I've returned to work on my novel, Unplanted. It's been a long time since I worked on it, and I am feeling fully connected to it right now. A great deal of my energy is going in that direction.

I have created a new blog where I will collect and post journal entries, drafts and other bits and pieces as I move through the project. There isn't too much ( Read more... )

I've been sick and bed/home bound for four days now. I'm beginning to feel the ickiness wear off, but it's a slow process. Simple things wear me out, like taking a shower, or playing fetch with my oh-so-very bored dog. And I'm having troubles staying focused, too. I'm reading Leviathan now, but it's slow going. I read each page a couple times, and ( Read more... )

I'd feel pretty smarmy if I told you that Paul Auster is my new hero. Truth is, I don't have any heroes anyway, so saying that I have a new hero would be a falsehood in itself. But I do love Auster and I've decided that I will read all of his works this year. I'm starting with novels, interspersed with some autobiographical nonfiction. He's ( Read more... )

Just last week, or maybe the week before, I sent my first text message. I can't remember what it said, I only know that I was texting for the sake of texting. You know, just to see what it's like. (The first one's free, kid.) It does nothing for me, really. True, I am interested in the way instant messaging and texting are creating a new language, ( Read more... )

I wanted to write something really great tonight. Something about how Robin and Maiana and I went to the International District for Chinese food this afternoon and how that sparked all kinds of memories and how the smell of hoisin sauce is still in my nostrils and I am still twitchy from the crowds and the lack of parking and the way that one fish ( Read more... )

I've been thinking about getting a new blog. Not so much a new blog, I guess, but a new location for the same sort of stuff I write here. I'm really bugged by that ad banner at the top of my livejournal page. I don't know where it came from or how to make it go away. No one's paying me to put it there. But then, I suppose, I'm not paying anyone to ( Read more... )

It's weird, isn't it? You spend the first nine months trying to get out and the rest of your life trying to get back in.

And while that quote doesn't say quite what I'm thinking, and it certainly doesn't convey my thoughts with any profundity, it does at least capture the gist of what I'm trying to get at. Or maybe it doesn't. I don't know. I ( Read more... )

Sunday night my friend Nicole gave birth to a baby girl. Less than an hour later, her partner called me and asked if I could bring some diapers. (You should know that the baby came eleven days early, and that she was born at home. I think those two facts should explain the lack of diapers ( Read more... )

I wish I'd had more time at the ocean. Being there for a couple days was exactly what I needed. I suppose it was something of a spiritual retreat. And it was spiritual. I had some beautiful moments on the beach, just walking and feeling. The air was heavy with memories.

But, as I said in my last post, I don't want to write about those things, not ( Read more... )

I have been sifting through my books, trying to find something good to take to bed with me tonight. But nothing appeals. I have hundreds of books, and have probably not read half of them. I tend to accumulate them faster than I can or care to read. So here is my library, and here I am pulling books off my shelves, scanning the jacket and the ( Read more... )