At my desk
I know writers who minimise distractions by using software to restrict their access to the internet, or turn their desks to face a blank wall, or shut themselves away in a room with little but their laptop and a chair. I can’t do that. When I’m thinking things over–who to steer a conversation in a…
Read more
The trouble with sequels
I have to confess that when I’ve just finished a novel, and done all of the work of getting it down onto the page, and revising it over and over, and editing it, and going through proofs, the question that confounds me is: So, are you writing a sequel? I’ve never written a sequel because…
Read more
First, know yourself
Recently I sat down with Robert Hannon for an interview about my new novel, Turnback Ridge, and about the ideas that inspired it. What a pleasure it was to talk to someone about my journey to Alaska, life as an immigrant, and the craft of writing, and to get messages and calls from friends who…
Read more
A Day in the Life
Somewhere around the middle of the semester, I set my undergraduate fiction writers a task: write 1-2 pages about someone engaged in a job you’ve never done. Make it feel very real–and to do that, you’ll have to do research. Every semester I get pages about doctors and archaeologists, baristas, cashiers, butchers, mortuary workers. Some…
Read more
Viewing the world anew
This summer, I took two of my sons to a sporting event in the Netherlands–they won medals, we hung out with their team-mates and other parents then, when it was all over, we stayed on for a few days. I’m from Europe, and there’s something about going back that is like a balm: seeing tiny…
Read more
Sit and Write
At so many Q&As with writers, someone in the audience will lift their hand and ask a question along the lines of, “How to you write?” They want details–does the writer get up hellishly early and slog away at their keyboard for hours before sun up? Do they plan every scene in advance? Keep a…
Read more
Alaska Quarterly Review reading
In 2016, I was lucky enough to have one of my short stories accepted by one of the premier literary journals in the US: Alaska Quarterly Review. The story went on to be included in The Best American Mystery Stories 2017 (which was an honour, and also something of a surprise as “Williamsville” is a…
Read more
USS Fairbanks
For the last couple of days, the temperature up here in Interior Alaska has been close to forty below (which is one of few points of confluence for the centigrade and fahrenheit systems). On the radio this morning, the announcer read out the signs of frostbite and frostnip, and how to warm frozen flesh (not…
Read more
It’s warmer than it should be in Fairbanks
Snow is sifting down, burdening spruces whose branches sag, covering up the tracks that Chase and I have made on our walks. A world new made. And yet, it’s warmer out than it should be—I overdressed to go out—and two thousand miles south and west of us in British Columbia, heavy rain has been was…
Read more