Jessica Barksdale Inclan's Blog
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Oct.28.2010
You know, I was trying to be all Zen about answering emails and everything, but inside, mind you, I'm still roiling with complaints about the universe.
My good walking partner had a card on her dashboard yesterday, and when she opened her car door and I demanded Advil from her, I saw it. There it...
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Oct.26.2010
When I was searching for a new agent, I was searching in a different way than I had ten years before. Back then, it was all about paper and correct postage and long waits. Rejection letters came back from those who didn't want it and happier letters came from those who wanted part, some, all. ...
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Oct.24.2010
Last week, I realized that I am anxious about the next broken thing. I manage to fix the current broken thing (last week it was the garage door opener) and then I start to freeze up, worrying about which thing will go next. The car? The roof? The dishwasher? It's always something, and...
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Oct.21.2010
My father always wanted me to win. At anything. School, sports. He wanted me and my sisters to shine at something, anything, and mostly, we proved to be average and potentially gifted children, though not too much evidence was apparent. Not yet.
But the summer of my 12th year, was the summer...
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Oct.19.2010
For as long as I've eaten tomatoes, I've been looking for the holy grail of tomatoes. Let me tell you that I have found such grails, but the thing with tomato grails is that they are hard to hold onto. I eat one and then, literally, it's gone. I taste it as I taste it, and then I forget exactly...
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Oct.18.2010
There are so many ways to know we are getting older, and the easier ones to deal with are those away and outside of the body. They aren't always pleasant, but at least they have nothing to do with skin or hair or teeth or vision. That's quite another essay altogether.
But the world reminds us...
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Oct.16.2010
Not sleeping can make one crazy. We all know this, but it's weird to see it in action in yourself. For instance, one early morning I awakened at 2 and then got up to do a little work. I'd held a book giveaway contest on a web site, and I was notified that the list was ready.
"Excellent!...
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Oct.15.2010
In Spain, I started speaking French, and in France, I whipped out my Spanish. It was the language I wanted to speak, even more than English. But even though we were only two hours from the Spanish border, no one understood Spanish, so I reverted to bad French (worse than my bad Spanish) and small...
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Oct.14.2010
When I can't sleep (which has been often the past few days due to jet lag), I try to lull myself back with thoughts of my garden. I imagine all the work I have to do, walking through in my imagination, cutting off the spent umbels of agapanthus, trimming back the rage of baby's tears from around...
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Oct.13.2010
When I was little, I imagined a honeymoon as something magical. In fact, I almost thought of the wedding as the launching place for this beautiful adventure, the bride and groomed changed into other clothes and whisked away to a week or more of enchantment. As I grew older and maybe wiser, I...
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Oct.04.2010
Michael and I have kept a very sporadic and not-so-well done food blog when we are traveling around. Here is my entry for today about eating in Barcelona:
http://foodwhine.wordpress.com/2010/10/04/eating-like-a-hobbit/
Jessica
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Oct.04.2010
Many years ago, in an old edition of The Best American Short Stories of some year, probably 1985 or so, there appeared a story entitled Barcelona by Alice Adams. It was the first story in the book, and I'm not sure if that is because of the alphabet or if it was "first" that year in...
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Oct.02.2010
Barcelona and I aren't related. We aren't long lost twins, suddenly reunited. We have not been secretly longing for each other, falling into one another's arms upon meeting. We are more like two wary teenaged boys wanting the same girl, circling and circling each other trying to find out why.
I...
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Sep.27.2010
I love the universe, the way it is random and full of surprises. This morning, we awoke to an email from the apartment rental office in Barcelona. Turns out, a full on national strike the day we land on Spanish soil. No limos. No taxis. Limited bus and rail service.
Let's just say I've pared...
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Sep.24.2010
So I thought I'd drop in before I can no longer drop in for a while. I'm not sure what this weekend will bring, but I can tell you that so far I've encountered five cases of a stomach virus (my sister's and her family's), one angry bagger at Berkeley Bowl, two large red mylar balloons, a delicious...
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About Jessica
Jessica Barksdale Inclán's debut novel Her Daughter's Eyes, published in 2001, was the premier novel published under New American Library's new imprint Accent. Her Daughter's Eyes was a final nominee for the YALSA Award for the best books of 2001 and best...
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Causes Jessica Inclan Supports
Women for Women International Goodwill Industries Lindsey Wildlife Museum Freecycle.org
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