Anyway I went to The Grove Bookstore in South Park San Diego (where I ran into a few other San Diego writers including Jill Badonsky) to find the book Ten Thousand Saints by Eleanor Henderson which is getting great reviews (read this one from the NYTimes by the also wonderful writer Stacey D’Erasmo–just the first two paragraphs of the review had me hooked).

“By delving as deeply into the lives of her characters as she does, tracing their long relationships not only to one another but also to various substances, Henderson manages to catch something of the bloody, felt intersection of lives and cult bands, of overindulgence and monastic refusal, of the dark, apocalyptic quality of the ’80s. She gets extremes, and people who gravitate toward them.”

Alas, the book was not in stock so I purchased something else: The Crafter’s Devotional by Barbara Call. Sure, I need another book on craft projects like I need a hole in the head, but this one is different–really! It has something to do for every day of the year, i.e.

Monday: journaling

Tuesday: recycle, reuse, or revive

Wednesday: collection, stash, and materials

Thursday: personal history

Friday: noncraft inspiration

Sat. and Sunday: collaborate, gather, and experiment

Just something to keep the creative juices flowing. Right? See a sample page here.

So, where did YOU go and what did YOU purchase on Save a Bookstore Day?

Also, you may have heard, if you’re my Facebook friend, that I had a great time in my Sewing Class and came away with a really cool tote-bag. The class taught the basics of sewing machines and we practiced various stitches on a swatch of fabric until we felt confident enough to do some real sewing.

There were several different styles and designs of fabric for the bag but I decided upon the burlap coffee sack– acquired by Home Ec Studios by a local coffee merchant. For the most part the sewing was easy– straight lines up and down the sides of the tote bag, but then I had to sew a liner inside the bag, and then straps, and you have to do it all inside out which is very confusing, but somehow it all worked. And it was fun. It was me and 6 women– all laughing and chatting and breaking thread and getting our stitches all knotted up.

Now I just have to remember it all so I can use my own machine. I have a ton of really cool vintage fabric, mostly of cowboys and cowgirls, that I want to turn into pillows.

Here’s a poem  by Naomi Shihab Nye

Sewing, Knitting, Crocheting,

A small striped sleeve in her lap,
navy and white,
needles carefully whipping in yarn
from two sides.
She reminds me of the wide-angled women
filled with calm
I pretended I was related to
in crowds.

In the next seat
a yellow burst of wool
grows into a hat with a tassel.
She looks young to crochet.
I’m glad history isn’t totally lost.
Her silver hook dips gracefuly.

And when’s the last time you saw
anyone sew a pocket onto a gray linen shirt
in public?
Her stitches must be invisible.
A bevelled thimble glitters in the light.

On Mother’s Day
three women who aren’t together
conduct delicate operations
in adjoining seats
between La Guardia and Dallas.
Miraculously, they never speak.
Three different kinds of needles,
three snippy scissors,
everybody else on the plane
snoozing with The Times.
When the flight attendant
offers free wine to celebrate,
you’d think they’d sit back,
chat a minute,
tell who they’re making it for,
trade patterns,
yes?

But a grave separateness
has invaded the world.
They sip with eyes shut
and never say
Amazing
or
Look at us
or
May your thread
never break.

Anyway, I’ve never ‘officially’ learned to sew though I’ve tried it and I even have a little Kenmore Beginner Sewing Machine but I only used it once– it intimidated me! All those knobs and bobbins and things.

My mother was an avid sewer. She spent hours in dim light, slouched over her machine. Her foot on the peddle like she was Speed Racer. Making everything from placemats to dresses to hats to shirts made of terrycloth (for me–yes, I was a trend-setter).

The rattle of the sewing machine is right up there with the dishwasher and clothes dryer when it comes to nostalgic sounds of my youth.

She also cussed like a sailor when she sewed. She’d rip seams apart like a serial killer and throw whole bolts of fabric across the room. But when she really got into the groove of her sewing she was lost for hours, cigarette in the corner of her mouth.  I remember watching the Playboy Channel through the lines, the volume down, while she sewed, her back to the television.

One time she sewed through her finger and the needle broke off–still in her finger. It had just nudged the bone. She called the doctor and he told her to pull it out with a pair of pliers! So she did. Then she downed a glass of White Zin and went back to the prairie dress she was making.

Anyway, this class I’m taking is called “Getting to Know Your Machine” and that’s what I intend to do. Oh, and we are making a tote-bag! Could it be any gayer? What I’d really like to do is use my sewing machine for my collages– I’d like to sew/put stitches on paper (<—like this cool blogger). For those of you who sponsored me in the Blazing Laptops Write-a-Thon, you might get your collage or postcard with some fresh stitching on it!

I wonder if, tonight at the class, when all of the sewing machines around me are buzzing, I’ll get that sensory perception? Might need to stop by the Station Bar after for a glass of White Zin!

I have just one more day of giving final exams– next Wednesday– and then my summer begins.

Summer, for me, equals:

finishing current draft of novel (updates to come)

reading (my book list to come)

movies (what’s a summer without movies?)

making stuff (did I mention I’m going to take a class on how to use your sewing machine?)

travel (maybe?)

work– oops, nope! no work/teaching for me this summer! (good or bad thing?)

Here’s a good thing: poem, Summer Trips, by Jonathan Greene

Summer Trips

As a child sequestered in
the back seat on a long journey,
exiled in one’s own world,
a refuge. Deep sleep naps.
Ice-cream stand oases after
a long stretch of highway.

A whole year of work
brings us this week at the beach.
The Devil’s bargain parents made,
a contract that renews every time,
weary after the nine-to-fives,
they unlock the front door.

“Summer Trips” by Jonathan Greene, from Distillations and Siphonings. (c) Broadstone Books, 2010. From The Writer’s Almanac.

Finished Cleopatra by Stacy Schiff. I loved the information about Egypt and Cleo and Mark Antony, but I was missing dialogue (the book is serious nonfiction). Still, Schiff impressed me with her knowledge and Cleo impressed me with her sheer tenacity.

My office at home is looking like one of those NYC apartments where the reclusive tenant saves every newspaper, magazine, letter,  leaflet and flyer. I’m too embarrassed to post a picture of it.

I cut the tip of my middle finger off and it hurt. Ok, it wasn’t really the tip, more like the corner of the tip. But it still hurt. For a couple of days I had to wear one of those splint-thingies so that I wouldn’t bump it on anything, but it definitely made it seem pretty drastic (but if you know me, you know how melodramatic I get with just the sniffles). And then I had to learn how to type without using that finger, which a couple of days ago I finally mastered. But now the finger is healing better and I can pretty much use it, only I have to re-learn how to type with it. Arghh!

While I was in the Emergency room Ted brought me Nicole Krauss’ Great House to read. I absolutely loved The History of Love and have been wanting to read this. It doesn’t disappoint. I read about 50 pages in, but I’m also reading another book so I may have to put the Great House aside until then.

Speaking of books…though I’m not finding, or rather making, the time to write as much as I should (I think that I somehow didn’t get the gene for discipline…), the little bits, spurts of writing that I’m doing I’m pretty pleased with. I’m loving working on two characters that I’d only been sketching out, or had only been on the periphery so far– the young female English High School Teacher with the secret stash of lipsticks in her desk drawer at school and the Shivwit Indian boy, Limpie, whose POV is told entirely through an essay he’s writing. It’s funny how developing these characters more and letting them lead me on this journey has sparked such new energy in me.

Ted‘s out of town for a week visiting his mom and then our new niece, and the cats, Betsy and Jack, are so neurotic (i’m fine though, thanks for asking)! They are completely underfoot. Betsy sits with me while watching TV, her head resting in my lap.

On another note, I’m obsessed with this website Instructables–have you seen it?– from which you can learn how to do anything from how to tie a tie, how to kiss, to other more craft-oriented tips such as  book-making, how to knit, make mosaics, origami, and my recent obsession: how to make linocuts.

I really really would love to have a letterpress machine, but this linocut thing looks a bit simpler (and less expensive). See the samples of what you can do below.

Many of the how-to’s have step-by-step photos and videos. Check them out, search for how to make or do just about anything.

Watched the last episode of TCM’s Moguls and Moviestars– the epic documentary series about the rise and fall of the movie studio system. It was completely fascinating. I couldn’t help but feel for the movie stars and studio heads when the studios started crumbling around them; not to mention the footage of the old studio land that was sold off.

Went to a fantastic reading Friday night at The Ink Spot. James Meetze (in the picture) read from his book of poems DAYGLO of which Rae Armantrout says “James Meetze is, in some sense, a ‘landscape poet,’ except his landscape includes ‘FA-18 Hornets’ that ‘boom above the freeway / as eucalyptus leaves rustle.’ He has a feel for his hometown, which is also mine. In fact, San Diego, with its ahistorical ‘Dayglo’ pastels, best glimpsed in passing from a freeway, is where we all live now, somehow, or soon will.”

Ryan Murphy (a friend from grad school!) says “Dayglo is a conscious artifact…”

Indeed, his poems took me back to my days growing up here. The beaches, the sunsets, the valleys and malls. But also they look at Southern California, and San Diego especially, through the eyes of someone who left here and then came back. They speak about beauty and warmth, of Eucalyptus trees, freeways and fluorescent lights, but also separation, isolation, regret, disappointment.

I’m particularly taken with the first two lines of the poem “To Make You Surfer”:

In all the movies about California youth,

we are made to believe in gold everywhere.

I love the movie– you know, massive tidal wave flips over a cruise ship and survivors, including Shelley Winters, Red Buttons, and Pamela Sue Martin, have to climb their way to the top, er, now bottom of the ship.

Great Fun!

In any case, I’m hoping 2011 will bring a full-time teaching job for me; a substantial draft of my book; much creative inspiration; new friends and stronger ties to current friends; travel; bigger things for the writing community in San Diego; even greater love, closeness and appreciation for my wonderful husband, Ted; a vintage letterpress (anyone know where I can get one?); more visits with family; more reading for pleasure (so many books, so little time); more time spent in NYC; patience and understanding; health and prosperity; peace.

Below are some of my favorite photos and memories from the year (especially the bloody Justin Bieber that I made with a faux-wood stamp! and Hermia, my cat, 1991-2010).

I’m almost finished reading the book I spoke about in my previous post (The Prince, The Showgirl, and Me) and I’m eying a stack of books by my bed. Which one next? The Pure Lover by David Plante? Model Home by Eric Pucher? A Case for God (got this last Christmas but still haven’t read it!) by Karen Armstrong? Great House by Nicole Krauss ? I absolutely loved The History of Love, her last book. I’m thinking I might start with A Case for God; every time I see it on my shelf I think about pulling it down and reading it. I’m compelled yet maybe intimidated by it. Time to do it!

In addition to reading, though, I’m finally getting back to the book I’m writing. It’s not a lot of time, three and a half weeks, but more than I usually have so I’m hoping to make some more progress. Lately I’ve been writing chapters involving a brand new character in the book–Limpie, a 17 year-old Shivwit Indian boy– well, he’s been in the book since the first chapter but I’m finally telling his story, as it were, in his chapters. His story actually comes through by means of an essay he’s writing in school, and so pieces from his essay, which read like letters to his teacher (he’s writing this essay as an extra credit assignment over the summer so he can graduate from high school), are in between the more traditional narrative. I’m finding so much heart and humor in Limpie who originally was going to just play a very minor part in the book.

Finally, I’m hoping to do some more creating–with my hands, but not just typing up my novel. I’ve got a few projects I’m working on or planning. Stuff to do in my little craft station out in the garage. One project involves these little freckled doll heads. I’m thinking of doing something like this. It involves plaster of paris! Unless someone out there has better ideas?

I’d also like to do something with these orange guns. Not sure what, though. Or maybe something with these cool old iron-on transfers from the 1940s (this one is of Van Johnson). And then I have all of those beautiful old window frames with the glass in them that I’d like to play around with.

Sigh.

I need to be busy again. Busy-ness makes me feel better. Having things to do, having places to be and responsibilities. I’d like to think it pushes me creatively, too. This summer was just a wash–too much time on my hands and not enough discipline. After the writing retreat in July which was both inspiring and stifling, I came back jazzed about my book but then  I lost the momentum. I need to get it back.

I’m going to sign up for a class at the writing school where I teach and where I do the programming. A really terrific (and prolific) writer named Tammy Greenwood, who also happens to be one of the sweetest most generous people, is teaching a 4 week workshop on prepping for Nanowrimo — National Novel Writing Month. I don’t know that I’ll officially participate in Nanowrimo, but we’ll see. The workshop is all about working on a personal strategy for actually getting it–your novel– done. I think it’s what I need. I’ve got nearly 100 pages of what I’m calling a draft which is so all over the place, fragmented, unstructured, that I need to really get into shape, not to mention I need to really just push forward and get the stuff out.

Of course, I did find some time to make things this summer. Again, trying out new types of postcard making. I made these two things (?), not sure what to call them, with the previously mentioned (in the previous blog) rubber stamps.

These are images taken from magazines that I then stamped with red paint (using the faux-wood-look rubber stamp). Can you guess who is in the first one (it’s from a recent Interview Magazine)? The second one is an ad from Photoplay Magazine from 1954.

Ok, i’m hoping to bring more people to my site, so the celebrity is: Justin Bieber! Bloody Justin Bieber! (no offense to JB, it’s just an artistic rendering; however, this will probably be the only time Mr. B will be on my website. Maybe).

Here are 5 that have gone out so far:

The postcards for the Write-a-Thon all have something to do with literature– I use pages from old books, lines of Whitman poems, lit criticism about Dickens and Bronte and then my usual film or pop-culture images or references, many from vintage magazines. I’m also experimenting with paint more– having fun painting rubber stamps and then applying that to the postcard.

I bought these AWESOME rubber stamps– one is a fleur-de-lys (you can see it in red and orange on two of the postcards) and then I found a  huge rubber stamp that looks like

wood grain (see below).

I’m torn between really loving the book, and being a bit frustrated or confused distinguishing between the two main characters–father and son– and the time shifts. But I’m only almost halfway through the book. On a sentence level, however, the book is incredible.

Speaking of tinkering, last week Judy Reeves (oh, she of San Diego Writers, Ink and A Writers Book of Days, among other lovely accomplishments) and I went to a journal-making workshop at San Diego Art Department. I took a silver-ring making class there last year.

This was a four-hour workshop on crafting/collaging your own journal– though not on binding your own journal as I had thought it might be. But it was still fun. Four hours with a good friend, getting our hands all sticky with glue and watching each other create something meaningful (after all, who doesn’t love a journal, right?).

I also learned some really cool ideas for collaging– notably the use of paint in collage– as background, or sometimes applied on top of the collage. The instructor really encouraged a lot of color, but I’m a bit more minimalist than that. Still, they look pretty good I have to admit.

As much as I love to write, because it’s an act of creating, I feel that same euphoria at working with my hands to create something with paper and paint and glue and ephemera. It’s also meditative and, most of the time, I can finish a project in a few days or weeks (if only I could do the same for my novel…).

Here are some pictures of the experience. The journal with the word Grizz at the top is mine–I’m not sure what my theme is/was: there are bears, old Japanese women in cat glasses, an upside down Oscar, British Admirals– figure that one out.  (Judy Reeves, in case you don’t know her and her fabulousness, is in yellow, the instructor Carla Christensen is in Pink). Do any of you take art classes like this for fun?

I’m inches away from being done with teaching for the semester. Final exams are next week and I have a table full of essays to grade but I’ll get through it. On the other side is a summer of writing, reading, and (unfortunately?) very little paid work/teaching. I’ll be running a once a week night Fiction Read & Critique at San Diego Writers, Ink starting in mid-June and I do the programming for the organization but that’s it as far as work. One of the worst summers I’ve ever had as far as finances but hopefully unemployment will not screw me over! I know I should also be happy for the time to write, too.

And, I’ve got my full fellowship at Summer Fishtrap Workshops and Gathering– in July. Cannot wait for this experience<–Look! I’m on their website! Look at the incredible other fellows! Look I’ll be working with Karen Fisher (I’m almost done with the masterful A Sudden Country) and meeting Gary Snyder!

So yes, lots of writing, but I’m also eager to do some reading this summer, some real reading.

On my list:

Tinkers, Paul Harding

Model Home, Eric Puchner

Falling to Heaven, Jeanne Peterson (she gave a reading at The Ink Spot– wonderful, wonderful)

Sunnyside, Glen David Gold

Oh, and did I mention I have two publications that have recently come out?

It All Changed in an Instant: More Six Word Memoirs by Writers Famous and Oscure

I guess I’m one of the obscure writers; they didn’t even tell me I’d been accepted. I found out from someone else. Still, I’m happy they published mine–it’s a pretty good one (and if you know me you’ll understand why when you read it–it’s on pg. 91).

and

6S (Six Sentences), Vol. 3– Edited by Lydia Davis (LYDIA DAVIS!!!!)

This one I knew about–though I didn’t know Lydia Davis was a part of it. Very cool. My very-very short story (duh, it’s only Six Sentences) is called “July 24, 1985″ and is on pg 57.

And, speaking of writing… tomorrow is the Blazing Laptops Write-a-Thon, of which I am a participant. I’ll be writing for 9 hours–tapping away at my keyboard–to raise money for San Diego Writers, Ink–the nonprofit writing organization where I do the programming.

Anyone who pledges $10 or more (flat amount) gets a postcard handmade by yours truly.These will be brand new and each one uniquely made for each person who pledges.

You can pledge here: Rob’s Blazing Laptop Pledge Page

To see examples of my postcards check out my Flickr account to the right–>

Thanks for your support. Have a great week!