Tuesday, July 31, 2007

Weekly update + Lolita's Braces

It's good to be back in Michigan again, even if I could do without the excess heat! The girls are glad to be here too, and maybe I'll get more time to work on the next book, though it won't be finished until the fall.

But I did finish something else, and I've added it to the IoPress site: another Dr.Wrighting essay. It's on Lolita's Braces: The orthodontic treatment of Nabokov and his nymphet. Since the first essay has turned out to be really popular recently maybe a lot of people will be interested in this too. And maybe some of them will be tempted to take a look at the books!

Tuesday, July 24, 2007

Weekly update

End of term for the girls + Harry Potter + getting everything ready for going home for the summer + work as usual = VERY busy ! At least Harry Potter kept the girls occupied. Headgear girl even wore her headgear practically the whole weekend without complaint, glued to the book. God I hope we are over the hump with that, especially now that we are going to be 1000s of miles away from their orthodontist for over a month. Of course with our luck it'll be the one that's been flying under the radar for the past two months while the headgear drama has been played out that will rebel against her braces!

I have been finding some quiet time somewhere - don't ask me where! - and have been getting some Intraoral Press things done, though the next book still needs a lot of work. But I hope to have one or two surprises in the next weeks.

All of a sudden a lot of people are looking at the 94 Weeks essay. Maybe somebody linked to it, but I'm not sure why it's so popular all of a sudden. But I'm not complaining. And I hope that some of the readers also look at the information about my books and maybe they'll want to read them. If they feel the same way, about how poorly having braces is portrayed on TV then I think they'd especially like Retainer Girl, or find it most helpful. But I hope they'd at least consider looking at all of them.

Wednesday, July 04, 2007

July 4 update

I miss not being home on July 4th! All there is is attention on Wimbledon and the rain here, and it just doesn't feel like summer. I want hot weather and BBQs and fireworks! It's even worse when it's right in the middle of the week like this. We always do something on the weekend, but that's still days away.... (The other news makes us all really jittery, especially since we will be flying in a few weeks but we're trying hard not to let that get too close.)

A really slow month with the books, but it's hard to find the time to try to publicize them. And I don't really know how I should do that anyway. I hoped there would be more "word of mouth" by now but I guess that only builds up really slowly.

The next book is going well. I have some concerns about it because of the story but I think I will be able to present it in a way that it works. For now what I care about is that it works for me. I am surprised that there's still so much I want to get off my chest, and that I have found another story which is letting me do that.

It's interesting writing about a girl with braces now that my girls are right in the thick of their orthdontic treament. Watching them go through it has helped a lot, reminding me of a lot of things. There are still these aha-moments all the time when I see one of them act a certain way or do a certain thing and I realize it's because of the braces. And it's weird how sometimes they seem to manage so well (one a lot more than the other, especially now) and then all of a sudden the braces are such a big deal again. I hope that I am able to make it easier for them, but it's such a hard balancing act. These have been hard weeks too, as we decided to start with the headgear. Since we are going to be away in August their orthodontist considered waiting but instead we started her at her last appointment so she can gradually adjust and hopefully be fine with it by the time we leave. It's been tough though. Her sister could handle it better, but she's only getting hers months from now, so for now she's all by herself. Sometimes I wonder if a more Dr.Wrighting-like approach wouldn't be better but their orthodontist isn't quite as strict!