August 5, 1936 | Three Poems
August 5, 1936 She’s waiting for youin her black one-piece swimsuitwith the smart buckle at the waistHer hair pulled to the side with a barretteSmooth fair skin freckling in the sunIt was scandalous to have bare feet in public,but she still doesn’t careShe calls your name and laughs I’m surprised she still recognizes youYou, with…
Read MoreMobile Roots
Around the time my endorphins abandoned me and I considered slapping the chick with the needle, I wondered whether it was the English major or the romantic in me who had thought surely a tattoo would fix my problems. I still haven’t figured that one out. But there is, without a doubt, now 500 dollars…
Read MoreThe Book Club Beta Test
A Step-by-Step Guide for Writers Looking to Gain a Competitive Advantage Book club beta testing is a special kind of field-testing for writers: you give a beta version of your novel, memoir, how-to, or self-help book to an established book club or group of readers convened especially for the task and ask them to give…
Read MoreVices
I am sweating beer. My hair has turned into thick braided ropes of smoke. It’s dark on the inside of my eyelids. Someone is kissing me. I hope it’s Greg. It’s not Greg. The guy looks kind of like him, though, tall and black-haired and he looks thin but he’s really not, you can tell…
Read MoreNo One Will Ever Love Him
No one will ever love him the way his mother didbetween her first and second drink,while they waited for Daddy to come home,when Daddy still came homesometimes. She’d love him with puppy-promises and bicycle-dreams—a silver-blue one with tassels on the handlebars; a dog named Shep—and going out for ice cream, maybe, after dinner,and those trips…
Read MoreThirty-Two Faces
When Kathryn got home from the hospital, she dropped her jacket and her leather purse just inside the door. Without stopping, she walked directly into the kitchen to the window over the sink. She didn’t slip off her shoes or turn on a light. She didn’t cover her face with her hands and sob. She…
Read MoreThe Harbour | Two Prose Poems
The Harbour Down by the docks there is a famous seagull, and a group of men sit looking at the ships, the sailors, and the lighthouse on the breakwater. They have notebooks. They are sitting on folding chairs and listening to the lilt of language and the waves and the gulls. They sniff the air.…
Read MoreEyes to See
Excerpted from Wrecked (Moody, 2012). For the longest time, I avoided uncomfortable situations in life, especially the ones that involved the needy or hurting. All of that started to change a few years ago—when I started to notice people that had previously been invisible to me. It began in Spain and followed me to the streets…
Read MoreA Year of Writing Dangerously (Excerpt)
Excerpted from A Year of Writing Dangerously (New World Library, 2012). Sacred Space The date you begin writing, or start a new book, should be memorable, like a wedding date or a birthday. Sure you can suddenly fly to your computer exclaiming today you start your book, your essay! But preparing for the day, suddenly yearning…
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