National Bookworms

TC Boyle reads us a story.

I got to see two of my favorite authors at the National Book Festival in D.C. It’s sponsored by the Library of Congress and is, by far, the best thing to result from the (Laura) Bush administration. TC Boyle barely engaged with the audience, but he read us an entire story. The first-person narrator makes one rotten decision after another. As often happens with Boyle’s tales, we simultaneously cringed and laughed.

Geraldine Brooks not only read, but talked about her writing and personal background. She then took questions from the audience. At these things someone always asks how the speaker deals with writer’s block. Brooks replied that she just gets on with it; hairdressers don’t get to have hairdresser block after all.

Before becoming a novelist, she worked as a reporter in some very scary situations and was still expected to make deadline. Seems like better training than an MFA if you can stand it.

Laboring Day

It’s been a busy summer. I even found myself laboring on Labor Day: Web pages in the morning, tabloid pages in the evening.

I’ve rarely had two days in a row off since January, but there was still fun to be had.

How I spent My Summer Vacation

Travel:

Took a two-day trip to Rehoboth Beach in July. It was 104 degrees the first day. The next day was 86 and people were wearing sweaters. Relativity is a crazy thing. I’ve been going to Rehoboth since I was 15 and never get tired of it.

August 16 and 17 we drove to Morgantown, West Virginia, a place we’d never been. The people we met seemed surprised that anybody would go to Morgantown on a vacation. But it’s fun and friendly and getting there was a pretty drive. Though I’ve lived in Maryland most of my life, there are places that I’ve missed. That was remedied with a visit to Cumberland on the way to West Virginia and to Frostburg on the way back. I’d definitely do that trip again.