Christopher Meeks's Blog
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Apr.12.2010
I just returned from the AWP Conference in Denver, which was a rich and intense experience that's still washing over me. The AWP (the Association of Writers and Writing Programs) puts on a yearly conference where writers and creative writing instructors from North America gather. Over three days,...
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Apr.03.2010
I’m not ashamed: I’m hooked on Lifetime Channel’s Project Runway. For some weeks, such as this week, it’s the only television I watch. That’s because the show, more than any other reality show, revolves around creativity--and that revolves around “desire.”
Each season Project Runway begins with...
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Mar.21.2010
One of the happy accidents in my life was when the chair of the Santa Monica College English Department, Nina Theiss, had called me out of the blue and asked if I’d consider teaching English at the college. She said she’d heard I was a great teacher, and I had been recommended by a colleague. That...
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Mar.13.2010
Lately, there has been much discussion of publishing in terms of printing vs. digitizing-- books vs. ebooks--and the news swirls in a faster spinning vortex. With the iPad about to debut, there's much speculation on will ebooks become more popular than they are now? "Yes" is the answer...
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Mar.12.2010
Last night at USC, I attended a panel discussion, “The Best of Times: Writing in the Age of the Internet,” moderated by author Gina Nahai (Caspian Rain). The students in USC’s Master of Professional Writing Program, having honed their craft and about to graduate, wanted to know is there a job out...
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Mar.06.2010
I rarely ever listen to KPCC, a radio station out of Pasadena, because it’s mostly talk, but I happened onto it the other day when I heard a comedic duo, Annabelle Gurwitch and Jeff Kahn, who’ve been married to each other for thirteen years. They were on the air talking about what it takes to be...
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Feb.22.2010
NPR last week had a story on Leonard Maltin’s new book about great movies that were marketed poorly or where people simply stayed away in droves. It’s called 151 Best Movies You've Never Seen. One of the films he mentions is The Weather Man with Nicholas Cage. I saw it and I agree with him. It’s...
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Feb.17.2010
Ever since Macmillan Publishing took on Amazon a few weeks ago in regards to a new contract, the cost of eBooks have been bandied about. Some readers seem to think that publishers are greedy and have money raining down on them by pricing their books over $10. In one Amazon discussion group, a...
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Feb.14.2010
In a brilliant monologue, George Carlin once talked about having "stuff." He said that life's about finding places for your stuff. Houses and apartments are giant storage units, and garages, closets, car trunks--all full of stuff. When we go on vacation, our suitcases hold only a small...
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Feb.03.2010
Writers write—and so they sit. Writers also rationalize particularly well. “I don’t need to exercise. My mind is so active, it’s good for my body.” Or: “Hey, Rebecca Romijn lost sixty pounds without exercise, and the ‘Got Milk’ campaign loves her.” That leads to, “I’ll just drink milk and write.”...
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Jan.25.2010
I'm talking the best of the best: music that transforms you, like Major Tom in orbit. The songs I'm talking about are ones you've heard hundreds of times in your life, and yet the power still radiates. You are yanked out of yourself and float in a most peculiar way. Below I'll list five that spring...
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Jan.22.2010
I'm honored that two Red Room writers next week will win my short story collections The Middle-Aged Man and the Sea and Months and Seasons as they write about the topic of short fiction. The topic is on my mind in another way as I'm working on a novel. Novels and short stories are very different,...
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Jan.16.2010
I was standing in a long line at the post office thinking, "Man, I'm glad I'm not behind the counter giving postage," when it occurred to me the nearest clerk was probably thinking, "Man, I'm glad I'm not in that long line just standing."
A class never offered in graduate...
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Jan.15.2010
It happens every semester in my Introduction to Literature class at Santa Monica College. The students' faces look like they just witnessed Icarus plop at their feet, bones cracking, his wing's hot wax spewing across their arms. I'd just announced we'll now spend five weeks in poetry.
For their...
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Jan.03.2010
I'll toot my horn, now that I have something new to toot:
The Brightest Moon of the Century, a comic novel about a young Minnesotan blessed with "experience," has landed at the top on three literary websites. First, Wendy Runyon, the Literary Feline at Musings of a Bookish Kitty...
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'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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