Writing and reading

After a panic attack the day before Thanksgiving (I don't have to explain this, do I?) things settled down again Friday and I spent the day writing at home. I proved to myself that I haven't lost the gift (?)  I discovered back in the early 90's when I wrote my first story about an eccentric aunt of mine.  It was amazing to read what I had written and realize it was actually pretty good. I've since had another day writing which proved fruitful as well.

I'm about midway through Sebald's Austerlitz, which Maggie Zurawski loaned me, and I have her book, The Bruise, to begin by Christmas. It has been hard not to dive into it but I'm trying to read one book at a time for once!  I also have Lucy Corin's 2 books: Everyday Psychokillers, A History for Girls and The Entire Predicament. I would imagine after reading these I will have an even better idea about what it is I'm doing or not doing with these stories. Reading women writers who are my contemporaries is bound to be revelatory.  Both Maggie's and Lucy's writing are as much poetry as prose and there is something about this I can relate to as the sound of words as they are spoken internally by our reader's voice is something that very much drives my own writing.  So far, from what I've managed to understand having glanced through the books, impatient to begin them, is that both these women have more than just a little bit in common with the way my head works and both are enormously talented.  I hope to excerpt some of their writing here once I get started in earnest with it. That is, if they approve. I can't end this post without mentioning that Lucy kicked our asses in pool at the Pinhook when she came here to Durham and read at The Space.  Hearing her read that night really started my most recent burst of energy for creating. Thanks Lucy. Thanks Maggie.