[Amy Pascal, co-chairman of Sony Pictures] asked if I wanted to play a Bond girl. I said, “No, I’m not comfortable with that, but I would like to play Bond.”
Monthly Archives: August 2010
Garden in Bloom
First, the Astilbe that I got last year at the now-razed David Hunter garden store (boo!) bloomed:
Then, out of nowhere, one of the snake plants bloomed (first time since we lived in Victoria!). The flowers have a really pungent scent, particularly at night.
Now 2 of the 3 hostas are blooming. Not sure why the other one isn’t.
All photos taken with my new DSLR!
You only need to tell your story
My writing students have been bringing family images to my memoir class for 20 years. They are mainly women, painfully eager to know how to use writing to make sense of their life narrative–who they are, who they once were, what heritage they were born into–and they are immobilized by the size of the task. Where to start? Where to stop? What to put in? What to leave out? How to find the story’s proper shape and sequence? How to deal equitably with all that is still unreconciled…
I sympathize with their despair; there’s just much too much stuff in the cluttered attic of memory. I can only offer one word of salvation: Reduce! You must decide what is primary and what is secondary. You’re not required to tell everybody’s story; you only need to tell your story. If you give an honest accounting of the important people and events in your life, as you best remember them, you will also tell the story of everybody who needs to be along on the ride. Throw everything else away.
Writers Read
In which I share an assortment of reading material I may or may not ever have time to actually read. 😉
Stack o’ books from annual pilgrimage to The Book Shop. Not that I needed more books. But you know, resistance. futile.
$80 (used books ftw!)
Magazines!
$74 (!)
BTW…
Cost of reading Toasted Cheese? Free.
Number of hours the TC editors put in each issue? Innumerable.
Amount the TC editors are paid? $0
Number of years we’ve been publishing TC? Almost 10. (That’s like 100 in print years!)
Your donation? Priceless.
Shared our lives online
At the end of 2006 I met my best friend. We met online. I didn’t know she was my best friend then. I just knew she was cool and had great taste in room porn. It didn’t take me long to find out that she was warm and kind and funny and fierce and loyal and smart and feisty and strong and loving … with great taste in room porn. She was always there for me through thick and thin and for both of us there were thick and thin times. Before too long she was a part of my life, a very special part. Kim and I have never met. We haven’t even spoken on the phone. We have shared our lives online and today I wish I could actually run up to her, throw my arms around her and wish her all the happiness in the world.
The Remainder Table 