Writing Reaction

Summer has brought hot temps and activity. The past couple weeks my writing schedule's been thrown off track, but a writer is supposed to find time to write anyway. Right? It's all about balance, as I've droned on about before. And it's true, no matter what I'm doing, I try to bring my writing life to the table. Every action has a writing reaction.

That means when I go away for a few days, I bring reading material and maybe my laptop. That means if I sleep late Thursday morning instead of getting up to write, I've been at a Grub Street class the night before.

I'm enrolled in a summer novel writing class. Each class three students read five pages of their manuscript. So I've been workshopping some early chapters of my current novel-in-progress. I wasn't sure how I'd feel about showing work so early in the process, but I knew I needed ideas and guidance in terms of structure and plot and all those things that make a novel cohesive. Plus, it's got me thinking about how best to open a novel with four main characters.

I'm always reading. Right now I'm reading Iris Gomez' wonderful Try to Remember, about a teenage girl from Colombia growing up poor in 1970's Miami. She has a crazy father and a mother in denial. When she's not typing up illegible letters that her father writes to corporations and the government, she's figuring out ways to escape her oppressive family situation and discover what she wants for her life. It's a glowing debut novel, and I'll be posting a full review soon.

I've got a lit mag review in the wings, ready to help launch Becky Tuch's reboot of her site The Review Review, which constantly answers the question Why do literary magazines matter?

My story Casey is indeed slated for Fiction Magazine issue 56 hitting the shelves in August.

I continue in good stead over at Beyond the Margins, which is gaining momentum and lit cred.

So, my writing life is still fairly balanced. Or, unbalanced in a good way. I love being involved with all this lit stuff. And I hope there's more to come.

Got Books?

Saturday Liz and I ventured into Lawrence looking for a used bookstore we had just found out about called Got Books? It's run by a non-profit org that donates the proceeds to various charities. Plus, everything in this place is a dollar.

Race ya.

That's hard to pass up. They also offer records, CDs, videos, and books-on-tape. All for a buck a piece. One potential drawback is that the books are unsorted. So you've got your Stephen King next to a Javascript textbook next to a Martha Stewart Living Christmas special from 1987. But that's actually part of the fun. We barely got through half the books. Another downside is that there are no public bathrooms. And this place is out in industrial park land, so no McDonald's or gas station next door for easy urinal access.

But here's what I bought:

The Stones of Summer, by Dow Mossman. I'd seen this writer featured in a documentary called Stone Reader. This book was originally published in 1972 to great reviews, then disappeared, as did Mossman. But Barnes and Noble republished the novel in 2003 after the documentary rediscovered its author. I don't know if anybody bought it the second time around because this copy I found (for a dollar, did I mention that already?) is in great shape. Anyway, I'm interested in lost treasures and forgotten authors, so I'll let you know how the book is.

Lit Life, by Kurt Wenzel. I've had my eye on this book since it was published in 2001. Every time I picked it up I thought, no no, I'll wait until it's half price. Years later I picked it up again I thought, nope, not yet, I'll just wait until it's a dollar. And wham, I finally hit the jackpot. I know, it wasn't free, but I decided it was time to act. The book concerns a young writer struggling through a bout of writer's block who is mentored by his literary hero, a "dyspeptic and obscure novelist." I'll let you know if I should have waited another couple years.


The Dain Curse, by Dashiell Hammett. A classic, but I've never read it.

Let The Kids Play, by Pax Paloscia. This one was a shrinkwrapped mystery. The cover didn't give much away, except intrigue. I couldn't thumb through the book because it was sealed, but I decided to take a chance. I've never heard of Pax, but when your cover is adorned with a kid pointing a gun, it's hard to pass up.

Turns out Pax is an artist who "conveys the fresh naivete of Drago's 36 Chambers series. Born in Rome in 1974, Pax travels the world searching for new input and inspiration. Moving between Paris and New York, she records her impressions, and her dreamy and nostalgic world is the key to this book." The book filled with photography of mostly kids and teenagers from different cities, graffiti, illustrations, and paintings. The art is evocative and vaguely disturbing. And with so many pictures, it's a quick read.


All in all a small but decent haul. And since we barely browsed half the stacks, we'll be headed back there again real soon.