Dispatch from the Library

I have a friend at work (if she’s reading this, she knows who she is) who shares my intense love of the library. She’s a much faster reader than I am, though; the books she can read in a week! I envy her speed. The good thing about her quickness is that she’s always up [...]

More About Short Stories? Always

I admitted before to my near-obsession with short stories. Now I just randomly happened upon this thread about stories that “blew you away” on the Poets & Writers Speakeasy (I think you have to sign in to read it). There are so many stories mentioned that I haven’t even read!
But this comment about children’s books [...]

Books and Unicorns

Reading is such a personal vocation for me—revealing what I really think about a book feels like flashing my underwear—which I guess is why I don’t do book reviews here. I finished a book I had a love/semi-annoyed relationship with recently and thought of posting about it, then didn’t. Maybe I’m afraid I can’t be [...]

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 [...]

Happiness on the Elevator

Shocker realization of the day while standing in empty elevator: I am not happy. Though who am I to assume I should be happy, to walk around thinking happiness is attainable. What a privileged existence to consider such a thing as mine for the taking. It’s foolish to expect it. Ridiculous. Absurd. The end. Doors [...]

Now You See Them, Now You Don’t

I’m afraid I might be a lazy writer when it comes to character descriptions. In my own fiction, I usually do the large brushstrokes only: dark hair, dark eyes, the hands in a gesture, the mouth if it matters, just a few telling details are all I need—so I convince myself. Maybe I just don’t [...]

Collecting Short Stories

I have two pitches to complete in order to answer two separate, and exciting, invitations. I have other projects awaiting my attention. A novel brewing. An old novel wondering after its fate. Yet… I keep getting pulled back to my short story collection. I tell myself it’s so totally impractical and can’t I do something [...]

Saturday Struggles

I have a proofreading job that I left till the very last minute. I have the first draft of a short story I want to finish. I have a new book I want to read. Who will win this tug-o-war?
JOB: I realize I bore you silly, but I am due Monday morning and you [...]

The Moment After

I was in the expected table at an expected Starbucks this morning, reading a short story: “The Shape of Water” by Mark Slouka, from his book Lost Lake. Distractions abounded. A girl with ash on her head stared vacantly in my direction. A man with a bike and an old boom box danced on the [...]

Borrow-Lust

I am out-of-control. My library card is like my maxed Visa (except no one’s taken away the library card yet). Today I had some books to return from my last trip—and still a bunch more to read at home—and yet I could not leave the building without browsing for more. Who knew what would be [...]

How I Came to Be

Seeing Lit Kitten’s mention of Margaret Atwood’s Cat’s Eye jolted me. It’s been a long time since I read that book, so long I couldn’t recall a word of it. Still, I can’t say I’d be the person I am today (or the writer, which for me has become the same thing) if I [...]

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… [...]

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 [...]

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 [...]

On Ideas, Fragments of Ideas, and the Red Room

In my mind right now is a tiny little thing. It started smaller than a pea, just this miniature glob knocking around up in there, sometimes I’d notice it, but most times I’d just let it be. It’s this idea I have. For the past few days I had a headache, so I couldn’t think [...]

Writing Wish List

So, not to compleeeeetely overwhelm myself, but I can’t help but want to get together a writing wish list at the start of a new year. Last year I wanted to finish 3 big projects. If you count the freelance novels, I guess I did. But if you count my own novel(s), I did zip. [...]

distraction no. 99: 2006 in Review

I started posting sporadically in this blog in 2006. I started by carrying some older posts from another anonymous blog over here as a tease. Then I deleted that anonymous blog and stayed here for good. Now, apparently, I can’t stop. So here’s to a new addiction, or, I should say distraction… I tell you—it’s [...]

Inspired by Openings

I love the “Shelf” section on W’s Loud Solitude.
There is something so tantalizing about catching a glimmer of a book from peeking at its first line. This is how I usually decide what to read in a bookstore or a library. My first influence is, of course, the title on the spine. But once the [...]

A Whole Life in One Story

I’ve been carrying around a short story anthology for a couple of weeks now, reading a story in the mornings with my coffee when I have the spare moments. Today I wanted to go straight to my writing spot, but upon starting one of the stories in the anthology I couldn’t move until I reached [...]

Help Me with My Vacation Reading List?

Three years at my company and, as a reward, I got an extra week off. So, what to do with the week? Go to an undisclosed location overlooking a notoriously turquoise sea, sit with E on the sand, and read as many books as I can fit in my suitcase. (Note to self: Bring extra [...]