Archive for the ‘personal’ Category

Posted on August 11, 2010 - by sarahsamudre

My Very First Novel

Every time I say “my first novel” it sounds more like a children’s craft kit that I could buy for my three year old goddaughter rather than the achievement that it actually is. I keep picturing a printed copy of my book, with a title page etched in bright crayon, hanging on my mother’s fridge.

But even with the desire to downplay what I’ve done, I am sensible enough to realize this is a big moment. It’s a moment I may never get back, because it is “My Very First Novel” and as silly as it makes me feel to prize that distinction, I’m going to. This last Tuesday morning, at 3:09 am, I finished my seventh draft of The Ashes.

The Ashes is the story of 23 year old Chloe Wright, who follows her mother to the small town of Monarch to fix their broken relationship. Her mother grew up in Monarch and has come back after decades of absence to take care of her aging and death-obsessed mother, Anne. Anne was, at one time, the most influential woman in town, and her house where she lived with her husband Peter, was the most important house in town. Once in Monarch, Chloe forges deep relationships with the outcasts of the town and discovers deep hurts and rumors from her grandparents’ past that continue to affect the town and her family. Her struggle between figuring herself out and living up to a newly-discovered legacy pushes her family and the town to confront its own divisions. But the pull of tradition and past legacies may prove to be too much.

Keep reading after the jump…

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Posted on July 24, 2010 - by sarahsamudre

The Writer’s Life: To Live or to Let Others Live

“So much of what I see reminds me of something I read in a book, when shouldn’t it be the other way around?” – Nora Ephron’s You’ve Got Mail

One of the most annoying things I’ve ever been told is that I’m not a writer if I’m not writing every day.

This gem of wisdom was handed to me, six years ago, by a guy who used to come in and work on his writing when I worked as a barista at my local Starbucks. I was in community college, part-time, working at the coffee shop, and traveling. He asked me what I wanted to do one day, and I said I was a writer, and that I was working on my first novel. I confessed that, if all went well, I’d like that to be my vocation.

He immediately, and sharply, asked how many hours a day I spent writing. I replied that it was zero at the moment, but that the book was being worked on in different ways. Mentally turned over, again and again, hit from different angles when I was out hiking, driving, working or exercising. He shook his head, as most people several decades older than you, who spend their days in a Starbucks, are want to do, and said, “Sarah, Sarah, Sarah. You’re not a writer. Writers write. If you’re not filling up notebooks everyday with stories and essays, then you’re not a writer. You won’t be one until you do that.”

I told him I had a blog that I wrote on everyday. I carried a quotebook around with me everywhere I went and wrote down observations and poetry and prose… whatever crept into my head and pounced on my synapses as I was out and about. He shook his head again. Told me that I needed to be doing writer’s exercises and writing stories and working for at least five hours a day and then, and only then, would I be able to one day write my book.

I countered, inbetween making beverages for customers, that I’d been writing since I was 12. I’d written two books (neither of them anything to brag about) by fifteen and thousands of poems and short stories. But at that moment, in 2004, it was the time to casually write. I was focusing on living.

The older gentleman shook his head again and looked at me sadly, and pronounced his judgment, “You’re not a writer then. A writer never stops writing. A writer can’t. We’re addicted. And if we don’t write, we’re reading. If you can live your life without doing either, then writing is just not in you.”

To that, six years later, as I finish the novel that I’ve been working on for seven years, I have a hearty, well-thought out reply:

Bullshit.

Yes. Some writers do live by the creed the man in the coffee shop tried to foist on me (him, as well as countless others I’ve met). But that’s not for me. A storyteller has to go out and live life. Reading and writing (a lot) are necessary to write well. But a great writer isn’t just a wordsmith. A great writer is also a storyteller, and the only way to find stories to tell is to live. Now, coffee shop writer was right about what a good writer does. A good writer writes all the time. Every day, every week, every month and every year. When they aren’t writing, they’re reading. And they have a great grasp of prose, an excellent handle on grammar and man, do they ever know what narrative forms are “in” at the moment.

But what do they have to say?

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Posted on April 20, 2010 - by sarahsamudre

Filming in Rome & What It Means to Get There

I am so excited to break this news finally: Vasant and I are going to Rome to study Italian cinema, film a documentary and our first *serious* film.

Read more…. (more…)

Posted on January 31, 2010 - by sarahsamudre

Sometimes It Takes a Month to Start a Year

I wanted to start the blogging year off with a personal post about the way I view New Year’s goals and hopes. In the following post, you’ll read nothing about the weight I hope to lose or the habits I’m giving up or the regimen I’m placing myself on. I know I’m young, but I feel I’m old enough to begin to grasp that external goals set in January can be an incredible exercise in frustration. There are things I hope for this year, and things I will hold myself to, but they’re of a different quality than the kind of resolutions I used to set. With this post, I just want to reflect on the way last year ended and what’s taken me so long to even blog about it in the first place. Life is always tougher and stranger than I plan for at the start of every year and month and week. So this year, I’d like to start out differently.

But first, background. How did the last year end for me?

So a little over a month and a half ago, Vasant and I finished our apartment. He and my father started working on this four years ago (although serious construction started in 2008). While we’ve been going to school and working, every spare minute of Vasant’s time was invested into our place. And this Christmas, we finally woke up in our cozy hobbit hole of an apartment.

Keep reading below the link: (more…)

Posted on November 24, 2009 - by sarahsamudre

Thanksgiving (updated with pictures!)

So it’s almost here! One of my favorite holidays of the year! The preamble to the Christmas season! The holiday that kicks in the teeth of any diet you’re on and says “Sorry sucker! That stuffing smells too good to pass up!”

This year I am in a rush to finish up my novel (91,000 + words, currently) and Vasant is in a rush to get us into our new place by the beginning of December (carpet and fireplace go in this next week, and hopefully we’ll get a housing inspection by the first weekend of December). In fact, while I tend to the turkey on Thanksgiving, Vasant and my Dad will be in the apartment working. Between school, catching the swine flu in October, and being behind on our ever-pressing deadlines to finish this book and construction by December, we’re spread unbelievably thin.But despite the craziness of this fall, there is so much to give thanks for. When I turn 28 this December, I’ll be able to say I’ve completed a novel. We’ll be in our own place, that Vasant BUILT. We’ll be closer than ever to graduation, and with so many projects off the table, we’ll be able to start working on screenplays for Vasant & I’s grad school portfolio. Ever onward and upward.

For more Thanksgiving update and the elaborately thought out Thanksgiving menu, click ‘more’…

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Posted on September 23, 2009 - by sarahsamudre

5 Years Ago

… 5 years ago I fell the first bit in love with my future husband, after years of not-really-caring about him. This post is to celebrate that.

5 years ago, I had already known Vasant Samudre for a couple years. He was best friends with my best friend Todd. Our acquaintance had been a Mr. Darcy/Elizabeth Bennett type of acquaintance. We’d been introduced, by our gregarious, red-haired, Bingley-esque friend Todd, but hadn’t gotten along. I thought Vasant was proud. While all of Todd’s other friends quickly became my friends as well, Vasant stayed withdrawn, didn’t talk at parties, didn’t talk to me when I hosted the parties. I assumed he didn’t care for me as a person, which meant, of course, I didn’t care for him that much as a person.

That was the first two years of knowing each other, from 2002 through 2004. It was cool indifference that could, at times, be extended to pleasant socialization, if forced by Todd, to interact with each other.

But on September 23rd, 2004, something changed…

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Posted on August 29, 2009 - by sarahsamudre

Psychological Hiccups

In a flash a heart is slain
you have to ask in all this pain
Was your heart too soft?
Was your love in vain?

- Copeland, “Love Affair” Eat, Sleep, Repeat ♫ http://blip.fm/~cipry

(a post about the psychological struggles of the middle of this novel)

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Posted on July 6, 2009 - by sarahsamudre

Book Summer

Six years ago, I started writing a book called The Ashes. It began as a rambling analogy to something I was trying to communicate to my mother when we were out on a walk. It was a hot spring day, we were walking along the country roads, past the white fences protecting horses and alpacas and the other animals you find out here. I was talking to her about generational politics, tradition, problems people my age found with the church but what drew us to the ideals of the Church described in Acts. She wasn’t understanding, or rather (at that time only) was taking it so personally on behalf of people her age that she was missing my point. So I wove a tale about three women in one house, a deceased patriarch named Peter and a history of community parties the Grandmother and Grandfather had held that the granddaughter, Chloe, starts up again. Over the last 6 years, the story has evolved from just a simple analogy about the idealism of the young, the strictures of middle generations throughout all of time, and the examples that the elderly can forget that their own youth has set. It has taken on a life of its own that lives apart from its message and is just a damn fine story in its own right.

Read about what I’m doing after the jump:

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Posted on May 13, 2009 - by sarahsamudre

England Trip Thus Far

So I’ve been here for five days so far, and having (as usual) a wonderful time. This is my third trip to London, and being as third time is the charm, Vasant and I have skirted jet lag COMPLETELY on this trip. Although, that may have something to do with the fact that we don’t have a regular sleep schedule anyway.

Our first day in town we went to the British Musuem (my fifth time there- I can’t get enough of musuems).​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​

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I love the Persian art the British Musuem has. Most of these pieces come from Persepolis.

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Necklaces for British chieftains.

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Two fantastic headpieces from the Roman Britain Era.

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Death mask found at Sutton Hoo.

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This is one of my favorite pieces. It’s a clock- when it was operational, it was designed to move across the dining table on the hour, firing little cannons, with music, and parading figures around its gilded deck.

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Ancient Persian door fittings, guarded by Persian Sphinxs

Those are just a few of the pieces I really liked. From there we took Mom out to tea at Fortum & Masons (waste of money unless you’re paying for the experience alone, and even then I’d say go elsewhere). And if you ever want to have the best tea on the face of the Earth, for my money, got the White Heather Tea Room in Victoria, Canada. Best. Scones. In. Universe.

The next day we did Oxford and Blenheim Palace, where we saw some scenes from 20th Century Fox’s Gulliver’s Travels (Jack Black, Jason Segel and Emily Blunt were on set). I took a couple pictures of the costumes, but didn’t take any of the actors, because I felt really weird doing that. I did accidentally get Emily Blunt in the distant background of one photo, but I feel weird posting it. So my cousin Kevin, who doubts until he sees photos, will have to wait until I get back to see someone famous. But here are some set shots:

The scene we saw them shooting involved Emily Blunt and Jason Segel “looking up” at Jack Black’s Giant Sized Gulliver. Emily Blunt was screaming and there was smoke, and again, I felt really weird being there, like I needed to leave unless I was there to work. It just felt kind of odd looking at something I want to do professionally without being there for a reason. SOooooooOooo… I left and those are all the photos I’ll post!

We went into Blenheim’s gardens after the insanely boring (always boring) tour of Winston Churchill’s birth room and personal effects. I love the library however. The one room that is the most fascinating in the whole of the palace and you can only look at the spines of the books from behind metal lattice work. TORTUROUS.

This insanely weird statue fascinates me. I photograph it every time I visit. The feminine head looks so wistful, and slightly sad, atop her beastly body.

Her twin, however, just looks perturbed.

Just in case you’re wondering if this place looks familiar, it does. It’s used in dozens of movies, one of my favorites being Kenneth Branagh’s Hamlet.

The next day we went out to Herstmonceaux Castle and Battle Abbey in Kent. Battle is one of my favorite spots in the UK, purely because I’m such a history geek. Herstmenceaux was “meh” for that reason. Pretty structure and gardens, but no huge historical significance. Speaking of which, we went to the National Archives (where Emily did her internship) and saw the Domesday book and a bit of the Magna Carta earlier that day. They had a map of the Roanoke Colony and underneath said the colony failed after 10 months “due to lack of provisions”. That’s all it said on the placard. Isn’t that like saying Amelia Earhart disappeared due to lack of fuel in her plane? Very weird that they’d just say it failed due to lack of provisions. One of history’s big mysteries and that’s all the say. Wonder why the historical slant. A BIG slant.

Anyway, Herstmonceaux Castle. Best part about it was a mother duck with her chicks chasing us all down, whining like a puppy (I didn’t know ducks did that) for our food. Mom gave the duck a cracker, but that wasn’t enough. It wanted Vasant’s latte.

So that’s our trip so far. Today Vasant and I went over to Notting Hill to find a Paul’s Boulangerie for breakfast (< Coffee rant> only reliable coffee chain in London- if you’re from Seattle and are a coffee junkie, avoid London Starbucks. Total crap. If you’re from any other part of the states though, you may not notice. < /end coffee elitist rant> )

Tomorrow Emily graduates, we’ll take Dad to the White Tower and Somerset House, and then Friday is York! Saturday and Sunday- I forget what we’re doing, but we return to the States on Monday. And Tuesday I’ve got a linguistics midterm, oh joy of joys.

Hope the pictures upload well.

Posted on April 18, 2009 - by sarahsamudre

Playing Catch-up.

So I’ve been having some serious “not the kind of thing one twitters about” medical issues this last month. I have sadly been unable to keep up regular entries on the site.

I don’t know who RSS feeds this, or checks it regularly, but to anyone who visits this site often, or happens upon it now randomly- I put it to you:

WHAT should I write about this weekend?!

If I only have time for one post this next week, what should I write about? My book or how to find good connections on Twitter? Those are the two topics I want to write about, but I don’t have the time to write about both. I either want to write about two characters in my book and how they’re evolving in a surprising way- or make good on a promise I made my friend Danielle; namely, to write a post on how to find great people to follow on Twitter. Both seem like good ideas, and eventually I’ll do both. But for now, I feel scatter-brained and indecisive. Any input?