Maybe a dozen? Thanks, Liese!

You got it.

LDO used to be Long Distance Operator. Think...Ernestine, but not that much fun.

Wow, Liese. I'd really like to go to that library.

My local library is very pretty, architecturally interesting, sited in a lovely wooded setting. But it has no books. Well, maybe a couple hundred, total. They have computer bays down both sides of the length of the building, with shelving between each bay. But...there's nothing there. You have to look up the city-county inventory on the computer, and if you can't find what you want there, look up more on interloan. I loved the days when you walked in the door and the smell of books and glue and ink hit you. When you could wander in the stacks and find old, oilcloth bound books and brand new clothbound books on the same subject filed side by side, tall books, thick books, books with bindings of all colors, linked only by subject and the white inked code on their spines.

I'm an anachronism. I admit it.

People who know they're going to be quoted write these incrediably stiff and boring replies.

That too. They end up sending it to their PR people, and their boss, and their boss's boss, and a week later they come back with, "We are very excited about the new whosiwhatsit program. We feel it will enable us to continue to better serve our guests." I've done email interviews a few times, but it's not the way to go if you want interesting quotes.

as long as you don't accidentally stay somewhere for 20 years.

Heh. At this point, I'd be happy with two or three years in one place.

One of the big amusements of communications is how different oral conversation is from oration is from written communication. It is way, way easier to hold a complex thought in the mind when one has it all chunked out in visual cues (commas, e.g.), or when a good orator cues with pitch and pauses where each segment begins and ends. People speaking off the cuff, and people listening to someone speak off the cuff, often stumble over a sentence fragment, which is why conversation tends to ramble and digress.

Seeing a baseball manager's comments reprinted verbatim is always hilarious, because about 3/4 of the sentences are ungrammatical (usually, agreement problems or subject switching within subordinate clauses) or downright illogical. He got his idea across to his listeners, but not in a way that would ever be legitimate argumentation on paper.

Seeing a baseball manager's comments reprinted verbatim is always hilarious, because about 3/4 of the sentences are ungrammatical (usually, agreement problems or subject switching within subordinate clauses) or downright illogical. He got his idea across to his listeners, but not in a way that would ever be legitimate argumentation on paper.

Oh, absolutely. That's part of what makes writing good dialogue for a novel or a play such an art. You have to get the feel of the crazy rhythms and logic of how people actually speak but put enough structure in it so the reader (or audience member) can follow, but not so much structure that it feels stilted or contrived.

That's part of what makes writing good dialogue for a novel or a play such an art. You have to get the feel of the crazy rhythms and logic of how people actually speak but put enough structure in it so the reader (or audience member) can follow, but not so much structure that it feels stilted or contrived.

I use the "this is the character, this is how s/he thinks and speaks, be consistent and be true to it" method. Seems to mostly work.

But I don't think I write better than I talk, or talk better than I write, so I may be out in left field (ah, baseball!)

I believe that my speech and writing are way more in sync than they used to be.

You know how you know when you're completely unenthusiastic?

When you get a package from your publisher containing the first galleys of your new novel, and your reaction is "What fucking EVER."

Three uncorrected ARCs of "Matty Groves." And I seriously don't give a shit.

And I seriously don't give a shit

Well, if it was all skipping through happy meadows, everybody would be doing it.