I realize I haven’t posted on my blog for over a month and I have the best reason in the world – I’ve been writing. And reading. I suddenly got very sick of the sound of my own voice talking or writing about writing. Or saying anything about me me me via social media.(Though watching Donald Trump on the news one night did drive me to send out a snarky tweet.)

Here’s a paradox though; when you write it’s got to be all me me me, whether it’s memoir, personal essays or fiction. Writers need to be selfish, suck up all the air for themselves, and know that there’s nothing more important than what they feel driven to set down on the page. That said, it can be a constant battle (at least for me) between muse and critic. Spending whole days writing though can get you to a place where there’s no critic or muse, you’re in that zone where time melts and there’s only you and your story.  (This only happens though when you slog through the bad hours too, and there’s only your critic blaring in your head.)

Working on my own memoir gave me some new insights about teaching non-fiction, so I’m eager to start my workshops again this fall. the UCLA Extension class is full, but one place is left in the Arrowhead retreat, and WriteTeachers will be offering workshops at Flintridge Bookstore in La Canada (with Anne Perry and Victoria Zackheim) on October 2nd.

As for reading – I finally read The End of Your Life Book Club by Will Schwalbe and fell in love with it,  and also The Sense of an Ending by Julian Barnes, which I didn’t fall in love with but it has such depth I want to reread it.  For the book club I joined this year I’ve read: Gilead, by Marilynne Robinson ,One out of Two, by Daniel Sada, The Marriage Artist, Andrew Winer, Look at Me, by Anita Brookner, and Amy and Isabelle by Elizabeth Strout, and for my turn this month I chose Abigail Thomas’s memoir Safekeeping – which I’ve now read at least five times. And it stays fresh and amazing for each reading. (I wrote her a fan letter about it – she makes it look so easy!) I also reread her new memoir What Comes Next and How to Like It, and for the fourth or fifth time, A Three Dog Life.