I’m waiting for Nancy Zafris’ new collection The Home Jar to arrive, but in the meantime I’m enjoying her story Man in Circles in Kenyon Review online. I love the humor and the circular tightness – feels like a snake eating its tail – and the clever ending.
Yellow Door
This week I was invited to read at Yellow Door in Montréal. The evening was part of the regular series offered by founder/producer/host Ilona Martonfi who has a particular knack for organizing stimulating and diverse programs that include poetry, spoken word, fiction, non-fiction, music of all kinds, comedy and some performance art.
The Yellow Door Coffeehouse is the longest-run coffeehouse in Canada and the lovely old house in the McGill ghetto is home to a large number of community services and projects, in relationship with McGill University. Continue reading
I am trying to read Jeanette Winterson‘s autobiography “Why be Happy When you Could be Normal?” as slowly as I can in order to enjoy it for as long as possible. But it’s not easy. As I read, I feel as I though I’m on a surfboard, being carried along by a massive wave. Once I start reading, there’s no stopping.
How does Winterson create this narrative surge? Continue reading
So there you have it: a first draft of your short story. What now? What’s the next step?
In a previous post I wrote about my struggle with how to continue with first drafts, especially those that had no clear ending, and how I learned to ‘dig deeper’.
Dig deeper. What does that mean? Continue reading
As always with my workshops, I started last week’s session for the Montreal Branch of Canadian Authors Association with some somatic exercises. I enjoy how the exercises energize and relax, and especially how they shift attention from the ever-present lists of ‘must-do’, ‘mustn’t forget’ and ‘what time is it?’ of everyday life to the here and now of simply being in the moment – perfect preparation for writing.
Today I thought I’d use one of my favorite somatic exercises as a writing prompt. Continue reading
Like everyone else, my life is full of moments of waiting – at the doctor’s or dentist’s, at a bus or train station, for a flight, for my loved ones! Ideal times for writing, right? Not for me. I find it very difficult to write creatively unless I know I have a good long chunk of time ahead when I know I will not be disturbed. This is partly because, I have to admit, it takes me so long to settle down to writing, but also because I need lots of time to lose myself in my story. And how can I let go and sink into the story when I have to watch the time or listen for a flight or train number or for my name to be called? But what a waste of good writing time!
I used to travel a lot for work and couldn’t bear not to use the hours of waiting Continue reading
Caught up in the flow of writing, the last thing on my mind is how I am sitting. I only think about that when an actual pain starts interfering with my writing. An aching shoulder, a stiff neck… Continue reading
Really enjoyed this week’s flash fiction from SmokeLong – “With Dragon” by Carol Guess and Kelly Magee. Terrific pacing. Just enough said. And fun integration of an online forum. The story added some warmth to this rather grey Montreal morning.
In December I print up a one month/one page calendar for the upcoming year. Any time I see a call for submission from a literary journal that I think might be an especially good fit for a story I’m working on, or one that is ‘resting’ in a file, I enter it in the calendar.
I’m a slow writer. It takes me months and sometimes even years to finish a story. I know I’m not going to make most of these deadlines, so why do I bother to keep a record? Continue reading
This week (February 24-March 2, 2013) is Canada’s 29th Freedom to Read Week (a project of Canada’s Book and Periodical Council). At Freedom to Read you will find posters, kits and suggestions for activities in your communities and classrooms.
I particularly like the idea of starting a Banned Book Club. The list of “challenged” books on the site includes Margaret Atwood’s “The Handmaid’s Tale” and Harper Lee’s “To Kill A Mockingbird”, two of my favorite reads. Do you know what books have been “challenged” in the schools and libraries in your area? Continue reading
Susi Lovell 