So. The thing that was going on is that I’m no longer trying to write a screenplay for Homing. I tried for a year, but as the renewal date for the option approached it became increasingly clear to me that the producers and I just didn’t share a vision of the project. They kept asking questions about Nathan; I kept parrying those off. Nathan is a ghost, a possible figment of the protagonist’s imagination. He is not the protagonist; Homing is not Nathan’s story, much as they wanted it to be.
I knew the impasse had come one night when I sent myself an email from a friend’s house. “Sorry,” I said, “it’s just I have an idea for my screenplay and I don’t want to forget it.” And so I took a break from the dinner party to type myself a hasty email.
The next morning when I read it, I almost cried. “Maybe Leah does leave the house,” the email said. “Just to go to the store, or scurry to Charlotte’s. She’s always guilty when she does it, but maybe she does it anyhow.”
If you’ve read Homing, you know Leah leaving the house is not really in the cards, for a variety of what I think are pretty good reasons. And I know, a housebound protagonist doesn’t instantly scream great film, but then again, that’s what the book is, so if a producer reads it, loves it and wants to make a film of it, they should come to the process aware that the whole housebound thing is a thing, you know?
Anyhow, I did, I almost cried. I couldn’t believe I was ready to sell out that part of my quiet little story.
So blah blah blah, I quit the project. It’s still going ahead… or at least, the company has renewed its option for the next year, and has the option to renew again after that. God knows who will write it. Maybe someone great. Maybe they’ll make a masterpiece of it. Or maybe it’ll be The Lovely Bones.
Regardless, I am done. And that is that. And I am glad to be free of it. I will make a shed and deck in the side yard with the money from the option and that’s a tangible positive out of it.
And next time I’ll know better.
Meanwhile, I dig in the garden, dirt under my nails, pulling goutweed and planting anemones. Tomato plants line up awaiting their new home. Ants are farming aphids on the climbing rose and the wild raisin. Who knew they farmed aphids? They’ve been sprayed with dish soap and we’ll see what happens. All the while, Fallsy Downsies grows too.
You win some, you lose some.
Filed under: book news and views
Nothing for months and then two posts in one day? Whiskey Tango Foxtrot, you may well ask.
There have been things going on about which I have not wanted to write. And in such circumstances my default is always not to write at all. I am very good in my living life at pretending that things I wish weren’t happening simply aren’t (this is how I’ve lived for a year and a half with a big hole in my living room ceiling and two or maybe three years now with a jagged hole where my basement door used to be. Living in a pre-Confederation house is fun! The holes are part of the decor! La la la, nothing to see here! Straighten the throw pillows and invite House Beautiful over!), but I am terrible at keeping stuff out of my writing. If I’m thinking about it, before long I’m writing about it, and I don’t know if you know this, but the Internet is not great at discretion.
So…cryptic, I know. And everything’s fine. And that’s all I’ll say about that for the moment.
I am writing, which is good. Every day, seven hundred and fifty words. And I think I’m going to do this, and I haven’t decided if that means an additional eight hundred words a day or what. I just found out about it today and yoga didn’t happen today, which means it’ll need to happen all the other days this week. No problem.
I applied for funding from whatever it is they call the body that replaced the Nova Scotia Arts Council. I wrote my application while on a giant road trip across the continent. And since I sent it, I’ve been thinking of all the things I SHOULD have said in the application. So we’ll see how that goes. Anyhow, I think it would be good to finish Fallsy Downsies by the end of 2011, and it seems the best approach is to get myself some time.
Not much else to say. For now. But if you know anyone who fixes holes in ceilings and where basement doors used to be, you know, send them over.
Filed under: book news and views
It’s always interesting to see what brings people to this website. And lately, it’s my husband. Literally, it’s people doing web searches on the phrase “stephanie domet’s husband.” I find this hilarious. It can only be because last week on the radio, I mentioned that he’d been on tour for a million years and on the way home, almost got creamed by someone driving the wrong way on the highway and being chased by the cops. What a way to wrap up the tour! Anyhow, I mentioned him and it set off a flurry of googling, apparently.
This is doubly hilarious to me because his music rarely gets played on the local CBC, because of me. Because, as one of my employers once put it, when a request came in for his music one time, we wouldn’t want people to think that he’s getting an unfair advantage because of being married to the host. Oh ha ha. As if people could ever think that. If it’s an unfair advantage to never get played on the local shows that play music…the ones I host…well then, I guess he’s got that! Anyhow… if you’re curious about “stephanie domet’s husband” (and honestly, if you like writerly, thoughtful, catchy, awesome songs that will change your life, you should be) just click this link. And tell him I sent you.
I know, I know, I’m a bad little blogger. I have been very busy, driving across the continent (which, it turns out, is very large indeed) and thinking. Thinking a lot, about a lot of things. And getting scraps of writing done, especially on that cross-continent road trip. Soon I will be back to talk about some of the things about which I’ve been thinking. Promise.
And if you have questions, you should ask them in the comments. I’m keen to answer questions lately, for some reason. Probably anticipating a return to the daily work of asking other people questions all day. So fire away. Put the shoe firmly on the other foot.
Filed under: Out and about,Readings and writings,Working holiday,book news and views
Last night was the Atlantic Book Awards. It was packed in the room. Amazing to be among so many good writers, all from right outside my door. Shandi Mitchell cleaned up, deservedly so. My Anna Quon did not win her category, but since she was competing against Linden Macintyre, who won the Giller, and George Elliot Clarke, who’s … awesome… I think she should feel pretty goddamn great about how she did last night. She seemed alright with it all.
As for me.
Lately I have been writing every day. Not much, and not novelly, but writing, regardless. Kev hipped me to this and I am hooked. So great. I having figured out a few vital character things for Fallsy Downsies, which is wonderful. And more than that, it just clears my head of morning gack, and all day long I think, yes, writing. I like that. It feels good and right. I should do more of that. So that’s positive. It’s been awhile since I felt that feeling, to be perfectly frank.
The excellent Sue Goyette has persuaded me as well to apply for a creation grant. I think I could convince my employer to give me a month off, maybe not all at once, but surely they’d give me some time off to work on my book if I got a grant? I suppose I should check that with them first, but it seems like a perfectly reasonable thing to do. Deadline is May 15.
And then there’s the big trip across the country by car. So excited about that, and looking forward to it for the purposes of the novel. We’ll travel through the states going out and through Canada coming back, so it won’t be exactly what Lansing and Evan do, but it’ll be close. And already I can feel the vistas opening in my head, letting me creep inside my story and hang on for dear life while it expands.
Or something like that, anyhow.
Porkpie is coming up again, finally. Thursday, May 6 at the Company House. Readers to be announced. I’ll be one of them, for sure. Stay tuned.
I got it in my hotel, at the very least. I’m in Sydney, Cape Breton for the East Coast Music Awards. My (other) radio show, Atlantic Airwaves, went live from Sydney to Atlantic Canada earlier today, with a smokin’ show featuring Coco Love Alcorn and The Joel Plaskett Emergency with Rose Cousins and Dale Murray. It was pretty intense. Five hundred people or so and two amazing bands.
And yesterday, Airwaves picked up the ECMA for Broadcast of the Year, which was pretty wild also. Totally was not expecting to win, and am utterly tickled pink. Me and my ECMA, just hanging out in Sydney on a Saturday night. No big deal.
So it’s been a great weekend so far. Kev, who’s gearing up to leave town on Monday (ulp) for seven weeks (big ulp), has had a million gigs as a sideguy, and also picked up a couple solo gigs when our friend Steven Bowers had an unfortunate bout of car trouble. Steven had to get towed back to Halifax from the highway, and he was totally disappointed not to get here to play his shows. Go buy his record, and tell him I sent you. On the positive side, Kev totally nailed the gigs.
I have to confess that the writing is going nowhere these days. I go a million miles an hour all day it seems and there’s nothing left for Lansing Meadows, Dacey Brown and Evan Cornfield somehow. I miss writing them and I wonder all the time about what they’ll do next. Next weekend, The Common is going on retreat and I have high hopes for getting a few pages done then, and sparking myself back into writerly action. And with Kev out on the road, I hope to make more time for the story.
So… same old, really.
Filed under: book news and views
I’m up, I’m up!
Multiple Christmases had me in their grip. Then annual January crabbiness. And Kev is getting ready to release his record officially on Saturday, so I’ve been helping him with that…and unable to get much time on the laptop as he busily books a seven-week tour of Canada for spring.
But suddenly here I am! About to have a pair of meetings (on a Sunday morning no less), the first about Blowhard Presents, the occasional story telling series I co-curate. The next about Homing-the-movie. Not sure what that one will be about. Guess I’ll find out.
Time to get back to that, anyhow. Once this CD launches, Kev will be busy and out and about. And I will be able to turn my attention to that project.
Meanwhile, Fallsy Downsies creeps along.
Emerging now from the fog of a (fake early) family Christmas. Kev and I have been stewing in nieces and nephew and friends and relations, endless games of Boggle and Clue and generous amazing gifts we will somehow have to pack into our suitcases today and wheel on to the plane to go back to Halifax. It’s been a whirlwind five days in Toronto and environs (mostly environs) and I really hate to leave. It’s so hard, always always. Won’t be back till July. Sigh.
But still to come, Latkepalooza on Saturday, which will engender the frying of many many many potato pancakes and lots of good times.
A short recovery, then Real, On-Time Christmas in Amherst, Moncton and environs. Mostly, again, environs.
Then a long, cold, dark winter with lots of writing in it.
Looking forward to it all, always.
Filed under: Tunes you can use
Where does the time go? We were just in Newfoundland, and then suddenly, that was two weeks ago, and here it is December. And now I’m on that holiday rollercoaster, keeping my arms and legs inside the cart at all times and just enjoying the ride. I love this time of year, and this year, I seem to be loving it a little more than usual, even for me.
I am getting nothing done, writing-wise, and I am accepting that. January stretches out, empty, bleak, cold and waiting for me to fill it up, warm it up with sentences. So, that.
For now, I am just along for the ride.
There’s something about Homing-the-book that seems to resonate with local songwriters. Or maybe they’re vying for inclusion on some eventual soundtrack. Ryan MacGrath has a song inspired by the book. I haven’t heard it yet, but as with Steven Bowers‘s beautiful song about pigeons and coming home, I am beyond flattered to know that it exists. They’re both amazing songwriters, and if you haven’t checked them out yet, give yourself an early present, and go do so now!
We’re going on a roadtrip! Well, as far as the airport, and then a quick jaunt by plane and we’ll all be in St John’s Newfoundland. Just like that. The first delegation leaves today, the second wave tomorrow afternoon, and the final two tomorrow night. Ryan Turner‘s (amazing) new book, What We’re Made Of, launches Monday in St John’s and we figured we might as well tag along for moral support and beers. I wonder if he will have incorporated the kids-sitting-on-lap thing by Monday night. This particular launch is in a bar, so maybe not kids. But probably still with some lap-sitting.
Among our many plans (catching up with Newfoundland members Camille Fouillard and Wanda Nolan, going for a big big hike, drinking in the bars, cheering raucously at the reading), I have plans to steal some time for Fallsy Downsies. Our retreats are not usually so … urban … so I’ll have to be pretty clever about this, but I think the way I’m writing this particular book (scraps of paper, late at night, in public) lends itself well to what I expect this weekend will bring.
And as for Ryan’s book, I read it (again, for the first time between covers) whilst in the grips of not-Swine-Flu on the weekend. It was the perfect accompaniment for hours in bed alone, coming and going in delirium. During my lucid moments, it had me more breathless than the not-flu. Seriously. If you haven’t gone to get yourself a copy yet, I’m not sure what you’re waiting for. It’s called What We’re Made Of, and it’s required reading.
