Posts Tagged ‘writing’
The truth
This brief screed about “overwriting” was posted by Michael Brick near the end of a very long comments thread over on Gangrey that discusses writing, outlining, frustrations, listening to music while you write (do you or don’t you?) and so much else. I’m reposting it here because it’s just so damn true. “That word though,…
Read MoreBoard
“Resentment is like drinking poison, and then waiting for the other person to die.” — Carrie Fisher Since I clipped it out years ago (I think from the New York Times Magazine sometime in the late ’90s), I’ve had this picture either on a refrigerator or a bulletin board or somewhere at the ready. As…
Read MoreWrapped
Christmas Eve, and it’s time to wind down. It will be a very long time before I can fully appreciate and express my thanks for all the many generous things people did to help get Tinsel out there, but I am forever grateful to you all, and I hope to get around to thanking many…
Read MoreFalling behind on my wrapping (up)
ST. LOUIS: What you’re about to read happened days ago, and I’m just getting around to filing a blog report. I’m on a train right now to New York to do a reading tonight at the Half King bar in Chelsea. It starts at 7 p.m., if you’re anywhere nearby. But backing up: I have…
Read MoreSome of my favorite books of the decade
All these books-of-the-year and books-of-the-decade lists are out now. I’m too far behind on ’09 to make any sort of guess about what book I liked most. But I can feel some coalescence about the decade by just looking around my study. If a book stuck around from my circa-2000 apartment and made it here…
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 MoreCoughstucker
To answer the question all my journo friends have been asking me for the last three days: Yes, I saw the whole thing (the verbal and then physical fray Friday night, right on deadline, between an editor and writer in the Style section) and yes, I have many thoughts about it, and no, I won’t…
Read MoreAll I want for Christmas is some screen presence
Here’s the video trailer for the book. (Don’t you know that the only way to get people to buy a book anymore is to throw together a three-minute movie?) Houghton Mifflin Harcourt arranged to have this done. Charles Halpin at Bookstream Inc. made it happen and a very nice videographer named Herb, from Silver Spring,…
Read MoreJust like Christmas
The door buzzer rang this morning, about 20 minutes ago. UPS. Package from … Houghton Mifflin Harcourt. I was opening it and suddenly realized what moment this was about to be. My book. I took it upstairs and showed Michael the envelope. “Is that it?” “I think so.” I took it out. I held it.…
Read MoreThe Good Writer
Stand back, I’m gonna explode with praise. But first, a plug: If you live in Washington, go see David Finkel read from The Good Soliders tomorrow night (Monday, Oct. 5) at Politics & Prose. Now for the praise explosion, really just a mash note: If you’ve ever been a feature writer at a newspaper in…
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