Alison Kent

Quotes

"Writing’s not rocket science. It’s a helluva lot harder. Because once you learn all that rocket science crap, you can (at least in theory) build a rocket. On the other hand, you can read every writing book known to man and attend classes and work with critique partners and get pages of editorial input and still end up with a book that doesn’t quite hit the high notes. Scary, but true." ~Karen Templeton

"Can I be blunt on this subject? If you don't have time to read, you don't have the time (or the tools) to write. Simple as that. Reading is the creative center of a writer's life."
~Stephen King

"You know, I'm a storyteller. We are storytellers. And ours is an ancient tradition, contemporized by the cinema and the capturing of light. And we should all be very proud of our place in society. On any given night, millions of people across the world buy a ticket for adventures that only we as storytellers can provide. We release burdens, we galvanize emotions, we make people laugh, we make people talk over breakfast. This is a great job and I want to encourage every one of you in this room to give everything you can to the story. God bless narrative. God bless originality."
~Russell Crowe
2002 SAG Award Winner

"When I write, I feel like an armless legless man with a crayon in his mouth."
~Kurt Vonnegut

"Don't be afraid of your material or your past. Be afraid of wasting any more time obsessing about how you look and how people see you. Be afraid of not getting your writing done."
~Anne Lamott

"My New Year's resolution is to focus on the book and forget all the crap that surrounds the writing business. To lose myself in a story, and not give a damn if it makes any lists, has a good sell-through, gets glowing reviews on Amazon, pleases my editors, hell, even pleases my readers. I want to love what I'm writing so much that none of the rest of it matters, and if I don't, I won't write it. Life's too short to abuse the muse."
~Anne Stuart

"America is now wholly given over to a d****d mob of scribbling women, and I should have no chance of success while the public taste is occupied with their trash--and should be ashamed of myself if I did succeed. What is the mystery of these innumberable editions of The Lamplighter (by Maria Susanna Cummins), and other books neither better nor worse? Worse they could not be, and better they need not be, when they sell by the hundred thousand."
~Hawthorne's 1855 letter to his publisher William D. Ticknor, quoted in Pattee, Fred L. The Feminine Fifties. NY: Appleton-Century Co., 1940. p. 110.

Alison's Dread Book Buying Addiction

View Full Library Listing (work in progress)

Reading -

Sweetheart by Chelsea Cain
Just One Of The Guys by Kristan Higgins

Finished -

Say Goodbye by Lisa Gardner
Hold Tight by Harlan Coben
No Country for Old Men by Cormac McCarthy
Hide Your Eyes by Alison Gaylin
Catch Of The Day by Kristan Higgins
Unmasqued by Colette Gale
All in One Place by Carolyne Aarsen
High Noon by Nora Roberts
Heartsick by Chelsea Cain
The Mark by Jason Pinter

Waiting -

The Cleaner by Brett Battles
Sharp Objects by Gillian Flynn
What the Dead Know by Laura Lippman
The Devil You Know by Mike Carey
True Evil by Greg Iles
Play Dirty by Sandra Brown
The Double Bind by Chris Bohjalian
Woman in Red by Eileen Goudge
The Night Gardener by George Pelecanos
The Grave Tattoo by Val McDermid

The Fourth in Pictures

July 7th, 2008 Alison Posted in Celebrating, What I'm . . . |

July 4th was one of those perfect family days that really couldn’t have been any better. We were missing two - #1’s boyfriend whose band was playing a show in New Orleans and the stepson’s girlfriend [or should I say FIANCEE since part of his visit was to tell us they are now ENGAGED!!!] who was working - but were joined by two others (long time friends - since high school - of Casey, #1, and #2) and their little one. With ten adults, four dogs, and the babies, it was quite the wonderful madhouse. And one of the best parts? The husband and I didn’t do the major cooking. #2 did!

Above you will see one of my lazy contributions, Pioneer Woman’s Crash Hot Potatoes (no, mine don’t look anywhere as nice and neat as hers and, yes, I served them right on the cookie sheet with paper towels for napkins, parker rolls in their foil baking pan, and bbq sauce in the jar, sauce no one used because the brisket’s au jus was amazing). The rest of my laziness was steamed yellow squash and corn on the cob. #2 made Pioneer Woman’s brisket, which honestly? The MOST tender brisket I have eaten in my entire life. And she made Rachel Ray’s Spring Fish in Parchment with snapper instead of sea bass since Casey isn’t supposed to eat much yet in the way of beef. The veggies that went with the fish were awesome, as was the fish itself.

Normally, we wouldn’t have all the dogs in the house. But it had rained before everyone arrived, or right as #2 and her boyfriend were arriving, drenching her and him, their dogs and the food. Our carpet, though not pristine seeing as how it’s a dozen years old, can’t hold up to 16 muddy paws so most of playtime was inside. And there wasn’t a lot of playtime, really. Mostly begging for food time, and getting shooed out of the kitchen time, and watching baby X (above) crawl around and baby Sam toddle. That’s Takumi on the left (with the visible shaved spot (one of three he has) on his front leg from his IV), Geisha lying down in the center, then Snickers and her brother Tobi-Wan. Later in the evening, they both ended up side by side beneath my desk, shivering at the boom of fireworks outside. Takumi couldn’t have cared less. He laid down and snoozed. Geisha paced the house and whined because her people were outside and she was in.

The best part of the day had to be watching Sam eat his first corn on the cob . . .

Pure ectasy, yes? At least until he finished and his mommy took away his prize!

Things were put to rights with a new ear and kisses from daddy (note the matching haircuts) and later on glow sticks (in place of fireworks) and a graham cracker.