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January 22, 2010

Lethargy, Languor, Lassitude, Listlessness

I don’t know what to write about today. I have plenty of subjects lined up, but something about it being the Friday of a long week of up-ups and low-downs makes my mind wander. So maybe just a shout out to everyone pressing in their traces, creative or otherwise. You can do it! I believe in you. If not today, a good night’s sleep and we’ll get it done tomorrow.

What I’m Reading Today: I read James Joyce’s short story ~ novella really ~ “The Dead” for the first time. It’s one of those things I’ve been meaning to read for a long time. What a lovely story. The contrast between the liveliness of the party, with its good humor and little frictions, and the image at the end of “the snow falling faintly through the universe and faintly falling, like the descent of their last end, upon all the living and the dead.” Hear, hear, for the epiphanic ending, even though many people say its time has passed.

PS My friend Jenny Shank’s first novel is being published! The Ringer is about an accidental police shooting and the way it affects the families of both the shooter and the victim, who confront each other when their sons unknowingly find themselves first as rivals, then as teammates in a Denver youth baseball league. When it comes out in May 2011, I’ll be the first one in line!

PPS Got a very nice rejection from a very important literary magazine today, and it made me feel so good. Writers, you know what I’m talking about.

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