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Category Archives: writing

Every Journal I’ve Kept Since 1986

Saturday, September 4, 2010

Not including blogs. I think there’s a literary journal (book reviews) floating around the basement somewhere too. I also, briefly, kept one during the months leading up to my son’s birth and a few months after. They’re consistent (daily) from about 1995 on, I think. If I’ve met you face-to-face or through zines sometime in […]

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“And as He Folded the Paper, He Would Caress and Palpitate It to Orgasm…”

Thursday, July 1, 2010

Eyugggh. I don’t know what’s worse: Zell’s blinkered, cost-cutting measures (right though he is about the inevitability of electronic papers, he’s only doing this because he can shave off a few more dollars and tie in with the iPad rather than imagining the democratic and artistic possibilities of all-electronic dissemination) or the inevitable batch of […]

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In Honor of Bloomsday…

Wednesday, June 16, 2010

A bit from my recent article for the Baffler. 75. Ulysses, James Joyce Strolling the streets of Zurich on a beautiful day, homburg hat set at a rakish angle, tapping along with his walking stick, Joyce is astonished as I walk up and, without warning, snap a right jab into his good eye. He leans […]

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My Sickness

Tuesday, June 15, 2010

A friend asked how I’d write a horror story for a pre-teen that would take the edge off his growing “too cool for spooky stories” attitude. “How about a story about a pig that turns into a  ghost?” “Yeah?” he said. “And it rapes people to death.” Dead silence, followed by my other friend Seth’s […]

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Pure Sex

Thursday, June 3, 2010

New pocket Moleskines, in an all-new color… RED—appropriately, the color of notebook lust. While I love my journal-size Moleskines, these pocket versions are mighty handy for quick notes. With their soft cardboard covers, they fit very comfortably in my front pants pocket. And while they grow softer and more frayed and wrinkled over time, they […]

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Come On, Dan

Wednesday, May 19, 2010

Write… blog… don’t stop.

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My First National Exposure: An Auspicious Start

Monday, May 17, 2010

Sent to me by my friend Kathy, who is plundering her personal archives. From The Nose… July 1994. Edited down from a longer piece (I was told that it was “too literary” and needed to be tacked back a bit, which is fine, because The Nose wasn’t Harper’s). Oh, so much has changed since then. […]

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Geek to the Core

Wednesday, April 28, 2010

Seriously, what more could I say? I really captured the essence of the story. Obviously, I was destined to be a writer. Now, what the teacher didn’t know was that this was a Fotonovel. I was a terrible, terrible student back in grade school. I made the “C” honor roll one year. Really. I wasn’t […]

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Tough Crannies

Wednesday, April 28, 2010

There’s a style of  writing that I call “cheesecake writing.” I don’t mean that in the pin-up sense. I’m describing works that serve up tasty but ultimately pouffy and empty verbiage. It’s pretty, it tastes sweet, but it’s porous, mushy, and fits the shape of the pan you poured the mixture into. I can’t stand […]

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