Literary Landscaping
I was weeding around the shrubs in my yard this weekend, which gave me a lot of time to reflect on what matters. My answer: Nothing. That’s right. Nothing matters. Let me explain. Maybe you need a better idea of…
Category: The Writing Life
When You Want to Burn Your Novel Draft
I don’t even want to look at my novel draft. I want to burn it and watch the pieces float away and disappear forever. My characters are screaming at me, and I am ignoring them. The good news, I suppose,…
Writing Rituals
To write you have to sit and…write. That’s it. But for some of us, staying at that desk and writing is hard. There are a multitude of distractions: family, TV, a sunny day. So I’ve created a list of writing…
An Interview with Jeanne Blasberg, author of Eden
A sweeping family saga, Eden chronicles four generations of Meister Fitzpatrick women from 1915 to 2000. The book centers on an extraordinary summer home aptly named after the Biblical paradise. As the novel opens, the family matriarch, Becca, is faced…
Random Thoughts of a Debut Author on the Precipice of Publication
Last Thursday, I had a total breakdown in the Harvard Square post office. I was in the process of writing a message to my dad in my debut novel, Cottonmouths, which I was about to mail to him. This isn’t out…
An Interview with Lauren Grodstein, Author of Our Short History
Lauren Grodstein’s latest novel, Our Short History, takes the form of a memoir written by a dying mother to her son. Things become complicated when her son’s father, who was not aware that he had a son, comes back into…