My New Year

So okay this year I want to: finish this freelance assignment on time, write that other novel that’s in the works, and finish also the first draft of that very exciting other novel, do the next assignment I said I’d do, get a few more stories published, get an agent FINALLY, go to the summer [...]

Older, Slightly Wiser, and Stuffed Full of Blueberry Pancakes

I am one year older today. All the things I’d wanted to accomplish this year didn’t happen, but I’m not beating myself up over them. I thought last year might be “my year”—but now that I’ve been through it, I can tell you it wasn’t. I’m not down about it, though. I think it helps [...]

Loving It

Sometimes you have these moments when you’re well in it. You’re carving your sentences into these perfect shapes, you hit a new word, and BAM, all is exposed. Your character is sitting across the table from you—she loves where you’re taking her. She even winks. You read over what you have so far and your [...]

Why Not?

Early this morning, when I stumbled out of the bedroom all bleary-eyed second-guessing my idea of getting up before the sun has come up, I sat myself down at the table to check my email. It’s a little maneuver I do to keep from going back to sleep on the couch. This morning my email [...]

Make-Believe: My Day as a Full-Time Writer

It occurred to me this morning, while heading out to my usual weekend spot on a day that happens to not be a weekend, that it’s almost like I’m a real writer just for the day. I know my definition of being a “real” writer changes depending on my mood—a “literary” writer, a “successful” writer, [...]

10 Signs a Book Might Be Written by Me

Charlotte at Charlotte’s Web tagged me for this meme, which honestly, as memes go, seems like a very worthwhile thing to do as a writer. This is not a distraction at all! So, do I have a distinct style, one that would be recognizably me? I hope so. Let’s see…
I will try to be positive [...]

Alone Time

There’s this quirk in my personality: I desperately need time alone.
Sometimes this desire—this need—gets exacerbated by daily existence here on the bustling island of Manhattan: partiers in the apartments just below and above us, commuting on the subway, work, and, like this weekend, a sold-out showing of a very long movie at the big theater [...]

Online vs. Print

Related to what I was musing about below when I confided how old-school I am when it comes to print publications, I just happened upon this post on Kelly Spitzer’s blog: “Online vs. Print Publishing.” It may be time to rethink my whole idea of what being “published” means. Agree?

How Books Save Me

I love books, always have. And by that I mean the physical object of a book itself: thick pages, crisp black type you can feel beneath your finger, that hard binding, that tough spine, how when you flip through the pages they fall in a cascading arc, blindingly quick, and the air fills with that [...]

All the Things I Just Don’t Know

The AWP conference (see the last three entries) was a real jolt to me—in a good way. I felt inspired and energetic, after recovering from my physical exhaustion of course.
But Monday morning, my first day back at work, was also a jolt. I had a nightmare early in the morning that I was about to [...]

A Barely There Summary of AWP Day 3

To anyone who hasn’t attended this conference before: if you decide to stop reading now so I don’t exhaust you with the summary of my last day—I’m exhausted enough, no use passing it on to anybody else—just know this conference is most definitely worth it. Not only am I glad I went, I would do [...]

AWP Day 2

I am too worn out to come up with a better title for this post, that’s how much happened today.
The AWP conference this morning started early, too early for many, I imagine, seeing as how my first panel was sparsely attended for such a huge room. This was “On Adapting and Being Adapted”—about novels being [...]