Category: writing

  • Listless

    Listless

    I was feeling listless yesterday, and I started wondering about the origin of the word. My guess was that it was related to how a boat lists, meaning leaning off to the side, and I was thinking that it was connected to how a sailboat will lean to the side when under heavy wind and…

  • Writerly resolutions: November status

    Continuing the research this month. My trip to the USHMM was productive and the stacks of books are dwindling, although research has generated some new books to read so the stacks have gotten a little shorter. I had hoped to get them down to nothing by the end of the year, but it looks like…

  • Writerly resolutions: October status

    And still more research work. Next week I will spend a couple days at the USHMM research center for more primary source research. I’ve been adding occasional new reading to the stacks of books which will be evident to those closely inspecting the pictures accompanying these posts. I had hoped to be done with research…

  • Writerly resolutions: September status

    Research continues apace. I discovered a PhD thesis courtesy of the exhaustive index at the USHMM website that is almost exactly what I would have wanted to read at the start of this process. I am definitely going to do a research trip to DC in November to visit the research center of the USHMM. Meanwhile,…

  • Audience photo from the I-70 Review reading in Kansas City

  • Upcoming readings

    For the first time since my MFA, I’m part of a couple of public readings of my work. On Saturday, 17 September at 1p PST, I’ll be part of a Zoom reading to celebrate the release of the latest issue of Invisible City in which I have a senryū entitled, “宝石の十字架” (don’t worry, only the…

  • Writerly resolutions: August status

    No fancy graph this month as it’s all-research time for the novel. I’ve managed to get eight of the books from my leftover research stack finished as well as going through ten survivor testimonies from the Yad Vashem website that had transcripts (there’s no way I would be able to follow spoken Hebrew with my…

  • Writerly resolutions: July status

    Draft two is DONE! I managed to trim about 5,000 words in the process, despite adding a new chapter in the middle, so that’s a good sign. I will need to print this puppy up to be able to read and edit for the revision stage and I’m planning on doing some significant research reading before…

  • Beautiful Sentences: Isabel Allende

    En algos momentos tengo la sensación de que esto ya lo he vivido y que he escrito estas mismas palabras, pero comprendo que no soy yo, sino otra mujer, que anotó en sus cuadernos para que yo me sirviera de ellos. Isabel Allende, La casa de los espíritus