Salinger and the perfect story

I was feeling a bit cooped up and isolated this afternoon, so I hopped on the 43 bus and rode over to Haight Street to visit The Booksmith. I remembered as soon as I was inside that I adore this bookstore, though it’s been ages since I’ve been there. They have a drool-inducing collection of [...]

Revising the book

Over the holiday weekend, in between a couple of barbecues, buying a new TV and getting it set up, house-hunting and giving our current apartment a much-needed cleaning, I spent an hour at a coffee shop working on my thesis. I did something I have been putting off for some time: I combined all of [...]

sick and shown up

I am sick. Sick! As in, sneezy, wheezy, coughing, runny nose, can’t sleep, achy. Bleh. As a result, not much has been happening around here besides me whining about my condition from the couch while flipping back and forth between the Food Network, the Giants game (Bor-ring! SF 9, Colorado, 0), and HGTV’s stellar Friday [...]

Mr. Chippy, seersucker, and other California treats

1. So, I was shopping in downtown San Francisco last week, and I stopped into Macy’s to use the restroom, which is down in the basement level where the food court is. The place is often overrun with tourists, as there are few quick and easy places to eat in Union Square. Plus, as food [...]

post-James Frey

The phrase “post-James Frey” keeps popping up… almost as often, it seems, as “post-9/11″ or “post-Cold War.” Whether James Frey’s blending of fact and fiction is actually a before-and-after type of milestone moment is debatable. Consider the case of Mary Karr’s The Liar’s Club for example. A quote from a 1997 Salon.com interview:
Salon: I read [...]

guilty as charged

I subscribe to a weekly email newsletter that lists writing markets, funding opportunities for writers, contests, and so on. It’s usually something I skim through and delete, but every so often I learn about something that is directly relevant to what I am writing and so getting those extra couple of emails a week pays [...]

Visiting the DMZ

About 10 years ago, I went to North Korea. Actually, it would be more accurate to say that I stepped into North Korea, then I stepped back into the South.
I was taking a tour of the Demilitarized Zone (DMZ), which is the only way the average visitor can go; shepherded through the area by a [...]

Checked out

The thing about working from home is that you work from home. As in, you have to start coming up with reasons to leave your home so you don’t go stir-crazy. In general this isn’t difficult for me. I am all to eager to go shopping, visit cafes, go to the gym, etc., etc. In [...]

Hello? Book?

Official Begin Writing Again Month is turning into Official Writer’s Block Month. I just can’t seem to get going with the book. This is probably a good lesson in reasons not to have Official No Writing Month. I completely lost my writing rhythm and my writing schedule. Note to self: Official No Writing Month is [...]

Joan Didion on writing

There’s an interesting interview with Joan Didion in the most recent issue of the Paris Review in which she describes her writing process. Lo and behold, she does what every writing manual and writing teacher in the world would tell you not to (and what I like to do and constantly struggle not to): She [...]