Oh, Honey
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Patriarchy is not men. Men are not the problem. A certain kind of thinking is the problem. Read More [...]
Author Archives: admin
Under Construction
What the Dead Know ends with a woman finding power in her own name, something that has been denied to her for much of her life. Could it be more vivid, more resonant? Possibly. But I wouldn't change it, in part because this is the book I wrote in 2006 and it's a record of who I was that year, as a writer and a person. Read More [...]
Games of Chance
I found I mourned a dollar lost more than I ever celebrated a dollar won. That’s me in a nutshell, and the observation suddenly clicked into place alongside other things I have been pondering as I re-read Geneen Roth’s Lost and Found, her account of being one of Bernie Madoff’s victims. Losses hurt more than victories thrill. Perhaps that's how most people feel. But the epiphany struck me, belatedly to be sure, that if one plays not to lose, then that’s the outcome: Not losing. Which is not the same as winning. Read More [...]
Twin Cities
It's a dangerous thing to find out new things about one's self. I thought I could never live anywhere but Baltimore. Now I know I can. Read More [...]
Conundrum
The inference seemed to be that no one would write a book a year naturally, that it is a market-directed pace. But it is my natural pace, more or less. I suspect I could go much faster. There is the case of 2008, in which I wrote a novel and two novellas. But I don't go faster because I am rather lazy. Read More [...]
Mildred Pierce, Anonymous
Perhaps there are a few people who love Mildred Pierce as much as Megan Abbott and I do, but they weren’t available on Facebook last week for this exchange on the miniseries, which we both just got around to in the past month. Read More [...]
Butter Boys
First of all, I do not recommend that you plug the search string fairy tale meat boy store string hat butterinto Google unless you want to see some really interesting ads for lubrication. But the search actually yielded what I wanted -- yet definitely not what I remembered, not at all, and it's not just the absence of lederhosen. Read More [...]
That Thing I Do
Writers are used to being asked certain questions. Do you write every day? Do you work on a computer? Do you outline? My friend Jan Burke once observed of the last question that the two camps regard each other with amazement. If one outlines, it's hard to imagine how someone could produce work without that kind of orderly process; if one doesn't outline, it's hard to give up the intuitive stye that has guided one through previous books. Read More [...]
For Fat Girls, We Don’t Sweat Much
Jennifer Weiner and Jodi Picoult's audiences were far from ready-made. Yes, I suppose their work can be describe as popular fiction, if one wants to put a name to their genre. But, really, both women work in very particular genres, sui generis genres if you will. Jennifer Weiner writes Jennifer Weiner novels. Jodi Picoult writes Jodi Picoult novels. They worked tirelessly over a period of time to build their audiences. Read More [...]
But I Don’t Remember Where or When
A friend over on Facebook asked me to find an article I once wrote about Anne Lamott more than a decade ago; a more intrepid soul did the job for me.
I remembered the article well -- or thought I did. Read More [...]