Meg Rosoff's Blog, page 8
March 8, 2012
A few not-desperately-profound thoughts on International Women's Day.
Let's jump right in at the deep end. Are men really the enemy? Of course the answer is yes, insofar as they get paid more for the same work, start all the wars (go on, name me some wars that women started), and have spent a milllenium or two defining success in such a way [...]
March 6, 2012
Answers to frequently asked questions
1. No one has yet been cast. A certain ethereal quality mixed with intelligence and compassion behind the eyes that everyone will know when they see it. Isaac, his twin brother, has been written out of the film. 2. About four hours a day, depending where I am in a book. Two hours max at [...]
March 1, 2012
How to Beat Writer's Block
The secrets I am about to reveal are known only to those who have suffered and triumphed over a tricky non-compliant novel. In other words, anyone who has ever written a book. I've yet to meet a writer who says, "Oh yes, it's easy. I just sit down to write and it all goes tickety-boo [...]
February 27, 2012
Things I've given up for Lent.
Strictly speaking, as a Jew, I don't have to give anything up for lent. But I do find that extreme psychic deprivation distracts me from the various seething resentments that go with being a writer. So here's what I'm giving up: Manolo Blahnik shoes. Folding laundry. Watching the Academy Awards and caring what anyone wore. [...]
February 21, 2012
Everything you need to know to be a writer.
The truth can at last be told: I'm a life-long professional dilettante. I know how to rock-climb, ski, speak French. What it's like to work on a presidential campaign and The New York Times, at an ad agency and Time Inc. And on a farm. I've worked on advertising shoots in foreign climes, so I [...]
February 19, 2012
What's your number?
It occurred to me this morning that the sum total of all the phone numbers I know from memory can be counted on the fingers of two and a half hands: My mobile. My husband's mobile. Our home number. My best friend's home number. My mother's home number. My (2) sisters' home numbers. Our oldest [...]
February 6, 2012
Finding A Voice
I always said I wouldn't teach creative writing. There are too many ways to be a successful writer, and my taste only encompasses a small percentage of them. But over the past year or so, I find myself more and more interested in 'Voice'. Not 'voice' as in how-to-write-like-a-man-or-a-baby-or-a-penguin. No. Voice in the sense of the [...]
February 3, 2012
ONE MILLION FREE BOOKS!!!!
No, this is not spam. If it were, you can imagine what sort of books you'd get for free. Books with titles like How To Marry A Sexy Girl You've Never Met or Best Penis Extensions (while we're on that subject, why do I get those e-mails? Do you know any insecure middle-aged men named Meg?) [...]
January 31, 2012
Yeee haw! Charmed I'm sure.
I'd barely unpacked from a book tour of Amsterdam and Belgium when I had to head straight into a tour of America. Yesterday, I was in Washington D.C., Boston, Albany NY, Texas and Santa Fe. Today I've been to Louisiana, Colorado Springs, Grand Rapids Michigan, Tulsa Oklahoma. Tomorrow I'm mostly in California. And then for the [...]
January 29, 2012
Too Rich and Too Mean.
My daughter and her friend were asked to work pouring drinks at a cocktail party for a woman the friend had met briefly — two hours for £20. Not great money, but not bad for pouring drinks, and with youth unemployment at 22% (as I keep reminding her), they accepted. Here's what happened. They [...]
