Monthly Archives: October 2009

Have you seen Jane Campion’s latest film, Bright Star?  What a freaking gift of a film.  It’s Campion’s sexiest work yet, and the acting is as faultless as the direction. There’s a scene where Abbie Cornish lies back on a bed, and the white curtain billows… Read more

We were discussing embezzling accountants yesterday at work.  Lately,
we hear about embezzling accountants an inordinate amount of the time. The last three stories involve hundreds of thousands of dollars, and long-term employees.  Can you imagine walking into a place where
you’ve worked for… Read more

Self, family, community.  That is my progression of story.

… Read more

So what do you get for the five-year-old who has everything?  A digital camera apparently.

Gavin has been taking fascinating photos.  He’ll shoot his toys, and his Curious George scissors, and the piano, and the bookcase, and the fridge.  He’ll shoot close ups of our… Read more

I’ve been wondering about sketch artists, and how well I’d work with one.  I’m a visual person.  If we sit down to play a song on the guitar, I can play it for hours, and still not memorize it until I see it written down. … Read more

Ursula Hegi used to give us timed writing exercises.  Here are two of my favorite — I still use them when I get stuck.  They help to break my brain open.  To give me another angle on a character.

5 minutes (the length of time… Read more

Gavin will be five years old at 12:43 a.m.  What a crazy thing to have a five-year-old.  I remember his birth in chunks of time.  Nothing went according to plan, but it was a lovely room, and I had one of those giant balls to… Read more

The latest podcast from the New Yorker features Orhan Pamuk—in his richly gorgeous accent—reading Nabokov’s My Russian Education.  His discussion, before and afterwards, of the blurring lines of fiction and memoir, as well as the art of handling difficult subject matter deserves multiple listenings. For my… Read more

Gavin has been asking this question repeatedly over the last eight weeks.  ”Why did you pick me?”  At first, I thought they’d picked teams for kickball or something at school, and he wanted to know how he’d ended up on my team.  But he hasn’t… Read more

Criticism is a vital part of the writer’s life.  For good or ill, your work will be criticised.  Sometimes it’ll be criticised by people who know what they’re talking about.  Developing resilience to criticism takes practice, and is, perhaps, the most useful skill honed by an intensive… Read more