Great expectations

I’m back from Boston, I’ve finally gotten a couple of good nights’ sleep after a week of lost snoozing for various reasons, and I am down to the last stretch of thesis writing.
My trip was just as whirlwind-y as the last one, but it also left me feeling kind of disillusioned about my MFA program. [...]

Ch. 1, version 3,248.

I haven’t been feeling very bloggy for the past few days. This might have something to do with the fact that I have been sitting in front of my computer for hours staring in frustration at chapters 1 and 2 of my book. I need to rewrite them and the way to do it hasn’t [...]

Lauren Slater and a return to inspiration

Last night I read a short story in the Missouri Review by Lauren Slater. I haven’t ever read anything of hers that was specifically labeled as fiction, and I found that without having to worry over all of the ethical considerations of reading her nonfiction, I rather enjoyed her writing.
Some of you may remember when [...]

Zen and the Art of Rewriting

I have just climbed 108 steps to some remote mountain Buddhist temple to get some advice or training. Getting there is in itself a milestone. But the Zen master there sends me away with some enigmatic saying, like “the obstacle is the path,” or “if you want to climb a mountain begin at the top,” [...]

It’s no War and Peace, but…

it’s a full (ish) manuscript. Yesterday I sent out Part II of the book to my professor, which means I had to print out Part II, which means I had to (couldn’t help it) stack it up with Part I to see how it, um, stacked up.
In fact the moment was not as satisfying as [...]

“Escape from Japan”

An interesting article about Japanese women “escaping” from Japan in the NY Times.

Awards season

So it looks like Orhan Pamuk, the Turkish writer, won the Nobel Prize for literature . I’m ashamed to say I haven’t read Snow….I have picked it up at the bookstore several times, but it kind of intimidated me. I am not familiar with the political situation in Turkey, but apparently his winning the Nobel [...]

So my books won’t be optioned by Peter Jackson, so what?

By now anyone who has been reading this blog for a while will know that I am fascinated by writers’ work lives. How long they work each day, where they work, what constitutes a “good day” of writing, that sort of thing.
This morning in the NY Times, I read about this new fantasy author, who [...]

Attack of the jackhammers

I think I am being trailed by a pack of jackhammers. Today, of all days, when I have two days to finish writing my last chapter and edit the previous 120 pages. The utility people are back and at it again, digging up our street. Probably turning off our water without warning, though I have [...]

Lost in cyberspace

So here’s a good reason to check in with literary magazines when they haven’t responded to your work after six months: Maybe they didn’t receive it.
After all of the kind encouragement, I stepped it up and emailed a magazine that I submitted to in April. Less than 15 minutes later, I had a response. They [...]