Christopher Meeks's Blog, page 18
July 2, 2010
Aimee Bender and "The Particular Sadness of Lemon Cake"
A reading is a special kind of entertainment. Over the last decade, I've landed at perhaps a dozen stand-alone readings, and many times that in catching authors at various panels, including those at the Los Angeles Times Festival of Books each April. My trips to readings have been well-selected, the way I select plays or beers—delights that I don't often do. I've been able to converse ...
June 30, 2010
In Awe of "The Year of the Flood"
I just finished reading Margaret Atwood's new novel, The Year of the Flood, and I'll gush about it. When I started the book, I hadn't realized it related to her earlier novel of dystopia, Oryx and Crake. While I'm a fan of her novels and poetry, the opening of Oryx and Crake did not grab me, and at the time, I was looking for a new novel to teach in my college English classes, so I moved ...
May 31, 2010
The Firefly for New Kinds of Flavor
As I struggle with restructuring my novel in ways both productive and difficult--my most Herculean writing task to date--Spring calls out to me like never before. This last week, I created a whole new garden with rich black earth, then troweled holes for tomatoes, peppers, strawberries and chives. The feel of the dirt on my hands and the loamy smell was invigorating, The roses were bursting ...
May 18, 2010
ON PAIN
A lancing, jaw-cracking lightning bolt of pain awoke me. From contented sleep to eyes wide open, I gritted my teeth--what the hell was happening? With the intense epicenter in my lower jaw, I knew it was my bicuspid, tooth #29. My dentist, Dr. Mark Tarica, a brilliant and caring dentist, had put a crown on it two months before after filling it in two sessions. He told me how it'd been a dental ...
May 14, 2010
STRUGGLES FOR WRITERS—NEWS AT ELEVEN
Up-and-coming writers want to hear how down the line things will get easier. Heck, I want to hear that. Thus, when I sent my current novel-in-progress, Ten Days to a Bad Habit, to my agent Jim McCarthy in New York, I wanted to hear how my first mystery was an amazing delight, staying true to the genre while leaping to new heights. I hoped the tension would squeeze him, tempered by occasional ...
May 13, 2010
Author Caroline Leavitt and link
Caroline Leavitt, author of nine novels and book reviewer for People Magazine and The Boston Globe, happens to have an incredible blog, CarolineLeavittville, where she reviews and writes about writing. She's also a friend, so I wrote her suggesting that she write about structure—mainly because that's what I was obsessing over on my novel-in-progress. Maybe I could steal some inspiration.She ...
May 8, 2010
Red Room, Fifty Thou
Last night about 11:15 p.m., I happened to go to my Red Room home page and saw that I'd reached a landmark 50,000 views. Even though that's in just more than a year and a half, that's pleasing. First to you, dear reader, thank you for coming here. Second, I'm still trying to wrap my head around what authors are supposed to do these days. Clearly, having a Red Room page is a good ...
May 5, 2010
WE WRITE IN SCENES
I happen to teach a fiction class at UCLA Extension called "The Writer's Workout," where over a mere eight weeks, I hope to start people into a habit. People take classes in UCLA Extension's Writing Program because they've been harboring a desire to write, often for years, and are finally acting on it. I have my students not only write a lot in and out of class, but also read. That's ...
May 2, 2010
THE GIRL WITH THE DRAGON TATTOO (Man som hatar kvinnor)
I've been feeling like Woody Allen in one of his early movies where he's sitting among dour people on a stopped train, and he looks over and sees another train with happy, laughing people. For me, the other train is filled with people reading and loving the book, The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo by Swedish journalist Stieg Larsson. I enjoy a good mystery, but that book didn't grab me. I ...
April 17, 2010
THINGS TO DO IN DENVER WHILE YOU'RE DRYING (Part Four of the AWP)
As I mentioned previously about attending the AWP writers conference in Denver, the mile-high city is dry. Chapstick is as important as water. While at times I felt like a potato slice on the Lay's potato chip production belt, my companions and I kept plenty busy during the conference--as much outside the conference center as inside. Now that a week has gone by, here are some of the things ...
