Yes, I know - blogging is so 2003. Nevertheless, here you are… and here we go!
Happy December and a pre-emptive Merryween, y’all! I suspect this will be my last message for the year, so buckle in – there is more than my usual one-paragraph parable here this time.
Actually, what I have for you today looks an awful lot like a box of granola bars.
Read MoreThis gnarly yellow safety cabinet is not much to look at, I realize. But y’all, BLOOD AND THUNDER IS COURSING THROUGH MY VEINS.
Read MoreInkers! If you're seeing this, chances are that we've met in person, or you've watched one of my videos. And I would love to help you shape your story!
Read MoreHowdy y'all! If you are here at the Willamette Writers Conference this weekend, this post is for you!
Read MoreOh my goodness gracious.
Y'all, it's been a trip. As a matter of fact, it's been several. In the past two weeks I have driven a thousand miles, visited with more wonderful writers than I can count, and read-and-critiqued 678,000 words. That is no imposition - I LOVE reading stories and getting a chance to visit with their authors - but like... you know how you have three platefuls at Thanksgiving, and when you belch afterwards, you can kind of taste everything at once?
Read MoreLately I find myself enjoying someone a whole heck of a lot, before realizing what a mission they have undertaken to make that possible. Whether it's saving up spoons, medicating, meditating, clawing out a precious pocket of free time from the hurricane-scribble of other obligations, or just working inch by painstaking inch to zip yourself into the too-tight "fine, thanks" human-suit you are expected to wear in public... y'all, thank you *so much* for doing that.
And if I can say something to folks like you, on behalf of folks like me...
Read MoreOkay, so guys. You know that one friend you have? The one whose life would be five million percent better if they would just listen to you and [dump that worthless mofo / see a therapist / try the diet or program that changed your life / etc]?
Let me be that friend for a moment.
You know, I have never felt smaller than I did when I was trying to be a big name. Now I am a small name, and I have never felt bigger.
Read MoreSo while I was in San Francisco, I took the subway to go visit my friends. It was the end of rush hour, so not very crowded once we got into the city proper. Then a guy got on, carrying a little portable speaker and a microphone, and arranged his gear in one corner.
And then he started rapping.
Read MoreOn the bus back to San Francisco after a fantastic too-short weekend at SMOFcon (The SMOFs, of course, are the Secret Masters of Fandom). It's a "convention runner's convention", where the programming and presentations are all about hotel negotiations, crisis management, codes of conduct, and so on. But it's also a fraternity of sorts, with traditions both hallowed and deeply silly.
Read MoreMy friend Michelle O'Neal said it better than I could have:
"I can't wait to vote for Allison Campolo again.”
I don't act on it often enough - but I believe to my bones in making space for the people who are making space for people.
Here's one of them right here. Her name is
, and for the last three years, she has moved heaven and red Oklahoma earth to raise up a first-class writing community in her backyard.
Read MoreEverybody has been telling me for the better part of two years now that I should start wearing boots.
The WORD squad, knowing too well what happens to *any* task I am entrusted with, took matters into their own insufferably wonderful hands.
Okay, so after Writers in The Field, I have a new thesis statement: we have too many huge, giant, apocalyptic nigh-unsolvable problems in this country, and not enough small ones.
On Saturday, for example, my main problem was not dropping the cookies while a hundred of us were running through the mud to escape the tornado warning.
Sometimes I feel like I'm living in a parallel universe. I get so wrapped up in making flyers, planning activities, visiting and traveling and trying to keep up with myself - and after a long, happy day of hard work and hobbit-wrangling, it's a shock to log on and read about a profoundly broken world.
Read MoreReal question: is computer ADHD a thing? Because I feel like a really pretty almost-together person in real life, and then as soon as I open up my laptop to do some work, everything turns into a giant digital shitblizzard.
Read MoreQuestion of the day: who here already knew that
was a miracle-working shoemaker-elf, and what are you leaving out for him at night?
Read MoreYou know, I have been incredibly fortunate to belong to a number of volunteer programs over the past few years. One of the things we don't talk about too much is
where our society's volunteer base comes from.
Read MoreY'all, I'm sorry I've been so neglectful with replies and comments and all. I'm averaging seventy/eighty hours a week so far this year, and feel like a fat pile of tired lying beached on a heap of broken promises.
Read MoreMan, y'all. I've been Oregone for two weeks, Idahoed with the best of the best, and got myself a sweet summer Montan to boot. Now I am home again, and there is no place like couch. Thanks, y'all, for putting me up and holding the fort!
If I can ask one more favor: Texish writer-buddies, will you weigh in and tell us what you want to see at Writers in the Field: Chapter Two this year?
