Fun quote

"The aim of literature is the creation of a strange object covered with fur which breaks your heart."

From Donald Barthelme, whom I haven't read, but certainly must read. Slowly getting through my pile of the New Yorkers, came across this. The quote was supposedly inspired by a surrealist artwork by Meret Oppenheim, a fur-lined teacup.

Silent Signs

A story I finished exactly a year ago was just published in Faraway journal. (PDF and website). This story was very loosely inspired by the first time I saw the Squirrel Nut Zippers at the Independent -- although I doubt that today I could trace a single word in the story back to the source. The most pleasant surprise of my writing career: the publication is accompanied by an original artwork by Gay Degani, inspired by my own story! It goes together perfectly with the world I was envisioning. So cool.

Writing Workshop

A fellow SF Writer's Workshop participant, Peg, is offering her own writing workshop starting May 20th: northbaywriters.wordpress.com. Peg is a wonderful writer and offers very perceptive and helpful comments on other people's stories, I can see her being a great teacher. Unlike me, she doesn't rush in and start rewriting other people's stories from scratch.

An excuse

The excuse this month is that I'm writing a poem a day: http://blog.writersdigest.com/poeticasides/

The exercise fills me with a certain dread and a sense of futility and the notion that I really need to start reading English-language poetry. The language is not an issue any longer, now it's just about the time and the methods of reading. Of course, also about my deeply buried belief that poetry has to do with the sublime, the kind of sublime that by definition is denied to me.

Max Frei is coming!

Max Frei's book The Stranger is getting published in English by Overlook Press! Maybe one day her anthologies will also get translated and sell :) I just got word that 78 is going in for a second printing, and I've earned another 1800 rubles. That's between $50 and $60! Depending on when my brother chooses to pick up the cash.