Maybe it’s April in Academia. Maybe there is something else within me trying to parse this answer. I can’t shake the fact that my writing is suffering of late. Because I haven’t been doing the thing that I am supposed to be doing. Which is, of course, writing. There is only one way into this […]
“I have no idea if you think your making a film about Duke or Thompson. And I’m filling with hate and rage just thinking about it.” I’ve been devoid of words the last few days. Not for the normal reasons, I suspect. I’m not over-whelmed with work although there is work to do. I’m not […]
I’ve never been much help to my students when they’ve asked me for advice on becoming a writer. It’s not because I don’t want to be helpful. I remember their angst and confusion and loneliness, trying to contemplate a life where I get paid to simply put words on a page. It seemed, to steal […]
Nearly three weeks after the Vanity Fair thrashing Cincinnati and Appalachia hit the Web, my hometown media finally caught the Fever. The last 24 hours has been an interesting mix of blogo-rage, media coverage and Twitter conversation. As a journalist, a professor and an author, I’m intrigued by how stories develop. This one in particular. […]
In 2002, I left Wired News. Whether I was laid off or voluntarily left is still a bit confusing to me. I was told that I wasn’t “on the list” by the higher-ups, but some folks on the facilities staff let me know that my computer access was being removed. Regardless, I had purchased a […]
I am staring at David Foster Wallace tonight, surrounded by my newly filed writing projects for this semester. I am staring at him because tomorrow I will be once again teaching his writing in my magazine class, wondering if the students really feel the warmth of his words as they spill across the page. Manic. […]
My life changed forever on May 11, 2008. It wasn’t the first time my life had changed. It certainly wasn’t the last. And while it turned out to be for the better, the immediate change didn’t feel particularly good. As I used to hear someone say: You think when you quit drinking that you’re life […]
I’d planned on writing this post on the plane last night, but the best laid plans and all those things. The travel delays and obstacles, though, brought new opportunities my way. I had the chance to sit next to a young woman from Charlotte on the flight from Memphis to San Francisco. We chatted about […]
1. I preach to my kids: write every day. I should stop there and clarify that sentence. Because I don’t exactly have kids. I am a professor. I have students. But they are mine. At least for 17 weeks each semester. My job is to help them find the tools they need to go live […]
Sometimes I float. I couldn’t tell you exactly what brings upon these moods in my life anymore than I could tell you when I’m anchored down. Surely there are ideas, tiny thoughts that bounce around in my brain. Dissecting. Always dissecting. The eternal search for that One Thing that will make it all clear. That […]
Prologue. Curveball. The last time I held a baseball bat, with any seriousness, was May 1990. I remember because of what I didn’t do. I remember because years of my life came to focus in that one at bat, that one moment where I expected to succeed in ways that I had succeed before. I […]
1. The first movie I obsessed over, in the kind of way that can only be felt by the young, was Pump Up the Volume. It was the summer after my freshman year at Miami University. I was sober for the first time. I was home in my parents condominium, a place they bought not […]