writing
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The State of the Novel
Depending on what is meant by “write,” I only wrote The Ghost of Canard University once. But in the course of revising it, both on my own and with my editor, I have probably read it through two or three times. There are certain parts of it that I have read at least a dozen… Continue reading
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A Dream in the Vegetable Garden
The garden made a holy resolution,raising from the soil, lithe and green,a form refined by vicious evolution—grasping at the trellis like a bean,adorned with fragile blossoms in the morninglight, a delicate chemise of white,and bearing twilit fruit for night’s aborningstars, the touch of Venus brushing Mars—and have the jays been feeding from the cherries,do they… Continue reading
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On The Zeppo
For fans of Buffy the Vampire Slayer, last week brought some sad and sobering news. In the wake of the surprise cancellation of the planned revival of the show, it was reported that Nicholas Brendon, who played Xander Harris throughout its original run, had died. In a media era which seemingly never tires of bringing… Continue reading
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The State of the Novel
A few weeks ago, I wrote that I was striving to finish my most recent revision of The Ghost of Canard University by January First. I am pleased to announce that, in spite of my heinous executive dysfunction, I have indeed finished this revision—as of last Friday, January Sixteenth, 2026. That very evening, the revised… Continue reading
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Maybe Next Week
I’ve got a lot to think about. I’ve got a lot to do. There is no saving the world in feeling bad, or in writing about why the world needs saving or why you feel bad. There’s no exorcising those bad feelings with something you dashed off in a few minutes, or a spasm of… Continue reading
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Let’s Make A List
I’d like to have a blog post up on Saturday morning, but it’s Friday evening and I’m simply not prepared for that. Mentally, I am just not there; my hamster wheels are slowing to a standstill, the hamsters themselves having reached their limits of exercise. You can see it in my metaphors, I’m simply out… Continue reading
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Are you too tired to write?
What do you write when your head is foggy, and your hands are tired? You can write about what is bothering you—how foggy your head is, how tired your hands are. You can write about the poor state of the world, if your head is just clear enough to give you an idea of what… Continue reading
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I’m only going to write a little post this week
You see, a lot of things are running around in my mind. I’ve got to finish this revision of my novel, which is hard enough to do without an attention-starved parrot trying to hide inside my desk when he thinks I’m not looking. I’ve let myself let that slide too many times because I decided… Continue reading
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What I want to accomplish when I write poetry
Every once in a while I hit the verse button and post some text with a higher than average percentage of enter key presses. I call these poems, because they resemble poems, although I honestly don’t know what it means to “resemble” a poem. Poetry is a wonderful art form because of the freedom it… Continue reading
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The state of the novel
I’m taking a short break from editing The Ghost of Canard University today in order to talk about how things are going with that book. Sometimes you’ve got to do that, or you go insane from staring at your own words for too long, wondering how you could have put them together so amateurishly. Is… Continue reading
Ink Tea Stone Leaf 