How I Became a Writer
For today’s writers on writing segment, I thought I’d share a video about how I became a writer. Hint: it has something to do with… Read More »How I Became a Writer
Personal
Why It’s Sometimes Okay to Quit
As a child, I hated horseback riding. I took lessons, though, because my mother wanted me to, and because I was under the impression that… Read More »Why It’s Sometimes Okay to Quit
How to End a Story
Stories are like relationships: the beginning is always so much fun, and the ending is fraught with turmoil. When I sit down to start a story,… Read More »How to End a Story
Writers on Writing: And All the Ships At Sea
I wanted to share an interesting email I received last week from a reader:
I’m a Marine stationed over at Camp Pendleton in California. While I was on deployment, I found The Year Of Fog in the small ship library…I was a part of an expeditionary unit sitting off the coast of Burma last year after their country was ravaged by a natural disaster. I mean this in the greatest sincerity when I say that reading and finishing your story was truly all I looked forward to the 2 months I spent sitting on a ship, counting the days until I could come home. I’m not sure what it was, but I found myself very sympathetic and attached to the main character. I almost wish the story hadn’t ended. Or at least had ended the way I was expecting. Again, thank you for your story.
Readings for Writers
The Kenyon Review has just published a new anthology of work culled from the magazine over the past seventy years. Editor David Lynn writes: Readings… Read More »Readings for Writers
Two From the World of Ink
I met Georges and Anne Borchardt at Sewanee Writers’ Conference in 2003. The couple co-founded their literary agency in 1967, and are known for introducing American audiences to the work of Roland Barthes, Samuel Beckett, Pierre Bourdieu, Marguerite Duras, Franz Fanon, Michel Foucault, Eugene Ionesco, Jacques Lacan, Alain Robbe-Grillet, Jean-Paul Sartre, and Elie Wiesel.
When we met, I’d just had my first novel published with San Francisco independent MacAdam/Cage (sans agent) and was looking for representation. Jill McCorkle, a faculty member at the conference, read a chapter of the novel I was working on and set up a meeting. Many of the other fellows were going spelunking, but I skipped the cave trip and met the Borchardts on the little patio behind the apartment where they were staying. We talked for a while–about books, writing, my background and interests, my novel-in-progress. I immediately felt a connection with them. I liked their calmness, their magnetic presence. One had the feeling of being in the company of extraordinarily sharp and sensitive literary minds Read More »Two From the World of Ink
Good Reads
Just out today, a new novel by Christopher Barzak, The Love We Share without Knowing. I was lucky enough to get an advance copy of… Read More »Good Reads
What’s Borges Got to Do With It?
Jeff VanderMeer recently interviewed me for Omnivoracious, the Amazon editors’ blog. VanderMeer peels back the cover for a look inside No One You Know. Subjects… Read More »What’s Borges Got to Do With It?
What We Are Doing
What then shall I do this morning? How we spend our days is, of course, how we spend our lives. What we do with this… Read More »What We Are Doing