Storytime

I had some storytime early this morning—and by that I mean time to play around with the short story I’m writing before I had to go to work. Sure, I was sitting between two nosy newspaper readers who kept glancing at my screen, sure, it was cold and my ears about froze off on the [...]

The Spammers Are So Prolific

Wow, the spammers have been writing a lot lately. I envy their productivity. Overnight I’ve been getting hundreds of spam comments, and if I let 5 minutes go by I get 15 more. They are not only about Viagra, Nigeria, and other medicinal or foreign locales, some have become quite complimentary: “Great job!” “Nice writing!” [...]

Unforgettable

All this talk of stories and wishing on workshops (perhaps it’s just chatter in my head?) has got me lamenting the cold shoulder I’ve given one of my stories-in-progress. It really wants to be finished, and yet I had to put it aside for these recent deadlines.
I spent all weekend on a freelance copyediting project—I [...]

Catching Up

That crash writing project left me reeling—I am very, very behind in posting here and reading all my favorite blogs. But what happened, you may wonder. Did I finish? I did. I did! So, yes, I would now like a lollipop.
In the past week, a scattering of things happened.
* A story of mine in a [...]

Overboard!

Feedback from samples of what I wrote over the weekend came back with this response: Too long. Waaaaaaaay tooooooo looooooong. Have I ever mentioned how I can’t shut up? Like when I write posts here and I can’t stop whining and I drive everyone away? Like right now?
Oh, yes, I knew the manuscript was too [...]

Crash Writing (*Now in Real Time!)

A few days ago I agreed to write a crash freelance project. It is due next week, ideally Monday, but I asked for Wednesday to give myself a cushion in case I completely fall apart and start writing in tongues. The book will be 48 pages, but it will have photos, and it is an [...]

The Mailbox

I had been home a half hour when E asked me if I had picked up the mail from the box downstairs. I bolted upright on the couch. The mail? I had no memory of getting the mail when I passed the mailbox, but how could I have passed the mailbox without getting the mail?!
I [...]

Spam, in the form of an auto commercial

“Maryland Hyundai Car Dealer” has added a comment to this blog to ask me:
What do you think of the new Hyundai Sonata?
To be honest, Maryland Hyundai Car Dealer, I had thought nothing of it. I don’t even know what it looks like. In addition, I live in New York City, have no use for a [...]

The New York Public Library & Me

All I wanted to do last week was visit the public library, but by the time I got out of work on any given night, the closest branch was closed. On Friday I decided to actually leave the building for “lunch” in order to go to the tiny little branch six or seven blocks away… [...]

Kick Me

I am in need of a good kick in the pants. I thought, for some moments, that this weekend might be it: I ran into a fellow graduate of my MFA program and we talked about regrets before a row of sinks in the bathrooms. She had some, though she didn’t like to use the [...]

The Best First Line of a Short Story… Ever?

Responding to my post about how much I love first lines, Adam told me that his high school English teacher used to say that the best opening line for a short story, ever, was this:
“None of them knew the color of the sky.” —from “Open Boat” by Stephen Crane
Now, no matter what I think of [...]

A Good Day?

I had a decent day yesterday—some might even call it a fine day. A good day? I’ll even say that.
But first there was panic. It was early, still dark out, and I was leaving to go write at Starbucks before work when, as usual, I went to reach into the little blue ceramic holder on [...]

Dear World

Dear Powers That Be:
I have heard a rumor that if you would like your life to change, you must do something about it yourself. For instance, a person who might be intrigued to find herself working a new job might actually have to send out her résumé. A writer who wants to be published has [...]

Chicken in Tinfoil

I don’t eat meat, which seriously limits my menu options. (Not that I’m complaining—I’d never eat meat, gross!) But just because I don’t eat it doesn’t mean that I’ve lost all curiousity about strange menu items and want someone to try them in front of me so I can see what they might be. The [...]

Cure-all: Magazines

When I don’t feel good—a little sad, a little snotty, achy in the wrong places, not that there are ever right places—I want to do one thing and one thing only, and it’s not nap. I want to read. Reading is the perfect escape. You can be in a crowded place, people whirling all around [...]

The Headache

This headache comes and goes. It’s here, then it’s masked by pills, then I think it’s gone only to feel it creeping back again, then it’s in full force, and somehow I get to sleep, but when I wake up it’s still there.
Possible reasons for the headache could be:
* Intense anxiety over our artistic future
* [...]

Pause

The day after finishing a writing project doesn’t feel like a real day. The thoughts are scattered. The heart is still stuck in the old piece. I am napping without napping. I am distracting myself with many unrelated things. It doesn’t help that today is Sunday and in the back of my mind—constant—is the thought [...]

Submitted

I submitted a new story today. Just a few minutes ago, actually. This is the first time I’m sending this story out, a story I’ve been trying to write for years, and which I just finished this afternoon. It was in my hands, and now it’s not.
This is the exciting part. The thrill. The fantasy. [...]

2007 Denial

I am having a hard time facing the fact that it is 2007. I keep having these moments. Like I was crossing the street just before and I remembered how old I am and I stopped on the corner and I felt inexplicably sad. This is not where I expected to be in 2007. I [...]

Bad Movie

We saw a terrible movie last night. It was so bad that about 9 minutes in, there were the silent looks between E and me—this is awful, isn’t it? should I be the first one to say it?—and then soon after, and I don’t remember who said it first, we were outright bad-mouthing it, with [...]