Writers really are suprised sometimes

Jenny D. emailed me a question the other day about MAP and how I came to write about my father in the midst of a memoir of Alaska aviation. She posted my response which is more about the surprises writers find in the act of writing then anything else. I can chart exactly how my father's death came to be in this book (as I explained to Jenny) but while it seems obvious in retrospect, at the time it was utterly unexpected. I never really believed authors when they claimed to be surprised by their writing - I mean sure, you can change your mind along the way but being totally surprised by something you create? It didn't make any sense. And then, over the course, of a few days I wrote myself in and out of some memories that I never planned to revisit on the printed page.

I thus bow down to all authors everywhere who I previous scoffed at.

In other news, keep your eyes peeled for the new issue of Rolling Stone (with "The Voice" cast on the cover) for its truly unbelievable article about the cluster of suicides at a high school district in Michele Bachmann's area. It stretches the bounds of belief to know that GBLTQ teens could have been treated this way with the full complicity of school officials.

I have never believed more how much the "It Gets Better" project matters.