The practice oral went fine. The homestretch is in sight. I've read Alice Munro's hateship, friendship, courtship, loveship, marriage. Apparently I am an idiot because I was expecting personal essays and got sublime short stories. Oh my. What a wonderful book. I'm about halfway through Italo Calvino's Six Memos for the New millennium and these are essays. About writing. They are a tour de force of explication-- about Italo Calvino's world of the writer. The man's a genius etc. Yes, I know. But I have the same problem with these essays as with most essays about writing. The minute a writer, good, great or genius, devises the words that explain the end result, I end up admiring the words and yet have no idea what to do with them. So, sure, read the essay on lightness, think about the examples he gives. Now go do that. Right. See how easy it is? Sigh.

I suppose if you read Calvino's essays really, really really closely and then sat down with your WIP and thought about what words you need to make a reader fall into your world then you'd have made good use of the essays. Or, you could skip Calvino entirely and just sit down with your WIP and think about what words you need to make a reader fall into your world. You can send me the $12.00 I just saved you. Heck, it's a sale. Just send $6.00. I can save you money but not time. Spend the time and then you might sell a book of essays on writing for $10.00 (because, let's be realistic, chances are you're not Italo Calvino.)

What else? I have tomorrow off so it's a nice long weekend. At 9:30 am tomorrow I am responsible for my mother's chihauhua because my brother is taking my folks to Santa Barbara to have Thanksgiving with my little brother and his wife (yay!!). So, Thanksgiving here will be me, my sister, my other brother and my son. Plus the chihauhau. Smudge. He must be carried at all times. I shouldn't like such a little dog, but I do. Apparently, I carry him exceptionally well and for this he loves me, and so I love him back.