Blogflog: double feature

[drho.livejournal.com]

http://blog.laurellkhamilton.org/2007/11/happy-veterens-day.html 

Frankly, whatever I believe polticially, if someone is willing to strap on a uniform, and weapons to defend my constitution then hero covers it. But hug a Vet today, and remember that when push comes to shove they are who and what we have standing between us and the other guys. 

I don't want to proselytize "polticially" in this community, but her smug, patronizing tone could tempt Gandhi into punching something. 

I feel the same way about the police, too, but today was for the Vets. Do we have a police day? Or a fireman day? Should we have? 

How about a STFU day for archaic porn writers that ignore female fire fighters or a holiday for teachers that teach children about commas?

 
http://blog.laurellkhamilton.org/2007/11/better-this-morning.html
 

Thanks to the people who have recognized us, and not gotten on the internet and outted where we are. We really appreciate that. Thanks for just being cool, talking quietly to us, and letting us go our way. Those that just nodded and and got that little twinkle in your eye, hey to you, too, and thanks. 

You mean people didn't mob you, Laurell? You and Jon didn't have to huff down the street like the Beatles? LOL. 

I finally think I understand what John Grisham meant when he said in interviews that he picked a city he wanted to visit then set a book there. When I first heard it, I thought, how cold blooded, how un-muse-driven, but now I think I understand. 

John Grisham is a special snowflake just like you. 

Adapting to change is not my best thing, but I'm working at it. This morning Jon's breakfast came, but not mine. I didn't freak, or even have a moment's pause, it seems par for the course on this trip. They had given us two tea's, so I told him, "Eat, I'll drink my tea while it's hot and look out at the mountains." Which is exactly what I did. Breakfast came, I got to eat, it was all good. If the fact that I didn't let that small thing ruin my mood seems like, well, of course, then you don't know anyone as high strung as I am. 

I guess I don't know anyone as 'high strung' as she. It seems normal to be miffed at missing breakfast, but it seems odd to be proud that you weren't. 

Moody, uncompromising, perfectionistic to the point of driving everyone around me to their best efforst, or else. But I'm learning to let it go a little. 

Sometimes it's amusing, when people believe the lies they create about themselves. This, however, is sad.  Aren't you just so inspired to demonstrate your "best efforst"?

I realized that the last time I took this much time off from actual writing, and my actual life, was over twenty years ago. Before Jon, before Trinity, before I actually sold anything as a writer. Work-aholoic, who me? . 

Would a true perfectionist / work-"aholoic" learn to use spellcheck?

Comments

[rebootfromstart.livejournal.com]

Two teas.

Two TEAS. There is no apostrophe there, god damn it! APOSTROPHE DOES NOT MEAN "LOOK OUT, HERE COMES AN S"!

[ladyniko.livejournal.com]

*snort* Yeah..... but it's LKH and she's just spe-shul that way! :-p

[evewithanapple.livejournal.com]

I hate being told how I should feel. Hate, hate, hate it. Hey, guess what Laurell? Some people don't have the same opinions as you! And we don't like being preched at! Gah.

[easol.livejournal.com]

Stuff like that always makes me want to reply in the opposite vein, no matter what I actually think. "What do I think of dictatorial oppression? I love it!"

[alondra-del-sol.livejournal.com]

*sigh* I don't understand the big deal. I understand being a little miffed if they forgot your breakfast, but mistakes happen and its not like its the end of the world. It irks me so much when people pretend like they have never made a mistake before. I mean this is assuming if the person is honestly trying their best to do their best.

People acting like jerks is a different situation entirely of course. Not that I would blame someone for being less than enchanted with LKH in the real world.

In any case she makes herself out to be such a saint for 'being understanding' as if she was going to stand up in the middle of a restaurant and start screaming at his poor waiter or waitress. She thinks she's hardcore, but I don't see her having the guts to go against the true norm. Of course she thinks she has already, so I'll leave her to her delusions I suppose.

[fangedsekhmet.livejournal.com]

She thinks an error in her breakfast order is adapting to change? Jeezussuffering-(rude word omitted because I'm tired)

[saucyirishlass.livejournal.com]

If the fact that I didn't let that small thing ruin my mood seems like, well, of course, then you don't know anyone as high strung as I am.

Did anyone else have to read this five times before understanding what she wad trying to say?

[saucyirishlass.livejournal.com]

Whoops.

*was

[bubblefaerie.livejournal.com]

I have to say, I don't think I would recognize LKH if I saw her anywhere.

[drho.livejournal.com]

I don't think I'd recognize her either. Her book jacket pictures are in myspace style, with odd angles and lighting.

She protests too much, I think. "Don't look at me." "Quit stalking me!"

Um. We weren't.

[deadsong.livejournal.com]

LKH is an "inspiring perfectionist"...just not in the way she thinks she is, or wishes she was.

She inspires authors everywhere to write better novels than her drivel.

[easol.livejournal.com]

Actually, she is. ;) A friend of mine has started writing stories about a character who is Anita's opposite in every way, and she's working hard to avoid all LKH's pitfalls.

[gehayi.livejournal.com]

I feel the same way about the police, too, but today was for the Vets. Do we have a police day? Or a fireman day? Should we have?

Actually, we have one:

May 15 has been National Peace Officers Memorial Day, and the week containing May 15 has been National Police Week, since President John F. Kennedy signed Public Law 87-726 on October 1, 1962. (http://www.nationalcops.org/npw.htm)

And there have been a couple of National (http://www.reagan.utexas.edu/archives/speeches/1988/111088d.htm) Firefighters Day (http://www.presidency.ucsb.edu/ws/index.php?pid=62510). There was a petition (now defunct) to make September 11th National Firefighters Day (http://www.snopes.com/rumors/firemen.asp), as well.

I found these things within about two minutes with the power of Google-Fu. Strange that LKH could not.

[atypia.livejournal.com]

Using Google would be FAR too technologically advanced for poor widdle Laurell. She thinks she was clever writing her blog entry in an email because she couldn't make her blog work.

[raietta.livejournal.com]

I feel kind of like a jerk for saying this, but I suspect that LKH is, er, fibbing about this sort of interaction with the Little People she meets:

Thanks to the people who have recognized us, and not gotten on the internet and outted where we are. We really appreciate that. Thanks for just being cool, talking quietly to us, and letting us go our way. Those that just nodded and and got that little twinkle in your eye, hey to you, too, and thanks.

I just... it sounds a bit much, really. That and LKH saying, "I'm not telling where we are, because some people have a tendency to search me out, and basically go on road trips to stalk me" make me arch an eyebrow. I call bullshit.

[drho.livejournal.com]

I think it's complete bullshit. Although some of her fans are scary, they are likely to obey LKH and not follow her. The "anti-fans" (aka not batshit crazy people) can't stand her in the virtual world, so I can't imagine anyone tracking her down in the real world.

[ravenclaw-devi.livejournal.com]

They had given us two tea's

This person is a professional author? *weeps*

[gehayi.livejournal.com]

I went to her blog to mention the whole "APOSTROPHES DO NOT FORM PLURALS OF WORDS!" thing, but she doesn't have comments enabled. Pity.

[easol.livejournal.com]

"WHAT? You are serving another customer before I have gotten my item from the back? I'm high-strung and a perfectionist! And Jean-Claude needs his leather panties!"

[othellia.livejournal.com]

"Moody, uncompromising, perfectionistic to the point of driving everyone around me to their best efforst, or else."

I love how she claims that she's a perfectionist in a sentence fragment with one misspelled and one made-up word.

"I feel the same way about the police, too, but today was for the Vets."

Technically, isn't Veteran's Day tomorrow? I know it sort of encompasses the whole weekends in terms of parades and sales and the like, but she did say that she was a perfectionist, and we do tend to go into nitty-gritty details sometimes. Well... more than sometimes, but you catch my drift.

[othellia.livejournal.com]

Whoops. I meant "weekend." Singular. At least I didn't add an apostrophe though, right?

[bludflower.livejournal.com]

Thanks to the people who have recognized us, and not gotten on the internet and outted where we are. We really appreciate that. Thanks for just being cool, talking quietly to us, and letting us go our way. Those that just nodded and and got that little twinkle in your eye, hey to you, too, and thanks.

And of course she's an expert at decoding eye twinkles. My guess is that she just had steam from the TEA'S in her EYE'S.

Moody, uncompromising, perfectionistic to the point of driving everyone around me to their best efforst, or else. But I'm learning to let it go a little.

If she's so "perfectionistic"<--(ta-ha-ha!) she'd probably make more of an "efforst" to check her spelling and grammer.

That list of lovely traits is obviously meant to be endearing in the classic Anita Blake:Penis Hunter style.

"Moody and uncompromising"..."or else" = bitchy prima donna.

[drho.livejournal.com]

I wonder if Babel Fish can translate her blogs into English.

[rin-x-x.livejournal.com]

So.. she's saying that meals that don't come all at once are a rare occurance that usually happens to her?

And it has NOTHING to do with the fact that it might take different foods a bit longer?

*eyetwitch*

[easol.livejournal.com]

Specially if you want them to be done "perfectionistically," as opposed to just getting a bagel and coffee?

[quizzicalsphinx.livejournal.com]

Bitch misspelled "veterans".

Bitch misspelled "veterans".

I'll just . . . be over here. Clawing a hole through the plaster with my bare hands.

[acostilow.livejournal.com]

*looks*

Motherfucker. Multiple times.

Getting my grammar geek on-- Part 1.

[gehayi.livejournal.com]

We slept in this morning and got to eat breakfast looking out our hotel window at the Veteren's Day parade for the city we're in.

Misspellings: 1.

It was a nice parade, full of uniforms, flags, waving crowds, classic cars, some amazing motorcycles, and heroes.

Strange. I would have expected the crowds to be WATCHING the parade, not IN the parade.

Sloppy sentence construction: 1.

You think hero is too old-fashioned a word, or too simple for such complicated times? I don't.

"Hero" should be in quotation marks. And considering that there's a TV show called Heroes in "such complicated times," not to mention the descriptions of the men and women who tried to save others during 9/11, "hero" might not be "too old-fashioned" a word.

Faulty punctuation: 1.
Logical fallacies (in this case, the straw man fallacy (http://onegoodmove.org/fallacy/straw.htm)): 1.

There were men in the cars that had gotten their medals in older wars, when people didn't debate why we were doing what we were doing.

I believe that "earlier wars," would be correct, rather than "older wars." "Earlier" indicates that the wars occurred at a prior time. "Older" indicates that the wars have been going on since before the current war, and are getting on in years.

Also, people have debated the morality of every war, including the American Revolution and World War II. It's the nature of humans to argue.

Misused word: 1.
Logical fallacy (begging the question (http://onegoodmove.org/fallacy/begging.htm)): 2.

Frankly, whatever I believe polticially, if someone is willing to strap on a uniform, and weapons to defend my constitution then hero covers it.

"Politically" is misspelled. You can strap on a gun, but not a uniform. The comma after "uniform" is misplaced. "Constitution" should be capitalized. "Hero" should be in quotation marks.

Misspellings: 2.
Misused words: 2.
Faulty punctuation: 3.
Capitalization errors: 1.

I hear that it doesn't feel very heroioc over there.

"Heroic." Also, "over there"--Iraq--probably is not feeling heroic. The soldiers might feel heroic, but I doubt if the location would.

Misspellings: 3.
Sloppy sentence construction: 2.

It feels scared, and dangerous, and so many things.

The soldiers might be scared, and they might perceive the location as dangerous. But the same word--"it"--should not be used to represent the common noun "soldiers" and the proper noun "Iraq."

Misused word: 3.
Sloppy sentence construction: 3.

But hug a Vet today, and remember that when push comes to shove they are who and what we have standing between us and the other guys.

"Vet" should not be capitalized.

Capitalization errors: 2.

I feel the same way about the police, too, but today was for the Vets.

Capitalization errors: 3.

Do we have a police day? Or a fireman day? Should we have?

Lack of research: 1.

These are all the people who start running towards the trouble, while the rest of us run the other way.

They're also trained to deal with other soldiers, criminals and fires. I am not, and neither are you, Ms. Hamiliton. A civilian may not respond in the same way as a trained soldier, cop or firefighter, but that does not imply cowardice.

Logical fallacy (Fallacy of limited depth (http://onegoodmove.org/fallacy/lidepth.htm)): 3.

That counts for something in my book, both fictionally, and in real life.

There should not be a comma after "fictionally."

Faulty punctuation: 4.

Re: Getting my grammar geek on-- Part 1.

[pandaemonaeum.livejournal.com]

I love that you are enumerating her logical fallacies, I usually think of them when reading her blogs. Her favourites are 'the fallacy of appealling to emotion' and 'the fallacy of appealling to authority' :D

Getting my grammar geek on-- Part 2.

[gehayi.livejournal.com]

Jon and I are at a different hotel in a different city. We're in Jason's town, or close to it.

Redundant. "Jon and I are at a hotel near the town that Jason comes from" would make more sense.

Sloppy sentence construction: 4.

We'll be driving the route that he and Anita take in the book and try to get land marks tomorrow.

Jason and Anita are trying to get landmarks tomorrow?

Sloppy sentence construction: 5.

I also have to decide how many real locations to use and how many sort of real ones.

"Sort of real locations"? Look, either a location is real and factually depicted, it's purely imaginary (Narnia), or it's an imaginary location based on a real place (Ed McBain's city of Isola, Jim Butcher's Chicago, etc.).

Sloppy sentence construction: 6.

My rule is that if nothing bad happens, we use real life, but if something bad happens, then I usually put it on a real streat or a real location, but just not quite findable.

"Street" is misspelled. And "if nothing bad happens"...to whom? To LKH and Jon while they're on location? Or to the characters in the book?

Misspelled words: 4.
Sloppy sentence construction: 7.

I'm to bed guys.

"Going" is missing.

Missing words: 1.

It's been a wonderful day, exciting, and helpful research-wise, but tiring.

Total errors:
Lack of research: 1.
Missing words: 1.
Capitalization errors: 3.
Logical fallacies: 3.
Misused words: 3.
Faulty punctuation: 4.
Misspelled words: 4.
Sloppy sentence construction: 7.

Re: Getting my grammar geek on-- Part 2.

[eldestmuse.livejournal.com]

I love you.

[moonsinger.livejournal.com]

Unlike LKH, Grisham has yet to write a novel (unless it was the Christmas one, which I haven't read) that isn't gripping and at least 3 stars out of 5. He's kind of like Patterson in that his novels are always good reads although not usually great reads. But in both cases, I can't put them down unless I have to do something else (like sleep or do something with the kids). LKH, on the other hand, keeps giving me reasons why I shouldn't buy another book of hers, but I want to see how the train wreck ends and will probably catch them in paper back or used.

[tsubaki-ny.livejournal.com]

This...

I finally think I understand what John Grisham meant when he said in interviews that he picked a city he wanted to visit then set a book there. When I first heard it, I thought, how cold blooded, how un-muse-driven

...is catty.

[wonderbink.livejournal.com]

Because she is SO muse-driven, isn't she? She is an ARTEEST, yes, she is.

She's so wrapped up in Being A Writer that she doesn't know shit about writing anymore.

[x-trickster-x.livejournal.com]

I finally think I understand what John Grisham meant when he said in interviews that he picked a city he wanted to visit then set a book there. When I first heard it, I thought, how cold blooded, how un-muse-driven

I just can't see the problem with that. *shrugs* It comes across as kinda bitchy the way she says it, like "LOOK HOW COOL AND ARTY AND IN TOUCH WITH MY CHARACTERS I AM!11one!". 'Sides, I might not like John Grisham but he's sure as hell a better writer than she is, I think he knows what he's doing.

[brandiweed.livejournal.com]

There were men in the cars that had gotten their medals in older wars, when people didn't debate why we were doing what we were doing.







I can't think of a response that doesn't involve the phrase "stupid, stupid cumdumpster."

[drho.livejournal.com]

I concur. We are talking about LKH, though. Blind obedience is what she's all about.

[ladymuttly1.livejournal.com]

Is it just me or do you think this blog is a response to the crap she got for comparing her writing to a battle in a previous blog?

"I have to keep moving towards the next deadline. Sometimes it feels like I'm an officer in a war, in a theoretical way. I win my battle, victory! Then I get to the top of the hill I've just conquered, begin to collect my wounded, and see the enemy spread out below the other side of the damned hill. No time to rest. No time to gather reinforcements. There is only time to gather what men I have and prepare to either attack, or dig in and defend. I'm on the hill. I have the high ground. I'll make the enemy come to me."

[duchym.livejournal.com]

yeah, that was ridiculously insulting to all war vets and their families.

come on - writing a porno novel can hardly be compared to a battlefield...

[easol.livejournal.com]

You rock, oh great grammar geek. :D

[pandorasblog]

If she's really that paranoid about being stalked, then she should never do a book-signing session with advance publicity.