i'm obsessed with shorts. short. stories.
Colm Tóibín has penned these important rules of writing and i’d best pay attention. Finish everything you start. Get on with it. Stay in your mental pyjamas all day. Stop feeling sorry for yourself. No alcohol, sex or drugs while you are working. Work in the morning, a short break for lunch, work in the … Read more
Mavis Gallant has died at age 91 in Paris. a short story writer who was born in Canada, she lived her adult life in Paris. she wrote about expats living in Europe and themes of alienation/loneliness emerged. the stories of people living in-between cultures and their often shabby personal lives. i’ve read some of her … Read more
uh, that was a weird trip to the Banff Centre. diagnosis: strep throat. great medical attention available at the clinic at the Banff Centre, if you must know, but that’s beside the point. it was -40 degrees the entire time. i managed approximately eight pages of new material before i fell into bed for three … Read more
i’m off to the banff centre for a writing frenzy. there will be words, put your keyboard down here.
last night, i watched the movie it’s a kind of funny story. the movie is adapted from the novel by Ned Vizzini, and the story is inspired by Ned’s personal struggle with depression/suicidal ideation that landed him in a psych ward in 2004. there’s a scene in the movie that takes me back to my days working … Read more
i’ve got a thing for reduplicatives. there, i said it. i cannot decide if it’s the repetition or the silliness but i love them. i use them in my writing when i can and, when it works, i’m happy. in my collection of short stories set in Hong Kong, the use of reduplicatives is a … Read more
this is a sabbatical. repeat, this is a sabbatical. thank you and good night.
memory. noun. a device or a component of a device in which information especially for a computer can be inserted and stored and from which it may be extracted when wanted (Merriam-Webster Online). i am a device. a machine. i store memory. extract only what is absolutely necessary. i avoid memory. memory avoids me. an … Read more
what a year for the short story. in Canada, Alice Munro wins a Nobel Prize for a lifetime of short story magic, then Lynn Coady wins the Giller Prize for HELL GOING, a book of shorts. further afield in the commonwealth (England), American Claire Vaye Watkins won the Dylan Thomas award with her collection BATTLEBORN, … Read more