The sorry punchline is: rejected, rejected, rejected. I still haven't heard from one of the New York editors, but confess my expectations are low.

This whole process is unbelievably humiliating. It's like spending all this time, money and energy inviting people to hurt your feelings. I'm not saying I would do anything unsavory to get a break, but I can sure see how people get to that point.

I understand that not all manuscripts get to be published and perhaps LITTLE FRIDAY is one of these. And that's okay. It's disappointing but it's okay. I'm proud of the work I did, it's still an accomplishment. I haven't totally given up but I'm not actively doing anything with it right now. I'm just sort of hanging out and noodling around with my new projects.

THE YEARLY WRAP UP

My films of note for 1999 are Rushmore (Wes Anderson is a god! Rent Bottle Rocket, too.), Central Station, October Sky, The Matrix, The Phantom Menace, God Said HA! (Julia Sweeney, sad and funny at the same time), After Life (Japanese film about when you die and you have to pick one memory to take with you).

I did not read a lot of fabulous fiction this year. I re-read two young adult trilogies: John Christopher, The White Mountains and Ursula LeGuin, Wizard of Earthsea. Both are still great and worth reading again. I liked Arthur Golden, Memoirs of A Geisha, in terms of the culture stuff. I found the story flawed. Another interesting YA book is The Magic Circle by Donna Jo Napoli. It retells the Hansel and Gretel story from the Witch's point of view. I think the best fiction I read this year is Plainsong by Kent Haruf. I read lots of good non-fiction. I love Anne Lamott, Operating Instructions and the new one, Traveling Mercies. John Gregory Dunne, Monster, about writing the movie Up Close and Personal, is entertaining. Bob started buying the Sunday New York Times which I initially resisted (too much cr*p to read in this house) but have overcome that and am now addicted. What a great newspaper. My favorite parts are the magazine and the Book Review.

We added no new TV series to our rotation this year. I enthusiastically watched every minute that the U.S. women played in World Cup soccer and watched quite a few games they didn't play in. We even went to a couple games here in Portland.

For live music, the best show was Poison, Ratt, Great White and L.A. Guns. Sorry, but this is true. Bob dragged me to a number of shows so I also saw: Wynton Marsalis and Burt Bacharach. For New Years we are going to see String Cheese Incident at the Portland Convention Center. The happening event, and we'll be there.

My prediction for the year 2000 is that Van Halen (who I understand has just parted with singer #3) will remake itself like Carlos Santana did, with a bunch of different artists (hopefully no one lame) and sell jillions of records.

That's it. Hope you all have fun and happy holidaze.

page 1 | page 2 | page 3 | page 4 | PamNewsletters | PamPage

Collect them all: 2004 | 2003 | 2002 | 2001 | 2000 | 1999 | 1998 | 1997 | 1996 | 1995 | 1994 | 1993 | 1992 | 1991 | Debut | pampage

PHOTO THIS PAGE: The UCSB gang at Antje's house for Baby Felicity's Baby Shower. From left back row: Antje, Collette, Cherie and Jenny. Front row: Me, Sacco, Sherwood, Alicia, part of Kim's head and Margo in black. San Jose, Sept. 1999. Photographer: Walker.

*Poison, "Cry Tough"

Posted: 12.9.99
http://www.pamrentz.com/pampage/xmas/v9/p4.html