First, a story. In one of my fall creative writing classes, I volunteered to get my story workshopped early in the term. The only problem: I hadn't written a story yet. I seesawed between topics and ideas for a week until finally--the day before it due--I found my story. Then I wrote like a woman… Continue reading Reading Roundup: January 2020
Category: Fiction
Books I Loved in 2019
I read just shy of 50 new-to-me books in 2019, not including my class assignments (which included some chapbooks as well as short stories and poems). Of those, there are about a dozen that I am still thinking about, even if it's been months since I read them. I love these books because they are… Continue reading Books I Loved in 2019
Reading Roundup: December 2019
The Other's Gold by Elizabeth Ames. I started this book last month and almost posted it as a blind item this month, because at first I thought I would have nothing nice to say about it. For the first 150 pages or so, I didn't. I took to reading a chapter each night before bed… Continue reading Reading Roundup: December 2019
Reading Roundup: November 2019
I read the first two-thirds of Inland in fits and starts, which is how I usually read: sitting on the bus, standing outside of my dance studio before it opens, occasionally over lunch if I take one away from my desk. I read the final third in one thirsty gulp like one of the principal… Continue reading Reading Roundup: November 2019
Reading Roundup: October 2019
The Vine Witch by Luanne G. Smith. My free First Read of the previous month. This book opens unconventionally in a swamp, with our heroine a literal toad who eats bugs and sheds her skin. I buckled up for a wild ride at that point, but the story settles into a conventional enough historical romance… Continue reading Reading Roundup: October 2019
Reading Roundup: September 2019
Exhalation by Ted Chiang. The short stories in this book are fascinated with how technology affects the human condition--but technology is very broadly defined, from sci-fi innovations (such as a device that records your memories as video) to the ancient technology of writing. I was delighted with the opening story, which--like my favorites in the… Continue reading Reading Roundup: September 2019