Just another writer
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“The Namesake”: The Story Behind the Story
Usually, I post these when a story is available online or the issue can be ordered. But for whatever reason, the issue of Sandy River Review that contains this piece seems not to exist anywhere but contributor copies. If you’d like to read it, send me an email and I’ll send a PDF. The PDF version…
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Writerly resolutions: October status
The biggest change in my writing life this month is returning to having a critique group. Trying to balance critique group responsibilities with my own writing has been a bit of a challenge and I need to do better with this. I did manage to complete chapter 23 and make some progress on chapter 24 in…
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The Big Countdown
My life expectancy number has declined slightly this year from 88 to 87. I imagine the last year hasn’t helped with this, between the pandemic shutting out interpersonal interaction and trump generating daily stresses and then yet another first-degree relative getting cancer, it’s not been my favorite year. My writing life has been fair. I…
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Writerly resolutions: September status
September was a pretty good month for progress on the novel. I finished a first draft of chapter 23 and have done most of the rewrite draft although I’ve slowed down as I need to get into the weeds on some questions of Jewish theology to write a conversation that takes place. Even better, I have…
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Dewey Decimal Project: 650.11 DAV Two awesome hours : science-based strategies to harness your best time and get your most important work done
Who wouldn’t want to make more effective use of their time? I sure would. So when I faced the bleak wasteland of 650–659.999, Management and Public Relations, I decided that one of the time management books would be the most appealing option. Davis’s approach is to focus on decision points and making the point of making…
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Dewey Decimal Project: 640 BOW The useful book : 201 life skills they used to teach in home ec and shop
I think that the best option for writing about this book is to provide a copy of the letter that I wrote to accompany the copy that I gifted to my nephew after I read it (roughly a year ago, in pre-Covid times when he had just started his freshman year of college. Dear T—,I hope…
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Writerly resolutions: August Status
August finally felt like a return to normal—whatever that would be in my progress on the novel. managed to finish chapter 22 and get a good start on chapter 23 without too much dithering about what’s happening in the novel. It’s still a challenge to get myself to re-read the pages when it’s time to…
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A story of a word
I got an e-mail yesterday inquiring about the spelling of a word that I used in a poem that will be published this fall. I had written “galabiyya” in reference to the robe-like garb that some Islamic men wear. My editor, doing due diligence found spellings of “galabeya” and “jalabiya.” I honestly didn’t even remember…
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Dewey Decimal Project: 635.934 ORL The Orchid Thief
I knew this book first from the movie Adaptation and when I finally saw Susan Orlean in person and she didn’t look especially like Meryl Streep, I was somewhat disappointed. And the lack of resemblance between book and movie (or perhaps it’s more accurate to say the funhouse mirror resemblance between book and movie) goes beyond the appearance…