My Point of View class has turned out to be a success, I think. My one friend sits right next to me and sometimes huffs or puffs when she doesn't like something. She is very refined and would be horrified to think this was the case, but I hear her there. She has HIGH standards and is the person I most fear disappointing. She so often looks like she ( Read more... )

I promised a story to my mentor, due one week ago. Not that he cares particularly whether I turn anything in to him, but I hoped that my fear of disappointing him would inspire. But I did not make the deadline. So I gave myself another week, thinking, Surely a whole WEEK is more than enough ( Read more... )

I'm okay with winter. I won't whine about it. But it has been weirdly cold, despite the claims of all those people who say it used to be this cold routinely. I am not so sure. My evidence? My return drain from my washer FROZE. Water everywhere in the laundry room ( Read more... )

It's only day 5 but I feel we've been stuck in the house for weeks, since Christmas maybe ( Read more... )

A few years ago I decided to put my stories together into a collection. I pulled them out, lined them up, read the whole thing and walked away ( Read more... )

I wrote a story yesterday. A whole story. It was short, about ten pages. Possibly not any good either, though I won't know for a while. I planned to set it aside at least until today but my Beloved Mentor suggested (insisted would be the more accurate verb) that I put it away until September 10th. Which would be a week, I guess. Two weeks seems ( Read more... )

I don't know how to account for it. I did work ( Read more... )

Me at my desk, discussing my lack of progress with various figures, real or imagined. "Bob" is my mentor ( Read more... )

"Gould had always dreamed of a literary destiny but lacked the courage of his own ambitions; lazy and defeatist, he had resigned himself to stifling his pride with cynicism and taking solace, amidst ominous flashes of arrogance, in the idea that he had everything it took to be a writer except the patience to really write."

--From the short story, ( Read more... )

I haven't cracked the code on why people post or why they stop.  Why for some the prospect of their friends reading their posts is all they need to keep going -- and why for others it induces a death chill.

Just last week, Puerto del Sol (a lit mag out of New Mexico State Uni) offered to have me do one of their author interviews for their blog.  ( Read more... )