Iowa was awesome this year. I started on my novel, and despite the fact that I’ve only added a paragraph to it since I’ve been back, it’s really gotten the thoughts and ideas flowing. I’m trying hard to sit down for at least an hour a day and write, and if not write then do nothing else but think of the story.
Why don’t we tip flight attendants? We tip people who serve us our food in restaurants and people who park our cars (I could go into a long rant about how lazy we must be to have someone else park our Mercedes for us, but I think that says it all), so why not the flight attendants? I dare say the flight attendant has to do way more work than the average waiter does.
I read through David Sedaris’ “Me Talk Pretty One Day” while in Iowa and waiting at airports. I’ve found myself emulating his style in my writing. He’s so smooth and flowy with his writing. Really funny stuff too. Some of it didn’t do it for me, but most of the time he was on the money.
I’ve been using WriteRoom to write my novel, and highly recommend it for anyone else who has problems concentrating. Plus it looks damn cool to be working on an all black screen with green text on it. Makes me look like some hardcore writer dude.
My desktop machine has died on me for no reason at all. I’m still trying to figure out if it’s the power supply or the motherboard. Either way, I imagine it could be a blessing in surprise disguise since I no longer have access to Warcraft 3 (Damn that footmen frenzy is addicting) or my music. More time to write write write!
I’ve been meaning to write up reviews for The Alchemist by Paulo Coelho and You Remind Me of Me by Dan Chaon but just never got around to it, and then today I finished reading Crossing California by Adam Langer. I came to the quick realization that I didn’t care much for either of the previous books, but will heartily recommend Crossing California.
I can now categorize books into one of two categories: Books that I recommend to anyone and everyone to read, and books that I tend to forget I had read and won’t say much about unless provoked by someone else. Of course there’s always books that are horrible and I abhor and will probably tell everyone how much I hated it, but that usually has more to do with my own personal taste in novels.
And with that, I will say nothing more about The Alchemist or You Remind Me of Me
I am in Iowa attending the Summer Writing Festival once more, this time taking a workshop on starting the novel. We just had our first meeting and I’m feeling good about our instructor (Leslie Schwartz) and the workshop. She told us not to share our work with anyone else unless they are writers themselves because only then will they understand our plight.
That’s cool cause that makes me feel better than all the non-writers. You hear that? I’m better than you.
I saw fireflies for the first time in my life today.
The closing remarks of the Iowa Summer Writing Festival were lead off by Bret Anthony Johnson. After an awkward yet amusing rendition of “Happy Birthday” for coordinator Kurt’s birthday, Bret opened with a joke, which I will poorly paraphrase here:
A writer out of town on business receives a phone call from the police department. They tell him they have bad news — that his house was burnt down to ashes and nothing remains. They have good news though — they caught the guy who did it. It’s his literary agent.
The writer says, “Really? My agent came to my house?”
An inspirational speech about writing followed, and thus ended my first experience at the Iowa Summer Writing Festival.
But not yet! My plane back wasn’t until Saturday evening, so I actually had an entire day to myself just to enjoy Iowa city. The Mayflower dormitory forced me to check out at noon, so I left my luggage at the desk and went off.
I enjoyed an Iowa omelette at Hamburg Inn No. 2 before heading back to the used bookstores where I picked up a few more books to bring back in my box. I’m really into used bookstores now and hoping I can find some good ones back in Los Angeles. With still a few hours to kill until the shuttle would arrive, I rested in a coffee shop and just read to pass the time. Having nothing to worry about and just tons of free time was more than worth the trip.
Although my primary goal of just “to write more” wasn’t accomplished simply because the workshop was not very writing intensive, I still learned a lot from the people I met and have more insight into the writing process now. I’m fairly certain I’ll return next year, and encourage everyone who has even the tiniest bit of interest in writing to check it out too. If anything, it’s a good, relaxing, vacation away from everything.
Final flickr photo set of Iowa City.
In addition to the random middle of the road stop and go ATM (which, btw, according to a local, only happens on that one street and quite often too), I really like to disregard the traffic signals and just cross whenever it looks clear. I’m really gonna miss that when I get back.
Continue reading “Iowa Summer Writing Festival - Day 3 & 4″
The food in Iowa City, or at least in downtown Iowa City, is atrocious.
Well, not so bad that it’s unbearable, but bland and mediocre so that choosing a place to eat is more like choosing between dying by electrocution or lethal injection.
Two restaurant advisories: Stay away from Z’Marik Noodle Cafe next to Prairie Lights, and make sure to brave the walk out to Aoeshe on Gilbert, a Japanese/Korean/Chinese restaurant. In most cases, Asian food in Iowa would be suicide, but this place was surprisingly good and definitely the best place I’ve eaten at during my stay here in Iowa.
Of course there are still a lot of restaurants to visit, but my experience so far has not been pleasing. I’m close to resorting to the fast food chains for reliable and cheap food.
Continue reading “Iowa Summer Writing Festival - Day 2″
The free coffee in the morning was way overrated.
Here’s my daily schedule first: Morning coffee from 8:30 to 10:30. The Elevenses Series, presentations on a variety of topics of interest to writers, at 11:00. Workshop session from 2:00 to 5:00. Prairie Lights readings at 8:00.
Any time before, after, or between those is free time. Heck, anything other than the workshop is free time, all other activities are optional.
Continue reading “Iowa Summer Writing Festival - Day 1″
The Mayflower dormitories I’m staying at are out in the middle of nowhere. I kept waiting for the cities and then downtown to appear, but instead the Shuttle made a random U-Turn, and sure enough I was at the dorms. I looked in both directions down the road when I got out…nothing.
Another passenger on the shuttle who came to the festival last year told me campus and downtown was just a 15 minute walk down the road. We also shared the shuttle ride with a New Zealand post-graduate neuroscientist going to the University of Iowa for a conference. She has never been to America before, so wonderful Iowa City will be her first experience of America. “It’s so weird to be driving on the wrong side of the road,” she said.
Continue reading “Iowa Summer Writing Festival - Day 0 (Part 2)”
My name is Eric and I like running on an hour of sleep.
I arrived at LAX two hours ahead of my flight departure time. United Airlines decided to go “self check-in” with this e-ticket business, and naturally about 90% of the people who go up to the kiosks don’t know how to use it and need someone to help them with it. It’s amusing to watch the “paper ticket” lines move about ten times as fast.
After 30 minutes of standing in line, a representative informed me that if I had no bags to check-in (which I didn’t), then I could do the express check-in at the machines hidden under the bridge.
Thanks for telling me earlier.
Continue reading “Iowa Summer Writing Festival - Day 0 (Part 1)”
A designer at my work found it amusing that people would hear me say “Riding Class” instead of “Writing Class” when asked why I was going to Iowa, so he made a little something in Photoshop to have some fun (Just like Wang Chung). Then one of the animators said he would animate it jumping hurdles and all that great equestrian stuff (He hasn’t yet).
Damn designers.
I’m getting rather antsy about going and feel like I’m gonna forget something important. Like a pencil. Ooh paper! Gotta bring that…
A week from today I will be in Iowa attending the Iowa Summer Writing Festival. The University of Iowa offers writing workshops, either lasting for a week or just a weekend, each specializing on different topics and helping to further writing and the various techniques.
Continue reading “Following Through”
Syndicate this site