September Sightings

Hi all,

I would love to see you this September. I have a ton of activities. Please join.

September 3

Sunday Jump, 5-7pm

Pilipino Workers Center

153 Glendale Blvd

LA  CA  90026

September 16

Book Party, 3pm

Skylight Books

1818 N. Vermont

LA  CA  90027

September 25

Canisius University, 5:30pm

Andrew L. Bouwhuis Library Learning Center

Buffalo, NY 

September 26

PEN America Reading,7pm

Earth, Wind, Fire, Music:

A Celebration of New Work.

Second Home

1370 N. St. Andrews Pl.

LA  CA  90028

Book Party on September 16!

 

Please join me for my book party on September 16 at 3pm.

Music Heard in Hi-Fi and Other Stories (Rebel Satori)

Skylight Books

1818 North Vermont

LA  CA  90027

There will be lots of food! Read more HERE!

Write with Me!

I'm teaching the short story form at UCLA Extension. Please join me.  Classes begin on October 3. I'm working out of the downtown Los Angeles campus. More information HERE.

Rush!

One week from today I'm going to be giving a draft of my short story collection to my agent. This book, tentatively titled "Laconic Messages of Love and Other Stories," will have eleven pieces that I'd been working on for years. About four of them are published, but most have never seen the light of day.

Of course, there is always that one story that won't allow itself to be finished. It feels like I'm nearly done. But I've been saying that for weeks.

I won't let myself even think about how hard it is to sell a short story collection, particularly now in this publishing climate. All I can worry about is getting this mother done!

The Long and Short of It

In trying to complete my collection of short stories, I was finishing up what I thought was a short short story. In my mind's eyes, a little story called Pinky and the Roaches was supposed to be no longer than eight pages. I thought it was something that I could whip up. In writing a character sketch of Pinky, I'm discovering this brand new world about her and where she comes from. I'm a novelist, so going off on tangents sometimes happens. I'm trying to tame it.

In an earlier sketch of Pinky, I made her out as an upper middle class Filipina from Manila. After thinking about my writing, I realized that I have a lot of Filipina characters from an upper middle class background. I decided to make her poverty stricken from a provincial part of the Philippines. The results have been...interesting.

A Feeling of Completion

I got a holiday card from my agent wishing me well. He said he hoped to see a new book from me in the new year. (Imagine me lowering my head and shaking it!) I'd been promising him a book for the last three years. I'd been focusing on a novel, but, well, I put that piece of crap away. It just wasn't working. I wasn't believing the story. If I wasn't believing it, I knew YOU wouldn't believe it. There's a plotting issue that I can't seem to rectify.

I turned my attention to short stories. It felt good tackling something that felt like I could finish. That book project was also supposed to go to my agent this year, but it looks like a January delivery. However, I feel hopeful.

Short Story Reality

As many of you know, I'm putting together a short story collection. I've written about the difficulty of trying to get a collection published. Recently, a short story writer came to Skylight Books to promote her book of short stories. She said her agent wouldn't even send out the manuscript. Fortunately, she won a book contest that published her collection.

Here's an article sent to me from the Utne Reader on selling short stories. Click here. Thanks, Mark, for sending this link along.