Saturday, February 19, 2005

Just Observing

Just Observing

The writers' conference goes forward. Once it's started all you can do is stand back and let it roll. The attending writers just take over, and they're now having a blast. Mark Clements' read and critique Rogue workshop started at 9 last night and wrapped up at 6:01 this morning. Did I or did I not warn that the writers' don't have sense enough to sleep? I did, and they don't.

Blue skies and sun for most of the afternoon, but just before noon, the second I hung a left off Rosecrans for Shelter Island Drive, one of those clouds burst and damned near couldn't see the surface of the street, the rain was pounding down with such fury. Then the wind direction changed and that storm headed east. From there on, we were tucked in and content on that walkway, just smokin' and talkin' and drinking whatever.

Learned a little goody today: One of the guys said yesterday that if you add the words, "in bed" to the fortune in any fortune cookie, it makes perfect sense. I said he had to be kidding. Today he comes with a strawberry-colored fortune cookie. Tossed it across the table to me. The fortune said: "You will be in the best position." Add his two words yourself. :)

That went around the table, and left everybody laughing. I'd bet money that before the weekend is over half of them are gonna go out and eat Chinese just to double check.

Agents' panel this afternoon. They were asked what absolutely turned them off and caused them to reject a manuscript before they finished the first page. Misspellings. Bad punctuation. Not formatted properly. "Cute" fonts. Bound pages. Not all those things at once--just the sight of any one of them.

Which caused me to think that entirely too many emailers are extraordinarily careless with proper language regularly, and if that carelessness causes them to continue in other areas, it could cost them dearly. Corporations are currently forced to spend money sending their people to writing classes so they can write a decent report or whatever it is they need to write at work.

Didn't want to hang around for the banquet. Stopped on the way home and got a cheeseburger at Carl's. Just had a yen for one. Don't know when I last had one, but it was the only way to go tonight. I'm content.
Wrap.

1 comment:

Watch 'n Wait said...

Well, the least you could have done was warn me in advance. Got to thinking and realized you could add damned near anything and it would work. Very sneaky.