Sitemap - 2016 - Woman of Letters
This year my new year's resolution is the same as last year's
The Betrothed, by Alessandro Manzoni
WRAP UP SEASON 2016: Everything else
Bought myself one of these $70 Amazon tablets and it's shockingly good
Getting ready to do another round of revisions on my book
Have seen a run of good movies lately
WRAP UP SEASON 2016: The ten books I liked best this year
WRAP UP SEASON 2016: My thirteenth year of writing fiction
WRAP-UP SEASON 2016: These are all the books I blogged about this year!
I think it's possible that paper books are bad for the eyes
Six played-out teen contemporary tropes (most of which I've used)
You ever have one of those days that's just so unbelievably lazy
Wrap-Up Season 2016: It should be illegal how good my life is nowadays
Been really enjoying Anthony Trollope's Palliser novels
Still trying hard to write this short story
Writing your way into the heart of the story
Why I think critics tend to overpraise mediocre, but ambitious, films
Have had some good writing news
I've just been so goddamn depressed about President Trump
Not sure what to say about the election
Anthony Trollope is SOOOOOOO good
My San Francisco voter guide to all local elections and propositions
Feeling a tiny bit on edge about this novel revision
Recently got my fifteen hundredth short story rejection!!!!!
I never understood before why people would go through so many drafts
I just really really really really really miss THE GOOD WIFE
Anthony Trollope was _almost_ a realist
It's important to be able to stop working for the day
Finished listening to THE GIRL ON THE TRAIN
Yes, my blog is back in existence
Listening to the trainwreck that is THE GIRL ON THE TRAIN
Now reading the thirteenth book in the Honor Harrington series!
Reading in Baltimore, at the JHU bookstore, tomorrow at 7 PM!
Sorry for the radio silence, I was trying and failing to write
I just want a doctor who will treat me with respect
I have been playing ALOT of chess
Going to be appearing at so many events in DC/MD/VA in October.
Saw DON'T BREATHE. There's a lot of value in a well-constructed thriller
Am reading books again! And writing! And feeling pretty good about it
People are only ever gonna say three bad things about your book
Why does Bojack Horseman work so well? It really is a mystery.
Watched a really tonally uneven Showtime series: HOUSE OF LIES
I abandon books. Even books I'm quite far along in
There's no point in buying something if I don't have the time to use / watch / read / play it
On failing to meet my social responsibilities (PLUS good press for my book)
Finished reading that huge new book, THE GIRLS
I am _killing_ it with the guest blog posts nowadays
Well, my debut novel, ENTER TITLE HERE, is officially out in the world
Sometimes all you can do is make periodic manual backups and hope you don't lose too much
My book launch party is at Berkeley Central Library at 6:30 PM on Saturday, August 6th
Superman is just so effing good, and I kinda love it
Finished volume 2 of Knausgaard's "novel"
There's no writer I admire more, on a line-by-line basis, than Virginia Woolf
Engaged in a really delicate, painstaking revision process
Read a 'lyrical' novel that didn't utterly bore me!
Lately been finding myself thinking more fondly of Superman
Does the world really need another retelling of PRIDE AND PREJUDICE?
Had not counted on how easy it is to listen to audio books
THE NEST is not the kind of book you ought to be able to write
Have started stockpiling posts
Running a giveaway for my book!
A week of sketchy blog entries
There are so many pop and country songs about the interstitial period in relationships
I've been lackadaisically playing SHADOWRUN: HONG KONG
Game of Thrones does denouemonts really well
Reading some of Henry James's "short" stories
I'm not sure there's any such thing as laziness
Doing my best to not go insane
THE BOSTONIANS is a very upsetting novel
Reading another pair of books that are exactly the same
A kindle library is a difficult thing to manage
Reading / listening to two books that are basically the same
Henry James can really spin a yarn
Is anyone ever settled in their career when they have a kid?
Writing gets more time consuming as you get better at it
Today read / listened to a fabulous propaganda novel
Wondering if I'll ever do the thing that only I can do
All this time I've been totally wrong about audio books
Oh my god reading EAST OF EDEN it's sooooooo good!!!!!
Finished rereading Proust. It was an extremely worthwhile experience
How do you keep your list of to-be-read books?
Saw that there X-Men movie. I've no idea what has come over me
I'm both a really good and a really bad reviser
Finished writing TELL 'EM THEY'RE AMAZING
Up to seventy thousand words in this latest book and have completely lost perspective
Why is Proust's narrator so obsessed with lesbians?
Most of my readers will be female. And that's fine! But it is something I think about...
Damn, can't wait to put the first draft of this novel to bed
The problem with making a spoof is that you have no freedom to maneuver
Had a story go live in Daily Science Fiction yesterday!
Writing is such an unreliable mood lifter
Paused right at the cusp of the kissing part
Now almost two thirds of the way through the book
Writing still going pretty well
Did some good writing today. This residency thing actually works
Trying to think about stakes in a romance
Turns out that even when writing makes me miserable, it makes me happy
One of my writing 'solutions' actually sort of worked
Like every other bozo on the internet, I'm here to opine about Game of Thrones
I want to write characters who are like friends
Travelling for the next few weeks
The best thing I did this weekend was watch Taylor Swift's 1989 concert video
Trying to regain my sense of play
Saw the new Richard Linklater movie
You can always tell when I'm depressed because that's when I start posting about video games
Keep forgetting that you actually have to DO these marketing things
Strolling down THE GUERMANTES WAY
Watched three films this weekend
I, too, feel the struggle to resurrect lost time
Proust has an extremely dark view of love
Proust has probably ruined more writers than he's helped
Am rereading IN SEARCH OF LOST TIME
Watched THE UNTOUCHABLES: a movie that made some very odd choices
My story "Empty Planets" was in a recent issue of Interzone
Last night watched a little movie called Reservoir Dogs
HEAT is such a good movie! Can't believe I'd never heard of it before
Watched THE TOWN, which looked extremely generic but was actually shockingly good
The six warning signs that a novel idea might not pan out
THE TAKING OF PELHAM 123 is not a good movie, but it illustrates why bad movies work
Watched POINT BREAK yesterday!
THE CAINE MUTINY is complex in such a beautifully simple way.
Economic comparisons that don't impress me
Amazing how old productivity strategies--ones that were perfectly good--suddenly become a burden
Okay, gonna kick this whole promotional thing into the next gear
California is looking green again
Reading Philip Roth's THE GHOST WRITER
My blog post today is that there shall be no blog post
Watched DIE HARD today--this one is definitely a film for the ages
It's actually a surprise when any Hollywood film rises to the level of 'competent'
I think some of the complexity in books is a result of different drafts coexisting in the same book
Does the USA _look_ any different from how it did fifty years ago?
WATER MARGIN is ridiculous. I'm really not sure what to make of these characters
I really don't even try to look at my blog's stats anymore
Writing a novel is about capturing the heart of longing
Am getting really excited about my book coming out (in six months!)
It's okay to have pet peeves, but it's best to keep them in their place
Have been reading WATER MARGIN
When I read a book I want to not be able to predict what will happen...
I'm always leery of any service where I don't host and control my data
Need to learn how to better manage my own rhythms
So many emails. So very, very, very many emails
I don't think political differences should divide friends and family
One of the most difficult problems with writing contemporary YA is the lack of stakes
Most artists don't have anything to say when they start out
Relearning how to write a book
Well meaning but dangerous advice that you should not give to gay teens
As of this week, I'm six years sober, and I'm still pretty frightened of relapse
In order to make your character likable, you've got to learn into their core story
Just finished reading FIRST BLOOD
I believe that premises should be simple
For me, having a compelling external objective is the most important part of coming up with a novel
I feel no statue of limitations on responding to people
What does it mean for a novel to have an inherently humorous premise?
Don't understand people who are very well read, but still not very good readers
I finally figured out how to use Evernote!!!
You can only make revisions if you understand why they need to be made
It is an empirical fact that the odds in writing are worse than in the rest of life
Kids are not growing up any faster these days than they were thirty years ago!
The corollary to 'Everything can be good' is that everything SHOULD be good