Meg Rosoff's Blog, page 17

Homeward bound.

All good things must come to an end. And though this has been one of the nicest book festivals I've ever had the pleasure of attending, real life beckons.

Water.

The Auckland Readers & Writers festival is an absolutely brilliant book festival — full of wonderful authors, amazing food, generous volunteers who'll do anything for you, hugely enthusiastic booksellers and audiences of 800+, not to mention life-changing talks (James Fergusson on The Taliban blew my mind completely.  I'm desperately trying to remember what I learned about [...]

Knit your own literary festival.

I studied the bios on my Auckland Writers & Readers Festival yesterday, and there's an amazing line-up of writers from Madhur Jaffrey to Ingrid Betancourt, Margo Lanagan (with whom I'm sharing a stage) and an incredibly rich variety of New Zealand poets, novelists, film directors and composers. One of the best things about literary festivals [...]

This is pretty much how I feel about New Zealand. So far.

Years ago, my friends Peter and Mary Banham moved to Santa Cruz, California, where Peter was teaching architectural history. They told me the story of a friend who arrived from London at night and went to bed in the dark, as yet without a clear appreciation of his former colleague's glorious outlook across the white [...]

Reverse ageing.

I've just left Melbourne where I got a big fat transfusion of optimism from a robust, thriving economy.  And miracle of miracles, the Aussies also seem to be book lovers (at least all the ones I met were). I know that writers are meant to be tough, impermeable to the decline of books, the end [...]

Bound proofs. The horror continues.

Greetings from Melbourne. I'm secretly quite pleased to be twelve thousand miles from home. Book proofs went out last week. Aside from finishing the first draft, sending out proofs has to be the most nerve-wracking moment of book writing. Most writers are hysterically attuned to faint praise, to silence, to equivocation, to the absence of [...]

The Proust Questionnaire

I admit it.  I've always loved this questionnaire.  The one that asks probing lateral questions to reveal what sort of person you really are, or what sort of person you'd like to imagine you are…or would like other people to think you are. Norman Geras runs his own blog version each Friday, and very kindly [...]

One thing I know about marriage.

I wonder what made me think of this? A very very old friend of mine, on his second marriage, constantly tells me that he's become resigned to the idea that marriage is hard work. "You've got to compromise, keep your mouth shut, surf the bad times, think about the kids. Don't flirt with other people, [...]

What Makes Us Happy?

I usually say that my years at Harvard were a bit of a desert in terms of inspired teaching, but that's not entirely true. Long before the present government got hold of happiness as a good issue to distract us all from economic decline, psychiatrist George Vaillant taught a course called Adaptations to Life — [...]

I'll be there for you…

I got a call from one of my favourite writer friends this morning. He sounded morose. "I can't write anymore," he said.  "I've lost it. The knack. It's gone." I'd just that morning finished rereading Mal Peet's most recent book, Life: An Exploded Diagram. Which is why he phoned. Because I'd phoned him a few [...]