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t h i s
Your words in print and your name in lights
Ariel Gore
Ariel Gore probably won't remember my name, but I knew hers the
moment I saw it on the book cover. Back in the day, when we were
hopeful zine publishers, Gore and I exchanged copies -- my hand-
xeroxed Family to Family for her irreverent chronicle of single-
motherhood, Hip Mama. To me and thousands of other eager
readers, Hip Mama was the gold standard (it even had a glossy
cover!) of our "published from the dining table" genre, combining
honest personal experience and parenting politics with humor and
really good writing. The thing that impressed me most about Gore's
work was that, no matter what hurdle she encountered, she kept
putting her work out there -- kept publishing her zine, and later,
one, then two, then three four five books. Now, this book, a hands-on,
down in the trenches guide tells me (and you) how to do the same:
From the first page: Everybody knows it because Virginia
Woolf said it: You need money and a room of your own if
you're going to write. But I've written five books, edited three
anthologies, published hundreds of articles and short
stories, and put out thirty-five issues of my zine without
either one. Id I'd waited for money and a room, I'd still be
an unpublished welfare mom -- except they would have cut
off my welfare by now. It might be nice to have money and a
room (or it might be suicidally depressing -- who knows?),
but all you really need is a blank page, a pen, and a little
bit of time.
In that wacky way that we feel as if we know someone we've never
met, Ariel Gore feels like a sister to me. Like me, Gore seems
unaffected by Writer's Block. But unlike her, when it's time to set my
little paper airplane of writing out into the world, I freeze. I get this
ache in my chest and my palms start to tingle. And I'm not the only
one. Writer friends, people who are "real" editors at "real" magazines
share this affliction. This book finally, and may I say here,
Hallelujah, made me get up at the crack of dawn and start putting
my work out there.
Come what may.
I think it's because Gore's advice isn't just inspirational, it's practical
-- with tips on everything from impressing editors (and why that is
not always the best goal for a writer) to self-publishing, and
interviews with well-known published writers from many genres, she
is like a cheerleader for your (and my) success.
It's a Hip Mama version of Dorothea Brande's classic, "If You Want
to Write," an inspiring, in your face, often hilarious invitation to pull
that manuscript out of mothballs and get it out there.
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The Year of Pleasures
Elizabeth Berg
I found it! The heart-breakingly beautiful, romantic, love story I
needed to warm my winter. I received this book at work, pre-
publication, and took it home—a precious gem by my favorite
author. I knew I’d like it. I knew I’d get lost in it. That’s just how
Elizabeth Berg’s books are. But this one, ahh, this one… It’s the
story of a woman’s struggle to come to terms with her husband’s
death. Doesn’t sound like a love story. But it is. Doesn’t sound
heartwarming. But it is. Knowing too much would have ruined it for
me so I will tell you only this: He was the love of her life, they’d made
so many plans, he died. And yet somehow, she manages to express a
love that is still lingering, still palpable in every room of their house,
in every memory they shared. He is still, somehow with her… and
that, after you’ve had a good cry for her and for your own
disappointed heart, is a comfort somehow. Now go buy it or get it
from the library, curl up in a cozy corner and read.
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The Enchanted April
Elizabeth von Arnim
c Virago Press, 1922, Pocket Books
One day, in 1985, my friend Michael told me that he and his wife
had seen a movie and... "right in the middle of the film,we turned to
each other and said, ‘Doesn’t that woman look and sound like
Amy?’” Fascinated, I went to see the movie and I was very flattered
and, you know, it did sound like me. "The Enchanted April" became
my favorite film of all time. This is the book on which it was based, a
fantasy of sorts, for romantic hearts like mine who still believe in
magic... and the alchemy of a special place.
From page one - It all began in a woman’s club in London on a
February afternoon--an uncomfortable club and a miserable
afternoon--when Mrs. Wilkins, who had come down from Hampstead
to shop and had lunched at her club, took up The Times from the
table in the smoking room, and running her listless eye down the
Agony Column saw this: To Those who Appreciate Wistaria and
Sunshine, Small mediaeval Italian Castle on the shores of the
Mediterranean to be Let Furnished for the month of April. Necessary
servants remain. Z, Box 1000, The Times.
That's all you need to know...
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The Magician’s Apprentice
Ann Patchett
I have just loaned this book out again. It’s been to Switzerland with
my friend, Lisa. To Puerto Rico, with me. Now it is tucked in my
sister’s suitcase on its way to San Francisco. This book gets around.
Written by the author of Bel Canto, this lovely atmospheric,
haunting tale about a newly widowed woman takes its heroine on a
journey of magic, mystery and discovery at the heart of where all of
those things originate--the family.