Hello, hello, hello!
This past fortnight, I’ve been working on some old and some new work. One problem with working on a piece for too long is that the discourse around the topic changes a fair bit over the time that you work on it, and you end up sometimes tearing your hair and thinking, “But I have to read and incorporate everything that’s been said about this since x time.” I was calmed down by a friend and should have that done, and be able to announce it soon.
I’ve also been working on—I can finally be more public about it—writing fiction. It’s a new experience for me, and I’m thoroughly enjoying it. I never thought I’d be a fiction writer, and when I began this endeavour I really thought I’d write in a more elaborate style, given that my favourite writers include Charles Dickens and Charlotte Brontë. I’m surprised that I seem to be much more spare in my writing. I have excellent editors to work with so that’s a huge help, and I’m loving the ability to create an entire world and characters. More on that later.
This past fortnight, I wrote two new pieces. I thought I’d write a third as well, on the Netflix show Never Have I Ever, but a piece on “Cat Person,” the New Yorker story that keeps returning and demanding our attention turned out to be longer than I thought it would be (story of my writing life). I’ll have the NHIE piece done this week, so feel free to check in on the website to look for that.
PODCASTS
I neglected to post this one last time: I was on Radio Free Berkshires with Steve Dew and Steve Dew and Jason Velázquez for the weekly live radio show, “The Left Hook.”
WRITING
I wrote about immigration as DACA came under threat yet again. Here’s “DACA Was Always DOA. Let’s End It Now.”
And will we ever be rid of “Cat Person?” I wrote “‘Cat Person’ Will Never Die.” The piece is graced by my sweet, lovely, beloved and dearly missed Frida.
DAILY POSTS FROM THE ARCHIVE
Here are the pieces from the archive I posted this last fortnight.
“Death by Celebrity: Anthony Bourdain, Kate Spade, and the Lives We Flee.”
“Rights Make Might: The Dystopian Undertow of Hillary Clinton’s Elite Feminism.”
“Brian Bouldrey’s Honorable Bandit: A Walk across Corsica.”
“Abortive Reasoning: What’s Wrong with the Abortion Rights Debate.”
“A Better Son or Daughter: Donald Trump, Amnesia, and a Capitalist Fable.”
“Racism and the American Pit Bull.”
“The Dangerous Academic Is an Extinct Species.”
Till the next,
Yasmin
Image: Anna Billing, Summer Meadow, 1895