I’m teaching an advanced Non-fiction class this quarter at UCLA Extension and I’d like to tell my students how much I love them. (Actually I tell them this all the time, but I want to do it in public today.) There are twelve students in the class and each reads his or her work for…
Phyllis Theroux, my favorite pen pal, sent me this wonderful quote from The Tender Bar by J.R. Moehringer last week. It rings especially true for writers: “‘You must do everything that frightens you, JR. Everything. I’m not talking about risking your life, but everything else. Think about fear, decide right now how you’re going to deal with…
I’ve been on an island off the coast of Maine for the past week (for the wedding of my beautiful niece above), blissfully unaware that I could get online at the house we’ve rented. My ten year old grandson got everybody connected yesterday so here I am again, logging into Facebook, checking emails, blogging et…
You know how you get your writer’s wristband? It’s easy. You write every day. It doesn’t have to be a whole chapter or poem or complete essay, sometimes it’s just a few sentences. But sitting there in front of your computer or with a pen in your hand keeps you connected to your work. You’re…
Sometimes ideas just smoke, and sometimes they burst into flame. Either way you have to pay attention to them. I’ve had an idea smoking for the past year and recently I caught fire with it. I sent the title to my agent today who is less than impressed. She even described herself as a wet…
Sometimes you just have to ignore the rules. This goes for writing too.
Thanks to everybody who came to Diesel Books in Brentwood last night. Especially to eight of my students who read their amazing work from Kicking in the Wall: Tom Hartman, Kathy Katims, Cynthia Lim, Bob Goldman, Barbara Lodge, Erica Jamieson, Jeri Okamoto Floyd, and Ruth Rudnick. Thanks also to Diane Leslie who makes Diesel feel like you’re…
Originally – in a long past post – I referred to her as the Beach Witch but the gloves are off now. This is the woman who, if you’re happily walking your beloved dog on the Santa Monica bike path around 6:00 am, will snarl, “No dogs on the beach!” I’ve tried many approaches to…
Here’s an article I wrote for my publisher about Kicking In the Wall. It’s also posted on the New World Library website. KICKING IN THE WALL 5 Minute Exercises: A Key to Overcoming Writers Block Early in her career, Patti Smith got writer’s block: “I would go as far as I could and hit a wall,…
My dear friend and student Jacqueline Winspear was in town yesterday promoting her new book (it appears on the NYT’s best seller list next Sunday) and she came over to my house for lunch. We sat at my kitchen table and talked about writing and books and I just wish I had taken notes, that’s…
