Y’all, I have always loved giving talks. What I mean by a talk is standing up and telling 30 minutes of war stories, plus reading a few pages from one of my novels and then taking questions. What’s not to love about doing that? This morning, however, I went to a session at a Duke […] Read More

Someone sent 2,096 of my friends and colleagues an email Friday trying to sell electronics devices. If the message made it past your spam filter, sorry for the intrusion. I discovered this state of affairs tonight–didn’t pay much attention to my email over the weekend. But I stayed unusually cool…all on account of an inspiring […] Read More

The long-scorned tabloid, The National Enquirer, is reportedly in the running for a Pulitzer prize. The Pulitzer folks have allowed them into the race, submitting the stories that broke the John Edwards story. (This news was broken by the Huffington Post and then reported in The New York Times, and of course The Enquirer.) The […] Read More

Steve Almond, the guy who wrote Candyfreak (and how could a true candy freak be anything but virtuous and wholesome?), has an interesting piece on The Rumpus about self-publishing a book of one-page pieces that he couldn’t rouse a lot of industry interest in. What he’s doing is mainly selling it through his readings,making it […] Read More

Flipping through an old Allure magazine a few nights ago (I’m into Old Allure), I came across a breakout quote that seized my attention: “…il fuoco nelle vene….) which means “fire in the veins” and refers to living with passion. The story was about the style of Italian women, at least some of the more […] Read More

At the admirable Quail Ridge Books at 7:30 tomorrow (Thursday) night, Joe Ashby Porter will read from his new book of short stories, All Aboard. A Shakespeare scholar and teacher of creative writing at Duke University, Porter has earned many awards for his work, including an Academy Award from the Academy of Arts and Literature, […] Read More

My inventive and creative brother Franc Payne has taken a little old house on Core Sound, behind the North Carolina Outer Banks, and turned it into a magic cottage with big screened porches. He did it himself on weekends over a couple of years. It’s delightful (I painted a couple of doors myself) and situated […] Read More

An event high on my scale of domestic boldness: this afternoon Husband Bob and I moved our fridge and cleaned the coils in the back in the hopes that this will take care of a popsicle crisis. I am devoted to consuming coconut popsicles (up to three a day) of the Whole Foods house brand […] Read More

As I’ve often mentioned here, I have a K&W cafeteria lunch once a month with half a dozen people with metaphysical interests: Mystic Pizza. Today was the day and here’s the report from the lunchtime mystics (three of whom are pictured below.)*Instead of flight or fight in a moment of confrontation, try gently shifting your […] Read More

Just came from the final celebration of my 61st Jubilee. It was the winter-quarter birthday brunch of six buddies who have been celebrating our aging since most of us were in our twenties. One gift I received was particularly bold and imaginative: fresh eggs from Stephanie’s chickens. She keeps them in her mid-town backyard, as […] Read More