Catching Days
is a blog about writing, reading, and life--how they meld, clash, and astonish. It's a net for catching days.My fiction on the web…
"The Empty Armchair" in Contrary Magazine
"The Splitting Sound" in Clapboard House
"Watching" in Six Sentences
"Frosting" in Contrary Magazine
"Into the Woods" in Storyglossia
My essays on the web…
My reviews on the web…
Kim Wright's Love in Mid Air in Contrary Magazine
Francesca Kay's An Equal Stillness in Contrary Magazine
Mari Strachan's The Earth Hums in B Flat in Contrary Magazine
Rachel Cusk: The Slow Construction of a Writing Life in Blogcritics
Elizabeth Diamond's An Accidental Light in Contrary MagazineCatching Days is one of Powell’s Books “Lit Blogs We Love” !
Favorite Posts
- 12 keys to stronger writing from Annie Dillard via Alexander Chee
- a bent cover
- a gathering place
- are we losing our senses
- feeding the buzzards
- full circle
- life is meals
- like a wick
- row houses
- russian dolls
- sixty potential first sentences
- taking a story apart
- that sinking feeling
- the days cottages
- the street ran on
- the writer's notebook
- word journey
- wordable awareness
Read with me:
A Doctor's Visit: Short Stories by Anton Chekhov
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Blog Stats
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I’m @catchingdays on twitter…
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Monthly Archives: September 2008
prosaic
The Oxford American Dictionary defines this beautiful sounding word as like prose; lacking poetic beauty. unromantic; dull; comonplace. The top three definitions of prose are the ordinary form of the written or spoken language a passage of prose a tedious … Continue reading
sheet rock
The Country Life, published in 1997, is Rachel Cusk‘s third novel. She is spacing them out like children–one every two years. As opposed to The Temporary, the writing is solid throughout, continuously propelling the reader forward. The first sentence tells you that the narrator is … Continue reading
Posted in Rachel Cusk, details, journeys, reviews
Tagged A Life's Work: On Becoming a Mother, The Country Life, The Temporary
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like a wick
I used to copy down favorite passages in a notebook. A small five by seven three-ring binder. I could move the pages around, organize them. I haven’t written in it in a while. I’m not sure why. Maybe too busy writing myself. Anyway, I … Continue reading
otherwise
One of my favorite poems is “Otherwise” by Jane Kenyon. It begins “I got out of bed on two strong legs. It might have been otherwise.” For the complete poem, please go to http://www.loc.gov/poetry/180/050.html. “Otherwise” first appeared in Harvard Magazine … Continue reading
Posted in Jane Kenyon, Poets
Tagged Constance, Jane Kenyon Collected Poems, Otherwise: New and Selected Poems
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the slow construction of a writing life
With her first novel, Saving Agnes, Rachel Cusk laid the foundation for her writing life. The Temporary is her second novel. It was published in 1995, two years after her first. And I see improvement. The author is using fewer words, and in places, she … Continue reading
like watching a house being built
In July, I read Arlington Park and discovered a writer new to me–Rachel Cusk. She was born in Canada in 1967, grew up in Los Angeles, and now lives in England. Arlington Park is her most recent novel. Although I thought … Continue reading
Posted in Rachel Cusk, awards and prizes, first novels, reviews
Tagged Arlington Park, Saving Agnes
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first day of fall
September 22, 2008–the autumnal equinox–fall at last. My favorite season. And it felt like fall this morning. Canada geese flying over. The first leaves changing color. It’s no surprise that in two of my all-time favorite books, the authors write … Continue reading
Posted in James Salter, May Sarton, fall, favorite books, leaves
Tagged Journal of a Solitude, Light Years, The House of Mirth
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sanctuary
At the end of The Hours, in the Acknowledgments, Michael Cunningham thanks Three Lives and Company for being in existence. He describes this bookstore as ”…a sanctuary and, to me, the center of the universe. It has for some time been the … Continue reading
Posted in Michael Cunningham, books, bookstores, why I write
Tagged hours, The Shadow of the Wind
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casts
Niagara Falls All Over Again (published in 2001) is a well-crafted novel written by Elizabeth McCracken. In the space of two and a half pages, the author uses several techniques to pull the reader into the story. Early in the novel, the author describes an accident as … Continue reading
friday night lights
Last Friday night, at Leon Coverson Stadium in Greenville, Georgia, the Patriots faced the Cougars. It was the red and black against the blue and white. At the start of the game, the sun lingered behind a cloud. A few minutes later, smoke from the … Continue reading
Posted in Louise Gluck, Poets, catching moments, glimmers, poetry
Tagged The Wild Iris
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“It’s hard to tell somebody what you mean to say. And that’s an idea that I’m obsessed with. It’s why I write. It’s why everybody writes.”
--Jonathan Safran Foer
