The Final Stretch

So, about that darn manuscript. *coff* I'm in the final stretch, knock on wood. I did some editing today and I have six scenes/chapter bits to write. It's entirely possible I may have this thing done in a week.

But I've done something horrible. And I didn't mean to, it just sort of, well, happened. There's a cliffhanger, and I'm not sure what to do about it.

I sure as hell don't want to end up with a trilogy on my hands. Eep. And I hate cliffhangers. Hate 'em. Think it's cheating. Not sure why the hell I wrote one. Except a character I meant to write off thumbed her nose at me, and well, I couldn't argue. So.

Now I'm trying to figure out how to fix it. I think it would be simple enough to make a good sized book formatted as a "Book One/Book Two" kind of formatting. The thing is I'm not sure what I should put in it. All the folks I'm used to writing? Or their kids? Mix it up?

Grr. Argh.

So close yet so far...

This One's for All the Teachers in the Audience

Via Bookslut:

An eighth grader's essay on why koalas are dumb.

Yeah.

Fair warning: If you surf the Textfiles site hours of your life will be eaten up.

going to The Golden Compass tonight. I am excited!

Review: The Golden Compass

I quite like the film actually; I thought it was a far more coherent narrative than the book. A lot of complaints have been centered around changes to the story: they made characters nicer! The Church isn't there (exactly...sort of...but it's evil...except not as evil as in the book...wah!!)! It's too busy!

I found it far more leisurely than the book itself, which was way more whizz-bang in a frying pan-to the fire-to the coals way. Part of this is also because they essentially lopped off the real ending to give a fake "happy ending" and frankly, I'm fine with that.

Spoiler alert! ( Read more... )

I also quite like the focus on the importance of free will. I would love to be a fly on the wall of some family's dining table when after viewing the movie a little child demands to know what free will is. Oh the fun conversations that will ensue!

ETA: Great interview with Philip Pullman over at More Intelligent Life.

ETA: A friend forwarded me this fun quiz to finding your own daemon. Mine is a lion named Myron! For some reason it saved my friend's husband's animal, so you may or may not open the link and find that Jim's daemon is an ocelot...