Oh hello, all you lovely people who are here from Poetry Hut Blog and Avoiding the Muse. Nice to have you. That turned out to be a pretty interesting discussion in the comments on the MFA post. You should go read them if you haven’t already. And how nice to get some fresh opinions.

I don’t really have any specific topic to post about today, so here’s a helpfully enumerated list of things I’ve been thinking about lately. (And apologies for the following boldface, which is annoying. I have to figure out how to change that code on my template…)

1. I just finished reading John Irving’s new book Last Night in Twisted River. I haven’t read anywhere near all of Irving’s work, but Cider House Rules was definitely one of my favorite books ever, and I think he’s generally considered to be a very good writer, yes? So I’m wondering what others thought of Twisted River. I thought the story was good and engrossing, and it was interesting in a sort of “meta” kind of way (which I guess I won’t explain so as to avoid spoilers), but it felt like it could have benefited from some pretty heavy editing. I’m guessing 80-100 pages could have been cut fairly easily. And it got pretty navel-gazey at times. Lots of shout-outs to other writers, like Vonnegut and pretty much anyone else ever associated with the Iowa Writer’s Workshop. Although I did enjoy the cameo by Marvin Bell, with whom I’ve studied.  I’m not sure the average reader would have appreciated that bit, though. Anyway, I’ve been thinking about it a lot since I finished, so it must have been successful on some level, right?
2. As for writing, I took the days between Christmas Eve and New Year’s off, but I haven’t started back up again. Partly it’s been because I’ve been recovering from something medical, but also because getting going again is tough and it’s too easy to tell myself I’m not feeling well (due to the afore-mentioned medical stuff.) The momentum has been lost. I’m sure I’m just going to have to suck it up and force it. I’m a big girl now and a “professional” writer (hahahaha! As if I’ve made more than $20 total for my writing in my entire life) so I guess I’m at that point where I just have to stop whining and do it. Luckily, I have to go into the city today and won’t be home until 5:00 pm, so I can make myself do it tomorrow. Heh.
3. I’ve been reading memoirs like a fiend, schooling myself for carrying on with writing my own. The ideas are piling up in my head like misspelled signs at an Obama protest rally. (Har!) I’ve been having a hankering for poetry lately, though. My old friend. I feel that poem-writing urge rustling around inside me. I might have to put the memoir aside for a day or two and crank out some verse. The nice thing about a poem is that there is more or less immediate gratification. It might make a nice break from the slog of prose, and let me tell you, I could use some immediate gratification in my life right now.

Three things hardly seems like a worthy list, but that’s all I’ve got today. I’ll leave you with this question, because I’ve been spending way less time online lately and more time with my nose in a book: What are you reading right now and would you recommend it?