i'm obsessed with shorts. short. stories.
dear imaginary readers of this blog, another year. i moved into my own house this year and it’s been busy getting settled, but it feels good, you know? it’s peaceful. anyway, my office is cosy and i’ve got a serious shelving shortage to attend to in the new year, but that’s definitely fixable. and i’m … Read more
okay, top 10 list of what i consider, in my limited opinion, the best short stories i’ve read to date. when i say best i mean memorable. on this particular day, in this particular year, and in no particular order. “Emergency” by Denis Johnson “So Late in the Day” by Claire Keegan anything by Tessa … Read more
i have a story upcoming in TNQ. it’s called “the paradise motel” and it’s about a teenaged girl named Marty who works in a cleaning crew at, you guessed it, the paradise motel. i’m slowly building a MS of linked shorts about teenaged girls that’s set in the 70s. i’m trying to give my stories … Read more
this year, for a variety of reasons, i’ve limped along rewriting my MS, and i’ve taken to writing out prompts. recently, i wrote a good one and i share it with you here, my imaginary readers of this blog, because it was fun. i’m currently writing it out into a short story, also fun. god … Read more
dear imaginary readers of this blog. well, here we are. surviving. i wrote this year, in fits and starts, and have new pages to show for it. for fun, i started a mystery novel in november (my own version of nanowrimo) and threw 11, 000 words onto the page. it felt great, TBH. there are … Read more
dear imaginary readers of this blog, currently, i’m handwriting a second draft of a novel and it’s slow, but it’s moving along in a forward motion. i’m fleshing out scenes and adding the internal dialogue of the MC, which is fruitful and good work, but it’s slow. sometimes it takes an hour to really nail … Read more
normally i write a blog post about the best books i read in the year prior. it’s a tradition. this year, i acknowledge that i read a fair amount in 2020 and it was so hard to do, with the pandemic and resultant anxiety, and the creeping sadness of isolation. but i managed to read … Read more
in the face of COVID winter, i started a book club for writers. it’s something many writers yearn for–a comfortable place to drop into analysis and symbols and flights of word fantasy with others who truly UNDERSTAND. it’s like talking shorthand. anyway, the first book is SING, UNBURIED, SING by Jesmyn Ward, a book from … Read more
it’s the 25th anniversary of The Women’s Prize aka The Orange Prize. i’ve listed the winners below. i resolve to read each of these books over the next 6 months and track the greatness. i could use the inspiration TBH. in reality, i’ve read only 4 of the books listed below and my memory is … Read more
time for a list. top 10 books that carry weight in my adult(ish) mind. a list on this particular day, for no particular reason, in no particular order: 1. WIDE SARGASSO SEA by Jean Rhys2. THE SUN ALSO RISES by Hemingway3. OLD FILTH by Jane Gardam4. JESUS’ SON by Denis Johnson5. THE REMAINS OF THE … Read more