As I have written elsewhere in this irregular account of The Writing Life (a.k.a. Thoughts No One Else Would Publish), I have suspicions about the value of meeting a writer in real life and the apparently normal and widespread desire ……
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People frequently comment on how ‘happy’ my kids seem. That may be true, and I’m glad if it is—if they are in fact happy (I think it’s true) and if they strike people that way (which I take to mean ……
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“If you have an idea, just think it If you have one eye, just blink it, If you have a drop of rum, just drink it, Working with what you got.” –So-Called, Sleepover This album has been my workout song ……
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I’m the kind of person who writes our family’s holiday letter in January, except for the one year I kept promising it to people until July, and then decided guiltily that since it was then closer to the next year, I ……
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My friend Justin St. Germain wrote a book, Son of a Gun, which I had already very much wanted to read even before it won this year’s Barnes and Noble Discover Award in Nonfiction. It’s the story of Justin’s life ……
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At 5:45 today, I woke from a nightmare that 100,000 Iraqis, fleeing our bombs, had been herded into an Iranian refugee camp, and they all needed to pee. There wasn’t room for them all in the camp, but those who ……
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“Have you read the Goldfinch?” This Vanity Fair article suggests it’s the cocktail party opener of the summer. I’m pleased to report that hasn’t been my observation in Canada, where I have spent the summer, but true enough in my ……
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Here is my stop in an author blog tour, a self-interview equivalent of a chain letter, except nice. I was tossed this opportunity by Devyani Saltzman, a writer and literary programmer who I first met when she brought me to ……
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In which, after weeks of desultory efforts to get my head around the origins, dynamics, status and potential consequences of ISIS (as connected to our war on terror, the Syrian civil war, and various other difficult vectors), I realize that ……
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Another very kind letter from a reader, republished with his permission. I wanted to post it here not only because of his very kind praise but because it includes a personal recollection of the era of the bombing, the perspective ……
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