Wrote, workshopped drafts, listened to Russian poets in translation, rode on busses to mountain ranges, and grew my writer crew. I am still full from the wine, cheese, and cheers. Thank you to the Summer Literary Seminar for making it possible for me to go somewhere I can’t wait to return to.
It such a pleasure to be an SLS fellow and Graywolf First Chapter Prize finalist.
Spent nine-months workshopping my second manuscript with these talented folks. Looking forward to the fall when we start again!
Florence Harding brings a few things to the table.
What a gift to spend two weeks, in the Tenneesee woods, writing new words to a new novel. 2018 is already looking beautiful.
With the band.
Man, did I learn a thing or two on the mountain.
Wandering the halls of long gone American homes.
I'm getting a better sense of the families occupying my next book.
Caught up in the research for my next manuscript. Getting to know the character that will walk around in my mind, come alive on paper, and occupy so much of me forever, is proving just as thrilling as the last time I did this! #onward #cantstop #mustwrite #mustresearch #writing
52 years ago today we lost and gained a President. An unimaginable amount is still unknown about the events. I know some hope the US government will open an investigation with new evidence that's been uncovered by "citizen journalists." But, I doubt this will happen.
I suspect we will come closer to the truth through the long tradition of literature and the arts. (But this might just be the hippe artist in me.) My hope is the manuscript I've been working on will add to this tradition and provide a fictional window in which to view different aspects of the story. LBJ was a titan of a character. He was there the days leading up to 11/22, that day, and for the next one thousand eight hundred and eighty-five days as POTUS.
July 16, 1960. At 6:00 pm LBJ makes his acceptance speech before the convention. He will be the Democratic candidate for Vice President.
LBJ Library photo 60-7-171. The Johnson Library has no information about the original source of this item.
March 1961 - President Kennedy walks with Vice President Johnson and members of the Dept. of Defense down the West Wing Collonade, to sign a bill restoring the rank of 5-star general to former President Dwight D. Eisenhower.
From left to right: President John F. Kennedy; Secretary of the Navy, John Connally, Jr.; Secretary of the Army, Elvis Jacob Stahr, Jr. (in back); Deputy Secretary of Defense, Roswell Gilpatric; Vice President Lyndon B. Johnson.
John Connally was an old ally of LBJ’s, having started as an aide to him in 1939 and playing a role in many of his campaigns after that. Connally served as Kennedy’s Secretary of the Navy from Jan-Dec 1961, when he left to run for Governor of Texas, a position which he won.
Sept. 28, 1967. 12:47 PM. LBJ has an off-the-record meeting with columnist Drew Pearson, who does not appear to be enjoying this variation of the Johnson treatment.
LBJ Library photos 6766-20, 24, 25, and 28, public domain.
#TexasTwist
It’d be difficult to write a story about LBJ and not have come across a Drew Pearson article or two. Pearson’s articles ran nationally and were often very critical of Johnson.
Oct. 20, 1967, LBJ and Yuki share a moment in the Oval Office.
LBJ Library photo A5010-10, public domain.
Forgot to post this here months ago. Whoops.
2nd draft nearly completely!
All the Light We Cannot See, Anthony Doerr (library copy, F, 20s, lime green scarf, PATH)
“I think the day I stop doubting is the day I start sucking.”
“A male author can write about unlikable male characters. They’re called anti-heroes and it’s called a novel.”
