thoughts on writing and reading

New Yorker on iPad

Mark Richardson — Wed, 25 Jan 2012 21:56:19 +0000

What is the fastest way to create marital discord? Have only one iPad.

My wife and I have two young children, and as a result at night we’re often stuck at home. And since we’re stuck we’d find ourselves wanting to surf the web on our favorite little computing device. We typically get along great (my wife and I), but who got access to the iPad created fireworks. Our solution? We bought a second one, an iPad 2. Yes, we helped Apple have a blowout quarter, and I just bought a new iPhone 4S, so I helped with the current quarter as well.

The new iPad 2 coincided with the re-upping of my New Yorker subscription. It had lapsed for a few months. For a couple of weeks now, I’ve gotten the magazine on my iPad, and I’m trying to decide if I like this format. I know, this is not a new topic. People have been writing about hardcopy vs. online for years. I’m a news junky, and I get nearly all my news online. I used to love buying the newspaper, but now can’t imagine doing so. But maybe a magazine is different? Here is a very quick list of my pro’s and cons.

Pro’s

The online magazine arrives sooner (Monday, instead of Thursday for the hard copy).
No recycling.
Last night I read the Fiction story, and they offered an audio version recorded by the author. That was cool. (The problem is if you move the text by mistake – which I did – you have to go all the way back to the beginning of the recording. So halfway through I just switched to reading).
Everything is archived! I have easy access to past issues of the magazine.

Con’s

I suspect that all the reading I do online is hurting my eyes. Or maybe it’s just because I’m getting old.
When I download an issue, does it eat up memory on the iPad? I’m not sure. Maybe it lives in the cloud.
There is something nice about holding the actual magazine. And it’s a lot easier to share with someone else.

Okay, so the list isn’t very comprehensive, but it reflects where I’m at now. More research required. If you’re interested in getting the New Yorker app for your iPad, this video by Jason Schwartzman does a good job of explaining the features. And it’s very funny!

Looking Back on 2011

Mark Richardson — Wed, 04 Jan 2012 22:54:21 +0000

We’re now a few days into the New Year, and it seems like a good time to look back. From a writing perspective, 2011 was fairly fruitful for me. Four of my stories were published. I also feel like I made some progress toward getting better at writing fiction. I still don’t consider myself a really good, but I’m learning how to balance narrative, exposition, action, and dialogue. Or at least I am consciously aware of these things while I’m writing (and editing), and actively ask myself what is missing, what do I need to add? Plot is still a big challenge.

For 2012, I’ve given myself the goal of writing three short stories. If I can do more – great! But I definitely want to get three done. I’d like to push myself and see if I can get published in a more prominent journal (nothing against those that have published my stories so far). I suspect I need to get better before that happens.

I haven’t really written any fiction since last September when I finished a story called “Poisoned Pawn.” I’ve just been too busy with moving (twice) and work and family commitments. But I wrote a little yesterday, and it felt good.

I’ve shopped “Poisoned Pawn” out to a number of journals, and I’m curious to see if I’ll get a bite. The story is a little unusual, and I’m not sure if others will like it.

According to Malcolm Gladwell, you need to dedicate 10,000 hours toward something before you become an expert. I’m curious if all the writing I’ve done in my career counts toward that 10,000 hours. I’ve been writing for years. It must have some impact, yes?

Reunion, Hugh Fox

Mark Richardson — Tue, 03 Jan 2012 21:27:46 +0000

Professor Buzz “Buzzy” Lox, now in his sixties, is invited to the fifty year class reunion of his grammar school in Chicago, Our Lady of Perpetual Sorrows. The reunion will take place on January 12. As an erstwhile resident of the Chicago-area I can tell you that the middle of January is not the time that I would have picked for a reunion. But no matter – Buzzy wants to go and see the old gang. And he will bring with him Malinche – his beautiful, younger, third wife from Karachi.

Reunion had a very nostalgic feel to it. Buzzy had been through a lot since he left Chicago. In addition to the three wives, he’d lived in eight countries, speaks multiple languages, is the father of five children, and has multiple grandchildren. He knows he’s at the tail end of his life, and wondering if he made the right choices. Yes, his life was an adventure, but maybe he would have been better off marrying one of his classmates in Chicago and settling down there?

The book is fiction, but it is also undeniably autobiographical. The author, Hugh Fox, is Buzzy (more-or-less). Fox was dying of cancer when he wrote Reunion, and it was published just before he died. I found an interview of Fox online, and he describes the book this way:

How is REUNION different from your other novels?

I think that stylistically it’s more “classical comedy” + tragedy/life-overview, kind of like Waugh, Aldous Huxley, Dickens, the English novelists I was bathed in when I wrote REUNION. I used to read Huxley especially every day, immerse myself in British contemporary satire/confessionalism. I think it gets more to the heart of the matter (a vision of the shortness of life) more than any other novel I’ve ever written.

Fox was an interesting man. Among his many accomplishments, he wrote the first biography of Charles Bukowski, and was one of the creators of the Pushcart Prize for literature.

I enjoyed the book. The prose is frenetic, and stream of conscious. Some of the sentences were long, long, long, and packed with information. At times it was hard to take, but overall I think it worked.

“Miracle Polish,” Steven Millhauser

Mark Richardson — Fri, 18 Nov 2011 01:12:22 +0000

It had been months since I’d last read a New Yorker short story. My mind had been occupied with thoughts of family, moving, and work. I hadn’t planned to read this week’s story, but after I finished the Malcolm Gladwell’s article on Steve Jobs, I flipped to the fiction section, skimmed the first sentence, and it pulled me in. I zipped through the entire story in just a few minutes and really liked. It is the type of fiction I’m often drawn to: fast paced, clear prose, with an offbeat, even magical premise. It’s called “Miracle Polish” and it was written by Steven Millhauser. The story centers around a man who buys a magical elixir called “Miracle Polish” from a traveling salesman. When the potion is rubbed onto a mirror it makes the man’s reflection look better. Not necessarily better looking (although it does seem to help there), but it makes him look fresher, with a mild glow. In the reflection, he becomes, “a man who had something to look forward to, a man who expected things of life.” The man becomes obsessed with his new image, and equally obsessed with the newly reflected image of his girl friend. The man is ultimately forced to choose between her reflected image and the real woman.

I’m curious if anyone else has read the story and what they thought about it. Maybe it’s an allegory? Perhaps it has something to do with how strongly we’re all impacted by how others view things? That doesn’t sound completely right to me. Whether there is a hidden meaning or not, I really enjoyed it.

Moving and Stories

Mark Richardson — Sat, 17 Sep 2011 00:09:29 +0000

It has been a hectic few weeks in the Richardson family household. We sold our condo, packed up our stuff, and moved to an apartment in a new town. Moving is such a hassle. And we’re going to have to do it again, because now we’re looking for a house. We actually already made an offer on a home we really like. The offer was accepted, everything was clicking along toward closing, and then the appraisal came in dramatically lower than the sales price. Gulp. We’re the in the process of trying to determine what to do next.

While this happened, three of my short stories were published. “Black String Bikini” (in Segue) and “Courting Param” (in Prime Number) are available online. “Iron Dick” can be purchased as part of the anthology D*CKED: Crime Fiction Inspired by Dick Cheney.

The three stories are all very different. Each was a lot of fun to write. That’s the main reason I write stories: it’s fun for me. I would, of course, like others to read them and enjoy them. It’s weird when a story is published because I never know if anyone outside of the editor who accepted the submission reads the story. Hopefully someone will read these and like them.

The Boulevardiers

Mark Richardson — Sun, 21 Aug 2011 23:50:23 +0000

My blog is now syndicated. I’ve been added as a contributor to the just recently launched blog, “The Boulevardiers.” My good friend Kim Steele is the managing editor of the site. He plans to have an assortment of contributors covering a variety of different topics; I’m told no politics, however. I’m responsible for the “Literature” section. The site is really cool, and I hope you check it out.

Crime Factory #7

Mark Richardson — Mon, 08 Aug 2011 23:56:16 +0000

My story, “My First Time, or, That Crazy Jamaican Whore,” is now available in Crime Factory #7 (p. 263). It looks like a big issue, and I’m looking forward to diving in!

Another Story Accepted

Mark Richardson — Sat, 30 Jul 2011 16:53:01 +0000

I just learned that Prime Number Magazine accepted my short story,“Courting Param.” This means that over the next few months four of my stories will be appearing in different journals. These stories are: “Courting Param,” “Iron Dick,” “Black String Bikini,” and “My First Time, or, That Crazy Jamaican Whore.”

A Story Accepted

Mark Richardson — Mon, 04 Jul 2011 03:14:49 +0000

Last week I was told that the Segue literary online journal is going to publish my short story, “Black String Bikini.” It will appear in the August issue.

The New Yorker Summer Fiction Issue

Mark Richardson — Fri, 17 Jun 2011 18:21:46 +0000

My latest issue of The New Yorker is a double issue (June 13 & 20, 2011), and it’s a particularly good one. It’s the special Summer Fiction Issue, and there are three separate short stories, and essays by famous writers discussing writing. Two authors I really like – Juhumpa Lahiri and Edward P. Jones – wrote two of the essays. There are also letters that Nabokov wrote to his wife (I have yet to read those).

I really enjoyed one of the short stories, “Asleep in the Lord,” by Jeffrey Eugenides. It’s centered on a young man named Mitchell who moves to Calcutta in 1983 to work as a volunteer in Mother Teresa’s Home for Dying Destitutes. I loved how the story transported me to another world.

I also liked “Above and Below,” by Lauren Groff. It’s about a woman who basically drops out of society (she was a teacher at a university) and becomes homeless. A few years back I read a story in The New Yorker called “Wakefield” that had a similar theme. E.L. Doctorow wrote “Wakefield,” and it was frankly a little better than “Above and Below.” My issue with the Groff story was the ending, which really just seemed to come out of the blue. The Doctorow ending was brilliant!

The third short story is called “Home” and George Saunders wrote it. I can’t really tell you if it is good or not, because I stopped reading about a third of the way in. The story is almost entirely dialogue – lots and lots of dialogue – and I tend to like my fiction with a mix of dialogue and exposition. I’m so old fashioned, but maybe I’ll give it another try…