Experience

Someone recently gave me a tip: Whenever you make a character do something, you should ask, Is this the first time? For the writer, it is always the first time -- with this character, in these words. But that's not the character's problem.

Jane Reassures Her Breakfast

Jane is putting syrup on her pancake. "The syrup is nothing to worry about," she says reassuringly. "Besides, you're a pancake!"

How To Ask For What You Want

Jane and Grandpa are having breakfast.

"Gimme some water," Jane says.

"Is that how you ask for what you want?"

Jane shakes her head. No.

"How do you ask for what you want?"

A pause.

"GRANDMA!!"

Still here

But only just. Blogger's misbehavin.

Jet-Lagged & Useless

I am briefly in Munich, trying to work and not succeeding. What I learned today: Nineteenth century Egyptologists [J-STOR; sub required] thought the djed symbol represented a nilometer, but these days no one is at all sure what it means. Well, that ties up one loose end in the new book. Sort of.

I went to the bookstore though, and found (but did not buy) Die Fliegende Berg, a new novel by Christoph Ransmayr... I also read something by Emine Sevgi Ozdamarwho is a very fine, lucid, thoughtful writer who deserves to be better known; I only wish I had more time to do a proper translation of at least the first piece in Der Hof im Spiegel. Silke Scheuermann is very good also, but her new novel Die Stunde zwischen Wolf und Hund isn't in bookstores yet even though the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung is publishing tantalizing bits of it. Grr.