Back to School

I'm such a lazy blogger, but here goes. It's August 19th and tomorrow is back to school for teachers and vote to strike. Ayee. On the writing front: trying to revise an old story about teaching called "Ana from Panama." I think I finally hit the mark. You know when you write a story and you work on it and it's all polished, but you feel like, Oh, I know if I send that out, it's not going to hit. Even though it's a perfectly good story. What is that about? It's because you are hinting at what you wanted to get at with this story, but you didn't dig deep enough. I was on the surface of that situation, but I had to get down to why the narrator was telling the story in the first place. Get at the HEART of it, as I say in my class. I finished reading the O'Henry collection and was glad I picked it up. Some really fine stories in there. We're discussing Junot Diaz's story "Wildwood," which was in the New Yorker last year. Go on-line and read the New Yorker blog. Diaz (Yunior) responds directly to comments on his story. I'm also reading the Best of the Web collection put out by Dzanc. I found some pretty cool stories in there, but I'm also, once again dismayed at the high number of male writers versus female. I know there are plenty of women writers on the web. Maybe it's the particular take/taste of the Dzanc Editors. I hate to be such a feminist, but the numbers don't lie.
I will try to go on sooner rather than later and talk about the individual stories from that collection that I like.
Steven McDermott is going to (hopefully) have a section of Storyglossia on review of the short story. That should be intellectually interesting. That is about all I read these days. I'm getting ready to reread Angela's Ashes this week and make a project / test for my students' summer reading assignment. Sad sad sad that Frank McCourt is gone.
Writing: Work on a story about music and obsession for Storyglossia. Out.

End of July already

Whew! This month went by. I'm reading the O'Henry collection and I am so taken with the short story by Paul Theroux called "Twenty-two Stories." For all you flash fiction writers out there--read it. It's really a collection of very short flashes, which is what I like to do when I write. Finished revising two short stories and sent them out. Lots going on in the Bay Area. Went to Adele Mendhelson and Clive Matson's poetry reading at the Berkeley Art Center Saturday night. Wow. One man sang "Old Man River." Another woman sang from the opera "Carmen." The usual open mic people--David Gollub and few others I know from the now defunct open mic at La Mediterraneum. Ah, the good old days. Sent out some flash pieces today--haven't done that in a while. Thanks to Meg Pokrass for her encouragement. Google her--read here. She's great. She's on decomP right now. Go there. Don't watch my youtube video of me reading my piece "Ten Suggestions for How to Write a Story Based on a Dream." Why? Because I suck. I had to go first. The crowd was not warmed up and I was trying to hard, plus I don't like my hair. Here's a piece of flash about my hair.

How to Get the Same Exact Hair Color That I Have

First go to Target ready to spend ten lousy dollars on a box of hair color. Loreal is the good product. Spend an hour there deciding whether to buy 8G or 9G. Why don't they have an 81/2 G? Go home and wait to color your hair until a half hour before you have to be somewhere important. The box says a half hour. Follow the directions carefully. Shit, you are late. Now you are going to have to live with that orangeyness until tomorrow. The next day--buy the Blonde Highlights Shampoo and Conditioner. Hesitate. Yeah, go ahead. If you want my hair color, follow along exactly. Wash your hair with the shampoo--make sure to leave it on four minutes instead of three. Do the same with the conditioner. Don't look at your hair when you take it out of the towel--that's not quite the color it's going to be. Blowdry it. Now look. Go right to the local drugstore--Walgreens is best because they have a wider selection. Buy that tube of the purple stuff meant to take the "brassiness" out of your hair. Go home and wash with that about eight or nine times...yes, the same day. Wait a week. Give it a rest. Okay, now call the beautician. She will charge you $200 to correct this. Plus a tip.
Total Cost for Hair like mine: $250. Yep.
Wait, one more. About a week later, go to a different hair dresser and cut it all off. Start over. Write this down and don't forget how to do it because you will do it more than once.

Happy Fourth of July

Up this morning with barking dogs. And, went on-line for submissions. Natural Bridge, the literary magazine out of the University of Missouri-St. Louis is accepting work and they have a nice page about the submissions process. Look for it. http://www.umsl.edu/~natural/guidelines/panel.html.

No plans for this day--I thought it was tomorrow--the fourth I mean. I'm glad. Holidays during the summer annoy me. I don't drink or smoke, so I'm stuck with finding stuff to do. If it gets warm, we'll probably go over to the pool and swim, again.

Time to finish the last draft of my Metal Dump story and send it on its way. Same for the Goat Herder story. I'm reading on the 18th in San Francisco at Amnesia. More on this later.

Stuck in the Denver Airport

Yukkk, we are on the way to Omaha, Nebraska, and we're stuck in the Denver airport. Luckily, we have crossword puzzles to fill our brains up. (Or empty them) I've been revising my metal dump story and reading friends stories. I finished Olive Kitteridge and highly recommend it. I'm going to read the novel Brooklyn by (????Colin Tolbin???) Sorry if I butchered his name. I also have a literary magazine along for the ride--River Oak Review. Okay, so for you short story writers out there, I sent a story to Gargoyle, and the reader sent me a note within two days, suggesting other venues: Baltimore Review, Post Road, So to Speak, Pedestal Magazine, and Folio. I went on-line and looked at them and it seems like they might like more traditional or regional topics. So I sent him a different story...more trendy, unusual format, and he immediately sent back suggestions for several magazines, some the same, one or two different, but he also commented briefly on the second story. So, that made me happy and nervous. First, I was so heartened by the fact that this editor would take the time to suggest other venues he felt might be more suited to the two stories, and second that he liked the way I had written the second story. I was also nervous b/c I don't like being pegged as a regional writer. I wonder what "regional" means? Anything that deals with a specific part of the country? Stories dealing with cows and pastures and country people? Stories that deal with the Midwest region? Anyway, neither story dealt with country people or cows or pastures. One did take place in the Midwest, but didn't specifically state a place. One was a story about a family; the other a story about rats. Are rats regional? Anyway, the next day...an editor responded to a piece of flash fiction I sent him and he said something about my story opening spaces inside him that he'd forgotten about. (Different story) I needed to hear that. So my story is that you never know what editor your stories will appeal to, but it does help if you've researched a little. It's funny, because I had already sent stories to four of the five magazines on the first editor's list. I'd read sample work of these magazines on-line or I'd picked up a copy somewhere (the USF lit. mag. library, the bookstore, or ordered a sample copy.) I had never sent to Gargoyle before but I liked how they looked and sounded on-line. I think I should order a copy, though. As L. Buzbee used to say to me, "Do your homework." Keep Writing.

Dog speeding

Okay, so I'm trying to catch up on publishing, but first we (meaning the creative writing class at the high school where I teach) had to finish creating the lit mag. Then we had a talent show. In between this I am reading work for my night class, which is keeping me in the loop artistically. I'm feeling good, though, because Jackey got a haircut and we bought new shoes and headbands today, so one more week of high school and school's out for the summer. I'm getting ready to read and write and kick back poolside while Jackey swims. (That's at the public swim pool, by the way.)

On the reading list? Nothing yet. I'm going to visit a bookstore. I did pick up the lit mag Hunger Mountain. Really liked it. Still too busy to comment. Okay, my dog's speeding--I gotta go talk him out of it.

Olive Kitteridge

Well, I got this book because it won the Pulitzer. I thought, with a name like that, it can't be good. But what the heck, I had read her work somewhere before. I know the people who run those prizes can't be all wrong and it is a collection of SHORT STORIES! Yeah for the short story! Now I don't want to put it down and I don't want to finish it because it is so good. It is so good, while I am in the car and my husband is talking to me I am yessing him, but I am so annoyed because I don't want to talk about the job or the kids or anything, I just want to see what's going to happen to this family next. It's as enjoyable as any Alice Munro collection and who else? Jumpha Lahiri, Tobias Wolff, Raymond Carver, and my local favorite--Kate Brady. So that's it. Buy it, read it. That's all you're getting out of me.

Pre-Mother's Day Reading

Hey--long time--I've been busy. I'm reading at Books, Inc. in Alameda today. May 3rd. At 3:00. It should be interesting. Laura Riggs with Speckled Eggs Studio set it up. She's making Mother's Day cards with our work. I hope there are three adult friends who will show up. The address is 1344 Park Street. I'll be reading a super-short flash and my essay published on 580 Split.

Writing: ????Yikes. Dealing with life crisis. Daughter in car accident in L.A. Enough said. She's okay and I'm having post-traumatic stress disorder.

Writing. Write--I'm reading the new Georgetown Review where my short story "Words I Like to Use Lately" appears. I really like the stories in it. They are down-to-earth, feel true and real. Not much experimentation going on and I kind of like that. The poetry is accessible. I see Jacob Appel's name everywhere these days. I have to recommend the story "When Will Our Grass Be Ready" by Jackie Thomas-Kennedy that's in it. Just loved it. I think because we all feel the way the main character does...or at least I do...What do I want? So I'm a fan. I feel like the stories in this magazine are also vivid, have memorable imagery and ideas.

Talking to a friend last night about getting inspired to write. She said she went to a Leonard Cohen concert and it made her want to go home and put words on paper. I think...get out, see the world, listen to other poets, songrwriters...good idea. I went all over California with my parents and was gung-ho to write when they left (sad, though) and then the car accident threw me for a loop. I'm getting back on that horse this week.