writing life | writing life
Apr.09.2013
My experiences related to the canyon have been on the order of a spiritual awakening which has left me as porous as the canyon's sedimentary strata, where rain water cleaves and carves and emerges later as beautiful clear springs.
I take power naps. Total shutdowns that last twenty minutes—max. I...
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Apr.07.2013
Hard, these days, to maintain the illusion that finishing my new short story collection is important or critical or matters in the slightest.
Not after hearing the terrible news about Iain Banks' inoperable bladder cancer.
Banks is a marvel, possessing one of the most enormous and densely...
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Mar.23.2013
What does it take for any writer to realize her dream–be it finishing the first story or the hundreth, publishing a novel or building a freelance portfolio?
The common denominator in any response is often one word: Discipline.
So it surprised more than a few people (judging by the emails I’ve...
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Jan.31.2013
Bird of Paradise Lost Book tour - - with dates and specific hours and more events to be filled in ...by Andrew Lam on Sunday, December 30, 2012 at 11:11am · PublicFriendsFriends except AcquaintancesOnly MeCustomClose FriendsLowell HighSee all lists...New America...
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Dec.11.2012
I get a little bit sentimental this time of the year.
Normally, I have the reputation for being a cynical, vicious brute with an over-developed sense of the ridiculous and surreal.
But when Christmas comes around, some of my rougher edges are buffed off and casting an eye back over the year, I find...
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Dec.03.2012
(NOTE: There once was a union maid, she never was afraid
/ Of goons and ginks and company finks / And the deputy sheriffs who made the raid.
/ She went to the union hall when a meeting it was called
/ And when the Legion boys come ‘round /
She always stood her ground. / Oh, you can’t scare me, I...
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Sep.28.2012
I've been a professional author for over 25 years.
In all that time, I have encountered perhaps four or five genuinely intelligent, well-adjusted, trustworthy, decent editors. Four or five. In more than a quarter century of putting words on paper.
The others?
Stupid. Vain. Dishonest....
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Aug.12.2012
There have been delays, a lengthier waiting period than I expected but, at long last, the proof of my next book is finally in the mail, zipping its way toward me as I type these words.
I've been a professional author for over 25 years, with numerous books under my belt but, I have to tell you, it's...
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Jul.22.2012
For so many years, I defined myself as a writer who, among other things, had a novel she was trying to get published, or finished, or revised further, or written. For 38 years, I've been writing the novel in one form or another -- in my head, on the page, across the screen and deep in my psyche....
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Jul.21.2012
Something changed this summer.
I've started taking note of beauty. Natural beauty. No straight lines and enclosing fences. A grand chaos of smells and noises and sensations that can only be found in places far from the madding crowd.
It didn't used to be like this. Summer was the busiest time of...
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