Every year, I ambitiously sign up to participate in National Novel Writing Month, affectionately shortened into the impossible-to-pronounce-because-it's-not-a-real-word NaNoWriMo. And every year, I've written a grand total of 5,000 words. Tops. November is the busiest month of the year. Couldn't we have MarNoWriMo? Or even FebNoWriMo? Nothing happens in February. I could probably churn out … Continue reading NaNoWriMo
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Birds
The birds are gathering into traveling parties, collecting in tree branches and chattering incessantly about their impending trip south. Today, for just a single minute, they were silent, and it was as if the rest of the world was silent with them.
National Book Award Finalists
The finalists for the National Book Award were announced yesterday. The full list is accessible here. Peter Carey's Parrot and Olivier in America was also on the shortlist for the Booker. Guess which book is on the top of my shopping list?
The Booker
The winner of the 2010 Man Booker Prize for Fiction was announced last night. Howard Jacobson has won for his novel The Finkler Question. I haven't read it or any of the other books that were shortlisted (Peter Carey's Parrot and Olivier in America; Emma Donoghue's Room; Damon Galgut's In a Strange Room; Andrea Levy's … Continue reading The Booker
News
When I opened my newspaper this morning (The Washington Post, in case you are wondering; no I don't live in DC, but old loyalties die hard and sometimes The Gettysburg Times just doesn't cut it when I want actual news from the world beyond the borough's limits), I was elated by one piece of news … Continue reading News
Tangled
Our back yard is a mess. The mums on the porch are dead, brittle stalks with blossoms that have withered to black. The mum in the dirt is still alive, has only just bloomed. I hope it lasts through Halloween. The wildflowers will surely die before then. The sunflowers are gone. Something ate all of … Continue reading Tangled
Bound for D.C.
My friend emailed me the other day to ask if I wanted to share a hotel room for the AWP conference in Washington, DC. I wasn't surprised. Writers are generally not the most financially successful folks (unless you are, perhaps, JK Rowling, Stephanie Meyers, Stephen King, John Grishom, Nora Roberts, Danielle Steele...Okay, maybe there are … Continue reading Bound for D.C.
Nagging
For the third day in a row, I woke with a headache. It's a persistent bugger that starts somewhere between the base of my neck and my ears, and rises so that all of the pain settles at the top of my head. It's made me irritable. I snap at the kids. I snap at … Continue reading Nagging
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