Writing Exercises

Let the Northern Lights Erase Your Name

June 7, 2007
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At five p.m. on December 16, my mother called me into her study. I waited until she said my name twice, so I didn’t appear too eager. There is something quietly heartbreaking in these words, spoken by the narrator of Vendela Vida’s lovely second novel, Let the Northern Lights Erase Your Name. Some years before the opening action of the novel, Clarissa’s mother disappeared, and a number of the brief, impressionistic chapters are devoted to the mercurial woman whose absence has left its melancholic mark on Clarissa. In one scene, Clarissa’s mother asks her young daughter how she looks,...

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Mustache-a-Thon, + Reba’s Caddy

May 1, 2007
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826 Valencia is having a Mustache-a-Thon to raise money for their excellent, unique free programming for kids. Yes, mustaches are no longer just for firemen. “Over six weeks, they’ll carefully tend to their emerging mustaches, meet weekly at a neighborhood bar to show off their progress, and swap tips on waxing ends. We’ll take weekly photographs to add to our online library of the ‘stache-stages.” Read about it here. And this from Reba McMellon down South: I’ve been compelled to start a list of cars that catch my eye. Rusted dark blue valiant, powder pink Mary Kaye Cadillac with...

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Year of Fog in the Washington Post

March 25, 2007
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THE YEAR OF FOG received an “A” today from the Washington Post in the Media Mix feature, its bite-sized listing of upcoming books and movies. It’s been a long time since I’ve been graded. I remember something about getting a B in graduate school in a class where all we had to do was watch movies. And slipping through a college algebra course at the University of Alabama, circa 1989, in a late-in-the-semester plea to the professor, who, upon hearing that I’d put all my eggs in the English and creative writing baskets and hadn’t much of a head...

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heavenly

March 14, 2007
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When I went in to Simple Pleasures yesterday morning to get my frothy au lait, Dae was doling out horoscopes, compliments of Christopher Renstrom at the Chron. This was mine: The planets urge you to pursue your heart’s desire. There will be hell to pay, but it doesn’t matter because getting what you want will feel heavenly. Well, I put all my worst Scorpio traits aside, batted nary an eyelash, even eschewed the chocolate–no heavenly delights, but no hellish consequences either. Caitlin, if you’re reading this: The dangerous day has passed, and I’m happy to report that the only...

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March 9, 2007
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The exercise (esp. for Bunny): Write about your wild past, orwhat you see in your adventurous future.

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