Posted on March 30, 2017 by betsylerner
When I was a young idealistic poet type, I heard this quote by SamuelJohnson, “No man but a blockhead ever wrote except for money.” I was deeply offended by the sentiment. I mean shouldn’t one write for passion? Ironic isn’t it that I became a literary agent, that my work is all about getting writers money? Literally. Benjamins. It’s my job to get out there on the choppy waters and bring something home. Sometimes when you do a huge deal for a writer, he’ll say: I would have written it for free. Blockhead. Okay, I still believe you should write out of passion and I’m not even going to say the money will follow. That’s another not truism.
Do you write for money?
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Posted on March 29, 2017 by betsylerner
Do like to go away to write, find a cabin or studio apartment or barge or yert. Do you need total silence to concentrate, hunker down. Do you need to put distance between you and your loved ones, your work, your chores, your buttons. Have you been to Yaddo or MacDowell or other writer retreats? I’ve heard they provide box lunches. I’m sure I wouldn’t like the lunch. I’m sure I would want to break the no talking ban. I’m sure I would start smoking, possibly burn down my cabin. Fortunately, I like writing at home in my own little corner in my own little chair.
Where do you write?
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Posted on March 28, 2017 by betsylerner
Posted on March 27, 2017 by betsylerner
I have been absentee because I could not figure out how to convert my comcast to Xfinity. And my teenager is away at college. I’m not going to write about how technology is destroying us and writing and poetry and daydreaming and masturbating and basketmaking and flag folding and watching ants carry crumbs across a mountain that once was a mole. Have you ever changed the part in your hair? Do you think you really know a person? Yes, I love my fucking phone. I love it. Get over it. Do I take it out while people are talking. In the middle of dinner? During an MRI? Do I sleep with it? Play Bridge on line all night like some nocturnal animal with slow eyes.
What’s your relationship to your technology??
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Posted on March 22, 2017 by betsylerner
I went to hear a movie producer give a talk and he made the point that you have to have a lot of ideas. You can’t be clinging to your one script for life. Imagine, he said, if you found yourself next to Steven Spielberg at a cocktail party and he asked what you were working on. You pitched your script. He didn’t like it and said, “what else you got?” And you got nothing. I know books aren’t movie pitches, but I still think it’s really healthy to always be evolving ideas, taking notes, clipping articles, recording dialogue. Keep a list of ideas. They won’t bite.
How many ideas are you working on?
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Posted on March 20, 2017 by betsylerner
Dear Friends of this blog. Under the category of better late than how did I possibly fail to mention the publication of a novel by our very beloved and brilliant Donna Everhart?Please join me in congratulating her on the publication of The Education of Dixie Dupree. Better yet, support the author and buy a copy.
Let’s try something new in the comments. Let’s see if we can do a live(ish) Q&A. Leave a question for Donna and hopefully she’ll answer.
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Posted on March 19, 2017 by betsylerner
I started a new diary today. The chances of abandonment are high. I’m not sure why, but they either don’t yield, or they get all fuck all in my face. For every filled diary I have, there are two or three with just a few sentences that never took stuck on some lower shelf or thrown away, abandoned. Sometimes the diaries themselves are too thick, too thin. Sometimes it’s the spaces between the lines. More often, I hate how the first few lines or pages sound. To coy or cute or resolute. You can really strike the wrong note and set the whole thing off to the wrong start. That’s part of the insanity, it’s only for your eyes and yet you seem to care. Funny that.
Do you keep a diary?
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Posted on March 19, 2017 by betsylerner
It’s not going to come as a surprise to anyone who regularly checks in for a little bile, but I’m a big lover of Beauty and the Beast. Big. Saw it today with about 300 screaming children at a Florida mall and loved every Disnified moment. Both a little scared, neither one prepared…I also really love parades, the dinkier the better, and small children wear ing glasses, and mutts.
What do you have a soft spot for?
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Posted on March 15, 2017 by betsylerner
Lately, my inner monologue has gone completely out of control. I feel like Joan River’s aborted daughter. It’s like any positive thing I hear, I flip it, or gut it, or demean and diminish it. I’m no stranger to the negative thrum, to the mind’s dark pockets. Only now it’s so much eyeliner and torn hose. How are you? It’s been ages! Can you believe how cold it is? Ask your doctor about Lyrica.
What’s the worst thought you had today.
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Posted on March 14, 2017 by betsylerner
There was an article in the paper today about the 50th anniversary of The Outsiders. I had no idea that S.E. Hinton was sixteen when she wrote it after failing a creative writing class. I would like to point out for the record that I flunked out of my first year of film school at NYU. And then at Columbia, doing a poetry MFA, I had to take a six month “leave of absence.” Flunking never feels good, but it’s often a catalyst for, oh fuck it, flunking sucks.
What’s your best failure?
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Betsy Lerner 