Stephanie Gayle Fiction first, everything else later.

I have not talked about writing lately. I'm sure this has been depressing as all get out for those of you who come seeking the crumbs of my authorial wisdom. So I'm going to give you what you crave: crumbs of authorial wisdom.

Currently I'm working on two books and a short story. This lesson is about the short story and a bad movie I recently watched. It was "The Lookout" and it starred Joseph Gordon-Levitt.

Charming young Mr. Gordon-Leavitt. So good in Brick. You should watch that movie.

In "The Lookout" a blind Jeff Daniels teaches our brain-impaired narrator to start at the end of a story and think it backwards. This comes into play during the tense ending with the bank robbers. Only it wasn't tense because I didn't too much care whether any of them lived or died. Except for Jeff Daniels. I suspected he was going to die of embarrassment for having appeared in this film. And I felt for him.

My current difficulty with my short story is that I'm not enamored of the ending. I need to rewrite it. It occurred to me that it might be wise to rewrite the ending and then edit back, filling in dialogue and scenery to better fit the story's new conclusion. I don't propose to change everything, but I do think that a revised ending will necessitate some alterations to prior scenes.

So that's you lesson for today: mining bad films for good narrative advice. Try it!

Posted by Stephanie at 07:33 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

I bought an awesome toy recently. Not for myself. For a baby of a friend. (Don't you love that? Instead of my friend's baby? I'm totally getting that into the lexicon.) Here it is.

Sorry for the trippy, flash, light quality of the picture. The toy is wrapped in plastic.
What is it?
An alphabet wall hanging with pockets for a little felt object corresponding to each letter. Apple is inside A. It resembles a tomato. Whatever. B is boy. G is girl. (It's never to early to introduce gender issues!) Lion is inside the L pocket. And, um, I'm not looking at the toy as I type this. I know the objects inside the pockets because I had this toy as a child. I adored this thing.

I'd play with the little objects, and I took a certain pride in knowing where each belonged. It appealed on so many levels: tactile, aesthetic, organizational.

In fact it may be partly responsible for the fact that I reorganized the very handsome boyfriend's spice drawer alphabetically this weekend. (How can anyone find spices out of alpha order? How?)

So, yes, I'm probably dooming this baby of a friend to a lifetime of alphabetic obsession. To which I say: good. We need more of those people!

Posted by Stephanie at 02:42 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

I heard a rumor about the new dating site Chemistry.com, and being the insatiable nosy parker that I am I set out to verify said rumor. And it's true! The first question you are asked to complete on chemistry.com's dating profile is about the length of your index finger in relation to your ring finger.

I'm sorry, but this seems like one step away from phrenology.

Seriously? Srsly? Finger length? Finger length is going to determine the chemistry match between me and millions of strangers? God, if I though that were true...I'm not sure what I would do with that information. They had some more usual questions about smoking and drinking and whether you'd have a baby with your future perfect mate, but the finger thing put me off.

Maybe it's supposed to. Maybe they're weeding out those who think pseudoscience is not a legitimate means to romance, so that those who do believe in it can frolic together and adopt babies and marvel at their fingers! (Their own fingers, not the baby's fingers, though ostensibly they can marvel at those too.)

This stuff makes me think of the old apple peel trick. Toss an apple peel over your shoulder and the shape it makes spells the first initial of your true love's name. Not satisfied with the results? Try again, and again, until you have enough peeled apples for a pie. Then grab a fork and enjoy!

Posted by Stephanie at 09:33 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Sorry for the silence, everyone. It's been a very jam packed past week? Two weeks? How the hell long have I been gone? No matter. I'm back!

"Well," you say (arms crossed tight), "Where were you?"

Um, I can't tell you. But I will give you a hint.

"Pretty," you say. "Wait, are those palm trees? Is that the ocean? Weren't you just in the Caribbean recently?"

"Errrrrr."

"Are you some sort of international spy masquerading a sun-starved tourist?"

"Heh."

"No, really, are you?"

"Gotta go."

Hope y'all had a fabulous holiday season thus far, and may your New Year be delightful and hangover free!

Posted by Stephanie at 04:08 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)