I sometimes miss writing here, on this website. It seems so old-fashioned to me now, a tiny Internet island disconnected from everything else. I remember first starting to type in this little box, or one very much like it, and the wonder and excitement and anxiety I felt when people responded from their own little boxes and linked to what I’d written. That was eleven years ago. Eleven years!
I’m not the sort of person who wishes things had stayed as they were. I like Tumblr and Twitter, etc., etc., and I’m interested to see what comes next. But I do feel a little wistful from time to time for the newness of the experience of typing some stream-of-consciousness thing like this — which is not at all what I was expecting to write when I opened up WordPress — and setting it loose into the world.
Now I’m putting that energy into my book, which feels good and right, but I wanted to say hello to any longtime readers who might be passing through. So, hello out there! Isn’t this blogging thing crazy?
I originally popped in to link to some things I’ve done in the past couple of months and neglected to mention here: an essay for The New Republic, “How Occupy Changed Contemporary Art: Molly Crabapple’s ‘altarpieces to the revolution’,” and an interview with Naomi Alderman about religion, Margaret Atwood, and The Liars’ Gospel, for Barnes & Noble Review. I’m still having a lot of fun doing my columnlet for the New York Times Magazine’s One Page Magazine every Sunday. The panda mask at the top of this post is Kyle Hilton’s illustration for the one based around Emily Witt’s fascinating “What Do You Desire?” Last Sunday’s subject was the great Sinead O’Connor.
Right now, apart from my novel, I’m working on a dream of an assignment for another of my favorite magazines. I’m so excited, I keep wondering if I made this up. But I have a contract, so if all goes well, you can read it there eventually.
Finally, I need to thank the illustrious Bud Parr of Sonnet Media, who quickly redid my site and got it back online the last time it went belly-up. If you’re looking for someone to design and maintain a website for you, you really can’t do better than Bud.
Happy summer, you guys! If you were here, I’d make you a salty dog. We could drink them on the terrace with all my herbs and flowers, and my lemon tree, which survived the winter indoors, but we’d have to do it really quickly. It’s getting ready to storm.