I asked my students, "What is art?" This wasn't a question I thought we'd answer satisfactorily. I don't teach art anyway. I teach ESL. But the chapter in our reading textbook was on art. My students are not artists. Most of them have never been to an art museum or gallery. They don't know any …
I attended Catholic school for three years. Honestly, I liked it. I liked most of the nuns (not all to be sure), and I ran around the playground with the boys. I fought back if anyone bothered me. I made good grades. In 2nd grade, a boy kept poking me with a pen. I told …
Okay, maybe in that picture I'm just typing an email. It's hard to say for sure. But my husband took that picture around the time I started my novel--in the year 2000 or 2001. And that's the laptop I started writing it on (RIP first laptop) and the desk I was sitting at. I certainly …
I've been trying to work on a poem for my mom, but I am insecure about my poetry. After my mom left my dad, she started writing poems. Maybe she wrote them before that, but I have no proof. What I have is a journal filled with poems dated 1975 or 1976. My mom inscribed …
My publisher, Plum Tree Books, writes a bit about the process of bringing a book out into the world. Writing may be solitary, but publication takes a village. Thanks to everyone who helped, and thank you to everyone who helps the book continue its journey.
The publication of my book makes me very happy. I could go on and on and on about it for days. As anyone who's been my friend for any length of time can attest, my ability to obsess over a topic knows few bounds. And this publication thing is taking up a great deal of …
My novel arrived today. I'm trying to think of something clever or insightful to say. I'm too gobsmacked. All I can manage is to wish you vast amounts of luck and deep wells of persistence in whatever dream you're pursuing. I think Woody Allen is a jerk, but this quote of his still works for …
Soon, I will have an actual physical copy of my book, The Blue Jar, in my hand. That's going to be amazing and unbelievable. There's the feeling of finishing something. Then there's the feeling of putting that something out into the world. I started this novel as a writing prompt on a Tuesday afternoon in …
One problem about writing about a girl in high school is that I haven't been in high school since 1986. In the manuscript I've been working on, my main character pulls a fire alarm at school. She does so on impulse, in one of those it seemed like a good idea at the time impulses. …
The other day I finished reading The Book Thief. A couple days after that I read Mockingjay, the third book in The Hunger Games trilogy. Have you read either of them? They are filled with death. So many characters die in both books. I feel drained. How do you feel when you finish a book? …
Marta Bacon 