished the second chapter, it was evident that the author was skilled. The forced exposition was done well, and the obvious-to-me set up for the inevitable revelation was subtle enough that you'd have to be reading in the genre for a long time to recognize it from far away. The characters were exactly the characters you'd expect in the predictable set up--it was clear from jump who was who, and I wasn't going to worry about mistaking one for another. And the setting was well-thought out, even if I'd read variants on it already.

I am not, I promise, trying to damn this unnamed writer with faint praise. I mean it--she can write. Which it why it struck me as very, very odd that she was writing this particular book. It felt similar to a talented young actor or actress being stuck in a film that was clearly beneath them, but that's just what you have to do when you first get started.

And that only makes me more sure that a lot of debut authors aren't picking their own stories. I can't prove anything at this point, but it seems obvious to me that debut authors are being told, after a fashion, what to write, and how to write it.

Tochi Onyebuchi was the first author who made me think this might be the case. Beasts Made of Night and its sequel Crown of Thunder had a disturbing premise and intriguing characters. And much of the writing was good, but the story was uneven. It's something that people who haven't written and gotten comments might not have picked up on, but it seemed obvious to me that Onyebuchi was told to cut certain things for length, and to compress both back story and some action to... make a page count (I blanch just writing that). It made for some awkwardness, and the conclusion didn't feel as satisfying as I suspect it would have if we had had the chance to read the whole thing.

I couldn't prove that it was the editor and not the writer--not until I read Onyebuchi's Riot Baby and Goliath. Oh, hello. Those books are incredible, and haunting without any of the romance usually attached to the word. Onyebuchi is a masterful writer, and I have no doubt that the book he meant to write with his earlier series was changed by other people.

It's bad editing to force those kinds of cuts and revisions, but it's bad *publishing* to force writers to churn out the same stories that have been written before--and I mean in the last year, not the last decade. Publishing suffers so, so clearly from the same problem that has plagued the rest of mass media. Forget the internet filter bubble/echo chamber; the business advice to "give the people what they want" is just as sure to freeze a culture into a set of customs (with apologies to Frantz Fanon). 

I hope the young writer writes more; I'll be happy to take a look at her newer titles. Here's hoping she's able to write something original; you know, the stuff she'd actually like to write, and the stuff we would actually like to read.

Deb in the City

The gift that keeps on giving (Day 88)

The scan I had last week showed that none of the bones in my foot were broken. Therefore, I could stick to the plan to go to physical therapy and get a holistic evaluation that dealt with my multifidus muscle, my SI joint, my hip, and my foot.

I felt "seen" when we did the strength exam and the PT felt the pop in my right hip as he pressed on my knee. I felt discomfort when he touched the muscles on my right hip and declared the presence of my knots, but fortunately, that part of the exam was over and he knew what was going on.

Both my hip discomfort--that irritating feeling like my hip needs to go back into the socket, but it isn't dislocated--and my foot pain are due to the aftereffects of chemotherapy, and I also got the impression that the weakness of my low, low back was as well, if only as an indirect effect (hips are connected to backs, in case you didn't know). There is nothing to be done about my slipped disc, but fortunately it's very mild and can be mitigated with exercise. 

The PT said "core strength, core strength, core strength" twice--as long as it wasn't sit ups or crunches. I'm going to, if not pat myself on the back, indulge in a bit of gratitude that my instincts have kept me away from those exercises for several years because of other issues I have. He said the yoga and Pilates probably helped keep me with as much function as I have now (but probably because of the stretching). I have a list of stretches and strength exercises to perform for the next two weeks, and then we'll talk again. 

Let's agree this isn't the worst side effect in the world, and let's also agree that I would have gone through with chemotherapy even if I had been told this would be a side effect. But if I had been told this could be a side effect, I might have planned accordingly. Say, not pushing so hard to go on long walks, and making sure to do regular stretches, and maybe just knowing that I was going to need to consult a physical therapist. 

I'm bitter about this because, as usual, I blamed myself for the foot pain, which ended up indirectly leading to a costly event, but *it wasn't my fault*. Maybe that's what I really wish my oncologist had told me: there's going to be weird things that happen to the rest of your body as a result of the chemotherapy, so be gentle with yourself, physically and mentally.

Yeah, that would have been nice.

Deb in the City

I am not a psychic computer program (Day 87)

I talked before about how I used my library website to set up reading lists for the year so I wouldn't be overwhelmed by all of the things I wanted to read. I was so proud of myself for doing that because I could take the pressure off of myself to read *everything* and finally get to the things that had been on my list for a few years.

Well, this month I got to a book I'd been wanting to read since it came out last year, and it took my less than ten pages to realize that I didn't want to read it anymore.

I told an online group I'm in about and added that I felt like I'd already read the book. Someone went to check the description and then said they felt like *they* had already read it. I read my husband a passage that screamed foreshadowing, and he agreed with what I saw foreshadowed. He also agreed that, indeed, we'd already the story, a couple of times over. 

I looked at the description of another library book I had out. Er, I'd read that one, too. Then I looked at two more items on my book list that were all too familiar. 

Needless to say, I have fewer books to read this year than I'd thought I would...although I have seen a few more newer releases and/or books on newer ideas that have caught my fancy.

I don't want people to think that I can't make plans. If a friend or family member gets on my schedule, I keep that appointment. I can plan out novels and see them to completion (and I have). I can budget--one of the most mind-wrecking plans of all. Big picture I can commit to; what I don't want to lock myself into are the little details, like what I might order when I meet a friend at a restaurant, or exactly how much I'm going to spend in each category of spending. When I plan, I need to give my future self flexibility, because, sadly, I'm not psychic. Similarly, when I'm in the thick of daily activities, I need to use my past self as a guide, not a set of programming instructions, because, fortunately, I'm not a computer program.

I'm sorry I couldn't support those others--and that's another post in and of itself, because the problem is the editors and publishers, not the authors--but I've got too much to do right now to saddle myself to what I used to think I should do.

Deb in the City

Rolling with the punches (Day 86)

My husband was supposed to pick up his computer this afternoon, so we took advantage of the forced break in his schedule and went for a very long walk, with a break to get brunch or whatever you want to call a very late breakfast. It was a beautiful day in Boston, but you'll just have to believe me because I was enjoying being with my husband so much that I didn't stop to take pictures.

We picked our son up from class and then went to Microcenter to pick up his computer. When he told me that the tech had told him that they fixed it even though they didn't know what the problem had been, I snickered and told him that he'd be bringing it back. I was wrong--he didn't even get to leave with it. He can turn it on just fine, but he can only sometimes connect to the internet. Please try doing work on a computer without connecting to the internet. Right. They'll let him know when they've figured it out. In the meantime, he'll be renting a station at one of those workplaces, which is just great.

While waiting in line to buy my son a snack, I glanced at the magazine selection. They cover an eclectic mix of topics, including art, hardware, stocks and finance, cooking, logic games--and guns.

Garden and Gun, the Soul of the South. Alrighty then.

Well, I guess we know who Microcenter's target audience is. But, um, they're still better than Amazon...right?

Deb in the City

How about something crazy like fruit salad? (Day 85)

No, really.

I've been trying to eat more fruit. What that meant up until recently is making smoothies and figuring out ways to make puddings with bananas, avocados, dates, and frozen fruit, and of course banana nice cream. And while I can get my son to consume smoothies as well, we ran into an issue a few weeks ago when we discovered that he's allergic to berries as well as tree nuts. Therefore I started buying other fruits, like pineapples, apples, and oranges, among others. (Don't even say the word "mango" in front of my son; that was one of the first things we discovered he couldn't eat, and now we're forbidden from bringing it into the house.)

My son basically mirrors my husband, although he can at least eat pistachios and cashews. (Weirdly, this is the opposite of one of my nieces, so nuts are off the menu for any hypothetical meal. Oh right, they already were since my younger daughter is also allergic to every nut but Brazil nuts. Anyway!) So I started buying more of the fruits I know he can eat and likes, including grapes and melons (though he definitely likes the former more than the latter). 

Nice thing about many of those fruits is that they're easy to hold to pack (and so are the berries). So when I knew I had to be out last Tuesday, I packed a jar of fruit (and nuts--it was just for me) and brought along two oranges. And then I was totally satisfied and didn't need to spend unreasonable amounts of money on a snack.

On Thursday I had to go to an unplanned doctor's appointment, and though I had some oranges, I was still hungry. Thus did I break down and spend $4.80 on about 3/4 cup worth of fruit salad...and then realized I had a good number of those ingredients at home. So, obviously, when I got home, I made myself a fruit salad which was better than what I'd bought. (This isn't because I'm so fabulous in the kitchen; this is because most of what you buy outside is just not that good.)

I ate it. I enjoyed it. I shared it. My husband ate it. By last night it was gone, so I had to have another. Which meant that our special trip today was sourcing fruit so I could make another. Grapes, watermelon, pineapple (!), blueberries, and of course, oranges and dates. All "marinated" with lime juice. (And yes, I totally wished for another fruit that could have gotten me a little more of a purple feel, but we'll take this and call it a win.)

 

 

I remembered reading in The American Vegetarian Cookbook decades ago the idea to create a sauce or "dressing" for fruit salads. That was a little more trouble than my younger self could handle, but after years making nut milk and smoothies, no problem. After boiling down the pineapple core and ginger to make an unsweetened syrup, I blended that with cashews, two dates, and some frozen strawberries, and voila! Not that the fruit salad needed it, but I admit it gave me a thrill to dress it up (and tasted good). And since I can't stand wasting anything, I blended the bit of dressing I couldn't get out of the blender with some almond milk and ice to have a "shake" with my salad.

 

And it was delicious.

That, really, is my point. I have this vague feeling that if I haven't been "had", I've been poorly served by the trend to make fruit and nuts into things I might have missed (you know, because up until people wanted to eat a whole foods vegan diet they were all eating ice cream, cake, and cookies at every meal). I mean, yes, it's nice to know that I can still have those things, but I think it would do everything more good to emphasize actually *eating* the fruits (and occasional nuts if you're not allergic), rather than going to a lot of trouble to make them look like something else. I keep hearing myself ask "where is the money in that?", and maybe that's it. But I also wonder to what extent people just don't eat fruit, period, and don't have the experience to draw on for reference--or recommendation.

It's something of a luxury to eat fruit--I get that for multiple reasons, and I think it's tragic, ridiculous, and outrageous. I'm going to try to honor my food--and the people who have more trouble accessing it than I do--and enjoy it more and more as fruit, not something it's not. That feels better to me--and did I mention that it's delicious?

Deb in the City

Change in plans isn't always a bad thing (but backups aren't a bad idea) (Day 84)

The plan was that we would work in the garden yesterday and today my husband would get in a couple of hours of work. Ha. Today his computer started acting up again, so he bit the bullet and turned it in to microcenter. When will he get it back? I have no idea. 

Good thing the long-waited for elevated garden box finally appeared in the mail yesterday, and good thing we like being in the garden. He put the box together in less than an hour; I want to say I helped, but other than remembering how many screws we were supposed to use, not so much. Well, fine, at least we have the box.

This isn't a great time for him to be without a computer: there's drama with the car, there's college tuition, and there's a wedding. It's such a bad time it borders on comical. We could have bulked, but today for some reason I decided to embrace that this was an unexpected opportunity for us to spend more time together. So we went to Brookline to get some Korean food, looked at the bookstore and found George O'Connor's new graphic novel, Odin, then came home and read, worked out, washed dishes, and enjoyed each other's company. It was all in all not just a good day but a happy day.

...with one caveat: it isn't lost on me that his computer troubles began immediately after he made get out the vote calls with me on Friday. Needless to say, he can't tomorrow, but now I'm nervous about doing so. Just...the internet has not helped without exacting some costs. I miss the days when I got a list of phone numbers to call on, you know, a sheet of paper. 

In other news and perhaps on the other hand, it seems the British food writer and human right advocate Jack Monroe has fled the internet. Crazy that someone who's been bullied and received death threats with a reference to their address might seek anonymity, but here we are. Today I discovered that they seem to have shut down their website, on top of removing social media accounts. This is a huge loss, and that is a fact. They provided clear-eyed analysis of what British austerity is costing its most vulnerable people, and they provided recipes that were always easy to follow, inexpensive, and delicious. 

So here I would like to thank...Pocket. I panicked when I realized Monroe's recipes were gone, then remembered that I had saved many of them to my Pocket account. This prompted me to look through all of my posts tagged "recipes", and I got a little thrill that I had so much great stuff at my fingertips, and in a better format than simply bookmarks or tabs. I'm not going to send everyone to Pocket, but given how likely it is for material on the internet to disappear, it might not be a bad idea to capture the things you love one way or another.

Or, you know, just shrug it off and cuddle up with your sweetie. 

Deb in the City

Compost, Marathon weekend, computers, the usual (Day 83)

My son woke me up a little before 3 AM, and I have not been back to sleep, though I did try. (Yes, I say this a lot; yes, I did have a talk with him.) 5 hours of sleep is not ideal, but I decided to do my day anyway, even if it felt half-assed. 

My husband and I went to the garden to turn the compost, and oh my is it gorgeous. That spongy, chocolate cake texture people aspire to--it has been achieved. My husband finished it up while our garden partner and I went down to the wilds to talk design with a landscaper. We've wanted to turn the space into a permaculture food forest for years, and this brings us closer. I liked the man, in no small part because he recognizes the same Boston grifts that we've seen.

My husband joined us shortly before the landscaper needed to leave, then we went to pick up some miso and peanut butter. I was all set to go home after, but then I saw a message from my sister for help with an errand that she wouldn't be able to run herself. Off to Newton, through Back Bay, and my eyes widened as I recognized all of the signs that the runners were in town. We are agreed that we will not be traveling to Back Bay again for several days. 

Ran the errand, got a snack of desperation--Tatte is the nicest looking sub-par establishment in Boston--and finally got home. I tried to nap, my husband went to work out, and I took the night owl to return some books--2024 Deb does not have the same reading taste as 2021 Deb--and get him a drink. For some reason, my little part of Boston was out in droves even though we're nowhere near the marathon route. That, or everyone is *really* excited about Patriot's Day.

We washed dishes, bathed--did I mention compost?--then settled in to watch a kdrama before my husband ran into computer problems because of course he did. Fixed now--fingers crossed--and we're snacking on hummus, which I somehow managed to make along with vegetable broth and almond milk.

You know, your typical Saturday. May Sunday be just a little less eventful. 

Deb in the City