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Age Ain't Nothin But A Number

78 year old Ed Reed has just released his gorgeous debut CD, Love Stories. I heard a review on Here and Now, one of my favorite NPR shows. The interviewer asked why Mr. Reed too so long to record his first album. The answer? "In a word, heroin." For some reason, that just made the story all the more inspire. It's like you never screw up to forfeit your second chance. I am so frustrated that the CD isn't on iTunes. The radio program played some snippets and I am SPRUNG. The songs are gorgeous jazz standards but also unheard songs with lyrics by Truman Capote. So beautiful.

Posted at 04:00 PM | Comments (0)
Category: Travels & Rambles

Overlooked Brilliance

In New York magazine, sixy three critics list their favorite "underrated" books. The title is "The Best Books You've Never Read."

I love the idea of it. Isn't frustrating when you read a really marvelous book and discover that it only sold about twelve copies? So, I propose that we make a list of our underrated favorites. Here are ten of mine, not in order of favoriteness or underration.

Bombingham, by Anthony Grooms.
Sweetwater, by Roxana Robertson
Luminous Mysteries, by John Holman
Dying Young, by Marti Leimbach (please ignore the cover!)
Rattlebone, by Maxine Clair
Crackpots, by Sara Pritchard
Motherkind, by Jayne Anne Phillips
City Boy, by Jean Thompson
Rima in the Weeds, by Deidre MacNamer
Meridian, by Alice Walker

(thx ed for the original link.)

Posted at 06:20 AM | Comments (4)
Category: Bookshelf

As I Leave DC...

My good friend, Troy, brought me a going away gift: a bottle of Moet (I love that stuff) and a card with what he says is essential advice for relocating to the NY area:

No matter what you see, act like you've seen it before. Even if it's someone walking a rat on a leash or picking his nose with a stick of dynamite. Don't show show any shock or fear. Just keep on rolling.

Posted at 05:24 PM | Comments (1)
Category: Travels & Rambles

If You Get into Breadloaf As A Waiter

Take it. I have known a couple of folks who have, in the past, been offered waitstaff position were insulted enough to refuse the offer. I can completely understand that reaction. It sounds crazy. Go to Vermont to a writers conference and they want you to wait tables? Isn't that like being a servant???

But really, it's not like that. The waitstaff are thought to be the shining stars of the conference. They give a special reading and are often brought back the next year to serve on social staff or in other plum positions. So don't freak out. Say yes.

OK. Really. I must finish packing.

Posted at 06:56 PM | Comments (1)
Category: The Writing Life

Kiri Davis On Oprah!

Remember Kiri Davis whose film "A Girl Like Me" was featured on Cosmogirl a few months ago? Well, it seems she has much bigger fish to fry than whatever shadiness was (or wasn't) going on with that contest. 18-year-old Kiri was on Oprah today. I didn't see it, as I am in cardboard hell, trying to pack all my stuff to get out of town.

If someone did see it, I'd love a recap in the comments section. From the link above, it seems that it is a show about kids being ashamed of their looks.

(A quick aside... I worry a bit that the question of girl's self-esteem often comes down to whether they find themselves pretty or not. I mean, aren't their other measures of a self? Do we ask our sons whether they believe themselves to be beautiful? I am all in favor of reversing the trends that cause black girls to hate their dark skin and kinky hair. Like many sisters, I have an inner-Pecola that shows her sad face from time to time, so I am all for the balm. However, we must be careful not to swing so far in the direction that convinces our girls that all they need in life is to be pretty. OK. Off the soap box. I've got packing to do. Somebody tell me what they said on Oprah.)

And before I go, folks are blogging about it. I just have to pack. So here is the link to all the blog posts.

Posted at 05:48 PM | Comments (2)
Category: Current Events

Stupendous Things Are Happening

to people who read this blog!

Please Forgive The Posting Slow-Down

The time has come for me to pack up my books and shoes, an emotional and tedious task. I need to learn to move like professionals. (Having moved nine times in fifteen years, you would think I would have the hang of it.)

The pros just toss the stuff in a box, seal it up and keep pushing. Not me. I handle each book and say things like, "Wasn't there something weird about the point of view?" Then, I want to sit down and leaf through and find whatever it was, then I get caught up in the plot again.

And with shoes, I think "Oh! I remember these! Wasn't there a handbag to match? Wait, no. There was a dress....." And I will actually open a sealed box to look for it.

I am determined to have everything packed up before my dad gets here with the car on Monday. I don't want him to have a flashback from picking me up at Spelman twenty years ago. My father loves me, but even he has his limits..

Posted at 07:11 AM | Comments (1)
Category: Travels & Rambles

OMG!

Look who's coming to NYC the day AFTER I get there! It's F-A-T-E!

Lord, I love them.

Posted at 09:02 AM | Comments (1)
Category: Travels & Rambles

Community Service

Hi Folks, It's time for a group effort. Tis the season to start thinking about State Artists Grants. Every state has an arts council that awards grants to its artists. These no-strings-attached awards range from about $3,000- $7,500.

The applications are usually simple-- little more than just a writing sample. Writers at all stages in their careers are welcome to apply and I know many unpublished writers who have scored in this arena. The deadlines, by and large, are in the summer.

So what do I want you to do? I'd like you to google and find out when your state's artist council is accpeting applications. Put it in comments. Let us know the deadline, the website, and whether it is poetry or prose this year.

I googled New Jersey (my new home!) and discovered this site. Applications are accepted in the month of July only. This year is for prose.

Posted at 07:35 AM | Comments (7)
Category: The Writing Life

Straight and To The Point

More info here.

Posted at 07:28 AM | Comments (0)
Category: Travels & Rambles

At Last!

Victor Ehikhamenor came by yesterday to deliver the two gorgeous paintings I bought at his show last month.

Posted at 06:32 AM | Comments (0)
Category: Travels & Rambles

Some Fun Links

It's summer.. school is out.. let's look at some sort of cool links. This is the link equivalent of leafing through a shiny magazine..

Enda O'Brien Remembers Larry Brown

When Edna O'Brien lost her brother, John, to suicide, she didn't know where to seek comfort. She tried rereading his novel, Leaving Las Vegas, but she couldn't make herself connect with the words between the covers. What she did absorb was one of the names of the authors who blurbed her brother's book: Larry Brown. She contacted Mr. Brown and began a letter excahnge that would continue until Brown's death in 2004.

Here is an excerpt from her essay, "Meeting Larry Brown".

“I did know John, and he did know my work,” Brown wrote. “Just keep faith in yourself and keep on writing. That’s what John had to do, too.”

Thus began a six-year correspondence. I was the neophyte; Brown was my mentor. When the harsh reality of writing would crush me, I’d write him.

“Much as I’ve written, I’m still scared of it in some way until I sit down and start doing it again and then all the fear goes out the window and I feel safe,” he wrote once.

In all, Brown wrote me five letters, and I wrote him 10. Our unique relationship included one face-to-face meeting. In September 2003, driven by an undeniable urgency, I took a frenetic 700-mile road trip to hear him read at a bookstore in Louisville, KY.

You can read the rest here.

Posted at 06:27 AM | Comments (0)
Category: Bookshelf

A New Crop Of Writers On The Loose!

This Sunday, George Washington University held commencement exercises. The English Department threw a special reception for our undergraduates and within this group were our extra special creative writing majors. I rooted through the crowd until I found "my" seniors.. the ones who had taken a CW class from me. So, here they are.

Congratulations to you,
Katie, John, Olga, Michael, and Alex! Keep writing. I am so proud of you!

Posted at 06:49 PM | Comments (0)
Category: Travels & Rambles

Dick Cavett's Hissy Fit

Galleycat is snarking about the NYT's premium content which includes a blog by Dick Cavett. In this blog, Cavett recounts an experience he had 30 years ago. I agree with Galleycat that scandal is a dish best served piping hot, but I still enjoyed the recounting of Cavett's experience, even if it happened when I was in kindergarden. Apparently Cavett was told that his publisher wasn't supplying bookstores with his book:

Cavett's publisher was Harcourt Brace Jovanovich, one of the bookstores he visits is a Kroch-Brentano outlet, and his response to the book shortage is to get on the phone and demand to speak with William Jovanovich himself. When that doesn't pan out, he threatens the president of HBJ that if the books don't show up soon, "I'll cancel the Dinah Shore Show, the Carson Show, the Today Show and all the rest of this so-called selling tour and come home."

Oh to be able to put one's privileged little foot down! When I was on tour in Arizona, I was shocked to discover that there were no copies of The Untelling in any of the major chains. I was almost in tears-- book tour is such an emotional crazy-zone. I called my publisher. I called the publicist. I was told by my editor than the chains hadn't ordered my books because there "wasn't much of an African American population in Arizona."

See, if I was Dick Cavett, I would have been able to threaten to cancel all my fabulous interviews. But, whoops. I didn't have any. I wonder if it had anything to do with the same reason my books hadn't been ordered. So what did I do? I went back to my hotel room, ordered room service, and cried.

More on my book-touring, here.

Posted at 10:31 AM | Comments (2)
Category: The Writing Life

Happy Birthday, Sweet Lorraine

Today is the birthday of Lorraine Hansberry, author of many plays, but most famously, A Raisin In The Sun. In his beautiful elegy for her, "Sweet Lorraine," that was reprinted as the Preface of To Be Young, Gifted, and Black, James Baldwin wrote of his experience going to see A Raisin in the Sun:

I had never in my life seen so many black people in the theatre... Never before, in the entire history of the American theatre, had so much of the truth of black people's lives been seen on the stage. Black people ignored the theater because the theater had always ignored them.

Lorraine Hansberry died in 1965, at the age of 34.

Posted at 08:06 AM | Comments (1)
Category: Travels & Rambles

TJ on TV in AZ!

Just a reminder to Arizona folks. Arizona PBS will air an interview with me and my mentor, Ron Carlson, this weekend. The program, Books & Co., will be broadcast on Sunday, May 20th, at 4:30 pm.

Here's the photo album from the taping.
And here's a transcript and (oh baby!) PODCAST.

Posted at 06:49 PM | Comments (1)
Category: News

Out Of Print?

As I have always understood it, a book goes out of print when the publisher not to print any new copies and this usually happens when the book fails to sell a minimum of copies each year. Of course, it's a bummer when your book goes out of print, but it means that you can have the rights back and maybe get another publisher interested in it and that publisher may give you a revival. (That's the best case scenairio, of course.) For most out of print books, that's just the end of the road. The novel goes to that great book section in the sky.

Well, Simon and Schuster has decided change things a little. Now, they are not taking books out of print in the usual way. The books with sluggish sales are now going to be available by print-on-demand. In a sad way, this is good news because it means that no books will ever be truly unavailble.

The Author's Guild is up in arms, and rightly so. I was orginally on the fence. Afterall, isn't better for your book to be available in some form? And how many authors really have that up-from-the-ashes experience of being brought back into print?

But at the end of the day, I am going to side with the Author's Guild. It's not right for Simon and Schuster to keep authors from being able to seek a better deal. The print on demand should be an option, not the only policy.

Posted at 11:55 AM | Comments (0)
Category: The Writing Life

The Name Game

All the unpacking has giving me time to muse and when I muse, I usually muse about writing. While I was going through my stuff in Jersey, I found a book of baby names. Someone gave it to me to help me find names for my characters. I never opened it.

My students like to use this tool for finding names. They flip through the book and find really unusual and pretty-sounding names for their characters. I sometimes suspect that these are names for which they would like to trade thier own. I don't recommend this method as I think you just end up with names that give more information about the writer than the character.

Continue reading this entry

Posted at 08:09 AM | Comments (2)
Category: Writing

Back In DC!

Please forgive me! There seems to a bit of a mix up about my relocation schedule. It's a long story, but I don't leave DC for good until the end of May. The Jersey trip was part of a two-part move. I wouldn't slink off and leave DC in the middle of the night without saying goodbye. I'm sorry for the confusion.

Posted at 03:03 PM | Comments (0)
Category: Travels & Rambles

Jersey Journals

Since I am pulling up stakes from DC, I thought I should probably start a new category for my observations in my new home-- New Jersey. I'll call it "Jersey Journals."

I am writing this from my new apartment. Boxes are all over the place. (Cardboard recyling isn't until Thursday.) Black Hefty bags stuffed with paper, styrofoam, etc are blocking my way. (Garbage can be taken to the curb only after six p.m. on Mondays.) These are just two early signs that things here in Jersey are different than in any of the NINE places I have lived since 1991.

One of the most striking things about Jersey City is that it is gentrifying. I wrote a bit about Atlanta's "urban renewal" in my second novel, The Untelling. Well, I am here to tell you. You haven't seen urban renewal until you have seen it N.E. style! My friend, Allison, calls it "The Invisible Electric Fence."

Continue reading this entry

Posted at 07:14 AM | Comments (5)
Category: Jersey Journals

So Sorry, Ladylee

Ladylee emailed me the other day and asked me to particpate in a blog "tag." I wasn't able to join in. I'm sort of in the middle of a major lifestyle adjustment: moving to Jersey City. Boxes are everywhere and I am sort of freaking out, but all in all, this is a good thing. I woke up yesterday and there was a marathon passing by my window. I opened a closet door and found a picture of Elvis. There's a metphor in there somewhere. I'll let you know when I find it.

More details to come....

Posted at 01:41 PM | Comments (2)
Category: The Writing Life

Sister-Writers In The News

Oh, Just Whiten Up!

"Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee," the groundbreaking non fiction account of the displacement of Native Americans is being made into a movie. If you've read the book, be prepared for a significant change. According to the NYT article:

“Everyone felt very strongly that we needed a white character or a part-white, part-Indian character to carry a contemporary white audience through this project.”

So they added a new character. Not as a supporting part, but as the protagonist. He's "a man who was part Sioux, was educated at an Ivy League college and married a white woman." (The caveat-- this character is based on a real person.)

There is a part of me that wants to slap the filmmakers. (I'll admit, a BIG part of me.) And much of it comes from my own frustrastions as I observe similar bias in the consumption of American literature. And I guess I want to slap the filmmakers because it would take to long for me to go out and slap every small-minded viewer and reader for whom the statement is sadly accurate. If I did, I'd be too busy slapping to ever write another word.

(Thanks, Ed, for the link, atlhough it has singlehandedly ruined my day.)

Posted at 07:46 AM | Comments (11)
Category: Current Events

The Saddest Day of The Year

On Monday, the members of the 2007 Jenny McKean Moore Community Writers Workshop met for the last time and it just about broke my heart. As many of you know, my position here at George Washington requires me to teach one class to GW students and one class to regular folks in the DC area who want to take a writing class. I taught one group in the fall and one in the spring. They have been the highlight of my experience here.

This semester, we were a small group. We started out with twelve and life called and some of our members couldn't finesse time off from work, or they had family obligations, or maybe just changed thier minds. By the end, we were nine and we were serious about what we were doing.

You all know that diversity is important to me-- and by diversity I don't just mean racial diversity. I mean real mixing of folks. We were nine people with nine very different jobs, different ages, men, women, gay, straight, some had kids, married, unmarried. We were so different that you would have thought we did it on purpose. But we were so alike and so compatible that you would have thought this, too, planned.

I'm going to miss them. I hope they all keep writing and working on thier projects. I hope they keep the listserv going. I like to think that I gave them good instruction, but anyone who has ever been in a workshop knows that a writing group is only as good as the members. The teacher is just one person. These folks were good to each other and to themselves. You can see it in thier work.

Here are pictures from the party-- where I held my composure and didn't get all weepy and sentimenal. I saved that for this blog post.

Posted at 07:07 AM | Comments (1)
Category: D.C. Diaries

The Port Townsend Writers' Conference

Are you still without summer writing plans? This may be the last opportunity, but it's a good one. The Port Townsend Writers' Conference, held in Washington State July 15-22, is still taking applications and there are scholarships available! Jump on it.

This conference seems really different and kind of exciting. The program offers two tracks-- one for new work and another for works in progress. The faculty is accomplished and diverse and did I mention that there are scholarships available? Hop on over there and check it out.

Let me warn you. For some reason they are using blog software for thier website, so it can be a little tricky getting to the info you need. But take a minute and meander through and get yourself a scholarship! (Or you can just write a check if that's how you roll.) I think you start here and read the rules, and then move forward.

Posted at 06:36 AM | Comments (0)
Category: The Writing Life

How To Know You've Made It

When you google just your first name and your website comes up. That's the state of things for sister-blogger Nichelle Stephens! She's featured in the NYT today in an article about folks who have more than one hustle. (Nichelle is a blogger, a comedy producer, a PR person, accountant.. the list goes on.) Anyway, just google "Nichelle".. and there she is.

Congrats Nichelle. I love it when the NYT finally finds out about some treasure I've known about all along.

Posted at 04:22 PM | Comments (3)
Category: Travels & Rambles

Free Summer Workshop for H.S. Students

The Hurston/Wright Creative Writing Intensive for High School Students offers tuition-free, three-week long workshops that will enable high school students to become effective communicators. These workshops are only available to students residing in Prince George's County Maryland or Washington, D.C. Dates are July 8-27.

Don't miss out, the submission deadline is May 18, 2007. Apply Now!

More information here!

Posted at 12:24 PM | Comments (0)
Category: The Writing Life

"They Needed To Talk"

My fixation with The Last of Her Kind by Sigrid Nunez continutes. I thought I had gotten that monkey off my back. (My students would beg to differ, I think.) But at least I had stopped thinking about the novel quite so much. But now, my Spelman Sister Jennifer, sent me a link to an article explaining the origins of the lovely photo on the book's cover.

I just had to share. The photograph titled, "They Needed to Talk", was taken by William Eggleston, who is said to have reinvented color photography.

Where are the girls in the photo toady?:

Karen and Lesa are both 51 now and divorced. Karen uses her middle name, Lucretia, and her married name, Hampton; she has a son and works as a nurse in Memphis. Lesa has two sons and a daughter and teaches high-school English in Nashville. From this photograph, it's hard to believe that a few years later the women sang in a Memphis punk band called Gangrene and the Scurvy Girls. (They were the Scurvy Girls.) The band didn't last. However, Eggleston's delicate image of their youth did. And for that, both women say, they're grateful.

Read the rest here.

Posted at 06:44 AM | Comments (0)
Category: Bookshelf

Today's Word: SYMBIOTIC

Ladylee has a post up on her site today that is all about me. I am flattered to pieces, but I would be dishonest if I did not tell you that she gives me way too much credit. Yes, I have been in touch with her since we first met when she joined this blog community. And maybe I have given her a little bit of advice. But she has no idea how inspirational she is to me! That's the beautiful thing about a writing community. Everyone is enriched.

Ladylee has a Ph.d. in biochemistry and that makes her a little bit different from me. (Here is a recent example: "us chemists think stories of setting ourselves on fire and having explosions are the funniest thing in the world after the fact, especially if we don't get hurt....") But one of the things we have in common is that we love writing and reading and writing about what we read and reading about what we write. This is not about publishing contracts, prizes, or anything else connected with the marketing side. This is about art.

One of the things that I find so inspiring about Dr. Ladylee is that she has a secure life and career doing her biochemical thing, but she is still following her dream, her drive, her (dare I say) calling. This is every bit as praise-worthy as the college student working full time to pay tuition. She's working overtime at her job and putting that money aside in a fund just for writing classes, writing workshops, etc. She looks out for your younger siblings, takes care of her cat (Oscar Tyrone), belongs to a book club, and keeps her outrageous blog. (And when I couldn't start my car, I sent her an SOS and she gave me a jump!) She has written a guest post for us here at this blog and she has promised us another, reporting on her experience taking a writing workshop in Atlanta. I can't wait to read what she has to say.

Why? Because this is real life, the real life of a writer. You have to make time for it, when you don't have time. You do it even though you don't know what's going to happen next.

The story of someone like Ladylee who is finding her way teaches me and humbles me much more than the speeches big-time writers give while accepting some big award. You know the ones when they talk about the hard-knock lives they once led. Those stories make for good sound-bytes because they are told in the context of the happy ending. The stories that keep me going are the stories of working writers while they are making a dollar out of fifteen cents. These are the stories that make she sit down, shut up, and get to work.

Posted at 06:53 PM | Comments (1)
Category: The Writing Life

Read This With Some Caution, Okay?

There is an interesting event taking place on May 5, here in the DC Area. It's called "Conversations and Connections: Practical Advice on Getting Published." I am a little ambivalent about posting about this.

On the one hand, I sort of feel silly about being apprehensive. I mean, what's not to like about this event. It's affordable ($35!), and sponsored by really reputable organizations like Johns Hopkins University and the Bethesda Writers Center. So, it's not like this is just another plot to scam money from aspiring writers by promising them to magic word that will open the doors of publishing.

Also, I know that publishing advice is important. People need to know how the system works. They need workshops of writing query letters, on using the web, etc. So this workshop is a wonderful opportunity and it's even accessible on the Metro!

So what is my problem?

I guess what I want to do is tell folks about the conference, but I am always worried that too many folks care more about publishing than actual writing. My own philosophy is that I don't discuss publishing with people unless they have a polished manuscript in hand.

Think long and hard before going to the "How To Get Published" party. I have never heard one piece of news from the publishing industry that has encouraged me in my writing. I often say that I never would have finished my first novel, Leaving Atlanta, had I known what I know now about publishing. I wrote it not knowing that publishers tend not to like adult books with child protagonists; I didn't know that books with all black characters are not thought to be "universal". Who knew that the 2nd person point of view was a huge no-no? I didn't write Leaving Atlanta purposely climbing uphill. I didn't know I was working on a long-shot. All I knew is that I was telling a story, the story, my story. (Well, I knew my classmates didn't dig it, but that's a different matter.)

In truth, I think the biggest impediment to my current efforts is that I know to much about what happens in NY. It's so hard for me to keep my eyes on the page I am writing, to keep my heart with my characters, and not think about all manner of random issues like, "When I finish, will it be considered marketable?" or "Can I summarize this plot on one concise sentence?" or "Is it too literary?" or "Is it literary enough?" or any of the other good, but not writer-friendly concerns that come about when I think about publishing.

So, if you're ready to send out, go to the conference in Bethesda. Arm yourself with all the info you can to have a happy publishing experience. But if you are still working, stay home. Write. When you are all finished up, there will be another conference.

(thx. t.r.o.y. )

Posted at 09:51 AM | Comments (2)
Category: The Writing Life

My Rookie Card

Cool, is it not? To see more, here. And here. And here. Ron Davis is the man that makes it happen. Much love to him for letting me be the token novelist!

Posted at 12:11 PM | Comments (0)
Category: News

We've Got Friends in High Fun Places!

LeAnne Howe, a member of this blog community, is going to be on The Daily Show on Wednesday, May 2! LeAnne is a terrific writer; she does it all-- fiction, non-fiction, poetry, plays, screen plays.

The folks from The Daily Show went down to The University of Mississippi where LeAnne is the Grisham Writer in Residence. LeAnne, a member of the Choctaw Nation, is giving her opinion on the Indian mascot at The University of Illinois.

I'll have to drink coffee to stay up late enough to watch. Meanwhile, here are a couple of snapshots LeAnne.

Posted at 08:51 AM | Comments (0)
Category: Current Events

Guest Blogger: Jacqueline Jones LaMon

My friend, Jaci, called me on the phone about a month ago. "I'm in love," she sighed. I said, "Really?" and she said, "Yes, with my novel." I was thrilled for her. I knew she had a wonderful story idea cooking for some time, but hadn't quite made the connection. "Great," I said. "What happened? How'd you get back in the groove?" She started explaining and I asked her to write it up so that she could share her story with our blog community. It's a message I think we can all benefit from.

But before you read her story, let me share some of her credentials. Jacqueline Jones Lamon is the author of Gravity USA, a collection of poetry that won the the 2005 recipient of the Quercus Review Poetry Series Annual Book Award. She has also written a novel, In The Arms of One Who Loves Me, published by Random House. She currently teaches in the MFA program at Adelphi University.

Her post is here.

Posted at 07:16 AM | Comments (0)
Category:

The Novel as Nightcap

This year, I will write my second novel. I’ve been thinking about writing this book for a while now. I began it once before and somehow lost steam. I’m a very goal-oriented person and I had a detailed outline of how the novel would unfold and develop, a chapter-by-chapter breakdown of the story. After writing a few of the chapters, I realized that nothing in my pages excited me anymore; I loved the premise and the hearts of the characters, but the story lacked a fundamental sense of passion. I realized that I had regimented the life out of the story.
I had the goal of writing three pages a day, six days a week. I marked page goals in my daily planner. If I missed a day, I promised myself that I would make up those pages on the weekend, but that never happened. The result of this tough love approach was that I felt like an uncommitted slacker—a failure--when I couldn’t squeeze in my self-imposed, daily page quota. Never mind the fact that I’d published a novel, a collection of poems, completed my law degree and my MFA, moved to New York City, started a tenure-track teaching position, am knee-deep in a challenging poetry collection, and am about to attend the college graduations of two of my four children—I’d missed the mark, had the tangible proof of my neglect in my planner, and carried the weight of this guilt with me daily.

What I have learned is that I need to practice being kind to myself and my work. Demanding unrealistic requirements of my writing is certainly not being kind to me; it’s cruel and it needs to be unusual. Nowadays, I work on my novel daily but I write a single page and only a page. My novel page is my daily nightcap: a tiny way of rewarding myself for a day well-lived, a time to convene with characters that I like and enjoy visiting. I don’t overstay my welcome; I don’t put crazy demands on them anymore or make them do anything they don’t want to do. My novel page has become an adventure and I’m surprised and delighted daily. And so what if it takes me an entire year to finish this draft? If I didn’t write a page a day, it would take me longer. I’m not in a hurry: it is the process of writing this novel that is joy to me now, not the promise (or the threat) of publication.

Jacqueline Jones LaMon
22 April 2007
Brooklyn, NY

Posted at 07:01 AM | Comments (4)
Category: Guest Bloggers