In the book Flow: The Psychology of Optimal Experience, Hungarian psychologist Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi analyzes the much-desired and often-elusive “flow state,” which is basically a fancy term for being “in the zone.” It’s that feeling of being completely absorbed in something, to the point that you lose track of time. It is, in a word, delicious. — Read More
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The times they are a-changin’
I’ve been listening to a lot of Bob Dylan lately. He always strikes the right chord with me when I’m particularly contemplative, melancholy. When the country first started to shut down, I was in emergency mode. The Adrenalin was pumping. I felt almost manic as I started to sort out our new normal. Now, as — Read More
Books I read in 2019
Another year full of books! 88 books to be exact (well, I’m currently reading 2, so 86 completed as of today). It’s really, really hard for me to name favorites. I loved so many of these–some because of the beauty of the writing, some because of the characters, some because the story line resonated with — Read More
A chat with Kemper Donovan
At Literary Orange in April, I was seated next to Kemper Donovan for lunch. He’s a fellow debut novelist. We got to talking about the craziness of publishing your first book and our angst about social media. I messaged him on Twitter that night because, well, social media happens to be the best way to connect with — Read More
The 5 stages of grieving Donald Trump
This is a blog about fiction writing. I know. And I’m sorry if you’re here to read about fiction. For the first time since I started this blog six years ago, I feel compelled to talk about real life. I am grieving. There’s no other way to describe it. On the evening of the election, — Read More
About last night
Last night was my very first book event at Pages in Manhattan Beach. It was a small, intimate affair with a very supportive and enthusiastic audience. I don’t love to be the center of attention (which is why I’m the introverted writer that I am), but I was comfortable last night. It was fun to talk — Read More
Oh, the anxieties.
I’m shin-deep in writing a new novel and running up against anxieties that always plague me when I start something new. I have regular freak outs, wondering what the hell I’m doing. I doubt myself, thinking on particularly bad days that I have no business trying to write this book. I wake up in the middle — Read More
Great book dedications
Looking at this funny gallery of book dedications makes me wonder who I would dedicate my book to, if I publish it. Or when–WHEN–I publish it. I’m still working on that optimism BS. These are my current 2 contenders: For all the trees who died so I could print out hundreds of drafts of this — Read More