gwynnega: (books poisoninjest)
I got a Moderna booster this afternoon. Typically this knocks me flat for about half a day (starting in the middle of the night), and I have planned accordingly. The timing is good, because we're having a mini heatwave, and the worst of it will be tomorrow.

Yesterday I learned that Erica Jong has dementia. Her daughter Molly Jong-Fast is publishing a memoir next month, How To Lose Your Mother, and an excerpt appeared in Vanity Fair. Having lost my father to Parkinson's, I really related to Jong-Fast's essay. (My mother had memory issues towards the end of her life, but she was already in her nineties when that happened, so, as hard as it was, everything kind of felt like gravy by that point.)

As a mother, Jong apparently left a lot to be desired. But the revelation that she has dementia hit me like a gut punch, because she was tremendously important to me as a young writer. Growing up, I knew who she was, because she was very famous. I think my copy of Fear of Flying was my dad's, which I took from one of his shelves and never gave back. But the way I got into Jong's work is more mysterious.

One day when I was a senior in high school, just getting into reading and writing poetry--I'd already written a lot of fiction by that point--I found a yellow paperback in my mom's room called The Craft of Poetry (1974). It's a collection of New York Quarterly interviews with poetry heavyweights. What's weird about this is that neither of my parents were readers of poetry, and I have no idea how the book wound up on their shelves. (It didn't occur to me to ask, and now there's no one to ask.) I certainly started reading the book because Anne Sexton was one of the interviewees. I would eventually read the whole book. (I still own it.) But the interview that changed my life was Jong's. Not just because the way she talked about writing poetry was so engaging, but because that interview was like a syllabus to me. It's where I learned about Colette's Earthly Paradise (indeed, I am certain it's where I first heard about Colette), Virginia Woolf's Writer's Diary, the poems of Pablo Neruda and Denise Levertov, the biography of Theodore Roethke, and more.

Jong was, I think, the first living poet whose work I loved. (I also read Adrienne Rich for the first time around this period.) I read and reread Jong's first two poetry books, Fruits and Vegetables and Half-Lives. Her influence on me was so strong that, a couple of years later in a college poetry workshop, the professor handed out copies of Jong's "Arse Poetica" when it was time to discuss one of my poems! I devoured her novels, too; probably her third, Fanny: Being the True Adventures of Fanny Hackabout-Jones, is the best (though I haven't read it since the 1980s), a rollicking 18th-century adventure tale told in 18th-century style.

Time went on, and I moved on to other writers and other influences. I couldn't help but notice that Jong's work began to deteriorate. Fame didn't help, I suspect (and possibly substance abuse was at play, too). I find her later novels fairly unreadable, though in 1993 she published The Devil at Large, a very good book about Henry Miller. I can imagine a Jong who didn't hit it big with Fear of Flying and whose work continued to mature. But the fact that she is now no longer the person she was--the writer who inspired me--is hard for me to fathom.

I love this photo of Jong with Eileen Myles, Fran Winant, Joan Larkin, Jean Valentine, Honor Moore, Susan Griffin, Toi Derricotte, and Anne Waldman. Not a celebrity, but a poet among poets.
gwynnega: (books poisoninjest)
Today's mail brought my contributor's copy of Not One of Us #82, featuring my story "Still Life" (partly inspired by a dreadful former neighbor of mine, though really he was so much worse than the character in my story), as well as work by Francesca Forrest, Jennifer Crow, Sam Derby, Gretchen Tessmer, Rachel Cordasco, Jordan Hirsch, Sophia D. Merow, David Kloss, Ed Ahern (and art by John and Flo Stanton).

This magazine is an enduring bright spot amid the current terribleness.
gwynnega: (books poisoninjest)
My collection of short fiction, Sinking, Singing, came out in October. Writing-wise, the year was mostly taken up by revising my novel Thank You for Sending Me an Angel, working on a sequel, and doing yet more revision of Thank You! (Fortunately, I really enjoy spending time with these characters.)


fiction

Sinking, Singing (Aqueduct Press)
Includes four original stories ("The Discography of Theodore Grayson," "A Good Cast Is Worth Repeating," "Resolution," and "De Bergerac Duels His Dragon") as well as seven reprints ("We Gotta Get Out of This Place," "Emily and the What-if Imp," "Sinking, Singing," "Beyond and Back," "The Clockwork Cat's Escape," "The Two Mrs. Mansfields," and "A Wild Patience").


poetry

"Universals" in Dreams & Nightmares #126 (January 2024)

poetry reprint

"midas" in FUMPTRUCK: Open Letters, Essays, Fiction, Poetry, Artwork & Other Creations for & Inspired by the 47th President of the Divided States of America, edited by Anonymous (Written Backwards Press)
gwynnega: (books poisoninjest)
Today is the official release date of FUMPTRUCK: Open Letters, Essays, Fiction, Poetry, Artwork & Other Creations for & Inspired by the 47th President of the Divided States of America. It includes my poem "midas," originally published in Not One of Us, as well as work by a plethora of wonderful writers.

Also today, I'm on an episode of the Coffee Fueled Stories Podcast! We talk about my new collection Sinking, Singing, my novel Can't Find My Way Home, the writing process, the 1970s, coffee, and more.
gwynnega: (books poisoninjest)
Shortly before the election, I recorded a new episode of Mur Lafferty's podcast I Should Be Writing. We talked about my new fiction collection Sinking, Singing, my Psycho-inspired poem "dear Tom Cassidy's daughter", writing fanfic, and more.
gwynnega: (books poisoninjest)
The mail brought my contributor's copy of Dreams and Nightmares #126, featuring my poem "Universals." The poem started out as my attempt to write about classic Universal horror films in the style of Gertrude Stein's Tender Buttons.

I am in the midst of polishing Thank You for Sending Me an Angel. This is vastly more enjoyable than writing a query letter and synopsis (though those things are happening too).
gwynnega: (books poisoninjest)
I just finished revising the last chapter of Thank You for Sending Me an Angel. I'll still be tinkering with the novel, but WHEW. It's a good feeling.

Now (among other things) I need to write the world's best query letter.
gwynnega: (books poisoninjest)
I spent the bulk of 2023 revising my novel Thank You For Sending Me an Angel (only two chapters to go!), but all my publications this year were poetry.


"when Ruth invented the Empathy Pill" in Kaleidotrope (Spring 2023)

"ode to The Swarm" in Penumbric (April 2023, Vol. 6, Issue 6)

"dear Tom Cassidy's daughter" in Strange Horizons (10 April 2023)

"dear Aunt Clara" in Not One of Us #75

"the jacarandas consider blooming" in Worlds of Possibility Anthology, ed. Julia Rios

"the ending" (reprint) in The Deadlands: Year One
gwynnega: (Default)
I was delighted to see Elizabeth Clark-Stern's review of my novel Can't Find My Way Home as part of her Pleasures of Reading, Viewing, and Listening in 2023 on the Aqueduct blog: "I adored Gwynne Garfinkle's Can't Find My Way Home. Her prose flows like a mountain stream, the characters so alive you expect to see them standing next to you at the grocery store. The original voice of the actress-heroine sparkles, 'I felt my life fragment and reshape itself.' I love the sense of drama, the delight in entering Jo’s mind. I have a theater background myself, and lived through the Viet Nam war era. Garfinkle captured the madness and fury of the time flawlessly. A novel that elevates the spirit with meaning and magic." The novel came out in January 2022, and it's so nice to know that people are still reading it and enjoying it.

The 2023 Otherwise Award is still open to recommendations until December 31, for "a work of science fiction or fantasy that explores or expands our notions of gender." Works published in 2022 that weren't considered for the 2022 award can also be recommended.
gwynnega: (books poisoninjest)
The mail brought my beautiful hardcover contributor's copy of the Worlds of Possibility anthology, edited by Julia Rios! It includes my poem "the jacarandas consider blooming" with gorgeous color art. The whole book looks superb.

gwynnega: (Default)
I just saw the awful news that Lara Parker has died. We became friends in our MFA Program at Antioch Los Angeles in the mid-00s. Lara was writing her second Dark Shadows novel, and I was also writing a vampire novel. Her attitude towards me at first was very Angelique--i.e., Who Are YOU To Also Be Writing a Vampire Novel in My MFA Program? I'm not sure how that morphed into friendship, but the shift happened rather quickly, as I recall. At the time, I had not yet seen Dark Shadows.

At some point, I think after we'd both graduated, our mutual friend Dodie Bellamy (who we'd both studied with at Antioch) contacted me because there was going to be a Dark Shadows Festival in Hollywood, and she wondered if I'd like to attend with her and watch the fans go wild over Lara. I had no idea what to expect, but the fans did in fact go wild over her. She was still so beautiful and so poised. The Festival made me curious about Dark Shadows, and I became a fan of the show. Lara and I both attended Jim Krusoe's writing workshop at Santa Monica College, and I kept asking her questions about Dark Shadows and old-school soap opera production in general (because I was writing Can't Find My Way Home). She would do Angelique's evil laugh for me, to my delight. For years, whenever there was a Dark Shadows Festival in town or she was doing some other event, I'd go and catch up with her--usually while she signed many, many autographs. I hadn't seen her in several years. She was such a warm friend, and I will miss her terribly.

snowless

Feb. 26th, 2023 02:20 pm
gwynnega: (Colette)
Last night I was reading Paul Eprile's stupendous new translation of Colette's Chéri (published by NYRB), and then I dreamed I'd been chosen to write the screenplay for a film of Chéri. I was delighted, though a bit worried I wouldn't have time to finish revising my own novel. When I woke up, I remembered there already is a (pretty good) movie of Chéri, and that I have no interest in writing screenplays. Then I remembered that the life and work of Colette is an important thread in my novel.

Meanwhile, it rained a lot in Los Angeles (which gave me a headache), and some parts of Southern California got snow, but I am, as ever, snowless in Silver Lake.

ETA: But! when I was in my car just now, I discovered there is a ton of snow on the nearby hills. (Being in my car, I couldn't take a picture, and then I drove down the hill and the snow was no longer visible.)
gwynnega: (books poisoninjest)
I'm so sad to hear of the passing of Suzy McKee Charnas. She was such a wonderful writer. The first book of hers I read was Motherlines, back in the eighties. Later I enjoyed The Vampire Tapestry, Dorothea Dreams, and her brilliant werewolf story "Boobs." It was always great to see her at WisCon. I admired her so much, and her praise of my novel Can't Find My Way Home meant the world to me.

podcast!

Jun. 16th, 2022 01:39 pm
gwynnega: (books poisoninjest)
Mur Lafferty interviewed me on I Should Be Writing, which is one of my favorite podcasts! We talked about my novel Can't Find My Way Home (which came out in January), the novel I'm working on now, the writing process, writing while disabled, and more. It was a lot of fun. (The other podcast I'd love to be on is Reading Glasses. Maybe someday, somehow?)
gwynnega: (books poisoninjest)
This has been a very difficult week, which makes me even prouder that I managed to finish the first draft of Thank You for Sending Me an Angel last night. Today I fiddled with the last chapter, and now the book is 156,490 words long (almost exactly what it was last night!). Next I will tackle the literal pile of post-it notes about the novel that have accumulated. After that, I will try to take a few weeks off from the book (and work on poems and/or short fiction) so I can come at it with fresh eyes. I'm hoping I can make this novel a little less massive in rewrites, though I'm sure there are things I'll need to add too.
gwynnega: (books poisoninjest)
Today, as part of John Scalzi's The Big Idea series, I talk about how I came to write my novel Can't Find My Way Home!
gwynnega: (Default)
The protagonist of my novel draft: Hey, you know that bad stuff that's about to happen in the book?

Me: You mean, the stuff I've been foreshadowing for hundreds of pages?

Protagonist: Yes, that stuff. Could we just skip it?

Me: Skip it?

Protagonist: Can't we just skip to the end? That would be a lot more pleasant.

Me: Sorry, no.

Protagonist: Crap.
gwynnega: (books poisoninjest)
Needless to say, this has been another weird year. It seems to me that I wasn't terribly productive last year once the pandemic started. The same was true this year until my mother got vaxxed. Once that happened, the creative part of my brain came back online. I didn't write all that much short fiction or poetry this year, because I was working on NOVELS. There were edits for Can't Find My Way Home (coming out from Aqueduct Press on January 15th!), and also a vast amount of first draft writing on (working title) Thank You for Sending Me an Angel, a novel I had tried unsuccessfully for years to write but kept stopping after a chapter or so (because I knew I was on the wrong track). Suddenly this spring I found the right track, and now I'm over 100,000 words into it, with roughly three and half chapters to go. It had been a long time since I'd written a novel first draft, and it's been such a fun experience. Of course, in 2022 I will need to revise the thing.


short fiction


"Emily and the What-if Imp" in Fantasy October 2021


short fiction reprints

"A Wild Patience" in Escape Pod (novelette reprint from GigaNotoSaurus): Part 1 (February 18, 2021), Part 2 (February 25, 2021), Part 3 (March 4, 2021)

"Sinking, Singing" in Mermaids Monthly May 26, 2021 (reprint from Not One of Us)


poetry

"they keep resurrecting Larry Talbot" in Not One of Us (65, 2021)

"ode to illness" in Climbing Lightly Through Forests: A Poetry Anthology Honoring Ursula K. Le Guin, edited by Lisa M. Bradley and R.B. Lemberg (Aqueduct Press, 2021)

"the ending" in The Deadlands (issue 3)


poetry reprint

"The Pied Piper vs. the Sirens" in Mermaids Monthly (November 29, 2021) (reprint from Mythic Delirium)
gwynnega: (books poisoninjest)
My story "The Imaginary Friend," originally published in Postscripts to Darkness (and reprinted in my collection People Change) will be reprinted in Zooscape. It's a story that's close to my heart, and I'm delighted it will appear online for the first time in this lovely magazine.
gwynnega: (books poisoninjest)
The October issue of Fantasy Magazine is live, with an appropriately Halloween-ish cover! It includes my flash "Emily and the What-if Imp" (available now to subscribers and for purchase of the ebook, online later this month). I'm especially pleased to have my work in Fantasy in October, my favorite month.

Today TCM is celebrating the beginning of Spooky Season by showing pre-Code horror all day (I just caught part of my beloved 1931 Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde), and I am once again Gwynne Ghoulfinkle on Twitter.

June 2025

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