New York City
6.13.16 ‘Til the world turns upside down’
Hamilton comes along at a surly time in American history. We are at a stage where we no longer trust our captains, where we believe everything below decks is made of barnacled, rotting wood. Where we have two people running for the highest office in the land – one Hamilton himself never achieved – one of whom will help steer the course for our country’s future as the world slowly turns upside down.
Read More04.27.16 ‘Send me postcards from your journey, dear novel’
Getting your book published is a series of lottery wins: Assuming you’ve written something worthy, it is a lottery to earn an agent. It is another lottery for that book to end up on bookshelves and in the hands of eager readers. And it is a further lottery to actually please enough readers that you get to do it again, and again, and again. If you win all three lotteries, you have a successful novel!
Read More4.08.16 20 Years in NYC, Pt. 5: ‘Keep your eyes on the spinning top’
What I think I’ve discovered in the last 20-odd years (some rather odd years, at that) is that planning is a good thing, but not the only thing. Sometimes you just have to get the top spinning — and watch where it goes all on its own.
Read More3.28.16 20 Years in NYC, Pt. 4: ‘They’re touching you!’
Having stakes in the city — that is, a mortgage — and being here during a national tragedy seemed to forge a whole new sense of belonging for me. By 2002, I’d been in New York City for over five years and it was the place I never knew I wanted to be but couldn’t imagine being anywhere else.
Read More3.21.16 20 Years in NYC, Pt. 3: ‘Many worlds I’ve come since I first left home’
I got on the train and the car was quiet. Very quiet. As we curled around Queensboro Plaza and got that great east side view of the city you could still see black and gray smoke trailing from the south end of Manhattan, as if the place had sprung a leak or caught fire. The train trundled past and we all moved to the window to watch until the bend on the tracks curved us out of the way. Then we went back to our seats and avoided each others’ eyes.
Read More3.13.16 20 Years in NYC, Part 2: Be the shark, never stop moving
If life isn’t giving you what you want, find a new path. Be the shark, never stop moving. That path may not take you where you want to go, but on the road you may — if you’re lucky — run into a fork that actually leads you forward.
Read More3.7.16 20 Years in NYC, Part 1: ‘I may get a little worked up’
I wasn’t planning to be a New Yorker. New York just kind of happened to me.
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