Just contacted a small press to see if they’re hiring freelancers, and the answer is yes! Right now I am booked through August, but I hope this press will have something for me. For all of March I’d stupidly taken a break from freelance work in order to try my hand at a March writing [...]
I bought two novels by Ismail Kadare from Barnes & Noble over the weekend, they were impulse purchases, as most of my purchases tend to be, bought along with the current Saint Anne’s Review that’s got a story by the lady who moderates my workshop—but I am now thinking of returning them, not because I [...]
Working on a 900-plus-page novel at the office, and my proofreader has queried every instance of a comma-less “too”—i.e., “He laughed too,” as opposed to “He laughed, too.”
It depends on the style the author prefers, of course, plus my boss once instructed me not to globally add or remove such commas, as it really depends [...]
Thursday
Had dinner with one of the writers from the Sunday writing group. We stayed till closing time. She is so lovely and positive. I’m a little in love, and I told her so.
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The accountant asked me: “Do you travel?”
“No.”
“Never?”
I was embarrassed. “I’m visiting my brother in L.A. next month.”
“Let’s say instead that you’re going to a writers’ gathering in May—and while you’re there, hey why not see your brother?”
A writer’s accountant, this. My first.
I showed him one receipt. It was a donation (this my first too) to [...]
A dear friend from college has two children.
Another close friend from college is trying to have a baby.
My best friend from high school just had twins.
Yesterday, the young assistant said to me, “Don’t you want children? You’d make a great mother.” She said this in all sincerity.
But I’m more comfortable with the word aunt.
My biological [...]
An editor was in my office. I gently chastised him for passing on my friend’s manuscript. He felt remorse, and admitted that he couldn’t yet bear to part with the book (it’s sitting in his office at home) even though he and his boss decided in the end that we weren’t the right house for [...]
I never know where to set my stories—I’m always debating between New York and Taipei—but one thing I’ve decided on lately is to be confident in writing Chinese and Chinese American characters. I don’t know how to explain it on paper, however, because for me it’s more a feeling than any cultural signifier.
I’m Chinese.
Sometimes that [...]
(Photograph via.)
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I dreamed a story this morning. It was about my childhood best friend, MW, and her apartment. I can’t wait to write it. What I’ve noted below makes no sense, however. But I’ll make sure the story makes sense.
MW—large eyes, heart-shaped face, graceful.
Her apartment on Madison Street—cleaned, painted white, sparse.
I stay with her for [...]
G’s brilliant explanation to her students regarding the appropriate choice of commas or em-dashes to set off a clause. Move over, Strunk & White.
Random line I wrote down on the same page: For God’s sake, darlin’, don’t do it!
Haven’t replaced my lost brush, been using a little comb the last few weeks, except can’t give hair thorough brushing with this puny comb, and so instead of freeing up tangles, have been tying hair up in a bun or ponytail most days—but today left hair down for some reason (ah, what autumn weather will make [...]
Hyphen, an online Asian American pop culture magazine, is looking to publish fiction by Asian American writers who “defy and reinvent traditional genres and subject matter.” This means: Do not send anything about identity or race.
Speaking of: Letters to the article about the damn Brits fiddling with hyphens. (Now and then somebody will ignore the [...]
I had coffee and banana muffins with my mother in a Chinese bakery, where we sat before rows of birthday cakes of pastel yellow and pink, some shaped as pigs, some as blowfish, some as bears, and all with large Disney eyes and shiny bits of fruit clustered atop the heads to indicate hair, and [...]
Scene: Last night’s dance class. We’re warming up before the instructor begins teaching.
woman to my left: I love this dark, rainy weather, but it made me so sleepy this morning!
me: You must be feeling the effects of the heat from the previous day.
woman: Yes, that must be it. It’s been so hot in my apartment. I [...]
Around 1:00 a.m., nodded off with my proofreading spread out all around me on the bed, and woke on my own at 8:00 a.m. “Discombobulated” is how one’s day starts when one closes eyes for what seems to be just a second but turns out to be seven fitful hours. And my day continues to be [...]
A loud solitude occurs at one o'clock in the morning.
E-mail me: loudsolitude (at) gmail (dot) com.
Surprise me: Amazon wish list.
