My latest BitchBuzz column manages to slip in a Fast Show reference before turning to its topic of the lack of critical reading skills by seemingly everyone on the ‘net. Part of the phenomenon comes from the universal lack of time and also the ease of forwarding what looks like an interesting/amusing/incendiary headline without actually…
Category: reading
Owl Stretching
Pop over to Radio Wombat, the podcast blog, for the latest reading: Owl Stretching. It’s a snippet from the novel I’m revising at present. The name may or may not stay: Python fans will probably recognize it, but most people will find it obscure. It does have a purpose, but I’m guessing most publishers would…
Trubba Not
In a tweet last night I used the word “trufax” and was pleasantly surprised to get a response of “trubba not” from a fellow tweeter, someone I know only from the internet, but who has proved to have a wealth of overlapping interests with me, including studying hagiography in grad school. When you find someone…
Figuring things out
I’ve been skimming through Malcolm Gladwell’s Outliers. In the midst of the chapter “The Trouble with Geniuses, Part 2” suddenly so much seems plain, particularly when I look at the way people behave in academia. Despite all my years spent in that realm, I retain an uneasy feeling of having one foot in and one…
Devil’s Night (almost!)
Two things: on Thursday, the actual Devil’s Night, we’ll be taking part in a reading on campus sponsored by Sigma Tau Delta. Many spooky stories and poems will be featured as well as costumes and general spookiness. If you’re in the neighborhood drop by Standish Room 1 in the Student Activity Center around 7pm. Also,…
Upcoming Reading
The lovely Robyn Ringler has asked me to read at her store, East Line Books, on October 18th. I’ll be there from about 1-4 pm and reading at 2pm. If all goes well, this will be the launch of Unikirja, the long awaited (by me anyway) collection of short stories based on Finnish folklore and…
Time for Fresh Ink
Yes, yes — finished the novel last night. Huzzah and trumpet’s blat. Sure, it’s only a first draft, but that’s the hard part. Revision is a puzzle with parameters set; one needs only patience. The first draft requires using both hands to dig in the grey matter, squish the stuff through your fingers, poke around…
New Book Store!
Always a reason to celebrate! There’s a great new book store in the area, East Line Books. The proprietor, Robyn Ringler, is just a wonderful and enthusiastic woman — and writer! You may remember her from my radio show, Prose at the Rose, where she talked about things like being Ronald Reagan’s nurse when he…
Something in the Eyre
During my week of solitude, I re-read Charlotte Brontë’s Jane Eyre in the handsome illustrated version beautifully rendered by Dame Darcy. It’s been ages since I last read it and months since a friend went off on a long rant about how he hated Jane. I found myself instantly captivated by the iconoclastic rebel, Jane….