One of the projections shows Irene's eye going directly over my house. If that happens, I am SO going outside. I remember a grade school science teacher telling us about what happens in a hurricane's eye.

The Rumpus interviews Caitlin Horrocks.

Other things that were amazing to me in grade school: The Narnia books, the woods outside the classroom windows, my bedroom closet, Canada.

Why writers are parasites.

We bought plywood for two big windows on the front of the house, but based on the latest forecasts, I don't think we're going to put it up. The house is cut into the top of a hill, which is a pain in the butt in the winter but great at times like this. The only time we've had water in the basement was when the water heater barfed.

Tips on teaching for MFAs.

The power will go out. It does. This makes me cranky. I took Harper Perennial up on their offer a couple of weeks ago. This will make me less cranky.

This is easily one of my favorite litblog essay series. 

Yes, I looked up "series" to make sure that was the plural.

Eileen on a common writing debate/discussion/source of high blood pressure.

My new coffee machine will be nonfunctional, too. I got a Keurig. I used to work someplace with one and I know a lot of people who have them and love them and really, it was just time. Mine is dinky because I'm the only coffee drinker. It's red because that just seemed right somehow.

If you haven't read Steve Himmer's essay on accessible reading, you really should.

I'm trying to decide what writing project I want to focus on in the next few months. One has a slightly autobiographical wiseass bent. The other is more fictitious and mournful and traditionally structured. The jerkface in me says COMBINE THEM HAHAHA. The jerkface in me is quite talkative sometimes.

Nicole rolls like I do.

There will probably be board games this weekend. Board games for which I have patience: Monopoly, Apples to Apples. Board games for which I don't have patience: Life. Have you played that recently? If you enjoy being the banker, you would probably also enjoy being a paralegal. Not that there's anything wrong with that. I wonder what career paths are recommended for people who like Apples to Apples.

Less than three weeks away.

(There will be a Tyra tribute offsite event at AWP, I hope?)

So many congratulations to Myfanwy! 

It's very late at night and usually when it's late at night and I'm at a computer screen, it's because I am steering an avatar of some kind around an imaginary world. I haven't done that in a while. I miss it very much. 

Tim Gunn memoirs again.

Today I was in a very minor car accident. I keep forgetting about that. I keep forgetting I need to send email, book hotel rooms, make copies. When I was a kid August was a slow, boring, school vacation month. It blows by so fast now. It's a cheat. 

"We talk a lot about the work being the reward in itself and that’s true because I think having the time to write can feel sometimes really exciting, but it’s also really grim and lonely and makes me angry, morose, anxious, etc"

These non-link parts are not very interesting because I am the sort of tired where functionality feels like an accomplishment on its own. I think I'll sleep and when I wake up, the rain will have started and the tired will have changed.

Some thoughts on 100 rejections.

And finally: Ten year old food critic disses Bobby Flay.

Stay safe, my friends.

I'm in Rochester. The day before yesterday I went to Niagara Falls with my dad, my husband, my sister, my daughter and my nephew. We went on Maid of the Mist, which just about everyone had never done before. It was absolutely worth it. When the boat goes near the Horseshoe Falls, the light changes and the closest thing I can compare it to is flying through clouds, but that's not quite it. It made me remember being on the Dingle peninsula in Ireland twenty (yikes) years ago or in the Phoenix airport twelve (yikes) years ago and both were other planets entirely. The falls were also another planet. I bought a couple of Maid of the Mist floaty pens because really, other than naked lady pens is there a better use of floaty pen technology? After that we met my dad's girlfriend's family, who live in the area, and they were pretty awesome. Then yesterday I went to Seabreeze with the first five people above, and my inlaws. My sister won 1,000 tickets on a midway game and got fistfuls of stuffed animals. After some rides we went to the water park, and I managed to get a sunburn even though it was overcast and 3pm by the time we got to the water park part, AND I had sunscreen on, AND I've already burned this summer, which usually means the worst is over. A kid stopped my sister at the water park and said "Didn't you win 1,000 tickets before?" I spent a ton of time in the wave pool. Today I worked. My sister brought me iced coffee at the end of my day, and we watched Dance Moms. My teeth hurt right now because I chewed the ice in my iced coffee. In a little while, I'm taking my daughter and my nephew and my dad to McDonald's. McDonald's is like Las Vegas for the cousins because they both have dads who are hypervigilant about junk food. They also both have dads with long German last names that no one spells correctly and who are excellent cooks, but that's not really germane to the McDonald's fetish I'm about to indulge. 

It's been a lot of fun, this week, but I also know it's the last hurrah before things really start to get busy. Just before I came here, I agreed to take on some extra work. The time for that work is going to come from other things. It already is. There really is no free time where I'm not thinking about something I should be doing. I'm trying not to stress out but I've been chewing ice and I've eaten some things I profess not to eat anymore, making the excuse that I am a good little foodie and locavore. That's the other reason we're going to McDonald's. There's nothing there that I can't get somewhere else.  

Mike Meginnis on House of Leaves.

The authors of the forthcoming Stripped: A Collection of Anonymous Flash Fiction. (SPOILER: I'm one of them.)

Jason Jordan's key analysis of pawn shop shows.

Amber Sparks on unusual writing rituals.

Laura Ellen Scott's recap of the inaugural Indie Lit Summit.

TFT's review of Simon Reynolds' Retromania.

Someone linked this list of useful Spotify sites in Google Reader, and I am thankful.

Alan Stewart Carl's incomplete collection of bookstores.

Jessie Carty on identity.

I hope Jen's story finds a great home.

John Minichillo's LHB Book Notes for The Snow Whale.

Deborah Rose Reeves on Dune.

Tod Goldberg on five songs that don't mean what he thought they meant. 

And finally: Damn, it feels good to be a Lannister.