Angel Event and Other Things

Angel Event

Tonight I went to a book event for a book that I helped proof-read. It's a book about angels translated into English from Norwegian. Despite it's non-mainstream structure, I love the book and was excited to see the presentation. It was very interesting to hear the background of the book. He wrote the whole 600 pages in two months! AND he and the editor only spent two days editing it before they published it. Wow! He said he writes very fast because if you stop to think about it, it becomes too forced, and he's not very good at thinking anyways, he says. Ha-ha. And in fact, he hasn't read the book since he wrote it seven years ago, so when people ask him about specific moments in the book, he doesn't always remember them. I know I definitely wouldn't be able to recall event in my stories from seven years ago! The author also said that he feels ashamed about the book because of the artistic licenses he puts onto the Bible--the relationship between Cain and Abel for example. He said, "I am a writer, so what do I do? I decide to put the Bible in Norway and turn angels into seagulls. This is not a good idea for a story!" But indeed, it worked for him.

Published

Also, I had my article on the Shakespeare event published on Broadway World! Read it here. I also wrote a how-to article on double rod curtains (for money, obviously) so that should show up on the web somewhere at some point.

Party

I went to my friend's going away party in Brooklyn, which was fun. On the way there, I met and chatted with a finance journalist. At the party, I played some cards and talked with some people I didn't know. Everyone in publishing seems so unhappy or stressed out about their jobs. I actually really enjoy my job. I just wish it was full time...and closer...and had benefits. Anyway, then other people I knew showed up, and there was a total of four people from my college in Wisconsin. That's a little unlikely, isn't it? It was a good time, even if it does mean Erin's moving to Wyoming :(

Hamlet

I've discovered the entire David Tennant/Patrick Stewart Hamlet movie on YouTube. Haven't watched it yet, but as far as I can tell, it's a modern version but not to the extreme of the Leonardo DiCaprio Romeo and Juliet. Speaking of Hamlet, there was someone at the party mentioned earlier with a tattoo that said To Thine Own Self Be True, which is frequently quoted but rarely do people recognize the context in which that phrase originates. It's an ironic statement in Hamlet from Polonius, who is giving advice to his son about how to be in college. Don't make new friends, never let people know what you're thinking, use people for your own good, pretend to fit in but at the end of the day remember who you are. I mean, this is a man who gets killed because he's spying on Hamlet's mother from behind the curtains. I doubt Shakespeare wanted us to trust his empty words. I didn't say anything though.

And Just for Fun
This video is funny on its own, but funnier if you know the man singing about orange juice is an esteemed scientist.