Girl's Got Skills

I went to hear Ann Hood, author of The Knitting Circle and local celebrity, speak last night at our town library. Curls went with me. It's only the second time I've been to hear an author speak or do a reading. I went to see Jodi Picoult about a year ago. She did a reading. The event was supposed to be held at a local Borders, but they had to move it to one of school auditoriums because of the crowd they were anticipating. She had a packed house. So I was a bit surprised by the small crowd for Ann Hood. She's also a best selling author. Not the number of best seller's Jodi has, and I don't think there have been any movie deals, but still. Curls and I were the youngest people in the group by a decade, on average, probably a couple of decades. And there were less than thirty people. I have to think it was lack of publicity. I really doubt they did any. I only knew because it was held at my local library and I saw the announcement they had about it.

So what was best selling author Ann Hood doing at my little local library at a small, unpublicized event? She grew up here. Graduated from the town high school, and has a soft spot for the library she spent so much time in as a girl. She'd also missed an engagement with the library's book club a few months ago.

She was a great speaker - intelligent, inspiring and entertaining. I have to admit, the only of her books I've read is The Knitting Circle, which was good. I read it because it was sort of an extra-curricular book club book. We didn't actually have a meeting on it, but we've all read it now. It's not the sort of book I'd normally pick up on my own - that kind of depressing, woman's book. I generally steer clear of those. I'm not for tear-jerker material for the pure sake of tear-jerker. You know what I'm talking about, Nicholas Sparks springs to mind. I did love The Notebook, though. I could watch that movie endlessly. I do have a bit of a thing for Ryan Gossling. I remember him from when he was just a kid, playing in that Young Hercules series, and before that, that really stupid show where the rich kids went to school on a boat that traveled around the world? But I digress. The point is, if it hadn't been highly suggested to me, I might have passed on The Knitting Circle, but that coupled with the fact that she's a local author made me give it a go. And it was really good. Well structured, well-written, and more than just your random tear-jerker that doesn't seem to have much of a point but making you cry.

Listening to a writer speak about their work, about their passion for books and writing, it evokes a peace and happiness in me. It may be the sort of thing others experience listening to their priest/pastor/rabbi orating. It's grounding. Writing is empowering, it's cathartic. Writers often speak of not choosing to write but being driven to it. Ann Hood touched on all of that, and she was funny and likable. A precocious girl, reading Little Women at seven-years-old, In Cold Blood at eleven, and crank calling band members from the library when she needed a break. At seven, I was reading Nancy Drew and The Bobsey Twins. At eleven, I was all about Sweet Valley High. I didn't hit the classics until high school and I've still yet to read either Little Women or In Cold Blood. Little Women is one of my favorite all time movies, though.

What's most impressive to me about Ann Hood, is not that she's a best selling author or travels all over the world writing about her travel experience (though I'm jealous, I must admit), it's the diversity of genres in which she writes - fiction, nonfiction, essays and novels. The woman not only has intelligence and talent, she has range. I intend on picking up more of her work. To listen to her explain about how she took her grief over losing a child and fictionalized it, about how the women in the knitting circle are symbolic of the protagonist moving through the stages of grief as Ann sees them, was illuminating. A very enjoyable evening. A very wonderful author and woman.

Now Curls, is of course, always after me to write my own book, her and my husband too. I do love them for it. And I love writing. But working full time, raising my kids, my husband's business, working at those ten pounds I want to take off before our vacation in April, it doesn't leave me much time for writing. It barely leaves me much time to blog, let alone write something well thought out and potentially publishable. And I suppose if i really wanted to write, if I was really being driven to it, I'd be willing to take any risk, make any sacrifice in order to do that. But I'm not. I can just picture myself as one of those unemployed people telling people about how I'm writing a book that never gets finished. (Not like Polly, who is actually writing a book that is quite good with great characters, plot, theme, engaging writing.)

I like my job. I like working in the technology field, trying to stay at the forefront of what's going on with databases, web development and technology. Generally, I'm barely hanging on and ten steps behind, but in a country where our math and science skills are pitiful, and our technology often behind that of other countries, I enjoy at least trying to be part of the solution. I like being a woman in a field dominated by men, knowing that my mere presence is a step towards equality. I'm going to stay parked on the IT bus, at least for now. But I always have writing in my hip pocket, in case I need a change, or am forced to make a change, down the road. Maybe at some point, the two skills will come together for me in some way I can't possibly anticipate. Technical writing might be a logical thought, but let me stop you there. It'd be a cold day in hell. Sounds like watching paint dry.

Comments

[Curls]

I have no words..none! Oh wait yes I do...just reading this reminds me that I think you should write a book. I tried to share with others how much I enjoyed our evening with Ann Hood but now I will just forward this and everything I wanted to say will be clearer!

[Diosa]

So glad to be of help.

[Alice]

Have you read High TIde in Tuscon by Barbara Kingsolver? You should - its an easy read - she writes about being a a writer and it, for some reason, fascinated me.

[Diosa]

I have not. I'll keep it in mind.