Well, my favorite is this one,

and especially the wonderful photo recipe for this frosting party dress–click on it to see it up close in all its glory!  Happy San Diego Pride Everyone!

And, oh yes, you will see collage made of these!

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 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 also going to get out more postcards– yes, I know, I still owe some of you your postcard, i’m sorry it’s so late!

I’m taking a writing workshop this Saturday for 4 weeks to get me back into my book– I need some butt-kicking that’s for sure.

Missing my Hermia, but I know she’s still around, in spirit, watching me, nuzzling next to me (or wait, was that Ted?).

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 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!

Today had one of the longest (and most productive) days of writing since I got back from Vermont.

Also, kind of nice to go with the hubby and write.

We went to down to The Ink Spot, the writing group/organization (San Diego Writers, Ink) that I work for and we both teach for downtown. Every other Sunday they have what they call, Room To Write, from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. for members and provide a quiet space and tables and chairs and lots of light to write. If you live in San Diego you should really think about joining SDWInk!

After nearly four hours of working on a new scene in the book, I looked through my journal, the one I kept while in VT at the VSC.

Read through the notes I took when Amy Bloom, the visiting writer, gave her craft talk. Bloom is, in my humble opinion, a queen of the first line.

Here are some of the things I wrote down:

Make the characters come alive from the inside.

Create a dream the reader enters; the errors in syntax, form, character, etc., can destroy that dream.

The best novel strives to be like the best poem.

Character: see the world as he sees it.

And, if you spend the time to give them a name, they should also have a soul.

How does it feel inhabiting that world as that character?

They should sound like themselves, not like variations of YOU.

If you can’t imagine what it is a character does or says, don’t write about it.

A reader should encounter and create their own relationship with a character.

Always keep in mind:

1. Illuminating the character
2. Advancing the story
3. Giving a beautiful sentence

Don’t walk us through every moment—crossing the room, grabbing the door knob, etc.

Sometimes start with the very bare bones of a scene and then go back.

When you write, your loved ones, your audience, your parents are DEAD.

You make this good because it matters to YOU.

Read it aloud without inflection so you can hear every bad thing you’ve done.

Move a reader—like an actor—into and out of every scene.

Make your readers believe things really happened, even if it didn’t.

I’m really drawn back to the line: They should sound like themselves, not like variations of YOU.

So much of my writing has been autobiographical, even if loosely based on me or my life. And so I’m trying very hard to make this book, these characters, sound unlike anything else I’ve ever written. But I’m also wanting to move forward and not get hung up on lines and images in this first draft; so, gulp, I’m going to try to do a little bit of both. Work on language, but not get trapped and stopped up by the language—yet—so that I can press on and get through.

And, making my own. (more samples on my Flickr page to the right–>)

Sometimes my friends, like Peter and Jess, give me old postcards they find or old family postcards–especially Jess, whose family seems to have thousands of them.

here’s one.  don’t remember where I got it. the back of it says National Arts Centre, Ottawa Canada “one of five luminous hanging sculptures… by William Martin.”

I was part of a home-made post-card trade–Post.due– that was fun for a bit but then it sort of disappeared, or maybe they disappeared me? (two of my postcards–featuring Dick and Jane– are at the bottom of the page).

Then I discovered Tin Parachute Publishing– also defunct– but they were so cool. They would print a tiny story on a postcard and someone would create art to go with it and then they would send it out. How cool to have a teeny tiny story on a postcard sent out to subscribers– and to have someone create art based on your story. This has happened to me once, when I wrote a piece for the Canadian magazine Maisonneuve.

One of my favorite stories was by the writer Pedro Ponce– see the postcard below. And then it turns out Pedro and I were at the same residency in January so I got to meet him. (and he’s not only a terrific writer but a terrific guy).

I wish Tin Parachute Publishing were still going–I’d love to have sent them something. Does anyone know if there are any short story postcard journals out there?

Maybe I should get one started? Hmm, like I need another distraction from my own writing, right?

(click on the postcard to read the story)

Great quote from Cheever, though (from pg. 375 of the bio):

“Why, I wonder, should my admirers always be mad.”

–does this make me mad?

<–great postcard, eh? got this last year. what to do with it?