This is third part in a series where I muse on what makes for a book a reader can get lost in, prompted in part by a recent reread of the devourable YA novel, Nick & Norah’s Infinite Playlist. Read PART I & PART II. Something to be established at the outset: I rarely use […]
What started as a simple post about getting lost in a book has morphed into a larger topic that I’d like to continue to explore, so I’ve decided to allow this to be a series. Part I lays some groundwork and asks some questions. My mother says I learned how to read before I started
A Book Flow State of Mind Read More »
Something I’ve noticed (have been noticing for a while now) is this “call to arms” (pun intended) about getting off the apps, and making real life communities, and how the algorithm hates anything offline. All of which I agree with. OF COURSE. But—and I can’t be the only person to notice this, please, don’t let
“the revolution will not be [internetized]” Read More »
(subtitle quote borrowed and altered from a favorite line of Marvin Bell’s: “I like endings where the poem stops but the poetry goes on… Stops, that is, with the electricity still going.”) For the first time in what seems like a really long time, I am writing a short story. Or, maybe better put, I
I had a friend who loved March: he was a Gemini, and cited “the push and pull, the back and forth” nature of this month in New England—essentially, that the month had “two faces.” I thought about this idea as I walked around the block in “productive meditation” this morning. On Friday, it was 60
The Fickle Nature of New England March Read More »
Why are we drawn to what we’re drawn to? What clues to the creative process might be revealed from our obsessions? Can these obsessions yield art? Here are the opening passages from a failed essay on cats (yes, I know): In Milan Kundera’s novel Immortality, which I first read in 2004, there is a chapter
Cats, Or, I’m feeling irreverent today Read More »
How many drafts of a story, or essay, or book, do you write before it feels “done”? Ten, twenty, fifty, one-hundred story drafts? More? I used to think it made the most sense, when writing, to write as much as possible, only to later go back and pull all the unnecessary stuff out. Revision seemed
A Good Story Is Like a Seven-Layer Cake Read More »
