Kevin and I went to see Steve Forbert last night at Freight and Salvage in Berkeley to celebrate Kevin’s birthday. The first time Kevin gave me a Steve Forbert song on a mixed tape–Fayetteville, Arkanasas, circa 1994, “Romeo’s Tune”–I was in my early twenties, fresh out of Alabama by way of Knoxville, and I couldn’t [...]
Nice article in the Chronicle today about Underground America: Narratives of Undocumented Lives, the new book edited by Peter Orner, composed of the stories of undocumented immigrants. The stories were gathered and compiled by Orner and his graduate students at San Francisco State University. Underground America was published by McSweeney’s as part of the Voices [...]
469 days after Madeleine McCann went missing from her family’s holiday apartment in Praia da Luz, Portugal, Kate and Gerry McCann continue to hold out hope that she is alive. Following the opening of the case files in recent weeks, there seems to be more reason than ever to believe that Madeleine was likely abducted [...]
Karen Templer has recently finished a brilliant redesign of her groundbreaking online literary community, Readerville. If you haven’t been to Readerville in a while, stop by to see great features like Most Coveted Covers, Ode to a Lesser Known Genius, and The Odd Shelf, wherein writers and readers talk about the unusual shelf in their [...]
Well, I’m taking the plunge into Second Life today and will be appearing in Athena Isle to talk about writing, my books, and whatever else the women at Athena Isle throw at me. The chat will be today at noon. Details here at the Athena Isle blog. If you’re a second-lifer, stop on by and [...]
Not too long ago, I watched Fahrenheit 451, which is based, of course, on Ray Bradbury’s novel of the same name. In the film, the duty of firemen is not to put out fires, but rather to start them. Specifically, they are charged with setting fire to books. Fahrenheit 451 is the temperature at which [...]
My twentieth high school reunion is coming up–class of 88, Murphy High School, Mobile, Alabama–and as I was browsing the reunion site yesterday I came across a familiar name, Margaret Brown. She was a year behind me in school, and now she’s all grown up, and it turns out she’s been busy. Months ago, I [...]
If I had a martini for every time someone has suggested that my husband Kevin is a figment of my imagination, I’d be on a permanent bender. When I mention Kevin in public, the response is frequently, “But I’ve never actually seen him.” People I’ve known for years will come up to me at parties [...]
Apparently there’s a hot new taboo out there in the publishing industry: Muhammad.
In this disturbing Wall Street Journal opinion piece,Asra Q. Nomani describes how concern over possible offense to Muslims and fear of terrorist threats led Ballantine to cancel the publication of Sherry Jones’s debut novel THE JEWEL OF MEDINA, “a tale of lust, [...]
My old pal Wade, whom I met in Arkansas, but who hails from Houston, has been guest-blogging for the last couple of days on the enormously popular blog Rex Parker Does the NYT Crossword Puzzle. Here’s Wade, on today’s puzzle:
Almost every single clue had its way with me. I verbed; it nouned. I past-tensed; it [...]
