‘Eat all the plums from all the iceboxes. Apologize to no one.’

Not a spoiler alert — an eclipse is headed our planet’s way — and we live in the path of totality. Over the past few years, it feels like the state has prepared for so many things: snowstorms and windstorms, floods. Now, a river of people streaming in for The Awesome.

Meanwhile, lives churn on. I spend a pleasant and snowy afternoon writing a spreadsheet, followed by a ranting email which I (wisely) delete before I send. I write and write. A short excerpt of my novel is picked up for publication in May. I’m given a green folder and a white folder of old letters and documents and site map for an article I’m writing. The housecats twitch at the juncos in the feeder.

Ryan Champan’s advice on writing a novel:

56. If you’re struggling with revision, print out the draft. Cut each sentence into individual strips and papier mâché them into a sculpture of your head, scaled 2x. Once it’s dried, place the sculpture over your head—create eye holes at your discretion—and just sit like that.

And another:

15. Llosa again, on writing one’s first novel: “Those writers who shun their own demons and set themselves themes because they believe their own aren’t original or appealing enough are making an enormous mistake. In and of itself, no literary theme is good or bad. Any themes can be either, and the verdict depends not on the theme itself but rather on what it becomes when the application of form—narrative style and structure—makes it a novel.”

Read the whole 1oo here. Surely a few gems for anyone…