Small Change in the Chicago Tribune

Very excited to see my short story Small Change in Printers Row at the Chicago Tribune. I wrote an essay about the somewhat terrifying process of writing this story, here. Printers Row is an awesome literary supplement/journal, and you can subscribe here if you're interested!

Hilary Mantel

This interview with Hilary Mantel is terrific, especially this bit:

Memoir’s not an easy form. It’s not for beginners, which is unfortunate, as it is where many people do begin. It’s hard for beginners to accept that unmediated truth often sounds unlikely and unconvincing. If other people are to care about your life, art must intervene. The writer has to negotiate with her memories, and with her reader, and find a way, without interrupting the flow, to caution that this cannot be a true record: this is a version, seen from a single viewpoint. But she has to make it as true as she can. Writing a memoir is a process of facing yourself, so you must do it when you are ready. 

Salt Hill 30, Macedonia, Deutschland and More

So, I've got a short story in the latest issue of Salt Hill, Syracuse University's gorgeous literary journal. I'm really quite thrilled about it; this story is an old one that I started sending out this summer in earnest. I wrote it-- or rather, its first lines-- over ten years ago, late at night when I lived in New York. I had probably just watched either Cabaret or an Almodóvar film, because I was obsessed with both at the time. It's called Proper Food for Children.

In other news, Yoga Bitch will be translated into Macedonian, which is thrilling-- please do tell all your Macedonian friends to keep an eye out for it.

And the German edition of Yoga Bitch is in bookstores right now! It's got a new title, Bin Ich Schon Erlaüchtet? Which means, Am I Enlightened Yet? Pretty neat, if you ask me. (And the answer is nein.)

Other than that, I'm about to disappear for a while to get the new book into second draft. Exciting, scary, etc. I am drowning in notes, outlines, half-written scenes. Time to get this thing together.

AND! I know you're all dying to know how Spartacus turned out. Oh, Spartacus. Spartacus is a bad drug. I know it's terrible, but I can't stop watching it. So, consider yourselves warned, and stick to Game of Thrones.

Till next time,
S