Archive for December 2009
Tom the Butcher examines Tinsel
Over at the Story Surgeons blog, my friend Tom Shroder has filed an interesting little dissection of Tinsel and what he thinks makes it tick, with a short excerpt. Tom is known to some as Weingarten’s beloved and alternately loathed “Tom the Butcher.” So many of us had the pleasure (seriously, a pleasure, even in…
Read MoreNotes by Northwest (and more reviews!)
Portland: Recuperative in an odd way. But sort of downbeat, too. I guess that’s what that place is all about. At the Powell’s reading Friday night, I drew about 25-30 people, and for some reason I decided to come across like a full-on Snarky Claus. About five minutes in, one woman got up and left.…
Read MoreArlo and his annual Christmas rant
The voice of God on I-5
How’s the book doing? Meh, is my overall hunch. I felt a bit down about that for a while yesterday. Landed in Seattle right after sunset, rented a car (sporty little Pontiac G5) and drove down to Portland in heavy traffic on I-5, with fog and some rain and a sense of vintage Pacific Northwest…
Read MoreOde to Derba
Had a fleeting breakfast in McKinney, Texas, yesterday morning with Laura Froelich, known as “Derba” to those of us who go way back. People who’ve read the dedication (but not the acknowledgments) in Tinsel ask who this Laura person is that she would rank above not only my mother (also a dedicatee) but also Michael…
Read More‘Cause it’s the gift that’ll live and live …
Is it a book tour or just a long nostalgia trip? And is it my own nostalgia, or some longer epic nostalgia trip that anticipates the demise of the printed word? Yikes! In any case, strap in… About once a week I have a vivid dream that takes place in Oklahoma City, where I was…
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