Writing Spaces
Fictionaut gets a peek into Maison de Lux, my inner world.
Windowlicker (Summer Edition)
I'm going to Atlantic City for the weekend soon (Ava-style) and might need a little somethin'-somethin' for the beach...
[Early Vanity Fair contributor Helen Brown Norden's out-of-print 1937 essay collection, The Hussy's Handbook, $18 at AbeBooks]
Windowlicker - from the French for window shopping: faire du lèche-vitrine - often appears on Tuesday and Thursdays at 10am EST-ish
On Inspiration
I gave a talk at Book Expo America. You can watch it.
The Undomestic Goddess 10
The Undomestic Goddess interviews me.
Flash
Today I read This Will Go Down on Your Permanent Record by Susannah Felts, and it was a perfect story about a girl's life over the course of a summer and then fall, and it captured exactly that sense of coming into your own as a person and that dizzy thing when you're a teenager, those close, too-close enraptured friendships that start with suspicious envy and progress through borderless adulation, and then you drift apart, on bad terms or none at all. And sitting in the park doing nothing really. The only thing about the book that felt out of step with my personal experience was that it more accurately described my life when I was twelve. I was about five years ahead of the heroine. I've been thinking a lot about summer, and friends, and cities, and doing nothing really, and where I'd like to do that, long-term. For now I think I'll stick around New York. I can't shake it, there's something in the air around here lately, bright as the glow of a firefly in your hands on a hot night; that unshakeable sense that maybe there's a few adventures left in this town for me yet. We'll see about that.
Photo: William Eggleston, who's moved on to Paris from Memphis.
The Thing About Your Friends
I have had some really brilliant adventures with D.E. Rasso (pictured: us in Quimby's photo booth) but honestly, the aspects of our friendship I am most grateful for are mundane. She's reading next month at The Slipper Room when The Dollar Store Show rolls up in the Featherproof van (which I fully expect to be like Scooby Doo), and I was looking through email to find people I should invite and found this exchange:
L: ...I should have replied, who are you, Yayoi Kusama? But I was hopeless then -- Also, don't make any tree sprite jokes. I am in a vulnerable place today...
D: [replies, and then replies again] When I don't hear from you at times like this I grow concerned.
L: Oh I am just listening to Baltimore club music.
Anyway, come on out July 12, NYC, for the party of the summer!
Here Comes Trouble
Featherproof is tops in terms of independent publishers right now (along with Two Dollar Radio), if you're looking for edgy, original, mind-altering stories put out DIY-style via a collaborative model based on Dischord Records. I've hung out with Zach and Jonathan, variously, in Chicago, Omaha, Portland, and this week in Lincoln, where we couldn't make eye contact without giggling and repeatedly dared each other to say all sorts of ridiculous things and ended up drawing all over our hands in a bar. They're fun and brilliant and coming to New York on July 12 at the Slipper Room as part of a twelve-city tour for The Dollar Store Show that could bring them somewhere near you! If so, go.
Letter From Lincoln
I am in Nebraska teaching at the Nebraska Summer Writers Conference for the second year. A lot of people wonder why I come here and the answer is: Timothy Schaffert. He is a novelist and native Nebraskan who lives in Omaha and started the (downtown) omaha lit fest and he is one of those people who is just doing it. And I like to support my friends. He is the director of the conference, too, so I am talking about what I do and helping writers learn how they can navigate the contemporary publishing landscape to become successful authors in a way that feels good and works. I like talking to all kinds of audiences: students, aspiring writers, experienced authors, readers, publishers, organizations, creative professionals, artists, etc. It keeps my imagination and perspective fresh. And people who are doing what they want to do are the most exciting and inspiring people in the world! One of my students over the weekend is a professor at a university in California and wants me to come to speak to students there in the spring, so maybe I'll do that. When I'm not teaching a class, I've been hanging out with friends. Ian and Matt from Japanther played a show in Omaha on Saturday night, and then last night Zach and Jonathan from Featherproof were here. The biggest challenge is doing work here and basically doing my full-time job back in New York at the same time. If you're in New York, "Upstairs at the Square" is tonight. If you're in Nebraska, I'll be talking shop at the Great Plains Art Museum.
Things Worth Saving
Early in my career, I worked in the labor movement and, although I met many of my favorite people then, haven't kept in touch. A month ago, I was thinking about my old coworker Dave and his band, Hiretsukan, and how I hadn't seen him in six or seven years. Fast forward a week, and I was crossing First Avenue & First Street in the East Village and he walked right by me! I might not've said anything had he not been on my mind and am glad to say I did and we had lunch today. He's a freelance photographer with a big spread in this week's Time Out New York, so pick it up, pick it up, pick it up, and getting a new band together. It was fun to catch up. My favorite story was when he said, "Remember when we threw you a surprise going-away party and when you and I walked in the restaurant you thought all your friends were having lunch without you?" I don't really remember it but have no doubt!
Buzz and How to Get It
I'm speaking at the 2009 Center for Fiction Writers Conference.
