This entry was posted on Saturday, October 9th, 2010 at 11:07 am and is filed under All Blogs. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.
27 Responses to “The Stupid 365 Project, Day 9: Disapproval” -
Peg Brantley Says:
October 9th, 2010 at 11:27 am
You rock, Tim Hallinan.
I can’t promise I’ll read all of your posts, but I will pop in now and then.
CR: THE QUEEN OF PATPONG
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Pat Browning Says:
October 9th, 2010 at 11:43 am
It is to laugh. Or weep, depending on your mood. When I first read the DorothyL post you refer to I kept wondering if she really meant to be so rude. But never mind.
Many blogs are so much blather, which is why I don’t read many. Mostly I read my own. But The Blog Cabin is neither boring nor trivial. Oh, heck, it’s fun to read.
I especially liked your Katharine Hepburn blog, most especially the part where she kept making teeny tiny changes to a script. Lord, she must have been an interesting person to know.
Love the photo, by the way! Is it copyrighted? I could use it myself this month.
High fives all around!
Pat Browning
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Kaye Barley Says:
October 9th, 2010 at 12:01 pm
O.K. – so you’ve finally found just the thing to say to get me to stop calling you “Mr. Hallinan.” It was the “nyaaa nyaaa nyaaa” that finally did it. How do you call someone who says “nyaaa nyaaa nyaaa” Mr.??!! BUT. As in everything else you’ve written that I’ve read – I loved it. (question. Would 1 nyaaa be considered tight? 3 loose?)
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fairyhedgehog Says:
October 9th, 2010 at 12:27 pm
I can’t see the need to defend you to Ms Santangelo. She’s entitled to her opinion even though she’s wrong.
Seriously, I wonder what bugged her so much about your blog. Maybe she’s envious at the apparent ease with which you write.
If she finds writing to a deadline causes her to write trivia, then that’s useful information for her. It doesn’t mean that it applies to everyone else.
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Kyle Davis Says:
October 9th, 2010 at 12:47 pm
Periodically I go to book signings and what I really enjoy is listening to the author tell the audience how/why he came up with a story, particular characters, or what moved him/her to tell it in the first place. Maybe you could blog about that some time.
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Kathleen Taylor Says:
October 9th, 2010 at 1:03 pm
My blog actually has the word *blather* in the header. Also *nonsense* And I write about American Idol, during that season- so if there was an actual 365 Stupid Blog, it would likely be mine. But this is my first visit to yours, and I can see that it’s far from stupid. Thanks for the fun!
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Phil Hanson Says:
October 9th, 2010 at 1:38 pm
Geez, Tim, I’m glad your blog doesn’t need Ms. Santangelo’s approval. She’s either an anal-retentive snob or a critic–not that there’s any real distinction between them–who labors under the false assumption that she is the decider of what matters to the rest of us. Ignore what she has to say; your publishing record and growing fan base render her opinions irrelevant and insignificant.
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Colleen Says:
October 9th, 2010 at 2:12 pm
Thanks to this blog, I can get a daily Tim fix. It’s my little indulgence. I concur with Pat on the Katharine Hepburn blog. Lovely piece. With blogs being ongoing narratives, they’re annoying to follow when the author arbitrarily waits a week or so to publish again. So for goodness sakes, Ms. Santangelo, if you don’t like Tim’s blog, don’t read it.
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susan streib Says:
October 9th, 2010 at 2:15 pm
this puppy dog is precious. I can easily see 365 photos taken a year, and comments per each. Absolutely delightful! Don’t get mired down in criticism when you have such a cutie at hand.
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Eric Stone Says:
October 9th, 2010 at 2:52 pm
I, for one, am very pleased that you neither are, nor think you are Friedrich Nietzsche. During my misspent youth I read a great deal of his work – much of it hidden behind geometry textbooks during class in high school. I would far rather read anything you’ve written
Now on the other hand, if you were Jack Nietzsche you’d play a mean piano – though you wouldn’t be a very nice person.
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Timothy Hallinan Says:
October 9th, 2010 at 4:11 pm
Peg, welcome and thanks. No one should stop here daily, unless he/she is a dedicated masochist. These blogs are like a package of life savers: every now and then you get one of the green ones.
Hi, Pat, and thanks for the spirited defense. I’m amazed how many people suited up for me. Yours was especially nice. The Hepburn picture is undoubtedly copyrighted. I bagged it off Bing, and one day I’ll hear from someone about all these pix. Hepburn herself was truly one of a kind. And thanks also for the nice words about the blog.
More later: My reCaptcha is Rezula bodgety
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Lil Gluckstern Says:
October 9th, 2010 at 5:48 pm
Hi, just another note to tell you how much I like your writings, and this blog-not sure how stupid it is, for me anyway. I am just a reader, but I have long been fascinated with the craft of writing, and everything I have ever read on the subject says to write everyday, no matter what. This exercises the “muscle.” Whether it is great or not, whether you cut and paste, all I can say I am enjoying your perambulations, here and on DorothyL.
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Pat Browning Says:
October 9th, 2010 at 7:35 pm
40 lashes with a wet noodle! I committed a confusing comment. The photo I’d like to use is of the dog, not the glorious Ms. Hepburn!
Pat Browning
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EverettK Says:
October 9th, 2010 at 8:10 pm
“No one should stop here daily, unless he/she is a dedicated masochist.”
Au contraire. You’re now one of 3 authors whose blogs I visit regularly (and one of them just posted for the first time in over a YEAR! sigh.) So, it’s great having someone who actually posts regularly, and so far mostly interesting stuff to read (and sometimes SUPERB stuff to read). Why WOULDN’T we stop by daily??? 
“My reCaptcha is Rezula bodgety”
‘Rezula’ is very probably a proper noun, the name of a person or place. ‘bodgety’ sounds like it could well be a ‘real’ word that has long since dropped out of common usage (since 100-and-some years ago), but could also be the back half of a hyphenated word (God knows what the first half would have been…)
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Timothy Hallinan Says:
October 9th, 2010 at 9:54 pm
Well, I’m back — just went to dinner with people who don’t know anything at all about this blog, and I didn’t bring it up.
Kaye, you were the first person to write me about Ms. Santangelo, and I thank you. I think, in the interest of “tightening up” the writing, that we could either delete one nyaaa or else drop the third “A” from each of them. And if it takes getting trampled on DorothyL to get you to drop the “Mr.,” it was worth it.
Fairyhedgehog, you are really wicked. You start out so Quaker pacifist and then close with a line like, “If she finds writing to a deadline causes her to write trivia, then that’s useful information for her.” Ooooohhhhhhhh. When all is said and done, I should be grateful to her — she gave me a blog that you all responded to, and I really WAS blocked this morning.
Kyle, I’ll talk about the origins of the characters and other apects of my books eventually — I’m sort of holding those in reserve for the days when I hit the wall. That topic always interests me, too, especially when it’s a writer I admire.
Kathleen, I really want to read your blog but you didn’t give us a URL. I wouldn’t watch “American Idol” with someone else’s eyes, but I LOVE to read about it. JLO? Stephen TYLER? Are you kidding me? Oh and good luck to him showing up for all the shows. Please write back and share your URL with us.
Phil, in the fifties an American writer named Harry Golden wrote a line I cherish. He was asking why he and his fellow Jews wondered what was wrong with them when anti-Semites got unpleasant, and Golden said, “Maybe it’s not our problem. Maybe it’s the other guy’s problem. Maybe his teeth hurt.” Maybe Ms. Santangelo’s teeth hurt. I’m sure she’s a perfectly nice person most of time.
Colleen, there’s not much danger of this becoming an ongoing narrative. It barely exists on this sort of stutter and sputter basis. But when I write stories or put up the occasional first chapters — I think those will span 2-3 days. And thanks for suggesting that a daily Tim fix is desirable.
Susan, I do have a cute (even glamorous) dog, but the puppy at the top of the blog is not she. That picture was just the best illustration of disapproval I could come up with. Please come back and visit again, though, and I’ll post a picture of my real dog.
Eric Stone (who is an absolutely terrific novelist) is undoubtedly the only person in history who used his geometry book to shield a volume of Nietzsche. Mine was usually unopened, which did not help the old grade point average (God, I’m glad we don’t have grade point averages as adults) but when it was open, it was hiding something racier than Nietzsche. But I have, in fact, worked much of my life to have a more approachable prose style than Nietzsche. And Gesundheit.
Thanks again for commenting, everybody. Oh, and for those of you who have come this far and could possibly read one more syllable from me, I just did my weekly blog over at MURDER IS EVERYWHERE, and I really like it. There are five other very good writers over there, by the way.
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Mary Says:
October 10th, 2010 at 3:19 am
Came here out of curiosity from DorothyL and will stay. I won’t be checking out Ms. Santangelo’s bog as I don’t care for snobs.
I do love a good book and lots of laughs.
Mary
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Gary Says:
October 10th, 2010 at 4:51 am
You see, I just KNEW that you were going to dry up on about Day 9. So impersonating Ms Santangelo and being as offensive as possible was just my friendly way of keeping you moving.
Hang in there, Tim. Nil nisi carborundum. (Don’t let those born out of wedlock grid you down.)
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Kathleen Taylor Says:
October 10th, 2010 at 8:35 am
Here’s my blog address: http://kathleen-dakotadreams.blogspot.com/
My daily hits go up during American Idol season- I think there are a few who would never watch the show, who like a bit of snark about it.
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Elena Santangelo Says:
October 10th, 2010 at 10:25 am
This is the “someone” named Elena Santangelo. Until now, I had been considering myself a fellow writer of Mr. Hallinan’s.
I apologize if my post came across as rude. I didn’t mean it to be. I only meant to make an observation about blogging. My opinion. My point of view. Not meant to be a horrible attack of any sort. Maybe it was flu shot reaction this week making me sound grumpy. Ask my friends–I don’t sneer. Especially at writers, who have one of the hardest and least appreciated vocations in the world.
I wish Mr. Hallinan all the luck in the world with his blog.
Let me know when you need another topic for your blog, Tim. Happy to oblige.
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barbara macdonald Says:
October 10th, 2010 at 11:28 am
Wow, just got caught up on my dorothyl digests (i like to save them up for days at a time just – well just because i guess…)
I have often thought that folks on dorothyl tend to not READ posts but skim them without giving too much thought to what the original poster actually said as opposed to what THEY think was said and then they pop off posts themselves without the requisite cooling off period or asking themselves in the overall scheme of things does my cranky reply accomplish anything? Then once those posts have been popped off others read the popped off posts and formulate their own opinions on what they think the controversy is and they weigh in on the subject, again without asking the requisite question, and so it goes until even they get bored with the sound of their own “voice”…..
As long as I’m not the original poster i find it fun to follow the bouncing ball so to speak, the world has SO many authorities out there doesn’t it…here’s the odd thing about human nature, I posted about hearing Louise Penny speak and how funny she is and it generated not one whit of a comment from anyone, nothing, nada and I have to admit for a quick minute or two my nose was semi seriously out of joint…. proving once again that you cannot please all of the people – even yourself – all of the time 
i like your books tim and i like your blog – big thanks.
hmmm, recaptcha vast augorshi, read into that what you will.
barbara
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Timothy Hallinan Says:
October 10th, 2010 at 12:56 pm
To take these responses WAY out of order, Elena, I really appreciate this note and I apologize wholeheartedly if my reaction was just totally blown out of proportion. I can be a little thin-skinned, and I probably was. Anyway, now that we know each other, I can put the whole thing behind me and hope you can do the same. I’m going to post one more short one on DL, just thanking James Thompson and expressing some awe at the woman who said she writes on two (two!) blogs daily, but that’ll be it, except I’ll say that you and I have been talking and I probably overreacted. Does that sound okay to you? You can e-mail me at thallinan@gmail.com if you want to weigh in. I’ll wait a bit before I post.
Lil G., there’s no such thing as “just” a reader. For one thing, all writers begin as readers, and for another without readers we wouldn’t turn into writers. Ummm . . . you know what I mean. Glad you enjoy yourself here and hope you come back.
Pat Browning, the picture of the dog is also a steal. I steal all of them, although at some point I plan to put up a photo my wife took of me at work, looking all pensive and writerly between a laptop and a wall full of books. Very literary. New York Times literary. I don’t look like a genre writer at all.
Everett, with all due respect, it doesn’t take much time to keep up with someone’s blog if the guy only posts once a year. At least I give you a workout. Maybe I should charge for admission, call this a reader’s boot camp or something. By the way, I’m going to pull together the two things you wrote about Captcha and send you some questions and then make that a blog topic if it’s okay by you. And I’m actually feeling a bit blodgety myself today.
Mary, so glad you came over. Elena Santangelo and I are friends now and it turns out she’s a terrific writer who’s won an Agatha and a bunch of other awards and been published in “Alfred Hitchcock and some other first-rate magazines and can write a first paragraph as dead-on as this one:
“One minute I was weaving my Harley in and out of rush hour traffic, the next I was floating up around the high tension wires, looking down on what was left of my health club physique. All that power-lifting for nothing.”
I’d be thrilled to have written that and, in fact, I may, if I can find anything to use it in.
Gary — you’ve penetrated the wall of deception Ms. Santangelo and I erected as part of a demonic plot to increase my web traffic. You’d like her writing, by the way.
Kathleen, great blog and I LOVE your seatcovers as well as the bracelet your friend made. Why “Dakota?” My closest friend came from Jamestown in one of the Dakotas, and he hates it that I can never remember which. Will come back regularly.
Barbara, you’re probably right; I probably over-reacted to Elena’s post. I was surprised to see any comment at all, and when it ended (I thought) negatively, my reaction was, essentially, well, who asked you? I wasn’t looking for either approval or disapproval, although I should have known I’d wind up getting both. Louise Penny is hilarious and also a writer of considerable power. I only read the digests about 2-3 times a week, but I’ve also had the experience of posting something I thought was pithy and interesting and thought-provoking and a bunch of other positive adjectives and gotten nothing but a collective yawn in response. (One of the reasons I was taken aback by Elena’s response.) On the other hand, get into a minor pissing match, and the whole world chimes in.
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Jaden Says:
October 10th, 2010 at 5:04 pm
I’m so glad you’re doing this, Tim, because if you hadn’t, I would not have gotten to read about The Sombrero, and that has made my week.
Barbara, I had the pleasure of introducing Louise Penny at the Southern Festival of Books on Friday. She is funny, warm, and utterly delightful. I loved her sixth book (BURY YOUR DEAD) and will now have to run out and buy the other five–along with Tim’s novels about Simeon.
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Timothy Hallinan Says:
October 10th, 2010 at 6:32 pm
Hi, Jaden. Some people (Fairyhedgehog, for example) thought the sombrero story was really sad. It took me the better part of 50 years to be able to laugh at it, so I’m glad it entertained you. And I love Louise Penny and hope you like the Simeons. I liked them better than I thought I would.
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EverettK Says:
October 10th, 2010 at 7:04 pm
“…with all due respect, it doesn’t take much time to keep up with someone’s blog if the guy only posts once a year. At least I give you a workout.”
Well, he USED to post much more frequently, but has lead a “storied life” for the past decade. I’m talking about Daniel Keys Moran, who wrote 4 knock-your-socks-off science fiction books back in the 80′s and early 90′s, then turned to computer jobs to earn a living. I keep following him now and then, hoping to see more from him. He has a novel he wrote WAY back that fits in with the others, but’s never been released. He now has the rights back to it from Bantam, and hopes to publish it some day. He’s that good that I’ve waited 15 years for just one more book from him!
“By the way, I’m going to pull together the two things you wrote about Captcha and send you some questions and then make that a blog topic if it’s okay by you.”
I’ll be happy to help out any time in any way I can.
“And I’m actually feeling a bit blodgety myself today.”
I know the feeling. But trust me, it’s FAR better than feeling bloodgety, and you CERTAINLY don’t want to get lost on the guetrail (one of my reCaptchas this time around).
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Suzanna Says:
October 10th, 2010 at 9:17 pm
My goodness, this blog has blown UP! Thanks Ms. Santangelo for sparking this lively discussion, and thank you Tim for the great job you’re doing here!
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barbara macdonald Says:
October 11th, 2010 at 11:31 am
i see i need a p.s. to my comment the other day – and the p.s. is, you in NO way overreacted in my warped sense of humour opinion – spot on i’d say.
but on the other hand we have a lot to thank ms. santangelo for as suzanna mentioned – being the adults we all are we can now smile and say – wasn’t that fun….
barbara
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Sylvia Says:
October 11th, 2010 at 12:11 pm
If I didn’t “give myself an arbitrary word count and deadline,” I probably would have spent most of that time sitting around and hoping that the roof would leak.
You owe me a mouthful of wine and a clean keyboard.
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