Unfinished Tales I decided to do something I haven’t done since my first offering on this website (which was little shy of a year ago). To print a story that is very much in process. Part of the reason is: I think it makes for good reading (or if it doesn’t, it makes, at any…
Category: Writers on Writing
Conflict (Caturday Questions)
Big Cat, Little Cat (Adam has left posting this week’s Big Cat Little, Little Cat up to me. I hope I’ve done as good a job as he does.) Can’t We All Just Get Along? Most of us who love to read have a favorite genre. A kind of book we reach for before anything…
“Reunion” by John Cheever
I remember listening to “Reunion” (a very short story by John Cheever) on the New Yorker Fiction Podcast. That was actually the first time I ever heard the story. It might be the first time I was introduced to John Cheever. The reader was Richard Ford, and he noted that the story begins with 2…
Chores (Caturday Questions)
Big Cat, Little Cat: Chores It’s Big Cat’s job to sit on Human-Mom’s head during Zoom meetings. It’s Little-Cat’s job to sit on Human-Mom’s keyboard while she’s trying to write. And it’s Middle Cat’s job to sit on Human-Mom’s lap when she’s trying to get up. The key to running an effective household is that…
Lizzo Twerked with Madison’s Flute (Caturday)
We actually learned a lot this week. Those of us who didn’t know, found out that Lizzo is actually an excellent flute player. She doesn’t just do it as a gimmick. I’m reminded of the times David Byrne sang an operatic aria or two at his concerts and did just an ear-blisteringly awful job. We…
My First Publication
I came to publication rather late in my writing career. My first publication didn’t come out until a few months ago. (I’m not counting college literary magazines, college newspapers, or the one time I wrote an article for the New York Sun and they put “NYU” in the headline instead of “Columbia University.” The Sun…
Lesbian Feta (Caturday Questions)
Big Cat, Little Cat Good Puns are Harder than you Think Yeah. I saw the “Lesbian feta” meme on Facebook or somewhere like that. Anyway, here goes. The strength of a pun comes from three things: Speed Inventiveness Grace There are a lot of puns on the internet. You have probably made some yourself. The…
Banned Books Week 2022
It’s Banned Books Week again. I wish I could just tell a nice story about how valuable some books that might be controversial were to me when I was growing up. Or even a nice piece about how hard it can be to let go when you’re a parent, to trust your kids and give…
Reality Check: The Afterlives of Indie Musicians
Zane Stroud and I used to be bandmates; we left the band and started new lives, and Zane is now heading in my direction–to become an academic. Zane and his wife Bessie drove Zoe and me to Clearwater Bay to celebrate Mid-Autumn Festival. We took this double date quite seriously, because it was our first…
What Do you Know from Funny?
The world’s great philosophers don’t fully understand funny. I discovered this in my second year of grad school. I was taking a class on the Canterbury Tales. As the semester wore on, I was more and more fascinated by Chaucer’s humor. Stop and think for the moment. If you name the top ten most influential…