Where are we?

Which makes me a hypocrite since I vanished for awhile. Regardless, if we don't have time to meet, I see no reason why we shouldn't start shit here.

Xmas party was fun.

What the hell is a figgy pudding?

Hope everyone else's xmas was more tolerable than my own.

I went out to dim sum.

Okay, I've said stuff.

Someone post something more interesting.

Edges of Bounty

Check out this new book by a friend of mine. Haven't read the whole thing yet, but it looks very good so far ...

"Edges of Bounty: Adventures in the Edible Valley" is a book of words and pictures published by Heyday Books available is stores now.

http://edgesofbounty.com/

Book Sale in Berkeley

If you happen to be in the Bay Area on Thursday, October 16, check out the Super Sidewalk Book Sale put on by University of California Press. Located on the sidewalk (ah, but you guessed that) at 2120 Berkeley Way (between Shattuck and Oxford), the sale offers BARGAINS GALORE on UC Press books! Most paperbacks are $5, most hardcovers are $10.

Smartest One in the Room

In addition to being a most prolific and skilled writers of novels, Jenn Rossmann has now turned out Introduction to Engineering Mechanics: A Continuum Approach. In addition to knowing the ins and outs of your average fluid, she also does ten million other things REALLY REALLY WELL. I mean, when she moved across the country, California lost some serious points in its average IQ. And the writing groop itself, well, she was keeping us above the median.

Post-MFA doldrums

Here's the most recent post from an interesting blog about the writing-life as a career. Called "The Three P's of Post-MFA '08," the blog chronicles the search for employment of three 'professional' wordsmiths ...

The "Link" Between Creativity and Mental Disorders

"Experts say mental illness does not necessarily cause creativity, nor does creativity necessarily contribute to mental illness, but a certain ruminating personality type may contribute to both mental health issues and art."

Wow. That is some groundbreaking science. It never would have occurred to me on my own. I'm glad we live in a world where there are scientists and experts to uncover these mysterious connections for us. I hope we're paying them enough to do this kind of intellectual heavy lifting: "If you think about stuff in your life and you start thinking about it again, and again, and again, and you kind of spiral away in this continuous rumination about what's happening to you and to the world -- people who do that are at risk for depression." (That's Paul Verhaeghen--psychologist, novelist and one hell of an articulate guy).

Now if they can only tell me what defect in my brain chemistry led to the decision to pursue poetry rather than, say, astrophysics or nursing or some other, more-conducive-to-cash-flow vocation, we'll be all set. If they can come up with a drug to combat the aforementioned defect, that's even better.

Internal Consistency

Well, it seems that the administrator's account is gone forever. I have no idea what this means but I'm not the only one with this issue and Google is so far of NO HELP. A pox upon their "campus"... unless they come through. And I'll be fair if that's the case.

We read more of Jeremy's Debris. He was already inhouse when I arrived after bocce. I simply walked up to him, hugged him, and told him he was going to be our next member to be published. Speaking of which, Nick continues to share insider bookseller buzz on Nami Mun's book. And indeed there is a buzz.

But back to Jeremy. I would say Jen levied the deepest critique. It started with, "Anytime some guy wants to beat his daughter, I'm fine with it, but..."

This is what happens with fiction. It doesn't have to be morally acceptable as long as its internally consistent.

In other news, Jen has written 100 pages. She fears that the pages are not 100 pages toward a novel but 100 pages toward writing toward a novel. You know when you have to write and write and write in order to figure out what to write about?

Both she and Nick are in the queue, but we first anticipate reading words from our newbie. Meanwhile, does anyone want to read my personal essay for b-school?

Welcome New Member / Solutions to Writer's Block

I probably shouldn't say anything until we find out if he really does plan to return, but it looks as if we have a new member. Okay, now I won't say anything more, but the reviews are in and it's good.

I will invite him to contribute to the blog just as soon as I remember the administrator's password. Does anyone have it? I've totally lost it and the password to the email address too, which means I have to call AT&T and that will be just a barrel of monkeys.

I also have to add Nami Mun's new book to the sidebar. Have you all seen her dishy promotion photographs? In Christian's words, she looks HAWT. If that doesn't sell books...

A note on writer's block. There are several ways to solve it. Here are two ideas:

1. Attend groop and ask Nick what to do.

2. Make a several-hundred dollar bet with a friend. The bet is that you won't be able to write 50 pages in a month. Send the check in advance. Your friend cashes it if she doesn't see the pages.

Jen and I will report back on which works better. So far, Jen's solution, #2, seems to be winning.