me: not all of us can be geniuses like you, okay?
this is why you’re at harvard
and i’m a writer
b/c i accidentally put underwear on inside out

Marci: haha
so why are we both poor?

me: LOL
good question…

I went to this page to support a friend; I was pleasantly surprised to get a good story, too.

Madeline DeGrace’s Fundraising Home Page

I’ve only met her a few times (including once in Spain!) but even in those brief meetings I could tell that Marci’s mom was as wonderful and strong as Marci says — if not more so.

And how could I not like someone with the same first name as my first novel’s protagonist?

From an MIT newspaper article about Junot Diaz that Marci sent me:

So how did he triumph over his writer’s block? For one thing, he set aside the sci-fi book that wasn’t coming together. Beyond that, it was a matter of persistence and hard work.

“I just bullied myself through it. I just kept throwing myself out into the wilderness of the word,” Diaz says. “I would write 200 pages, get [expletive] depressed and crazy, sit around for two months, and then come back and write another 200 pages. It was endless. Sometimes they don’t come easy.”

Ah goodie, a peek at what lies ahead.

I mentioned this to Andy, and of course we got into a little fight about it. It seems like when it comes to my writing, we always end up arguing. I say he just doesn’t understand, when of course he does, he’s already written a book, plus he knows me really well. And he says I’m just too unmotivated/distracted/scared/easy on myself. Which isn’t always true. But probably sometimes is.

Continue reading →

Junot Diaz, who gave me feedback on my short story “The Tenth Time,” just won the Pulitzer in Fiction for his novel The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao.

Congratulations to Junot!!

(Thanks to Marci for the heads-up.)

Think I can do it someday?