lit quote: Murakami's KAFKA ON THE SHORE

But no matter how long he stared at the phone, it just sat there, a silent, unnecessarily introspective object. Nobody knocked on the door, not a single letter arrived. And nothing out of the ordinary happened. The weather stayed the same, and no flashes of inspiration struck him. One expressionless moment after another ticked by. Noon came and went, the afternoon quietly reeling into twilight. The hands of the electric clock on the wall skimmed smoothly over the surface of time like a whirligig beetle, and on the bed Mr. Nakata was still dead.

Haruki Murakami, Kafka on the Shore

Interrobang?!

My short story Remembering Elizabeth has been published in Interrobang?! Issue 5.

It arrived in the mail today! Get yours here.

Many thanks to the editors at Interrobang?! You've made this day one of my happiest.

Mark and I just took a celebratory shot of whiskey. Cheers!

750 words

Any writers out there using 750words?

So far, I've found it most useful just to make me write everyday. Look! 4,354 words in four days of writing!

By 30 days, I'll have 22,500 words. Dude, I really can write a novel. Watch out!

Neruda: Your Laughter

pen + watercolor
inspired by Pablo Neruda's poem Your Laughter. excerpt here:

My love, in the darkest
hour your laughter
opens, and if suddenly
you see my blood staining
the stones of the street,
laugh, because your laughter
will be for my hands
like a fresh sword.

some good news

Two days after my wedding, when submissions aren't on my mind AT ALL, I check my email on my not-so-smart phone at an all you can eat Indian buffet. What joy almost punched me in the face when I read the tiny slice of the email that looked in NO WAY like a rejection! In fact, it was the opposite: an acceptance!

So, it feels fantastic to say I have a short story forthcoming in Interrobang?! Magazine!

When it's out for real, you'll be the first to know. :)

For now, you'll find me honeymooning in our LA apartment (and celebrating my other good news)!

Grok this?

book talk: One Day by David Nicholls

My book club picked David Nicholls's One Day for our January book. What a doozy. As a book club filled with ladies in our mid-twenties, it was quite a sob-fest.

[This contains spoilers! You've been warned.]

I wasn't too keen on the book when I finished, but after the discussion at our meeting, I realized it actually was better than I thought.

The reader visits the main characters, Emma and Dexter, on the same day every year -- July 15, or St. Swithin's Day.

What we've got on the surface is a classic will-they, won't they story? Emma, the female lead, is a strong-wille, idealistic character who leaves college with high hopes, but spends years working as a waitress in a cheesy Mexican restaurant. Dexter's career peaks early, and as a TV announcer he gains a center amount of fame. As Dexter's career begins to plummet, Emma's takes off. She writes a series of successful books for teens, and grows into her ideals in a reasonable way.

I don't want to ruin the romance for you. It's fun, lighthearted and somehow heartbreaking at the same time. Dexter goes down, down, down, and sometimes it's hard as a reader to follow him into the trenches. The ending is infuriating enough to make you want to punch a puppy, and my fiance came to check on me because he heard me hyperventilating from the other room. A puddle of tears collected where my neck meets my collarbone. One of the lovers dies -- EEEK! -- just when their relationship is starting to become adult, honest.

I normally won't touch a romance book without turning my nose up in disgust. I thought that I would absolutely hate this book. And though I certainly hated parts, it is very well written and quite a page turner.

What are your thoughts on One Day?

For those that have read the book, a movie is in the works, with Anne Hathaway as Emma and Jim Sturgess as Dexter. Since I live in LA now and am surrounding by film-speak, are you happy with the actors cast as leads?