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A Small Place of Enchantment ~ Marjorie Kinnan Rawling’s View From the Keyboard
“I do not understand how anyone can live without some small place of enchantment to turn to.” ~ Marjorie Kinnan Rawlings Today, August 8, is the anniversary of the birth of Marjorie Kinnan Rawlings,...
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On Loneliness, Friends, Tweets, Circles, and THE BOOK
I heard on NPR the other day that you can buy yourself followers on Twitter. True story. There is speculation that some of our “popular” politicians are doing just that. Stuffing the ballot box, in a...
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The Whacky World Wide Web and A Book’s Launch
So a little less than one day in advance of the book launch of your debut story collection, you find yourself trolling the internet, Googling yourself (!) and the book’s title. This is how you discover...
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On the Shelf with THE HELP
It would be hard to express how very exciting it is to see my book, THE TEMPLE OF AIR, in the window of Women and Children First in Chicago– a bookstore I have admired and supported for many, many...
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The Pointer Sisters and Me ~ I’m So Excited!
Today is the day! Tonight I will read from THE TEMPLE OF AIR in front of friends and family and perhaps–if I am lucky–some new acquaintances who enjoy listening to writers read their own work. I am...
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On Being a Colum Alum
Today starts Columbia College Chicago’s Alumni Weekend, and I am delighted to be part of the event. Tomorrow, Saturday, September 24, artist and adjunct faculty member Philip Hartigan and I will be...
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Reading at The Stag, Hampstead, London ~ Thanks to Daunt Books
Philip Hartigan, my trusty photographer, uploaded this album of pictures from my reading at The Stag, a literary pub in Hampstead, north London, on Wednesday evening. Great event, great hosts (yay!...
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The Week that Was
A quick glimpse back at the week just passed: MONDAY Work. TUESDAY Interview by Alison Cuddy on Chicago’s NPR station WBEZ for the morning news and culture show 848. Tuesday Funk at Hopleaf, with...
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On Politeness (and its Absence) In A Writing Life
Years ago, when I was a recent graduate from the MFA program in Fiction Writing at Columbia College Chicago, I sent my newly minted thesis out to a small (but not tiny) press. I’d met the managing...
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The Greatest Show ~ A National Short Story Month Recommendation
Did you know that May is National Short Story Month? Did you? Well, it is. And despite what publishers say about these things, there are many, many readers of the short story out there, and many, many...
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