Category: writing
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2019 in rejections (and acceptances)
2019 was a grim year for me publishing-wise. I had only two acceptances, one each of fiction and poetry, the worst rejection rate since 2012 and for the first time since I sold my first story, I went a year without any income (not even a token sum) for any of my writing. As the…
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Beautiful Sentences: Ann Patchett
There was no logic to the way any hospital was laid out—they grew like cancers, with new wings metastasizing unexpectedly at the end of long tunneled halls. Ann Patchett, The Dutch House.
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Beautiful Sentences: Yiyun Li
Words fall short, yes, but sometimes their shadows can reach the unspeakable. Yiyun Li, Where Reasons End.
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Beautiful Sentences: Jayson Greene
I glance up at her, and her heartbreak is so acute it is like the sun—I can’t look at it. Jayson Greene, Once More We Saw Stars.
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Writerly resolutions: November Status
November started strong but life interfered to slow things down dramatically in the second half of the month. Chapter 17 of the novel came together reasonably quickly, but I had trouble getting into chapter 18 (it’s finally beginning to flow, at least). Meanwhile in short story land, I’ve been working on a new story which is…
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Beautiful Sentences: Yiyun Li
What if life could be saved by clichés? What if life must be lived by clichés? Somewhere tomorrow and somewhere yesterday—never somewhere today but cliché-land. Yiyun Li, Where Reasons End.
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Beautiful Sentences: Nafkote Tamirat
He hadn’t meant to create them. He simply spoke to them as he had to others before, looking directly into their eyes, giving utterance to what he believed to be right, unflinching, beautiful. Nafkote Tamirat, The Parking Lot Attendant.
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Beautiful Sentences: R. O. Kwon
If I was sick of Christ, it was because I hadn’t been able to stop loving Him, this made-up ghost I still grived as though He’d been real. R. O. Kwon, The Incendiaries.
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Writerly Resolutions: October Status
October was the month I (mostly) finished chapter 16 of the novel. I still have draft 3 edits to do and I’d like to get some feedback on that and do some more edits after that. It’s not as good as I’d hoped, but nothing ever is. I’ve also ended up getting a bunch of older…