Now that I am a grown-up they call me a writer.
Now that I am a grown-up they call me a writer.
Metaphorical candy, mindfulness for pain management, and the sneaky svengali.
Eight things worth sharing (and a plea for squash):
Thank you to everyone who voted on the title of my new novel. I still haven’t decided. In fact, the feedback I got only added more options to the list… stay tuned.
Scientists are reporting some very interesting findings on how mindfulness practice reduces pain. Given that 1 in 5 adults in the US suffer from chronic pain (and understanding that opioids aren’t, on the whole, improving our lot), it’s encouraging news.
“When I was a little boy, they called me a liar, but now that I am a grown-up they call me a writer.” —Isaac Bashevis Singer (I think he and I would have been friends)
Book Rec: I recently finished Jennifer Egan’s Candy House and highly recommend it with the qualification that it is very literary. It’s more a collection of interconnected short stories, which is great if you’re into that kind of thing. If you decide to read it, be sure to check out A Visit From The Goon Squad first as Candy House has some fun callbacks.
Ear Candy: Speaking of candy, Egan’s book reminded me that I have a collection of songs with perfect moments in them, moments where the perfection is so overwhelming that I have actually paused conversations, lifting a finger to quiet the room and appreciate. Top of the list: Dance Yrself Clean by LCD Soundsystem. You have to wait 3 minutes and 5 seconds for this perfect moment (5 minutes and 20 on this YouTube video), but it’s worth it.
For anyone nearing the end of a draft, check out this post on how to work with beta readers. Receiving feedback is an art. And if you’re past the revisions stage and have begun sending your work out into the world, this post on handling rejections is for you. (As a fun little distraction I also wrote a short critique of rejections I’ve received.)
Last week I took the family on a meditation retreat at Spirit Rock Meditation Center. It wasn’t the BEST experience ever, but there were things I loved, like ditching our phones for 5 days, meeting an awesome mindfulness teacher named Ofosu, and the great questions my kids asked during the Q&A with the monastics.
Nerd Word of the Week: svengali: a person who exercises a controlling or mesmeric influence on another, especially for a sinister purpose (the word began as a character name in George Du Maurier's 1894 novel Trilby - lawyers today use the Svengali Defence as a legal tactic that portrays the defendant as a pawn in the scheme of a greater, and more influential, criminal mastermind).
Happy writing, my friends,
April
PS. Monday (August 8) is National Sneak Some Zucchini Into Your Neighbor’s Porch Day (finally!) and my zucchini plants all died this year, so if you want to participate and you live in the Los Angeles area, drop me a line and I’ll tell you where you can find a porch in need of zucchini.