Carol Deminski: My journey as a writer

I've just gotten a copy of Lahiri's more recent short story collection Unaccustomed Earth. I'm really looking forward to reading it. I've also joined a book club at work. We haven't met yet, but we've selected Aravind Adiga's Between the Assassinations, which is also a collection of short stories, as our first book. We're planning to discuss the first three stories in the collection at the end of this month.

In the meantime, my writing has slowed down considerably. I'm frustrated by my own lack… Continue

I got a note from AGNI in email a few days ago rejecting a story I submitted to them for possible publication. Ironically, since I've come to understand that the vast majority of submissions are rejected, I actually felt good about the fact that they read my piece and responded to me in a reasonable period of time. I know that not all story submissions are going to work for every single publication I submit to, just because I'd like it to be published.

What's "good" about this situation is that… Continue

This all started innocently enough.

Ning makes it easy to add applications to each profile page so I thought, why not add an RSS feed so I can have blog posts from other people listed on my page? That way, the other people are doing the writing, and it helps refresh content on my page at the same time. Pretty clever, huh?

Surrrrre.

Then, I started looking for blogs to list on the RSS feed application, which limits entries to 5. I peruse other people's blogs regularly, but I'm not a regular re… Continue

I finished Ms. Lahiri's collection of short stories (Interpreter of Maladies) during the long July 4th holiday weekend and all I can say is Wow. Lahiri's writing is full of really sensual details along with a set of characters that feel very real, very three dimensional, particularly in their emotional lives and connections with one another. The very first story in the book, A Temporary Problem, is so surprising and quite intense while dealing with its charged emotional material very subtly.

Af… Continue

I finished McCarthy's The Heart is a Lonely Hunter this week. I was disappointed in the book, I think it attempts to be melancholy but I just didn't connect with her characters. The book was first published in 1940 and part of the charm of the book is the time period and how its depicted, but that is also a drawback as well because it dates the book, in my opinion. I also had trouble with her attempt to "take on" the rhetoric of facism, which came across at times as preachy. Regardless, I was de… Continue