October 2011
7 posts
Des Lignes Parallèles
When one spends as much time with literary fiction as I do, she’s bound to question what her own work is “about.” Or at least I am, and certainly have been since starting this novel. When caught up reading stories about history and war, social conflict, political commentary through previously-unimaginable worlds, I sometimes find myself asking, “Is my plot substantial...
Today’s toast is to the kindness of strangers who allow us writers to enter their lives before we’re invited. (And another toast to us for taking risks to venture in at all.)
Extremely Deliberate and Incredibly Curated
First: Hi, new followers. There are many of you and I’m overwhelmed and humbled and excited. That reply button is enabled for a reason, so please use it and tell me about you.
Next. This week has turned into one long conversation about craft. Wednesday, I saw Adam Ross speak about Mr. Peanut on a panel at Housing Works. I read the novel earlier this year, and by the end, couldn’t...
Have Heart
Tonight, I hit 80,000 words—a number that I haven’t been able to reach since I started this major revision months ago. Of course, a quantitative measurement isn’t always the best one (hell, most of us could stand to lose a few thousand characters, though that’s another conversation), but as someone who’s been in the process of adding missing pieces, I’m marking...
“I hope that one day you will have the experience of doing something you do not...”
– Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close by Jonathan Safran Foer
Things that feel ridiculously good to say, Part 1: I am on editorial deadline for fiction.
November first, you’re not even going to know what hit you.
You Know You Have a Permanent Piece
Raging Bibliohalism: Speaking of tattoos, I think it’s groovy that you get a different tattoo for each book you write. Is that an extension of the story, in some way? Or is it an act of closure?
Joshua Mohr: Probably a little of both. I’m pretty tattooed and to me, human skin is our cave wall. How do you want to decorate it? What are the pictures/hieroglyphics/words that speak to what...