After 10 hours of sleep, I feel much better and ready to write. Doris Lessing maintains that there are no laws for the novel. Still pondering that one.  In the meantime… a book of photos that change in the sun. Time to write….

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What? You thought I was kidding? Would be kind of interesting to use that map in a book – 7 characters in the 7 main areas around the country or something like that.  Looked at the calendar and freaked out – everything for school is due in a few weeks. I have to get busy.

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No, not me. Though I did go for a 4 mile hike first thing this morning. In another piece of synchronicity, I found this piece on close reading. Nice segue to: It’s the launch of Annotation Nation! (cue applause) Kate Maruyama and I are beginning to post annotations and will soon expand. We found annotating…

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I seem to recall that this happens regularly: the NFL Draft and the L.A. Festival of Books are on the same weekend. This is a problem for me because I love both books and football. Yes, it’s possible. Anyway, I’m going to the book fest. I have tickets for 4 of the panels. And I’ll settle for…

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Received the nicest note this morning from my mentor, Gayle Brandeis. She was full of encouragement, something Dorothy Allison spoke about when she came to Antioch last winter. We writers, all artists, have to keep encouraging each other. It’s daunting to keep creating when things take a dip as they inevitably do. Just discovered Martin Levin’s…

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Had a massage this afternoon and it was like receiving a new body. Felt a little weird walking around, as in ‘welcome to planet Earth’ weird. Before that, however, I worked on the new novel and had coffee with an artist.  Also working on a new project with another writer and when we’re up and…

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This is a hard post to write. I did not make the semifinals of the Amazon Breakthrough Novel Awards with GROWING CHOCOLATE. I thought I had a solid shot, but either the piece is not strong enough or it’s not the right venue. I just returned from a much needed break (little did I know…

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Sorry I’ve been so quiet. First, I’ve heard about a lot of problems when you try to post reviews of GROWING CHOCOLATE (thanks for doing so) or download the excerpt. Please contact Amazon and let them know. There’s nothing I can do and if I contact them, they just tell me to have to do…

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Did not win the lottery after all. I’d probably be in the Caribbean if I had. No, I’d still be here trying to figure out where I’m going in the current novel. I entered the first 8K words in Narrative’s Story contest – mostly to force me to finish the thing. Did I resolve to…

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Writing took a backseat to real life, but I’m getting back on track. Worked on material for my senior lecture today, including a draft of the handout. 7 pages seems a bit long, but we’ll see. Finished Carl Hiaasen’s LUCKY YOU. I played the lotto numbers that open the book today for laughs. Now that…

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