Writing Updates
My zuihitsu “Afterfeathers” was accepted for publication just after my last newsletter came out. It should be out in October. I am very excited about this, and about the zuihitsu as a vehicle. If you haven’t heard of it, it’s a Japanese literary form somewhere between a poem and an essay. The word is usually translated as “follow the brush”, meaning it’s a curated collection of images, fragments, lists, ideas, paragraphs, whatever, what have you, on a topic or theme or image of some kind. The Asian American Writers’ Workshop has a great page on zuihitsu and I also recommend this video from the Booktube channel on zuihitsu. Since learning about this genre I have gone down a pretty serious rabbit hole and it’s given me all kinds of ideas. I drafted my first zuihitsu during one of Diane Zinna’s Grief Writing Sundays, which I think I have mentioned before.
My flash fiction “Check-up” was accepted yesterday after having been rejected 24 times! Keep on working- dreams CAN come true! Seriously though I’m very happy and relieved that it’s found a home.
I participated in my first reading event as a published writer this morning, thanks to Flash Fiction Magazine. Next time I’ll let you know ahead of time in case anyone wants to hear me read alongside some really good writers. They do so much to support emerging writers- feedback groups, frequent workshops, a daily write-in group and more. Founder Shannon Huffman is an extraordinary literary citizen.
Otherwise, I’m working on the next chapter of my book, which is difficult but isn’t that always the case. And I’m shopping my other work around and revising and all the usual stuff.
What I’m Reading
Sticking with the zuihitsu theme, I’m reading the second-most famous one, Essays in Idleness by Yoshida Kenko, a Japanese Buddhist monk. The book was written around 1332. It’s just delightful. I keep putting little hearts and smiles around things I like. The most famous zuihitsu is Sei Shonagon’s The Pillow Book, published even earlier, and I’ll get to that one eventually. I’m also trying to expose myself to contemporary examples, of which there are many. Like I said, rabbit hole.
TV Time
I watched Dirty Pop: The Boy Band Scam, a three-part limited series on Netflix, about Lou Pearlman and his shenanigans. He founded boy bands Backstreet Boys and *NSYNC and more in the 1990s. He was also a prolific scammer and Ponzi schemer who robbed people of their life savings. These bands came out after my time; I was 22 and sitting on a bus in Dublin in 1995 when the boyband trend hadn’t quite hit the US yet, listening to Boyzone, a European Backstreet/*NSYNC predecessor, thinking, I can’t wait to get back stateside and not have to listen to this crap anymore. Little did I know! Pearlman’s story is fascinating and sad. The filmmakers used AI to animate him and “narrate” excerpts from his book, Boy Bands and Billions, alongside interviews with his victims, associates and the musicians he made famous. He seemed like a complicated person who changed a lot of lives, mostly for the worse. If you’re interested in pop culture and/or true crime, I recommend the show.
The Rest of the Autumn
I’m going on a trip to Paris (!) soon, and then we’ll be away for another week on Nantucket, and when I finally get home from all of that I’m having my gall bladder out. Eugenie is coming with me on all my travels and I will share some photos of her on her Instagram as we go. I don’t know what all of this is going to mean for my productivity but I’ll keep you posted as I go.
Trash Haiku
They say always add
yellow to your quilts blocks so
there is a bright spot.
That’s it for me. Have a great week!
Yay on the travel (to two lovely places!). Boo on the surgery.