Have mentioned before how much I enjoyed Russo’s Straight Man. It’s one of the best comic novels I’ve read so far. He has a new one out and here he is in conversation with Sam Tanenhaus.
Category Archives: novels
MFA
the debate goes on, sorta… http://www.flatmancrooked.com/archives/3238 I’m about to get my MFA from a low residency program. There are disciplines that are well-suited to the online format and writing is one of them. It’s been a great experience to have a community that loves books as much as I do. We debate, share, offer moralContinue reading “MFA”
L.A. Festival of Books
I vote for football. I concede it was perfect weather for the Festival of Books. Not hot, nice breeze, a little on the cool side. But I hate crowds and it was crowded. The first panel was fine, mostly thanks to David Wroblewski. They each read for a couple of minutes from their books – he alsoContinue reading “L.A. Festival of Books”
win win
Just got my free cone from Ben & Jerry’s in Burbank – barely a line, chocolate fudge brownie ice cream and they were collecting for a charity. How outstanding is that? It gets better…. Have to admit I can’t remember what I donated to (muscular dystrophy?) because the fireman who served my cone was HOT!Continue reading “win win”
more books
Last Saturday, I went to a wonderful bbq with about a dozen writers and talk turned to books (I know, real shocker). Our post-grad “to read” pile is growing. Now I have even more to add. The Pulitzers were announced yesterday. Here’s the list and the winner for fiction is Olive Kittridge, a collection of short stories. Plague of Doves was the runner-up. Shoot, IContinue reading “more books”
renaming
Had to rename one of my characters about 130 pages in and found it traumatic. I’d gotten used to thinking of him a certain way. I should backtrack and say that I take naming characters seriously. I look up names and their meaning, I look at family patterns in naming children, and so on. IContinue reading “renaming”
odds and ends
For you BSG fans out there, cupcakes! I like it that there are whole blogs about bacon Thanks to my mentor and friend, Gayle Brandeis, for mentioning my Amazon entry on her blog. She’s so sweet and generous, plus she asks the best questions that lead me to improve my writing. If you want toContinue reading “odds and ends”
strange stories
It’s been a week for strange stories. Robert McKee, screenwriting guru, said that people do bizarre or awful things more often and worse than you can imagine. They also have things happen to them that would challenge the most vivid imagination. Add in accidents, mistakes and catastrophes, and real life usually outdoes fiction. The crashContinue reading “strange stories”
