A Letter of Apology to My First Draft

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A year ago, I completed the first draft of my second novel.  I’m still rewriting it, and while doing so, I had an idea to write it a letter.

Dear Love Love,

Yesterday, you were born.  You were not an easy delivery, for the ink on my laser printer was ready to give out.  I fed thirty sheets of you at a time so I could take out the toner and shake it, to make sure the words on your pages printed solid and streak-free.  I carried you from the output tray to the stack.  I watched you grow.  I picked you up.  You were as warm as a blanket in my hands.  Bound with a long rubber band, you were my hefty, luminous bundle.

[more @ The Nervous Breakdown]

“Trespassing,” at the Asian American Literary Review

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Fresh off the press is the Spring 2012 edition of the Asian American Literary Review.  A short story I wrote is in this issue (“Trespassing”), so there’s no better time to support these good folks.  You’ll also find works by Ed Park and Ed Bok Lee, and even some writers not named Ed.  Check out the table of contents and the sampler and order yourself a copy!

 

Faith, at THE2NDHAND TXT

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I first encountered THE2NDHAND when I bought a used book online.  I can’t remember the book, but I do remember a broadsheet I received in the envelope, a fine short story by Patrick Somerville.  It turns out that they also have a website where they post short stories, and they ended up liking “Faith” enough to put it up.  I read an excerpt of this story at the Sulu Reading series in NYC, which was almost two years ago…?  Man, where does the time go.  Anyway, you can now read it in full.  Much thanks to Rhian Ellis for writing After Life, which inspired this short story.

World Famous in Poland – Paryż nocą

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That’s a quote from a movie, by the way — To Be or Not to Be, a Mel Brooks film.  Somebody asks Ann Bancroft, who plays Brooks’ wife (who also happens to be his real-life wife), about her actor husband, and she tells them, “He’s world famous in Poland!”

Now I’m proud to say that I, too, am world famous in Poland, thanks to Marcin Kucharski.  He liked my story “Paris, at Night” enough that he wanted to translate it to his native tongue.  So for those literate in Polish, give my story a read.

Paryż nocą

Dziś był dzień ryżu, 20. kilogramowe worki ryżu w ciężarówkach z logo słonia. Dokładnie ten sam słoń pojawia się na torbach- z głową podniesioną ku niebu i trąbą wykrzywioną w kształt litery S.

  • Słoń – powiedział Todd

Powiedział to, gdyż jakiś pracownik gapił się bezustannie na logo. Oznacza to, że się obijał.

  • Właśnie! – wykrzyknął mężczyzna. – Nie mogłem przypomnieć sobie słowa.

[more]

Drifting House, by Krys Lee

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Check out my review of Krys Lee’s excellent collection of short stories, Drifting House, in today’s issue of the Financial Times.

In her powerful debut collection, Drifting House, Korean-American author Krys Lee plumbs the darkness on both sides of this divided nation. Indeed, an alternate title for this volume of nine stories might have been “Koreans in Trouble”; these are people in dire straits – be it a father who loses his job, his family and his sanity, or a young girl with an incarcerated mother. The stories – some set 50 years ago, others in the present day – are steeped in Korean culture, history and food.

Let’s Call the Whole Thing Off

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I thought it might fun to usher in the new year by watching the film 2012.  Neither my wife nor I had seen it, and since this year has been purported to be the end, why not?

We had a great time.  It’s Hollywood by the book, but oh, the carnage!  I couldn’t get enough, and was so inspired that we kept going with more doomsday picks.  As always, haikus to the rescue.

It ends with a bang:
an orgy of destruction
and it’s fun to watch.
A procedural
in planetary wreckage
‘Nauts to the rescue.
It begins like art
light, funny, then turns Lars-dark
Yes, depression sucks.

Favorite Songs of 2011

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"Some New Jersey Dawn..."

Here’s a list of my top songs for this year, in an order that might be surprisingly mixable. These are not necessarily from 2011; I just happened to have heard them in the last twelve months.

“Payback Time,” by East River Pipe on We Live in Rented Rooms
“A Heart Divided,” by Holly Throsby on A Loud Call
“Sweet Disposition,” by The Temper Trap on Conditions
“Americano,” by Lady Gaga on Born This Way
“You’re Not Stubborn,” by Two Door Cinema Club on Tourist History
“Stranger,” by Lissie on Catching a Tiger
“Cruel,” by St. Vincent on Strange Mercy
“The Day,” by Moby on Destroyed
“Box of Stones,” by B.F. Leftwich on Last Smoke Before the Snowstorm
“Job’s Coffin,” by Tori Amos on Night of Hunters
“Bluebird,” by Christina Perri on Lovestrong
“Mylo Xyloto/Hurts Like Heaven,” by Coldplay on Mylo Xyloto
“Dance, Dance, Dance,” by Lykke Li on Youth Novels
“Rolling in the Deep,” by Adele on 21
“Club Can’t Handle Me,” by Flo Rida featuring David Guetta on Only One Flo Pt. 1
“Never Gonna Leave Me,” by Sia on We Are Born
“Change of Seasons, by Sweet Thing on Sweet Thing
“Portable Television,” by Death Cab for Cutie on Codes and Keys
“The Cave,” by Mumford & Sons on Sigh No More
“Mistakes,” by Mates of State on Mountaintops
“Torch Song,” by Priscilla Ahn on When You Grow Up

The song that has most intrigued me this year is the first on the list, “Payback Time,” by East River Pipe.  So intrigued that I transcribed the lyrics below:

Yeah, I saw you walking with the commandant
Yeah, he buys you everything he thinks you want
But after food and wine and small talk on the Rhine
he says it’s payback time

Yeah, Jean-Paul took you on long cross-country trips
Yeah, Voltaire and Kierkegaard fell from his lips
of steal
But something went awry as love started to die
he said it’s payback time

Just wait, I’ll come along
on some New Jersey dawn
I’ll say payback time

I can’t find the lyrics online, but the singer is pretty clear.  The only part that’s in question is what I have in bold.  I imagine the first stanza describing a situation in a concentration camp (commandant, Rhine, etc.).  In the second stanza, the “you” is a woman, and the singer has lost her to Jean-Paul (hence, the lips of grammatically incorrect “steal”).  The third stanza is a bit of a mystery.  Our narrator will be coming for his girl at some undetermined morning, but whose payback is he talking about?  Jean-Paul’s?  Hers?

Of course, for all I know, the song has nothing to do with anything I’ve said above.  Whatever.  It’s a great tune, and I like thinking about it.