Christopher Meeks's Blog
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Jan.27.2009
I just heard from a former student, J.J. Strong, who, with his master's degree, is now trying to make a living. Heck, with a name like J.J. Strong, he has a chance, no? While in my master class in playwriting at USC, he wrote a stunning full-length play. A year later, a one-act play of his was...
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9 comments
Jan.22.2009
I saw "The Wrestler" with Mickey Rourke yesterday, and just before the end, and with maybe three scenes to go, I realized there was only one possible ending for Rourke's character, Randy. It came true. When I walked out of the theatre, I heard an older woman say, "So what did you...
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6 comments
Jan.18.2009
At a party the other night, I overheard a female book editor talk to a male author. Both are my friends. He told her that he wrote fiction. "What category?" she asked.
"Mainstream books," he said.
"Chick lit?" she said, astonished.
"No," he said, "...
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4 comments
Jan.05.2009
During the 1984 Olympics, I came upon two bronze sculptures of nude and headless male and female athletes installed just outside the Los Angeles Coliseum. Even though they stood above me, I was speechless. Sometimes I'm struck dumb coming across beauty when I least expect it--much as I am when...
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5 comments
Dec.27.2008
Enough of serious musings! Do we want good writing or good food? After all, it's still the holiday season, and agents, publishers, publicists, even printers are on vacation. And what are they doing? Eating.
It's clear to me, as I've made it through my second diet of my life, that when you don't...
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2 comments
Dec.23.2008
Last week I returned from Minnesota, where I'd visited my mother, Sidney, in her assisted-living home. She originally intended to stay in this expensive place just to get back on her feet after her open-heart surgery. Because her anxiety never left, and her breathing worsened, she's stayed there...
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8 comments
Dec.22.2008
When I flew back from Minnesota last week, I started reading Water for Elephants by Sara Gruen on the airplane. The book is fabulous, about a 93-year-old veterinarian having a hard time in assisted living and remembering his days in the circus during the depression--particularly an event that...
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4 comments
Dec.21.2008
I like TV. I just don't have much chance to watch it. Now that we have a DVR, however, I have it set to record 60 Minutes, Dexter, Californication, Weeds, and my big guilty pleasure, Entourage. Episodes, however, are piling up like pancakes at a fire station breakfast.
As much as I like these...
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8 comments
Dec.07.2008
Last night my wife came home from her part-time job as a reference librarian so worn out, even her shushing action couldn't shush. During the week, she runs a library at an all-girls high school and is deeply adored. She took the extra job not so much for the money, but for the pleasure. The South...
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4 comments
Nov.30.2008
One of my pleasures is to read Jessica Barksdale's blog here in Red Room, and the her recent blog called "Time Out" brought many comments. People related to Jessica's past where she struggled with anxiety and panic attacks, which had me thinking about my mother, Sidney, who, at nearly...
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8 comments
Nov.12.2008
Part of my past includes stints as a book reviewer, first at the Los Angeles Daily News, then for the now-defunct Herald-Examiner. After that, I reviewed theatre for eight years with Daily Variety. I never saw reviewing as a sport. I wasn't out to "get" anyone or to have fun at his or her...
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5 comments
Nov.09.2008
When I wrote about Library Thing in August (http://www.redroom.com/blog/christopher-meeks/library-thing), I didn't know then that that entry would lead me to an Author Chat on the site now. An author chat is like IMing (instant messaging) over time. Someone asks a question, and I answer it. This...
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Nov.03.2008
Things to Do and Not Do if You’re the Person Up Front
On Halloween night, I read my story "Dracula Slinks Into the Night" at Skylight Books in Los Angeles after four other authors read their short works. It was sponsored by Skylight, a fabulous independent bookstore, and by USC's Master...
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6 comments
Oct.23.2008
Now that the Los Angeles Times Sunday Book Review section is gone, and newspaper reviews in general are becoming fewer, the democracy of the Internet is coming to the rescue...at times. You have to find the right places.
Many people still don't know about literary blogs and what they do. On the...
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3 comments
Oct.10.2008
This won't be a long blog because I'm late to class. Last night on NPR, I heard a story about an idealized female character in films, the Manic Pixie Dream Girl. This is a woman who exists to pull a too-staid man out of the doldrums and make him realize life is great. This is Natalie Portman in...
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7 comments
'Love At Absolute Zero' is a gift--and one of the many that continue to emerge from the pen and mind and brilliant trait for finding the humor in life that makes him so genuinely fine a writer.”
—Critic Grady Harp, Top-Ten Amazon reviewer
About Christopher
Christopher Meeks writes short fiction and novels. His book of short stories, The Middle-Aged Man and the Sea earned great reviews including the Los Angeles Times ("poignant and wise") and a blurb in Entertainment Weekly that said, "A...
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