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Cheryl Strayed
Author of
Rage
Cheryl Strayed is
the author of the New York Times bestselling memoir, WILD. Her writing has
appeared in the New York Times Magazine, the Washington Post Magazine, and
Vogue.
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Lisa See on going to dark places in fiction.
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Wet Dog Fever
by David Boyne
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Long ago and far away, in a galaxy not unlike our own but which no
longer exists,
in a place without iPads and Kindles and where cell phones were the
size of toasters and traffic on the information highway was jammed
with the cacophonous beep-buzz-honk-screech of dial-up modems, I
came down with an incurable, life-altering fever.
I was
living in Oregon and it was January. I had just completed a
five-mile bicycle commute in a rainstorm, and as I rolled my bike
through the doors of the printing store where I worked, water
cascaded from me, soaking the carpet.
My
colleague, Patty, asked me, "When are you going to learn to take
your clothes off before you shower?"
“I am a
wet dog," I said. Then I played the part by shaking my whole body,
sending a spray of water in all directions.
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The Power of Play:
When Work Comes to Life
by Jennifer Paros
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When we got our cat, Lou, though we stopped and bought supplies on
our way home, we forgot to get any toys. One of the first
things Lou did was disappear down the hall and return with a
mouse-sized porcupine finger puppet he had extracted from a bag full
of puppets stored under my son’s bed. It was as though Lou had so
clearly known his desire for play, the gods kindly and immediately
directed him to what might be of use. Porcupine became, and has
remained, his favorite toy to date.
But the thing about Lou and Porcupine is that sometimes Porcupine is
“Dead” to Lou and sometimes Porcupine is “Alive.” It doesn’t matter
how we might try, moving it swiftly back and forth; if Lou
isn’t interested, Porcupine is officially deactivated. The
Life of Porcupine is always determined by Lou’s level of Desire for
Play. If he really wants to play, the inert, scraggly Porcupine –
lying under the loveseat – is compelling and incites stalking,
pouncing and lots of haphazard running around. If Lou wants to
clean himself up, sleep, or sit loaf-shaped, the piece of fabric and
yarn and stuffing (Porcupine), even if dropped on his head, remains
just that. more... |
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Book Reviews
Editor's Pick
Capitol Murder
reviewed by Jon Land
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“May you live in interesting times.”
That ancient Chinese curse forms the epigraph
for the first section of Phillip Margolin’s Capitol Murder, his
latest Washington-based entry in the series featuring lawyer Brad
Miller and private eye Dana Cutler. And, given all they’re up
against this time out, these are interesting times indeed.
Not only has Clarence Little, the serial killer
they put on death row in Executive Privilege, escaped, there’s a
terrorist plot to blow up a football stadium. Before you can say
Black Sunday, the action is off and running as the newly re-teamed
Miller and Cutler race to separate the good guys from the bad guys
and save potential victims in amounts both large and small.
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And
Now for Something Completely Different
by Erin Brown
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Often, when I write these monthly
articles, I try to illuminate the realities of finding runaway
success in publishing to my readers (“wouldn’t you rather do
something easy like cure cancer?”)—not to rain on anyone’s parade,
but to honestly clarify how tough it is to get a book in print
nowadays through traditional channels. And if you’re a regular
follower of this column (yes, I’m talking to you four!), you know
how I feel about the very high mountain one must climb in
order to find self-publishing success: bring along crampons, an ice
axe, and a Sherpa, please. But this month, I want to talk about two
success stories—one of which is well on the way to finding success
on the traditional path, and another that has found virtually
instantaneous success through self-publishing and e-books.
The first triumphant tale is about a wonderful women’s fiction novel
that I worked on last year as a freelance editor. This was a
manuscript that I knew, right off the bat, had tons of potential—I
laughed, I cried, I saw its incredible capacity to also translate to
the big screen.
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