Hi,
David has been telling me to write a letter to you
and so here I am.
Classes start today at CSULB and I'm hoping for a semester as good
as the last one. People who want to learn to write are often complicated
and sometimes moody and frustrated with the process and last semester
the students seemed to accept that frustration so graciously without
getting all pissy. It was great.
David says I should tell you what I've been listening to and reading.
I'm listening to the new Cat Power and new Belle and Sebastian—a
couple of my favorites. Oh, and the new Fiona Apple. Some gal on
David Letterman was a Fiona imitator the other night and I didn't
like it. Only Fiona is Fiona with those long drawn out words and
sounds in her mouth.
I'm reading Bob Hicok's short stories (not out yet, but in manuscript).
He's brilliant—poems and stories. Damn. Also the new Zoetrope
is incredible—stories by David Means and Charles D'Ambrosio and
Miranda July. This new editor Michael Ray is amazing and the magazine
itself has taken a new dark beautiful turn. And the new Tin
House has some interesting stories in it.
I've been thinking a lot lately about Point of View. I've been telling
my students for years to pick ONE POV for a short story so as not
to immediately irritate the reader, among other reasons, and now
I'm finding myself sort of tired of doing just that. I've been bouncing
around in my first chapter of my new novel "The Nakeds"
and enjoying it. I'm 200 pages in and still returning to the beginning
to fiddle and change things and rewrite. Very unlike my love David,
who sits down and seems to write straight through a book. His first
YA Novel is out in the world now, making its way into editors' hands,
and already they've sent back word that they're interested in making
offers. Can't wait to see what happens there.
I spent over 15 hours writing up my Syllabi for this semester. I
hope they like what they see and read.
Maybe I'll write a letter a week.
Want to write me back? Lisag412@yahoo.com.
