MAD’s Monday Muse

by Mary Ann on January 25, 2010

“I am a full-time believer in writing habits, pedestrian as it all may sound….Of course, you have to make your habits in this conform to what you can do. I write only about two hours every day because that’s all the energy I have, but I don’t let anything interfere with those two hours, at the same time and the same place. This doesn’t mean I produce much out of the two hours. Sometimes I work for months and have to throw everything away. But I don’t think any of that was time wasted. Something goes on that makes it easier when it does come well. And the fact is if you don’t sit there every day, the day it would come well, you won’t be sitting there.” The Habit of Being: Letters of Flannery O’Connor [More in the Muse,..]

  • Share/Bookmark
Print

{ Comments on this entry are closed }

when the first writer and first editor met

by Mary Ann on January 25, 2010

Here’s what happened.

  • Share/Bookmark
Print

{ Comments on this entry are closed }

“…memoir, for much of its modern history, has been the black sheep of the literary family. Like a drunken guest at a wedding, it is constantly mortifying its soberer relatives philosophy, history, literary fiction—spilling family secrets, embarrassing old friends—motivated, it would seem, by an overpowering need to be the center of attention.” via  The New Yorker.

  • Share/Bookmark
Print

{ Comments on this entry are closed }

The five stages of publishing

by Mary Ann on January 18, 2010

Denial, anger, bargaining, depression, and acceptance. via HTMLGIANT

  • Share/Bookmark
Print

{ Comments on this entry are closed }

The Slush Pile

January 15, 2010

In a long bad-news article, this is the “good” news: “One slush stalwart—the Paris Review— has college interns and graduate students in the magazine’s Tribeca loft-office read the 1,000 unsolicited works submitted each month. Each short story is read by at least two people. If one likes it and the other doesn’t, it is read [...]

Full post →

Literary Alzheimer’s

December 14, 2009

“Did Agatha Christie, who wrote several dozen mystery novels during her 53-year career, suffer from Alzheimer’s-related dementia?”
via  NYTimes.com

Full post →

Happy Writer/Lousy Writer

December 14, 2009

“‘low-intensity’ negative moods are linked to better writing than happy moods.”  via GOOD

Full post →

Atlantic Is First Magazine to Offer Fiction on Kindle

December 5, 2009

“Let the iTunes-ization of short fiction begin. Starting on Monday, Amazon will sell two stories, one by Christopher Buckley and the other by Edna O’Brien, through its Kindle store. The stories have been selected and edited by the staff at The Atlantic, the venerable magazine that once published short fiction in its print pages monthly.”  [...]

Full post →

No Country for Old Typewriters

November 30, 2009

Cormac McCarthy’s typewriter is being auctioned.  McCarthy says: “It has never been serviced or cleaned other than blowing out the dust with a service station hose. … I have typed on this typewriter every book I have written including three not published. Including all drafts and correspondence I would put this at about five million [...]

Full post →

Good news for short story writers

November 29, 2009

New York Times 100 Notable Books of 2009: “…one heartening development has been the resurgence of the short story — and of the short-story writer. Twelve collections made our fiction list, and four biographies of short-story masters are on the nonfiction list.” via The New York Times.

Full post →

Susan Orleans talks about her bookshelf

November 29, 2009

Getting rid of a book is “like throwing away a  plant. They feel sort of alive.” via Stacked Up; Writers show off their shelves

Full post →

Is it all about the money?

November 23, 2009

“The line that once sharply separated traditional publishing (“We pay you”) and vanity publishing (“You pay us”) has all but dissolved in this corrosive environment of fabulous riches.” — Richard Curtis via E-Reads

Full post →