edit: I wrote this yesterday but I’m only uploading it today…
Sittin’ here, at this lonely blog…
So, last night I drove down to Glenside to check out Joshua Radin at the Keswick Theater. Bit of a difference from the last time I saw him play in a small, 100-seat theater. This place held, oh…900 people or so? And most of the seats were filled. He was playing with Dar Williams, who I don’t know, but of course I was there to listen to Joshua play and I’m so glad I went. He wore a white button-down shirt. That’s not such a big deal, is it? But I think that’s the fanciest I’ve ever seen him get for a show (and this is number…I’ve lost track.) Anyway, I guess when you see a performer play live so many times in so many different types of venues, it is no longer as much about the songs he or she sings as it is the differences or similarities in the shows.
And he sang WHAT IF YOU. Happy sigh… What if You isn’t my favorite song by J.R. but it’s the one I listened to over and over while writing Broken and the reason I acknowledged him in the dedication. I love that song and he’s never played it live when I was there, so it was a real treat for me. No pictures this time, we didn’t hang around afterwards and it’s unlikely the performers came out because of the crowd and venue.
But…Dear Josh,
You can write happy songs about love and sex, I know it. I know you can! Please try.
Love, Megan Hart
Now I’m sitting here at the Barnes and Noble, thinking of writing, mostly not. Listening to Joshua’s VEGETABLE CAR song (which I dreamed about last night, over and over, the line about Lisa Loeb glasses in particular. I won’t get into the other details about the dream but let’s just say I woke up laughing and shaking my head at my imagination. And thinking of how on earth could I put that in a book, knowing that it would make no sense whatsoever but was sooooo the set up for a novel if I could only figure out a way to make it at all believable.”
Vegetable car, baby. “I barely know who you are, but I’d sure like to ask you to stay.”
So, what else? Well…I am immersed in TAKEN (the title I really don’t like but I can’t come up with anything better!!) and I keep thinking about it and thinking about it. So I guess that means I’ve reached the point where I’m living inside it. I can’t quite figure the motivation for them to get where I want them but I sure as hell know where they’re going to go once I get them there.
Alex Kennedy. Do you know he’s very popular? Probably the most popular hero I’ve ever written, at least based on things people have said or sent me. So there’s a lot riding on his book. I have stay true to his character (but keep in mind, people change, time has passed and Alex was never written to be stupid – if he didn’t learn a lesson, a big one, from his summer in Anne and James’ house, I don’t want to write about him.) But there are lots of details I know about him because I’ve been thinking about him so much and I know him better than I do the heroine, Olivia, which is not usually the way it works, but that’s how it is this time. And I also wish I’d called him Will.
I’m trying hard not to think too much about the Supernatural convention in Cherry Hill because I won’t be able to function.
RT is coming! Yay! Looking forward to that.
And just on a sort of random note…I have children. I have a daughter, and I have a son. Because I have two children of different genders, I feel fortunate enough that I can love them equally but not the same AND BE GUILT FREE. But I don’t have a favorite child. I love them both more than anything in the world, and though I might complain about how they drive me crazy, I adore my kids, and here’s a crazy concept – I LIKE HANGING OUT WITH THEM. I do. I enjoy spending time with them. I like it when we go on vacation and I can hang out with them and so stuff with them and be there to experience new things with them. Yes, they drive me nuts and yes, I have a vast need for time alone. Yes, sometimes I need “a break” from my kids. But that’s why I go away by myself! Do they make me angry? Sure. Do I wish sometimes I could run away from home and live on a beach someplace with a houseboy? Hell yes. Do I lose my patience with them? All. The. Time. But could I ever be hurtful to one in order to placate another? Wow. Not on purpose, anyway. Not deliberately, and surely not repeatedly.
In other random thoughts, eviscerate is a really great word.
M
PS — I’m having a booksigning, January 31st at the Lebanon Valley Mall, 2 pm. C’mon out and say hi, and buy a book! Or bring one to be signed. I’ll be there until 4 pm.
January 26th, 2009 at 10:45 am · Link
Really? Alex is more popular than Dan? Realllllllly?
Oh, I know exactly what you mean about living in their world…and it’s HARD for me to switch to another world. Each time I fall in love, then have to give them up to fall in love all over again.
January 26th, 2009 at 10:54 am · Link
@Anne Calhoun: Maybe Alex lovers are more vocal than Dan lovers?
January 26th, 2009 at 1:18 pm · Link
I need your word of the day calender. Mine thus far has produced (not joking) podunk (though I do like that word…makes me laugh) Girl, Nerd and today’s being “oz”. So far the only one I saw that left me thinking..hum, was “pasta fazool”.
But since I’m taking a LUNCH break decided to play…and look up your lovely word.
Great new word, but my timing to google was just a bit off!~
LOL
January 26th, 2009 at 1:22 pm · Link
Word on the kids. Equal but different and, much though they drive me crazy, I’d get mediaeval on anyone who hurt them.
Living the story is a great thing to do. I have the most fantastic dreams and, because of what I write, get to use ‘eviscerate’ in context quite frequently. Lucky ol’ me!
January 27th, 2009 at 6:46 pm · Link
Ok, I am an Alex lover through and through, I can’t help it.. I even have an imagine in my head of who he really is and of course this will be different from the “real” Alex in your head.. but I try and it works for me! But yes yes yes, I love Dan too – I just have this idea in my mind that Alex is the bad boy who I’m suppose to want but have no chance to get, and Dan seems like he’d be easier to acquire, or at least the one I’m suppose to want to acquire… Wait, does any of this make sense? Anyway, my reason for this comment was to tell you to do a book signing in Boston! Yup, that would be a great idea!
January 29th, 2009 at 11:22 pm · Link
@Caterine: I wrote Dan to be…normal. Real. Not that he’s not flawed, and yes, sometimes people say he’s too good, too nice, too patient…but honestly, I wrote Dan as every good experience I’d ever had with men. Dan’s a good guy, through and through. Not perfect. Just good.
January 28th, 2009 at 8:55 pm · Link
I really loved Dan in Dirty. The man is a saint – sensitive, sexy, a thousand kinds of patient. At least I thought so.
Alex, well, he is just as sexy as hell. He’s they guy I want to know “what makes him tick?”. I see a sensitive side there as well, and if he were a real person, I’d want to dig deeper and get to really know him. He’s got the bad-boy thing going on too, which is of course, sexy. I’m glad Taken isn’t going to be 400 pages of the same Alex from Tempted. I want to see how he changes as well. Looking forward to the book.
As for the Leb.V Mall – I know where that is.
I was born in Cherry Hill as a matter of fact. I live in the Northwest now, but I still have family in Jersey/Pa/NY. Lucky you – going to a Supernatural convention!!!!
January 29th, 2009 at 11:11 pm · Link
@Linda: Lebanon PA, not NJ…still know it? Home of the Bologna!
Yeah, Alex in TAKEN is different than in TEMPTED. He has to be. He had to change or else he wouldn’t be fun to write about.