1. I’m home!
3 weeks, 5,500 miles, 14 beds, 0 speeding tickets, and WAY too much road food. I’m sorry, Body, this week I will make amends.
2. What happens now?
Studying. I have to take the GRE in two weeks. I need to finalize my grad school list for my recommenders, and because the applications will begin opening their jaws.
3. I was having a convo with my dad tonight. It went like this:
Me: …and Disney basically OWNS the world. They have ESPN, Touchstone, ABC, Miramax…
Dad: Oh, I used to date the daughter of the guy who ran Miramax, in high school.
Me: O_O…Was this during your red corvette phase?
Dad: Yep. *turns back to show*
CONTEXT:
My dad is the son of Leon Schwab, who owned a famous Hollywood drug store called Schwab’s Pharmacy (it was a big gathering place for stars, agents, etc. in the 50’s and 60’s). He grew up on Whittier street, which is just by Sunset Boulevard. He does not find this particularly remarkable. Nor does he find his list of childhood neighbors and/or friends remarkable.
Every now and then he’ll blurt out something like "Desi Arnez lived across the street, but it was after the divorce, so Lucille Ball lived around the corner," or "Jimmy Stewart always came to the door himself on Halloween." He never finds any of this odd.
4. ALL THINGS BETWEEN:
Argh, flabby middle! *wields editing sword of DOOM*
5. Question:
I recently had to answer the question, "How do your projects start?"
I chose to answer honestly, which isn’t always the best idea, but oh well. I’m a word-oriented writer, meaning that I am drawn as much to the way a story is told as the story itself. My projects almost never start with a plot. They start with a line. A sentence I am attached to, for one reason or another. Maybe I love the way the syllables flow, or the tone, or the questions that arise.
How do your projects start?
Victoria (V.E.) Schwab 
It starts with a line, but I won’t write it until I’ve scribbled some notes on story and continuity as they pop in my head. I want to know the shape of the picture, at least, before I dive in. Mostly where it ends and a few glimpses of how to get there.
I didn’t start the book I’m working on now til a year after I had the idea. It also went through many false starts because I wasn’t giving it the time to percolate.
Schwab’s, wow! I’ve even been there. 🙂 Lana Turner, right?
My stories start with a character in a situation. They spiral onward from there (one hopes).
Though JENNA started with part of a line first.
I’m much the same way. I write that line, but I never actually start writing the story until I have an idea of the plot. It just *begins* with the words.
With NW I didn’t start writing until almost 6 months after that line!
In true foot-in-mouth fashion, my current project did NOT come from a line *headdesk*
bb, can I just say.
YOU PWNED THIS SUMMER.
~*~
~*c
Hahaha I don’t know about that, but it has certainly been a ride. Literally :p