misc.
The Domino Effect
When I was a kid, my cousin Rob and I would set up domino trails all the way around the floor of the basement rec-room in their house. Push one domino and hundreds of them would clack-clack-clack to the ground. I was thinking of those five hundred dominoes today, a week into having the interior [...]
Oxford redux
So I dusted myself down from the hunt (hosed, more like — I was soaked to the skin and covered in mud), staggered home from West Sussex and fell into bed. The damned clocks would choose last weekend to go forward, so up at 6am to get dressed and organized for the Oxford Literary Festival. [...]
Last Post
Actually, I’m hoping it isn’t my last post, but I feel I have to account for the possibility. Tomorrow at this time I’ll be hurtling cross country on a horse I’ve never met before, jumping over obstacles (most likely with my eyes closed) and trying not to look too much like what I really am [...]
Yes we can.
I couldn’t not post this. It comes from a friend in NY, a keen observer of the U.S. political scene. We are taking a breather this morning here in the US after a very tumultuous weekend. My own eccentric historical take on this: after centuries of packs of white men chasing down solitary black men [...]
Lost in Space
Here’s how it happens. I’m just sitting down to write when a pigeon lands on the windowsill. Ah, think I. A pigeon. That reminds me of the park this morning, and the person I had an entire conversation with — someone I knew, but couldn’t…quite…place. Faceblind, think I, for the billionth time. A terrible affliction. [...]
Wait For It
I hate waiting. Anyone who’s sent a manuscript off to an agent/publisher/editor knows how hard it is to get on with life while waiting for a response. I’m always most convinced that the work is dreadful, dreadful, DREADFUL while waiting. And the conviction grows and grows, until it morphs into a kind of epic self-loathing [...]
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