Carolyn See’s memorial was held at the Broad Theater in Santa Monica Thursday and it truly was a celebration of her life. Lisa See opened the memorial by saying if her mother were here she’d look at the long list of speakers on the program and say, “What the fuck?” The speakers included Carolyn’s other…
I’ve been thinking a lot lately about this memoir I’m working on. Thinking about a new structure for it, how the current one isn’t working, where it begins and where it should end, what flashbacks are needed and where they should go. I think about it before I go to sleep and at 3:00 am…
Last summer, the first summer without R.and trying to keep my balance, I had a brilliant idea. I would start a literary salon. I’d invite writer friends/students who lived near me to come over one night a month to hang out, bring wine and snacks, and have about half of them read whatever they were…
I had lunch today with one of my favorite people – a woman who with her husband has created what I think is the top literary publishing company in Los Angeles, and is herself a fantastic writer and poet. We talked about memoirs – we’re each writing one. We talked about the fact that there’s…
I just typed that as a title because I didn’t have a topic for a new post and didn’t think. That’s what popped out. (One of my mantras when I teach is to get out of your own way.) So what do I believe? That my dog Nelson is divine – in the true sense…
So I bought a new iPhone today and the guy said just plug in the old one to your computer and blah blah blah and then download it to blah blah blah. Then plug in the new one and blah blah blah. I came home and immediately texted my friend/all-things-electronic guru Rob Daly that OMG…
I moved this week. I can’t find my running shoes so I hiked in flip flops this morning. For awhile I couldn’t find the charger for this computer and watched that little power percentage number up in the right hand corner dwindling with the feeling of my life fading away. I have bags and plastic…
This is a post I wrote before the holidays and apparently it was never published. I have an update to it because last week I taught the four day Writers Studio at UCLA Extension, and this week I started a new course “Kicking in the Wall”. So let me just add that I’ve…
Writers need to walk every day – not only for exercise but to clear their heads. (Actually this is true for everybody of course.) Nelson and I walk about three miles every morning on the beach very early and lately the dawn sky has been amazing. Also amazing are some bits of conversation I…
Last night I went to my friend Jan’s Before party in her new condo. The walls are pea green, there’s an emerald green fake grass carpet out on the patio, ugly carpeting elsewhere and odd wall configurations in the bathroom. But Jan’s a professional interior designer (and a terrific one) so I can only imagine…
