Imaginary Friends

There is a lot to like in Amy Hempel’s Art of Fiction interview. For example:

‘Wear your heart on the page, and people will read to find out how you solved being alive.’ That was Gordon [Lish] twenty years ago, and that’s what I’m still trying to do.

I read author interviews like other people read Us Weekly. So, Daily Rituals: How Artists Work was a treat. I love to know about writers’ daily lives. The rhythm of my daily life doesn’t have much in common with the life of any of my real-life friends or family, so knowing that lots of artists lived this way is a relief. I’m not doing it wrong. I mean, I knew I wasn’t doing it wrong, because the way I’ve structured my life is so GOOD. I’m satisfied. I’m writing, more now than ever before. I feel like I might be getting somewhere. So reading that this pattern I’ve tuned into is actually quite like the pattern many artists have followed makes me feel like I’m part of a club. It is an imaginary club populated by lots of dead people, but still.

Also, hi, I’m back. I travelled for most of 2013, then I was hiding out from the internet for the winter months, which in Northern Pennsylvania last until early May. No wifi, spotty cell reception, it was grand! Now though, I’m hooked back up, so I’m going to try to keep collecting beautiful things on this blog, mostly for myself, because my memory is bad so I need holding place. If you like it too, then let’s be friends. 

wife

wife noun \’wif\
plural wives

1. A woman who loves you unconditionally, does not ever judge and gives great advice. A woman you admire and look forward to seeing every day. A woman who could recite your medical records and will listen to you complain about the same things endlessly, not because she has to, but because she actually cares.
2. A person who has lotion that smells nice at her desk for when your hands are itchy.
3. An expert on the life cycle of an eyelash and holder of other useful bits of knowledge you sometimes need to know.
4. Brave, tall, striking, and perfectly coiffed.
5. Sometimes, the only person you want to talk to.

[I wrote this a while ago and never published it. Now it’s kind of sad. The past two weeks have been the longest, loneliest two weeks.]