One of my blog catalog friends, Jimbozs2000, has started a blog carnival. Its pretty cool, all the moreso because he picked up one of my posts. Head on over to his blog and check it out. You’ll see me if you scroll down a bit and you can also lclick on the Why I Write […]
The post I wrote last week on courage and good writing seemed to strike a chord with lots of people. In it, I repeated the question that Carol Harper, one of the Mayborn workshop participants, asked me: does courage equal good writing? I wrote that courage doesn’t necessarily equal good writing, yet courage is a […]
Did I mention that the Mayborn was chock full of informative lectures and panels? I know I’ve talked about my fabulous, amazing workshop, and the Oprah Incident, and a few social events here and there. But lest you think that the entire conference was held in the bar, I now present a run-down of a […]
One of the participants in last Friday’s Mayborn book manuscript workshop, Carol Harper, asked me a question via e-mail today. Does courage equal good writing? I love this question because nobody’s ever asked it of me before, and in all the years I’ve been pondering writing and talking about writing, I’ve never heard it discussed. […]
It wasn’t all about Nan Talese and Oprah at the Mayborn last weekend, far from it. While the lectures and panels and discussions and networking comprise the meat of the conference, the side dishes are the workshops. Conducted all day Friday, they follow the standard workshopping procedure of every MFA program in the country. (Actually, […]
The infamous Nan Talese comments about Oprah are now available for your viewing pleasure here. She didn’t even talk for that long, but I guess people don’t usually diss Oprah, hence the whole world is now weighing in, once again, on the brouhaha. Here’s my own personal opinion (I know you were waiting for it). […]
Nan Talese is the best thing that ever happened to the Mayborn Conference. The publicity about her remarks dissing Oprah is all over the place, most notably at the Time magazine website. Head on over there and check it out. You can easily find it because last time I checked, it was the number one […]
I’m in LA after the Mayborn Writer’s Conference and will do a full report on my travels tomorrow. I’m also planning a mini-series about some of the presentations. So check back in! Meanwhile, for a look at some of the controversy that got stirred up (or, as my friend Leigh calls it, the "Oprah smack […]
I wrote in an earlier post that the best thing about being a writer is never being bored. Here’s another great thing: no matter what happens you can always write about it. Good or bad, its all material.
At the moment I’m in the Kansas City airport, waiting for a flight to Dallas, having been bumped off the flight from Portland. But here I am, happily writing a blog post. Because I’m a writer. So, A. I’m never bored, and B. no matter what happens I can always write about it. Everything is material.
In her wonderful book, Writing Down the Bones, Natalie Goldberg talks about how writers live twice–the first time when they actually experience something, and the second when they write about the experience.
BTW, this is kind of a strange airport–no offense to all you wonderful Kansasites. Or Kansasers. Or whatever the correct term would be. You have to leave the gate to find anything at all to eat–and the pickings are pretty slim when you find food. I’ll have to go back through security to board my flight.
But I’m happy. Because I’m writing.
You’ll also notice I’m not linking to anything, and that is because I have a questionable wireless connection and a battery going dead.
In three hours I’ll be in Dallas. In four hours I’ll be drinking a margarita with the most wonderful and amazing Doni Wilson. Can’t wait!
I’m off to the Mayborn Literary Non-Fiction Conference tomorrow. I wasn’t going to link it, because its sold out, but you never know someone might drop out. The good news is that I’ve finally learned how to spell the name. There’s no "e" on the end of it, duh. I’m taking my trusty laptop and […]
