Snowflake

Winter is crawling toward us like a drunk old man. Slowly creeping, with all the signs of annoyance. I'm starting to mentally prepare myself once again for a long winter, although this time last year, we already had some snow on the ground, but you just never know how long it will last. It hasn't snowed here yet, thank goodness! I'm hoping we can make it until December until we see snow, but that is wishful thinking.

It's been pretty lonely and quiet at the Bravo household with my wife being in Detroit and Chicago this week. Next week she'll be in Indianapolis, Kansas City and Phoenix interviewing. Sad!! But I know she'll do well, my lover always does awesome at anything she does!

To keep me occupied these two weeks, I agreed to edit two manuscripts. Both of them are pretty short, less than 100 pages each. I already edited one of them in two days. I wasn't too impressed with the content, but clearly the author is a polished writer, with few if any grammatical errors or typos'. We are asked by the publisher to not only correct the grammar, but also write about a page with further comments. I tend to be a little harsh on my comments and very blunt. Yet I do this not out of arrogance or to be mean, I do it because I would want someone to point what needs to be fixed in my own manuscript. I remember when I received one of my manuscripts edits with hardly any comments. To be frank, I was a little disappointed the editor didn't take the time to comment on how the manuscript could be better. Some months later I received more edits to the same manuscript and this time almost every page had some sort of comment, whether it be positive or negative. This was the kind of feedback I wanted. Something specific, something that stood out and this is what I try to duplicated when I edit someone else's manuscript.

I bought Canto General by Pablo Neruda the other day at a used bookstore. This is the MASTERPIECE of one of my favorites. Just last Monday I started to read it and after the first page I quickly put it down. I realized this is a book cannot I leisurely read. When I read it, I'm know I'm going to have to be completely focus and soak in any inspiration I can from it. Knowing that I usually have about 2-3 books on my night stand, that I switch back in forth, I need to wait and give it the time it deserves. Wow, that first page just blew me away!

I received my copy of PALABRA (actually, I bought my copy, still waiting for my contributors issue). I was really impressed with the quality of the journal. High quality! I'm also really impressed with the other writers in the edition. Some of them write such random and weird things, it makes you like it. Its really weird to explain, maybe a good analogy would be Lady Gaga. Ha! Her weirdness makes her undeniably interesting. Maybe I need to be more Gaga-like...oh crap, does that mean I have to start wearing flesh...anyone have A-1 sauce?