I know, I know: the blog’s been a bit quiet. Blame it on marriage, an amazing new show I’m working on called In Cabaret We Trust, packing for a big move to Denver (see: marriage), and my semi-annual malaise. Every move sucks in its own special way, like a crappy snowflake, but this one has […]
Last month, I attended the Association of Writers and Writing Programs’ annual conference in D.C. This was my second time at AWP, and it’s funny to think back at how nervous I was before the conference in Los Angeles last year. I’m not sure what horrors I thought a convention center full of nerdy writers […]
It’s no great secret: I love to write. Loveity love love it. Sometimes, when I work hard enough on something, it ends up quite good. In those moments, I often wonder “What if I could just do this all day?” Particularly when the day job is extra-sloggy (which, on the plus side, it isn’t always). […]
Last week, I took two weeklong summer immersion classes at the Second City Training Center in Chicago. The historic Second City theater opened its doors in 1959, and is known for launching the careers of comedy icons such as Bill Murray, Chris Farley, Mike Myers, Tim Meadows, Steve Carell, Stephen Colbert, and my personal false […]
This past week, I traveled to sunny Los Angeles to attend the Association of Writers and Writing Programs’ (AWP) annual conference. Now I’m back, and boy are my … ears? … tired? I was anxious before the event — 12,000 attendees being kind of a lot — and mentally prepared for some burnout and possibly a nervous […]
Happy New Year, everyone! Despite strong evidence that, globally, 2015 was a garbage year, I really enjoyed mine. I had novel experiences, made new friends, paid my rent, and consumed many meals and beers. That, in a nutshell, is the recipe for happiness. 2015 was also my first full year running this website, and it […]
As I prepared to type the sentence “I love celebrating things,” I had to stop and remind myself not to be dumb. That’s like saying I love breathing or sleeping. Everyone loves celebrating things, don’t they? So let’s just say I especially love it, and will come up with darn near any excuse to do so. This weekend, though, […]
Welcome to the Early Morning Writing Boot Camp! What’s that? You don’t remember signing up for an early morning writing boot camp? That’s OK. I don’t remember signing up for “adulthood,” and yet here we are. The rules of Early Morning Writing Boot Camp are simple. DO talk about Early Morning Writing Boot Camp. Tell […]
One of the writer goals I set for this year was to attend more writers conferences. When I added this to my to-do list, I’d just begun querying my first novel (before taking a little sabbatical on that) and figured conferences would be a great way to get to know agents in the flesh. I pictured uncomfortably huge affairs where […]