I’m in the process of revision right now and questioning every decision–the biggest of which was to change the manuscript from 1st person to 3rd. I had an epiphany early last week that I should do this because there were some issues with the narrator; mainly, it was that she seemed omniscient for a first person narrator. She also seemed too confessional and I … Read More What’s the point (of view)?
I have pretty much read the Fall 2005 issue of Ploughshares from cover to cover now. It is an excellent issues, guest edited by Antonya Nelson. My favorite stories in the issue all, in a way, deal with family, with coming of age (even if one is middle aged), with love or the lack thereof, and with desire–a need for something that is missing. … Read More read it
Got an email about this service and it looks quite cool and useful, so I’m passing on the info to you: Welcome to TitleTrader, the most effective book, movie, and music swap club on the internet. Titletrader is a free service that allows users to exchange books (paperback and hardcover), music (CDs), and movies (DVDs and VHS) with other community members from anywhere around … Read More
In his huffington post post, American Fiction: MIA, Rob Spillman eloquently throws down the gauntlet for today’s young, America fiction writers: But where are the young, ambitious American writers willing to take on the socio-economic dramas of our times? Surely the Bush administration’s warped fantasia is rich material for fiction. Established writers like George Saunders, Deborah Eisenberg, Aimee Bender, Jim Shepard, and Joy Williams … Read More "I worry about the Myspace Generation of writers"
“You’re the one that took them… You eat ’em like candy. You’re addicted to them. Just like a cocaine dealer. That’s ten I gave you the last time.” “You owe me seven bucks and then I’ll give you the bottle. You owe me $6.84 actually, but I’ll tax you.” * Today M. tells me about the two girls he knew who were murdered when … Read More several years of my life as culled from old journals
Today my mum would have been 74 years old, though she would have lied and told you she was 64 (and you would have believed her). Five years ago was the last birthday she was alive. We went to the beach–my sisters, their children, my mum, and I. I sat next to mum, both of us on lawn chairs. The sun was too much … Read More Happy Birthday, Mum!
Today you must read this excellent (and funny) story by the talented Matthew M. Quick—The Black Abbey Revival: He reassured himself that praying for mind-blowing sex was better than praying for money. Sex equals love, or at least it does when performed admirably. Ryan’s love for his wife was legitimate. So what was the problem?
Read Beth Alvarado’s short story Just Family yesterday. It’s an intense read. Every second I was tense, waiting for things to explode and yet I loved how quietly, how poignantly it ended: As Ellen looked at the sleepy faces of the children, at Grace and Amelia as they lifted their sleeping kids and murmured to them, It’s all right, sshh, it’s all right, she … Read More "One tear, and she was afraid it would all begin to unravel."
Did you read it in this most recent One Story? It is quite wild and fresh. It is well worth the read, I say. It is about fertile ground that no one recognizes–snails in gardens who see all when everyone else sees nothing: The doctors go back to work. The doctors’ wives go for cafe au lait at a new coffeehouse/gallery near the levee. … Read More Baton Rouge: A Doctor Story, by Matt Clark
I have an irrational fear of bay leaves. Growing up I remember my mother was insistent that if a renegade bay leaf remained in the pot and made it to someone’s dish that it not be ingested. What I recall was that to eat a bay leaf would mean instant, hideous death. I made a dish this week (shrimp, cabbage, and beans) that calls … Read More death (and rebirth) by google
myfanwy collins 