- The writing life is mostly about stamina. To get to the finishing line requires the writing to become more interesting than everyday life . . .
— The Cost of Living: A Working Autobiography, p. 36
The Writing Life, from Deborah Levy
March 10, 2019 at 8:15 pm (Artists and Writers, Books, Memoirs, Recommended, Sundays, Women Writers, Writing)
Tags: advice, English writers, memoir, reading lists
Preparing, OSSW Day One
February 8, 2019 at 2:46 am (Conversations, destinations, Food and Drink, Lists, plans, Plays, Traveling, Women Writers, Writing)
Tags: lunch, Mendocino, restaurants, Shakespeare, teaching
Drove up to Mendocino, which as the crow flies is only 200 miles from Redwood City, but always takes self at least FIVE HOURS.
On the way, she stopped by Yorkville Market and had lunch:
And then she mulled over the writing exercises she should start tomorrow with.
Should she have the students practice writing one very, very, very long, run-on sentence? With points to whoever can come up with the most run-on sentence?
Or, for fun, should she have them write a piece that’s all bad grammar and deliberately wrong spelling? Hamberder, anyone? Smocking guns?
Should she have them write a piece that’s all dialogue?
Should she ask them to capture every nuance of a piece of reality . . . in one sentence?
Should she have them practice writing a conversation that grows from an association of ideas (like a Harold Pinter play?)
Should she have them practice delaying the outcome for as long as possible?
She can’t decide. She’ll have to sleep on it.
BTW, this is one of the plays being presented by the Mendocino Theatre Company in 2019:
Mendocino Theatre Company, 2019 Season
Stay tuned.
CHARLIE CHAN IS DEAD, Vol. 1
February 5, 2019 at 8:56 pm (anthologies, Artists and Writers, Books, Family, Filipino Writers, Memoirs, Publishers, Relatives, short story collections, Women Writers, Writing)
Tags: Asian American Writers, grief, illness, Mayor of the Roses, medicine, memoir, memories, Miami University Press, short story, teaching, writing process
For the workshop this weekend, re-reading some old stories to show different ways of writing memoir. In particular, thinking of a story called Lenox Hill, December 1991, which Jessica Hagedorn included in the anthology Charlie Chan is Dead.
When Jessica contacted self to solicit a piece, self had nothing, nothing, nothing.
Her sister had died just the month before. She did keep a diary, though.
The diary became the story. The first story in what later become a cycle of grief stories: Mayor of the Roses (Miami University Press)
For a while, a course called Ethics in Medicine, taught at the University of Pennsylvania Medical School, included the story in their syllabus.
Stay tuned, dear blog readers. Stay tuned.
Some of Self’s Publications, For Students Who Ask
February 1, 2019 at 3:56 pm (anthologies, Artists and Writers, Books, Filipino Writers, Personal Bookshelf, short story collections, Women Writers, Writing)
Tags: Bellingham Review, Fridays, Literary Magazines, Manila Noir, Potomac Review, teaching, The Lost Language
2018 AWP Bookfair, Tampa, FL
Found these copies of self’s third short story collection in the National Bookstore in Gateway Mall, Cubao, Metro-Manila! (January 2018)
Such a beautiful cover! POTOMAC REVIEW 59
Teaching ONE STORY, SIX WAYS at Mendocino Art Center (Feb. 8 – 10, 2019)
January 27, 2019 at 9:05 pm (Artists and Writers, destinations, Explorers, Filipino Writers, Links, Places, Recommended, Sundays, Surprises, Writing)
Tags: inspiration, Mendocino, teaching
A deep examination of process.
A workshop that is as much about reflection as it is about writing.
A workshop about doing it over. And over. Until you get it right.
ONE STORY, SIX WAYS: Feb. 8 – 10, 2019
Instructor: Marianne Villanueva
42500 Little Lake Street
Mendocino, CA
Black and White: Cee’s Fun Foto Challenge
January 25, 2019 at 5:41 pm (Artists and Writers, Filipino Writers, Links, short story collections, Women Writers, Writing)
Tags: California, Cee Neuner, Fridays, Hotel Amerika, Literary Magazines, teaching, TransGenre
Must be on a roll! Participated in two Fun Foto Challenges in one week!
The theme of this one is BLACK AND WHITE. Self took these pictures just a few minutes ago. Thanks to Cee Neuner for the always-wonderful prompts!
Self is teaching a three-day writing workshop in Mendocino in February. Here are some of the materials from the last time she taught this class, in 2016:
Poetry Tuesday: Dorianne Laux in PRAIRIE SCHOONER (Vol. 92, Issue No. 4)
January 22, 2019 at 5:10 pm (anthologies, Artists and Writers, Links, Personal Bookshelf, Publishers, Recommended, Women Writers, Writing)
Tags: causes, Literary Magazines, poetry
An Excerpt from Snow
by Dorianne Laux
It wasn’t snowing, and then it was,
like death, like my sister’s texts
that just stopped: I’m in the hospital
then a phone call: We did everything
we could: endocarditis, valve leakage,
her heart on heroin. She wasn’t addictedand then she was, on and off, for years
her and her daughter, my niece, living
on the streets, every few weeks, a phone call:
Amazing issue.
Kudos, Prairie Schooner.
The Proustian Sentence
January 19, 2019 at 4:28 pm (Artists and Writers, Books, Recommended, Writing)
Tags: novel, reading lists, translation, writing process
from the Introduction to the Lydia Davis translation of Swann’s Way:
One friend, though surely exaggerating, reported that Proust would arrive in the evening, wake him up, begin talking, and deliver one long sentence that did not come to an end until the middle of the night.
Work-in-Progress: Speculative Fiction
January 16, 2019 at 1:09 am (Conversations, Filipino Writers, Food and Drink, Women Writers, Writing)
Tags: humor, short story, speculative fiction, work-in-progress
Self found this unfinished story in one of her old computer files.
An angel is roomies with a struggling college student. “He” is the angel.
He sat down and picked up an apple from a bowl on the kitchen table. “I’m hungry. Feed me.”
“You took an apple,” I said.
“Not enough,” he said. “A gammon joint. With apple and whiskey sauce.”
This is a very demanding angel!
lol
lol
lol
Stay tuned.
New Year, New Issues: Prairie Schooner and Calyx
January 7, 2019 at 12:14 am (Artists and Writers, Filipino Writers, Personal Bookshelf, Publishers, Recommended, Sundays, Women Writers, Writing)
Tags: Calyx Press, causes, Just published, Literary Magazines, medicine, news, politics
Just Arrived: Sunday, 6 January 2019
SPREAD THE WORD.
