Sitemap - 2013 - Woman of Letters
Yo ho ho. The last writing day of the year.
It is possible to write, revise, proof-read, and submit a novel after 160 hours of work
There has to be something more to activism than this same old intellectual framing
Still another month of break left
Surprised by how much I enjoyed Caitlin Moran's _How To Be A Woman_
What it means to have no history
I've been reading a lot of books about motherhood
[Wrap-up 2013] Post-mortem on a decade of writing and submitting
Doing that thing where I engage in a ludicrous amount of work in order to cut 500 words off a novel
[Wrap-up 2013] This year, Blotter Paper got 2.5x as many pageviews, visitors as it did in 2012
Very few people begin their writing careers with a calling
Going to conserve some energy in posting about Junichiro Tanizaki's Some Prefer Nettles
[Wrap-Up 2013] Books I Read And Blogged About in 2013
[Wrap-Up 2013] The year's top blog posts
[Wrap-up 2013] I have not sold nearly as many stories in 2013 as I sold in 2012
Start of the winter break malaise
Welp, finished the first draft of a novel the other day
When people say nice things about me on the internet
Whenever I start enjoying life, I start to become really afraid of death
Book hoarding (OR How I freed up another hour in each day)
After losing 106 pounds, I am finally (for the first time in my life) at a "healthy" weight
The Kindle Paperwhite is okay, but certainly not ideal
How can workshop be less boring?
My goal is to write the book that your kid has to read in 8th grade English
I hate hate hate hate hate hate the way the Kindle tells you how far you are in the book
Selling my possessions, switching to Mac
If you have a certain sort of question, then studying the Humanities is really the only option.
The Closing of the American Mind, by Allan Bloom
My answers to a questionairre recently given to me by a friend
Lolly Willows, by Sylvia Townsend Warner
Three excellent books that I've read recently (all by women, in case that sells the blog
Got my 1100th short story rejection
Another victory for the "Making Things On My Spreadsheet Light Up" technique
I am ashamed to admit that it really does matter to me whether or not a book is true
Wait, are we supposed to be grateful for stuff ALL november?
A 50% increase in daily writing time since I started school
Tori Spellings' memoir bricked by Kobo Glo
Diary of a Stage Mother's Daughter, by Melissa Francis
Watched an episode of television for the first time in two months
Started reading Americanah, by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie
Reading a biography of Britney Spears
The importance (and unimportance) of the conceptual breakthrough
The skills you don't realize you've learned
Finished reading Every Man Dies Alone
Reflections arising from an evening landing at BWI
Glad to be reading books at a faster rate again
Little Man, What Now? by Hans Fallada
What I learned at my college reunion
The Rider on the White Horse, by Theodor Storm
Been reading more Stefan Zweig
Someday I will write a post that summarizes all the wisdom I've acquired in my life
Robert Musil's _The Man Without Qualities_
How does Greenpeace convince these amazing people to take up such awful jobs?
Okay, I like George Saunders, you like George Saunders, everyone likes George Saunders
Going to my five year college reunion. Which reminds me, I've been out of college for five years!
Really have nothing to worry about right now
Still reading _The Man Without Qualities_
Breakthrough in my reading technique
Gonna be at Capclave this weekend. Here are my panels
There are very few people who are not awkward when meeting a large number of new people
Maintaining productivity while on a trip is very difficult
Things I have learned from a weekend in New York
Oh my god, proof-reading is literally the worst
Harnessing my internet-browsing energy
A conversation I have had several times in the last week (Baltimore is kind of a small town)
The mystery of the mind-blowingly good ice cream
Been phenomenally productive this month
Okay, we're just gonna do this, some links to take you through the weekend
Will most likely hit my 5th straight 15-hour week within a day or two
About two hundred pages into the first volume of _The Man Without Qualities_
Just went to a lecture, at Goucher College, by Lynda Barry
Come see me in the Baltimore Book Festival!
Finally been fully enveloped by the Mac architecture
Sold "The Days When Papa Takes Me To War" to Beneath Ceaseless Skies
I believe that I may have broken the 15 hours of writing time a week barrier
Going to start reading _The Man Without Qualities_
Spent an hour today organizing the stories that I've banished from active submission
Finally back on the whole "reading books" wagon
Just finished reading Thomas Bernhard's _The Woodcutters_
Been having a much easier time writing short stories lately
The purpose of life cannot be to pursue your own happiness
Finally finished reading the Magic Mountain
Dudes. Life is, like, really unpredictable and stuff
Been feeling pretty happy lately
Still climbing the magic mountain
Anatomy of a Semi-Mystical Workshop Experience
Why I sometimes don't believe in the stuff that scientists tell us
The nonsensical arguing in The Magic Mountain is brilliant
Posting on Sunday is so freeing. Since no one is really reading, I can just kind of say things.
I think I'm going to start acquiring some hobbies
Stories of mine that've recently appeared
In which I try to figure out what these numbers in the Wordpress stats package actually mean
Trying to improve my concentration
Why is there a spiritual side to becoming sober?
This was definitely not the weekend to restart my program of waking up at 7 AM no matter what
Finished reading Beware of Pity
Searching for greater productivity
Stefan Zweig's _Beware of Pity_
Why I sometimes leave parties in a rather abrupt fashion
Sitting in my new house here in Baltimore
I've become obsessed with German fiction
One of my new initiatives is to try to make more effort to talk to complete strangers
The literature of exhaustion, and the impoverishment of the imagination
Thomas Mann's _Buddenbrooks_ is the last sprawling 19th century family epic
Why I am such a promiscuous Facebook friender
Finally getting back into the swing of this reading thing; read Nightwood and As I Lay Dying.
Working with an agent completely changes the emotional dynamics of writing a novel
Getting way too much comment spam, so I made a few changes
Another of the (many) ways in which writing fiction is not like playing the violin
Wow, started this blog about five years ago.
In order to be successful, an author needs to write stories that compel people to talk about them
Never in my life done this much or this type of socializing
Already feels like I've been here a month
This really is a lot like being at summer camp
I am at Sewanee, it is in the middle of nowhere
Nothing could ever make me stop loving _Speed of Dark_
I do not believe that introversion is a real personality trait
No one, not even me, reads blogs on Sunday
In America, we just don't see race.
There are _no_ insects in California
I thought we'd all agreed that the definition of 'ironic' has changed?
A few of my thoughts on the existential crisis you are having regarding your career
There's no way that this is not going to somehow screw up this blog
All of George R. R. Martin's child characters are off by about three years
Your friends probably won't be there for you when you most desperately need someone's help
Finished the first draft of another novel: Production Diary...
I totally understand why people quit writing short stories.
Been more than two years since I've taken a full day off from writing
Finished reading Hard Times and went back to Ulysses
A story about a super ignorant guy I once knew; the memory of which still annoys me
One of my biggest pet peeves as a reader is when writers hide the race of their characters
Novels don't really teach you very much about how to live your life
Trying to post more often (+some thoughts on Joyce's Ulysses)
Thoughts upon reading Confessions, Mere Christianity, and The Imitation of Christ
Ending my experiment with tablet computing
Just finished Thomas a Kempis' 15th century devotional manual, The Imitation of Christ
Agggh, I've posted no posts since Monday
Robert Caro's _Years of Lyndon Johnson_ is the greatest work of literature that America has produced
In defense of not working very much on your writing
I can certainly see why people get addicted to cough syrup
Our plans for the future will eventually become straitjackets
Recent appearances by ME elsewhere on the internet
It's not really possible to waste your twenties
I did not particularly care for Code Name: Verity
The reason that MFA programs do not encourage their students to publish.
Woolf's _Orlando_ was about everything and about nothing
Just got back from the first day of Nebula Awards Weekend (or maybe it's the second day)
The glory and magic of the ten-hour writing day
For me, a road trip is usually an inward journey
While driving across country, I completely forgot about this blog.
The difference between a sequence and a scene
Beginning to revise Study Machines (except that now it's called Enter Title Here)
Five software programs that've improved my productivity and given me peace of mind
Some thoughts (and additional statistics) re: my thousandth short story rejections
Managing the Backburner Is The Third Most Important Skill That A Writer Can Acquire*
Thinking about moving away from writing novel-length adult science fiction and fantasy
I still find it really weird to think of myself as a novelist
Why you should never, ever get an MFA
In order to be interesting, a nonfiction book must flirt with—but NEVER cross—the Textbook Axis.
"Conduct your job search as if it is your job" is advice that keeps people unemployed
The exquisite relief of reaching a story's rollover point
Literary novels only have two kinds of endings
The nature of one conceptual breakthrough
Why I sometimes feel bad about praising my students
All urban areas are pretty much the same, but I still like the SF Bay Area the best
Err...what exactly happened yesterday? I got way more hits than I've ever gotten before.
Eight writing manuals that are not an absolute waste of time
My view on how bad books (and bad stories and bad writers) get published
Lessons from AWP: There's really no pot of gold on the other side of the wall
AWP is kind of a social scene, but then, so is everything.
Some thoughts about my probable impending rejection by Tu Books
How I quit smoking (and why I don't believe in making New Year's resolutions)
When to work hard and when to not work hard because, let's face it, working hard is for chumps
Just finished Mrs. Dalloway, it was one of the most engrossing reading experiences of my life
The process of becoming yourself
Quick thoughts on books that I haven't read in a long time
Let me know if you have trouble accessing my site
Why Gone Girl is super-excellent (despite its somewhat-skippable writing style)
I really enjoy knowing approximately how long it’s going to take me to read a book
Why you shouldn't necessarily take advice from people who are very good at what they do.
The types of revision that are not a waste of time (for me)
My latest self-help find: Feeling Good, by David Burns
Does it ever get easier to handle rejection?
Books to try reading when you're in a bad mood (Coetzee, Hornby, Agatha Christie, and Ira Levin)
How to successfully make use of your cultural heritage
I don't think that people need to be productive in order be happy
My novel is a finalist for Tu Books’ New Visions Award
Why Do You Want To Be A Better Person?
Finished the first draft of my fourth novel: Study Machines
I really love country music. Have I ever mentioned that on this blog before?
Why I liked the Sopranos but couldn't tolerate Breaking Bad
The insanity of Victor Hugo's Les Miserables
In which I unveil the theme for my upcoming year's reading
Where I'll be in 2013 (not in a metaphorical way...I mean physically)
Why I Am So Super Pessimistic About Everything
Two story sales (and some notes on the MFA application writing sample)