Christopher Meeks's Blog, page 20
February 14, 2010
THE THINGS WE HAVE
In a brilliant monologue, George Carlin once talked about having "stuff." He said that life's about finding places for your stuff. Houses and apartments are giant storage units, and garages, closets, car trunks--all full of stuff. When we go on vacation, our suitcases hold only a small amount of our stuff, the most needed things. We're like astronauts with their life-packs. If we go ...
February 3, 2010
GETTING PHYSICAL
Writers write—and so they sit. Writers also rationalize particularly well. "I don't need to exercise. My mind is so active, it's good for my body." Or: "Hey, Rebecca Romijn lost sixty pounds without exercise, and the 'Got Milk' campaign loves her." That leads to, "I'll just drink milk and write."Three weeks ago, I went skiing with my college-age son, which was great, but ...
February 1, 2010
BIG PUBLISHERS VS. AMAZON VS. APPLE
The publishing industry feels as if it changes every month. With Apple's announcement of its iPad reader, the Internet filled with blogs like birds taking off from telephone wires. Because Apple was late to the game of eBooks, it made a conservative deal with most big publishers. Apple promises not to discount books. It will merely act as an "agent" to publishers, taking 30% and not ...
January 25, 2010
MUSIC AS BEAUTIFUL AS A SETTING SUN
I'm talking the best of the best: music that transforms you, like Major Tom in orbit. The songs I'm talking about are ones you've heard hundreds of times in your life, and yet the power still radiates. You are yanked out of yourself and float in a most peculiar way. Below I'll list five that spring to mind. You tell me yours. First let me explain how I thought of this. I'm working hard on ...
January 22, 2010
Short Stories Vs. Novels
I'm honored that two Red Room writers next week will win my short story collections The Middle-Aged Man and the Sea and Months and Seasons as they write about the topic of short fiction. The topic is on my mind in another way as I'm working on a novel. Novels and short stories are very different, and my focus right now is on novels. It's a huge challenge for a short story writer to move into ...
January 16, 2010
OBSERVATIONS SEEN FROM A LONG POSTAL LINE
I was standing in a long line at the post office thinking, "Man, I'm glad I'm not behind the counter giving postage," when it occurred to me the nearest clerk was probably thinking, "Man, I'm glad I'm not in that long line just standing." A class never offered in graduate writing programs, but perhaps should be, is "Seminar in Post Office." The syllabus would say, ...
January 15, 2010
Poetry In Living Form: Gerald Locklin
It happens every semester in my Introduction to Literature class at Santa Monica College. The students' faces look like they just witnessed Icarus plop at their feet, bones cracking, his wing's hot wax spewing across their arms. I'd just announced we'll now spend five weeks in poetry. For their first assignment, besides giving them reading, I ask them what they think of poetry. Most of them ...
January 3, 2010
The Brightest Moon of the Century wins THREE 2009 "Best" Awards
I'll toot my horn, now that I have something new to toot: The Brightest Moon of the Century, a comic novel about a young Minnesotan blessed with "experience," has landed at the top on three literary websites. First, Wendy Runyon, the Literary Feline at Musings of a Bookish Kitty selected the novel as one of ten Best Books of 2009. In her review, she says that, "Christopher Meeks is ...
The Brightest Moon of the Century wins two 2009 "Best" Awards
I'll toot my horn, now that I have something new to toot: The Brightest Moon of the Century, a comic novel about a young Minnesotan blessed with "experience," has landed at the top on two literary websites. First, the Literary Feline at Musings of a Bookish Kitty selected the novel as one of ten Best Books of 2009, which you can read by clicking here. Second, The Brightest Moon of ...
December 31, 2009
END OF THE YEAR HUMBLING: THE REWRITE
Writing is like golfing. You can feel on top of the world, thinking you've perfected your swing, then after a series of bad shots, you are humbled. You might even listen to advice. I wrote a novel three years ago, and after I polished it, I left my agent and sought a new one. It's difficult switching agents because part of me said, "An agent not working for me is still better than no ...
