Qu’est-ce que c’est? Read on…

Welcome to September! It’s back-to-school month, officially, and autumn seems to have already returned to Brooklyn, with a crispness in the air and cooler days. Looking back, it was actually an eventful summer. (It having been the “last summer of my twenties,” I was keeping tabs.) After a dreary June spent finishing a certain manuscript (900 pages later…) I decided to revamp the entire thing and chucked it. In July, I vaguely vented about this to Jonathan Lethem, who I had the chance to interview in Maine for an upcoming profile that will appear in November in the print version of this excellent magazine. Lethem said, “well, it’s probably going to be much, much more interesting.” (I have this on tape. It is tempting to replay it when I’m feeling stuck.) Here’s hoping so. I’m about a third of the way and feeling so much more eager to spend time with these characters and exploring where the plot might take them than I ever was writing about “myself.” Writing lessons: a lifelong thing.
After that, I drove to Montreal (7.5 hours of dark, twisting New England backroads!) and met up with Em and Ilter; beautiful city, I felt as though I should have been jetlagged, it’s so European. Vive la Canada. And August…well, that went by fast. Baxter the pug learned to swim in Lake Washington and mastered the skill on Fire Island.

Next week it’s back to Columbia to teach a new class and wrap up my thesis…