It's so easy to forget that we're presently involved in two wars and have been for some time.  Each day a soldier dies, civilians die.  Over 10,000 soldiers in Iraq have been seriously wounded since of the beginning of the war.  With the story, "The Stranger," I wanted us to remember, and also to get a sense of war's wicked reach, how wounds can be manifested in all sorts of unfortunate ways.

 

 

I write almost everyday.  I approach it like a job and get my butt on a chair and keep it there.  Really though, few things in life make me happier than somehow concocting a piece of writing that, by all accounts, seems to be worthy of a reader.  

I don't have any tricks other than reading good writing.  Doing that drives me nuts in all the right ways, almost like an aphrodisiac.  Reading work by talented authors desperately makes me want to write.  I'll get so many ideas that sometimes I can't jot them down fast enough before losing one.

I was just on a vacation and polished off nine books, all of them noteworthy.  But I'll say, William Gay's, "I Hate To See That Evening Sun Go Down" was extraordinary.  Truly.  It's a story collection and so exceptional.  Please go read it.  You won't be sorry.

 

Raymond Carver for voice and sparseness.  I've reread everything from him--stories and poetry--many times.  "So Much Water, So Close To Home," "Cathedral," "A Good, Simple Thing"--those are just ridiculous, so genius. John Updike for twisting descriptions into unavoidable knots, beautiful roadblocks that demand to be seen, smelled, touched.  I read the "Rabbit" books and "Couples" in high school and thought I'd discovered additional writings by the Messiah, new Dead Sea Scrolls. Cormac McCarthy for such a strong, defiant control of language (he even makes his own words up.)  Some of his novels are so readable they're forest fire-thriller types (i.e., "No Country For Old Men," "The Road") while others are cruel and punishing, yet altogether wonderful ("Blood Meridian," "Sutree," "A Child of God.")