Friday Fridge Clean-Out: Links for Writers -- October 16, 2015 Edition

> A recent Backgrounder podcast features Anna Quindlen, novelist, essayist, and Pulitzer Prize winning columnist (and incidentally, a strong influence on me).

> Some quick tips from Women on Writing to get through National Novel Writing Month.

> Writers must read, a lot. Of course. But how can we turn off the reading-as-a-writer stance, and just read for pleasure? At Literary Hub, Jessica Ferri (and a bunch of literary folks) have some suggestions.

> Lisa Rivero offers "8 Takeaways from the 2015 Publishing Institute."  

> In "Omission," a writing craft essay at The New Yorker last month, the inimitable John McPhee on knowing what to cut.

> I recently discovered Colette Sartor's blog, where she frequently shares writing craft advice, like this one on writing about loved ones. There's also a terrific writers resource page with links to many (many!) helpful articles by others.

> Medium is making some changes.

> At the Glimmer Train blog, enjoy (especially if you watch TV), David James Poissant's "How to Balance Writing, Family, Work, and Life: An Unhelpful Guide for the Perplexed." 

>Then, for a wee bit 'o more fun, try the Los Angeles Times' "How to Be a Writer" board game (think Candyland for lit types).

> Libba Bray will crack you up with her "letters" keeping friends updated on the success of her just-published book.

> And finally, considering my Friday Fridge Clean-Out heading and the rotating array of refrigerator photos -- how could I not mention the intriguing new book, Chilled: How Refrigeration Changed the World, and Might Do So Again, by Tom Jackson. I'm going to read it.

Have a great weekend!

Image: Flickr/Creative Commons - Don Graham, inkknife_2000

The Book List That's Constantly Changing, and Remains the Same

Over at Facebook, this pops up from time to time: The 10 Books That Changed Your Life. I'm often tagged to chime in, and have always conveniently "forgotten". For me that top 10 list changes year to year, sometimes month to month. What I think "changed my life" at 12 fell off the list by 20, what moved me enormously at 30 slid away when I tried to re-read it at 40. And so on. Plus – changed my life how? Which life? My reading life? My entire life? My life as a writer? 

Recently though I saw it worded slightly differently: The 10 books that have stayed with you. I interpret that as the ones I keep remembering, the ones I find myself opening at random and reading from the middle of for no reason at all, the ones that are perhaps more meaningful not because they are the finest literature ever produced, but because I read them at a time in my life when I was especially open to the story, or the writing, or both.

I've left off the true classics all writers admire and return to, and I'm probably forgetting some marvelous contemporary soon-to-be-classics, but I've limited my list to modern books I've read in the last 15 years or so—and the ones I can remember distinctly and with pleasure, and without walking over to my bookshelves. I've mixed the genres together. And I went way over 10. Hey, it's my list and I'll do what I want with it!

Living Out Loud – Anna Quindlen

The Invention of Solitude – Paul Auster

The Year of Magical Thinking – Joan Didion

Mountain City – Gregory Martin

Blue Peninsula – Madge McKeithen

In Revere, In Those Days – Roland Merullo

Small Wonders – Barbara Kingsolver

The Opposite of Fate – Amy Tan

Sleepless Days – Sue Kushner Resnick

The History of Love – Nicole Krauss

Picturing the Wreck – Dani Shapiro

Expecting Adam – Martha Beck

The Dogs of Babel – Carolyn Parkhurst

Swimmer in the Secret Sea – William Kotzwinkle

Manhattan Memoir – Mary Cantwell

We Didn't Come Here for This – William B. Patrick

Making Toast – Roger Rosenblatt

A Slant of Sun – Beth Kephart

Here if You Need Me – Kate Braestrup

I Married You for Happiness – Lily Tuck

The Collected Poetry of Nikki Giovanni

Without a Map – Meredith Hall

Eclectic, yes? Sure. I'm also sure this is incomplete, which I'll realize and clap my forehead for, as soon as I get up from where I'm sitting in my bedroom composing this post, and wander into my office and scan my bookshelves. Or tomorrow, when I read a new book and then can't stop thinking about it for a week or month or year. Or maybe this evening when I plan to read Ragtime by E.L. Doctorow, who passed away yesterday (and which I somehow never read).

Do you have a list like this? One that would make no sense to anyone but you? A list of books, which although they are excellent books – probably signals as much or more about you, and who you were when you first read it, and why you keep picking it up again --  than about the book itself? I'd love to hear (especially if we have a book in common)!

Image: Flickr/Creative Commons - The Lost Gallery

Three Good Books. Out of Three Hundred. No, Three Thousand. No...

Last year, when my husband helped me re-do my home office (after 23 years), we lined two-and-a-half walls with floor-to-ceiling, walk-to-wall, black wood bookshelves. I think they look great against the new red walls, and it's a huge change from my previous system for books, comprised of hand-me-down half-height bookcases, used beige office shelves, and repurposed odd pieces of furniture topped with baskets, milk crates, plastic stacking shelves, and clumsy piles (plus boxes stacked in a corner).

Would it surprise anyone to learn that it wasn't nearly enough room for my books, even after a careful reduction? That a second culling yielded four boxes of books, now in the garage awaiting pick-up by a terrific local service that matches no-longer-needed books with organizations that want and need them? That two more boxes are in the basement; I'm undecided about their fate. That at the end of every class I teach I haul a suitcase of books into the classroom -- duplicates of books I love, books left over from contests I've judged, books I didn't enjoy but are well written enough that others might -- and still, the shelves groan?

Honestly I don't expect the situation to get much better, and though I am slowly coming around to making use of my Nook, I don't mind a bit. When you are a writer, when you have a constant need to locate good material to teach from and learn from, when reading is like breathing, and when you work at home, being surrounded by shelves that spill over is a good problem. 

Which brings me to a month or so ago when Drew Myron, a lovely writer (who contributed a guest post here with tips on giving a reading), asked me to participate in the "3 Good Books" series at her website, Push Pull Books. She assigns each invited writer a specific topic based on what she knows about the writer's work. I was happy she asked me to talk about books that feature personal essays, and even more pleased that I could pick not-so-new books (the idea is to suggest what may be missing from other writers' shelves). I decided to narrow it a bit further to essay collections by women writers which have influenced me and my writing (I hope).

To do the "research" for this assignment, I didn't have far to go. I simply stood up from my seat at my still-new writing table (in the office re-do, I tossed the desk and the entire idea of a desk), and traveled a few feet to spend some quality time with my bookshelves. The section that houses essay collections is a single unit unto itself, about two feet wide and seven shelves high. It was a good trip.

My "3 Good Books" guest post is now up, and I hope you will jump over to Drew's blog to read it.  And I also hope you have shelves that spill their riches all over your home and/or office too!

Friday Fridge Clean-Out: Links for Writers, June1, 2012 Edition

► What do you think of this "submissions bombing" idea?


► Blog readers know how much I like writing prompts. In this guest post over at Jane Friedman's blog, Midge Raymond talks about her book for time-crunched writers, Everyday Writing, and offers some prompts.


► Language is a Virus is an interesting, new-to-me site for writing exercises, games, prompts, etc.  (via Diane Lockward)


► Authors Kelly Corrigan and Anna Quindlen chat in this video.


► GetPocket is a new, free site, billed as "A great option for those interested in saving video, images, text and other content, all in one place."  Viewable later  on any device -- mobile, tablet, or e-reader -- and, your computer. (via Wooden Horse)


► Some pointed revision/editing tips over at The Writer.


► Finally, the upcoming online personal essay writing class (begins July 9) is beginning to fill, so now is a good time to register.


Have a great weekend!

Friday Fridge Clean-Out: Links for Writers, April 27, 2012 Edition

► Duotrope continues their beta launch including literary journals that publish nonfiction into their system, and has begun a series of interviews with nonfiction editors, like this one with River Teeth managing editor Sarah Wells.


►There's so much great material and fun stuff over at RedRoom, for both writers and readers.


► At the Parents blog on HuffPost, Lisa Belkin writes about Anna Quindlen's new memoir, Lots of Candles, Plenty of Cake, and notes that in the book, Quindlen  "writes of a friend 'who has always provided dispatches from the foreseeable future because her children are just a little bit older...' Anna has always provided those dispatches, those glimpses, for me." Lisa B. said what I've been thinking, for years, and still do.


►Don't have any inside information about the Self-Publishers Online Conference (May 8-10), but the experts line-up looks promising, including book marketing/publicity experts Sandra Beckwith, Penny Sansevieri, and Dana Lynn Smith.


►The folks who run the site IndieReader, which carefully selects books to review and recommend, reminds writers "The Big Reasons Indie Authors Aren't Taken Seriously". Be prepared.


►The American Library Association's blog posted a Best Books of 2011 Honor Roll: Narrative Nonfiction, How-To, and Art. 


►A few nonfiction panelists at the Los Angeles Festival of the Book were asked for key advice. They replied:  Read. Write. Expect to be poor.  Who knew?  (via GalleyCat) 


► Finally, check out these "crazy and unusual book designs."  Really unusual.


Have a great weekend!

Friday Fridge Clean-Out: March 12th Edition

► Interesting reaction over on The Rumpus to David Shields’s new book Reality Hunger: A Manifesto, which asserts, among other ideas, that the lyric essay and memoir will be the prevailing literary forms, since – yawn (this again?) – the novel is dead and narrative is nothing special.

►Over at First Line Fiction, novelist Lori Ann Bloomfield mixes in frequent posts to spur stalled writers: prompts, exercises, and suggested first lines to use as story starters.

► Ever wonder what goes on inside a “content mill”? Here's an in-depth description of the editorial work flow at Demand Media. Read it and weep.

►The first Book Blogger Convention (to be held May 28 in NYC) has a list on their site of all attendees with links back to all of their blogs. Mighty useful to have on hand if you’ve got a book to promote and are thinking of a DIY book blog tour.

►What do those numbers and letters on an ISBN mean anyway?

►Mediashift takes a look at some of the less talked-about routes to, and outcomes from, self-publishing.

►Massachusetts writers may want to check out the very affordable Writer’s Day at Bay Path College, April 17.

►The Second Pass asked “voracious readers to recommend their favorite out-of-print book.”

►The Atlantic Wire’s Media Diet asks writers what media they consume daily and how, and what they’re currently reading. Anna Quindlen is the latest (and you’ll find links to Susan Orlean and others.)

►And finally, on-air reporters for Chicago’s WGN-AM radio station, owned by the financially teetering Tribune Company have been forbidden by the company’s CEO from uttering a list of 119 words/phrases he deems “newsspeak,” including( really): alleged, motorist, pedestrian, completely, youth, seek, at risk, campaign trail, reportedly. To be fair (which was also on the list), I did find a few I agreed with: fatal death, touch base. But really, Mr. CEO? Over at NPR, Ian Chillag used them all in one sentence.

Friday Fridge Clean-Out: Quindlen Quits, Conferences & PR for Writers, & Something I Wrote

• If I were a self-published author, I would check out the Self Publishing Online Conference, May 13-15, where all the basic sessions are free on the web, including a full day (Friday) devoted to marketing and publicity. In fact, even if I were a traditionally-published author (or soon to be one), I might drop in on Friday anyway, since publishing house PR budgets have been drastically slashed, and much of a book's success today depends on what authors can do independently to market their books and themselves.

• Anna Quindlen – essayist, Pulitzer Prize winner in the commentary division, former New York Times' Hers and Life in the 30s columnist and OpEd writer, and most recently, regular Newsweek columnist – was one of the reasons I first became interested in writing personal nonfiction. So I was understandably dismayed when she gave up her Newsweek column last week, citing a need to move aside for a younger generation of journalists.

Quindlen is only 56, and I for one, don't see her as anywhere near ready for retirement. Yes, she'll continue to write novels (she has several best-sellers on the shelf already), and undoubtedly she'll turn up on another major media venue before too long. I only wish she hadn't mentioned the age issue. Or maybe I am, as it puts a spotlight on the ageism issue in journalism and literary matters. And maybe her departure is not as voluntary as it first seemed, as this piece suggests, noting that the magazine is moving in a new (read: younger demographic) direction.

As for me, I'm solidly with Joanne123, a commenter at Newsweek who wrote: "Something is deeply wrong when the voices of one class of people must be silenced in order to make room for another." And I agree with AnnSent, who said, "Move on -- to greener pastures -- if you wish. Quit because the magazine makeover doesn't fit with your philosophy or goals. Quit because you're tired of bad news and brutal deadlines. Or brutal news and bad deadlines. Or the relentlessness of both. Or quit because you can. Because you want to write another novel. But not because you were eight years old when JFK was inaugurated."

• Novelists and short story writers in the Manhattan vicinity might want to consider the one-day 2009 Center for Fiction Writers Conference at the Mercantile Library on June 27. For the relatively low fee, you also get a space for one-month at the Center’s Writers’ Studio on East 47th Street.

• Writing about family is tricky; very often it's both the wheat and the chaff for the nonfiction writer attempting to craft interesting memoir and moving personal essays. It is for me. My memoir-in-progress, and most of my personal essays, would fall apart without the on-page characters to whom I am related off-the-page. They did not ask to be there, and yet as part of my life, they are part of my story, although my story of course is never their story.

One of my pieces, titled "Tip Not Included" (second place in the essay category of the Charles Simic Graduate Student Writing Contest a year or so ago), appears in the current edition of the journal Barnstorm. It's mostly about my father, and while he cannot let me know what he thinks, in my story, he approves.

Have a great weekend.

Anna and Katha: Perfect Together

I have been a huge Anna Quindlen fan since I discovered her "Life in the 30s" column in the New York Times in the mid-1980s. At the time -- way before the Web, blogs, and an ocean of memoirs -- she was the first woman columnist with the freedom to write about her personal life in the pages of the most influential major media outlet in the U.S. She's gone on to a Pulitzer Prize for commentary (for her Times OpEd columns in the early 1990s) and is now a best-selling novelist and a political columnist for Newsweek.

I am a much newer fan of Katha Pollitt, a columnist at The Nation, author of the recent essay collection, Learning To Drive, and recent visitor to my MFA residency.


So imagine how happy I was to find this podcast of a talk they did together a couple of months ago at the City University of New York. They jaw about the media, feminism, politics, the candidates, blogging, readers, reviews, their own writing process.