Susan Breen's Blog, page 3
February 25, 2010
about what I learned
Today marks the second anniversary of the publication of my book, The Fiction Class. Two years is a very long time in publishing. If I were to convert that into dog years, my book would be a very old dog. However, here we are, not exactly coasting onto the best seller list, but not yet on the remainder table either. In fact, last time I walked into a Barnes & Noble, I saw ten TFCs face out on the shelves. So, what have I learned in these last two years?
1. Librarians are more important than I ...
February 1, 2010
about author etiquette
One of the most intriguing parts of being a new author is that I'm often confronted with unfamiliar situations that require an ethical response, or at least a polite response. Such as:
If someone reviews my book, should I comment? I don't mean bad reviews here, thank God. What I mean is if someone writes something friendly and nice on her blog about The Fiction Class, should I respond? The obvious answer is yes, but it's not so simple. For example, recently I read a blog that had a very nice d...
December 15, 2009
about connections
Bear with me. This is a long story, but I hope an interesting one.
A few weeks ago I had to make an announcement at church about the book club I'm leading. We were reading THREE CUPS OF TEA, which we all liked. After the service my minister told me that one of the elderly gentlemen in church wanted to talk to me about the book. Praise the Lord, I thought. Just what I need. However, in my continuing efforts to lead a decent life, I called up this gentleman, who proposed that I stop by his...
December 8, 2009
about what are writers reading
The other day I was talking to a friend about what we were reading. We talked about the subject for ten minutes until I remembered I had just written an essay on that very topic for two great blogs: What are Writers Reading and America Reads. (Of course, I didn't mention the blog posts to my friend because it seemed presumptuous to cite myself in the middle of a conversation.) However, I did think friendly Bloomer readers might be interested in what I wrote, so, here it is:
Every October when ...
October 30, 2009
about the afghan women's project
I always try to say yes to things, which has worked out pretty well, with a few horrifying exceptions. So when fellow Gotham teacher Masha Hamilton asked me if I'd be interested in helping with the Afghan Women's Writing Project I said yes and immediately forgot all about it. Several months went by and then she said, "How about now?" With the result that for the last few weeks I've been teaching a writing class on-line to a group of young Afghan women and what an experience it has been. What ...
September 24, 2009
about anderbo
First off, some very exciting news. My story, "Triplet," has been selected for the anthology 2009 BEST AMERICAN NONREQUIRED READING. Dave Eggers was editor, Marjane Satrapi wrote the introduction and, as of two days ago, the book was featured in displays in every bookstore I went into.
Which brings me to the next point which is that my story was originally published by anderbo.com, which is an on-line literary magazine edited by Rick Rofihe. One of the subjects my students spend a lot of time ...
July 16, 2009
about violence
Only once in my life have I been punched in the face. So far. And that was a direct result of my writing.
I should backtrack to say I grew up in the Sixties on Long Island, in a neighborhood that was middle class and homogeneous. There were a lot of war veterans on my street and one of my favorite memories is of my neighbor, who had been a parachutist. On weekend afternoons, after he had a bit to drink, he liked to hitch up his son to a parachute and that to the back of his car and then he'd ...
June 26, 2009
about my dog
Last week I went to Berlin to visit my son. He's been studying there for five months and I've missed him terribly and had been counting down the days to this visit. Being of a somewhat gloomy disposition, however, or perhaps just because I'm battle-scarred, I was convinced that something disastrous was going to happen before I got on the plane to Berlin. I anticipated a litany of things, but what I didn't expect was that five days before the trip, I walked downstairs and found my dog lying...
May 12, 2009
about meeting famous authors
I think a lot about how to write—both because I'm trying to teach other people how to do it and because I'm trying to figure it out myself. So imagine my pleasure when last week I got to hear two quite respectable authors talk about their own processes. One was Arthur Phillips, whose new novel, The Song is You, was just reviewed on the front page of The New York Times, and the other was Lee Child, whose Jack Reacher series of thrillers is one of the most popular out there.
Arthur Phillips...
April 16, 2009
about passion
It's not often you witness passion (if you're not watching a Russell Crowe movie), but I got a firsthand look this weekend when I visited the NY Botanical Garden. My sister-in-law Peggy is a botanical illustrator and she was visiting and it seemed like a fun place to go. I like plants and trees (and, in fact, a tree plays a very important role in my new novel!!!) So, I expected to have a nice time.
But the moment Peggy stepped onto the gardens, she was transformed. It was like being on a...
