Posted on December 23, 2015 by betsylerner
Three years ago, I started working on a new book. It was going nowhere fast and my husband kept saying that I had to use my blog voice. My what? My sociopath voice? My whiney vaginey voice? My pitted, potted, sometimes besotted voice. My childlike wonder, my hemorrhoidal idyll, my knock knock give a dog a bone. Short story long: my new book is coming out in May, 2016. It wouldn’t exist if not for the four years of writing here, the incredible love and support from our merry band. Even the guy who said he wanted to kill me and Patti Smith with a pitchfork. You gave me the chance to develop my voice, and as we say in these parts, I finished the fucker. Will say more about it soon. Until then, THANK YOU dearest readers of this blog. Love, Betsy
Filed under: Authors, Books, Freak Flag, Memoir, shana mahin, The Bridge Ladies, Uncategorized, Writing, You Go Girl | 24 Comments »
Posted on December 11, 2015 by betsylerner
Carrie Mathison decides to go off her meds to get her mojo back. She’s figured out if she goes off her lithium, she’ll have a window during which the mania will kick in and with it her x-ray vision, super-human powers. I know it’s just television, but this is mental. What were they smoking in the writer’s room? This is my illness and it’s not user-friendly. Not that I haven’t been tempted.
Writers, stay on your meds. Okay?
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Posted on December 10, 2015 by betsylerner
I’m working on the acknowledgments to my new book. I’ve always felt that the acknowledgments are the closest thing to Oscar acceptance speeches that writers get. I’d like to thank my mother, my father, my therapist in Riverdale. I’d like to thank my left foot, Daniel Day Louis, Julia Louise Dreyfus, my hedge fund manager, my hedge hog, my cockapoo. I’d like to thank my pain. I’d like to thank all the people who didn’t believe in me. I’d like to thank the one man who opened a door for me at Grand Central. I’d like to thank my eye surgeon Dr. Craig Sklar. I’d like to thank the woman at his office who did my paperwork. I’d like to thank my personal assistant, my personal trainer, my personal planner, my personal pizza. But most of all I want to thank the Duplass Brothers.
Who do you thank?
Filed under: Books, Memoir, Uncategorized | Tagged: Acknowledgments, Duplass Brothers, Oscars | 13 Comments »
Posted on December 7, 2015 by betsylerner
I’ve never believed in
“best of” lists until now. Congratulations to George Hodgman and Patti Smith. Thank you Maureen Corrigan of NPR. Fucking A.
In Bettyville, George Hodgman, who had a major career in editing and publishing in New York City, writes of moving home to Paris, Missouri to care for his elderly mother, Betty, who’s never acknowledged that her son is gay. In the opening scene, Hodgman is roused by a fretful Betty in the middle of the night: “[h]ere she is, all ninety years of her, curlers in disarray, … peeking into our guest room where I have been mostly not sleeping. It is the last place in America with shag carpet. In it, I have discovered what I believe to be a toenail from high school.” Like Roz Chast’s Can’t We Talk About Something More Pleasant?, Hodgman’s Bettyvillecaptures the exhaustion, sorrow and moments of absurdity involved in caring for elderly loved ones.
Unlike her first memoir, the now classic, Just Kids, which was all about the thrill of “becoming,” Patti Smith’s incantatory M Trainis mostly about the challenge of enduring erosion and discovering new passions (like detective fiction and a tumbledown cottage in Rockaway Beach, Queens). Smith, of course, is a “kid” no longer. She’s now 68 and she’s suffered a lot of losses, including the deaths of artist Robert Mapplethorpe, who was her partner in crime in the Just Kids years, and her husband, musician Fred “Sonic” Smith, who died suddenly in his 40s. “They are all stories now,” says Smith, thinking of these and other deaths. The narrative of M Train, fittingly, is fragmented and incantatory, more like Smith’s distinctive song lyrics. At bottom, though, both of Smith’s memoirs tell a haunting story about being sheltered and fed, in all senses, by New York City.
Filed under: Uncategorized | 12 Comments »
Posted on December 4, 2015 by betsylerner
When I was a young girl, I was convinced that the Nazis were going to storm our house and take me away or kill us. My mother sat me down and explained the difference between rational and irrational fears. Since then my irrational fears have multiplied exponentially.
- I will be killed like the Clutters.
- I will be pushed in front a subway
- A crane will fall on my head
- I will choke on a turkey and bacon wrap
- A drunk driver will hit my car head on
- I will fall while crossing the street and get run over; manuscripts will spill out of my canvas tote and the pages will be taken up by the wind and scatter over Fifth Avenue like confetti.
What’s your irrational fear(s)?
p.s. two people haven’t claimed their copy of Calf. So please send me your address for your copy.
Filed under: Uncategorized | 17 Comments »
Posted on December 2, 2015 by betsylerner
I’ve been off diet soda for five days and if there’s a bed free at Silver Hill, I’ll take it. I almost broke down at the Krauser’s driving home from the train station yesterday. They have a reliable stock of Sunkist diet orange and a bucket of stale Bulls Eyes. The staler the better.
What’s your poison?
Filed under: Uncategorized | 25 Comments »
Posted on December 1, 2015 by betsylerner
I met with a young writer today. And by young I mean twenty. She’d published an essay in a national paper that I thought was exceptional and I reached out to her. She sent me more work and I was really impressed again. We talked for an hour or so about her background, her writing experiences, the different kinds of writing she does, the project she’s working on now. She knew she wanted to write since she was about seven. That’s when I started keeping diaries of my hot dog consumption. We also talked about what path she might take after college. God help me but I encouraged her to keep writing. I hope her parents don’t come after me. I know I shouldn’t encourage young people to write but I could’t help it. She had that thing.
What is that thing?
Filed under: Uncategorized | 14 Comments »
Posted on November 26, 2015 by betsylerner
My view is that writers are loners, outsiders, chameleons and con artists. Thanksgiving, therefore, is a trial. Family is a trial. Warm feelings are confusing. THe only thing I don’t feel ambivalent about are the baton twirlers; I love all the hope implied in a silver rod turning around in the sky like an acrobat before it’s caught in the chubby hand of a girl with the sun in her eyes.
How will you get through the day?
Filed under: Uncategorized | 27 Comments »
Posted on November 22, 2015 by betsylerner
LAST WEEK’S CONTEST judged by the brilliant debut author of CALF, Andrea Kleine. And the winners** are:
Katherine Weber for Last Exit to Brooklyn by Hubert Selby Jr. One year I had a job teaching theater to middle school kids. I had one class in the morning and one in the afternoon and sometimes in the break I would go to the movies. One day I saw the film adaptation of Requiem for a Dream and then had to go back and teach theater games to 8th graders. That was rather difficult.
TristaIsShort for Last Days by Brian Evenson. Evenson is a master at creeping out on the porous borders of religion and the physical body. I haven’t read this particular novel, but I see it contains a detective with my last name (albeit misspelled, IMHO.
Jwelling for 1984 by George Orwell. Double plus good.
Check out Andrea’s interview on Brad Listi’s Otherppl series:
http://otherppl.com/andrea-kleine-interview/
And more: http://www.americanmicroreviews.com/calf-by-andrea-kleine
**I want to thank everyone for participating. Winners please email me your snail address for your copy of Calf. Thank you Andrea!
Betsy@dclagency.com
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Posted on November 19, 2015 by betsylerner
No shit. Sebastian Junger shows up on The Affair. You know, the program I’m watching because I’m still in love with McNulty. Junger has a cameo. He plays himself and he says he claims to use reiki to help him write. Really? Let’s talk about this. I’ve never tried any alt methods to help with writing. On the contrary, I’ve always felt that writer’s block is god’s gift to man. I’m old school: the only thing that produces writing is writing. Plus, I love my demons way too much to release them. Plus, I’m ticklish.
What about you? Massage, meditation, yoga, long walks with a stick? What helps?
Filed under: Authors, Fame! Celebrity! Riches!, Haters, Uncategorized, Writers, Writing | Tagged: Sebastian Junger, The Affair, writers block | 20 Comments »
Betsy Lerner 