Man, I'm in the middle of that book right now, and I'm loving it! I want to marry it. I'm curious to see what has the New Yorker so up in arms.

The article made my eyes glaze over -- I'm not sure it ever got past the raftload of punctuation errors they found in the book.

Was the article supposed to make me recoil in horror from the book? As in "Oh, dear god! She misuses commas! Hypocrite! HYPOCRITE!"

Because I'm thinking that even Alton Brown fucks up a recipe once in a while.

And the second half of the article, about "voice," was pointless. If it was meant to be an oblique jab at the author of the book, it didn't work. Not once in the part about voice does the article's author even mention Eats, Shoots & Leaves. If that was deliberate, it didn't work. If it wasn't deliberate, it was sloppy and unnecessary.

I think I'd quite like to be able to agree with the New Yorker-- I too have read Eats, Shoots, and Leaves (with however many commas that should have in it-- either all or none, I disremember)-- and, while I do like to see good puncuation, felt she was carrying the whole thing a bit too far; good heavens, the woman's never ventured very far into the depths of the internet; she'd have had a fit and died the first time she read omg teh baturds liek eval!!!~11!! wtf?!?!, if what she says about her reaction to misuse is true-- but it's not a very good article, and I can't actually bring myself to defend it.

Of course crime junkie me sees it as eats, shoots, and leaves. Naturally.

Of course crime junkie me sees it as eats, shoots, and leaves. Naturally.

You know, I feel it's creepier if he shoots, eats, and leaves.

Mobsters do it. Business is business, cannoli is cannoli.ETA: both Homeresque "Mmm, cannoli..." and insent, Deb.

It's Monday, drabble-y peoples! You know what that means....

The silence challenge is now closed.

We're up to challenge #12, which is 3 months of weekly drabbles! And the writing people are posting is just getting better and better. I feel all spoiled, getting to read so much good writing.

Somehow, however, *I* am managing to be blocked on all these topics. I don't know if they're too broad, or what. So I'm going to go with a "scene" drabble again, and see if that knocks something loose in the writing lobe of my brain.

This week's challenge is to drabble on this scene: a person walks into a room that has shards of broken glass on the floor.

Drabble it. And I'm hoping *I* will, too.

Ah, I am plot's bitch.

The glass on the floor is his personal Berlin Wall. He thinks we won't cross for fear of getting cut. But why else did those ugly thick clogs come back into fashion?

I crunch over to his bed. "Dude, it's not going to work. You barricade, we break down. That's how this works."

"You shouldn't be here."

"Sorry. How were you planning on getting out of here? I know, trick question."

He smirks, knowing I can't carry him. He loses the smirk when I hold up a pair of thick-soled sandals, ugliest I could find.

"They're pink. And in your size."

So, does anyone know anything about Glimmer Train Press? The ease of submission (and no reading fee) is enticing, but I don't know how competitive it is and what kind of reputation it has.