Digressions with Sayeeda Copeland

I hope you all have an opportunity to listen to my podcast episode with Sayeeda Copeland, a rising talent and an amazing person. Sayeeda blows my mind with her strength of purpose and her strength, period. And as for her writing, well, she just pulls you right in. Here's how she opens her novel, Queens: …

But I Digress… My Podcast With Victoria Redel

Victoria Redel is a brilliant writer and human being. If you want proof of the degree of her awesome, look no further than the Facebook poetry reading series she conducted all throughout the pandemic lockdown. It was a gift to her FB friends, but as she tells me during the podcast (you can listen to …

But I Digress… with Michael Gottlieb

My first podcast episode of But I Digress is now live! Michael Gottlieb, the author of more than 20 books, joins me to talk about the role of art in life, which he says is "to help us live our lives." He talks about New York, the hidden New York, how poets live their lives, …

But I Digress … The Eve of the Eve

September 2, which is in two days, the first episode of But I Digress, drops into the world. It's been quite an adventure thus far, learning how to record, edit, and prepare a podcast. Photo credit: Liisalh 2013 I feel very lucky that the first episode of But I Digress features Michael Gottlieb, whom I …

On Borges, Fiction’s Clay and Purpose

The lines between fiction and memoir are often blurred. This is problematic for anyone who writes and still has loved ones! I'm grateful to the blogger Tim Ferris for providing this timely quote, as I try to find an agent for The Factory: A Novel Based on a True Holocaust Story. “A writer—and, I believe, …

Melvin McNair: World’s Nicest Hijacker

I met Melvin McNair on a dusty playing field in Caen, a city on the French Atlantic coast that had been bombed into permanent dreariness during WWII. He was managing the local baseball team, and I was managing a Paris-based team. During the course of a doubleheader, we chatted on the field, and off during …

How to market your unpublished novel… or not

I've been listening to the Ringo Starr song, It Don't Come Easy. The song is (forgive the pun) easy on the ears, and it's also kind of an anthem for anyone trying to do something extremely daunting. Like trying to get someone to represent, publish (or heck, read) literary fiction. So, ya want to be …

Introducing “But I Digress”

I'm very lucky. I know a lot of great writers. But like most writers, I'm a bit of a recluse, which means I don't see or talk with them very often. This is my avatar, Michael Missing, drawn by and given me by my late friend Michael Hoover. So I've had a wonderful idea: an …

The Factory: A Novel: The Pitch

What my brain looks like when trying to pitch my fiction. The good news is that I’m done with The Factory: A Novel. Now I need to pitch it (to an agent, a publisher, a movie producer, a doormouse… I suck at pitching my own stuff. There is a short pitch and a long pitch. …

Exquisite New Stories

I know it's just terrible to write so infrequently. As a child I was a terrible pen pal. I will try to do better. Now, I'm not bragging when I say Exquisite. These stories have been published in Exquisite Pandemic, an online magazine recently launched by Rick Whitaker, whom I have known for (Jesus, really?) …

Finally: I Lived in France and So Can You

I’m thrilled to announce that my new book, "I Lived in France and So Can You," is now available through Dzanc Books. Huge thanks to Dan Wickett, who continues to believe in and support my work! Thanks also to Molly Elliott for allowing me to write about part of her life, and to Carol Edwards Hickins for being the …

Baseball, Burgers, and Biere

I recently finished the first draft of a book about my experiences in France managing baseball teams and running an American restaurant. It's all true -- and I decided to write this book because every time I meet new people and they ask about my past, they seem fascinated -- you ran an actual business …