aimee liu

I WROTE THIS ON October 22, 1997, WHILE WORKING ON MY LAST NOVEL, FLASH HOUSE. PERHAPS THIS ENTRY EXPLAINS WHY I HAVE NOT PRODUCED ANOTHER RESEARCH-BASED NOVEL SINCE?

A couple of years ago I heard Oakley Hall, writer and director of the Squaw Valley Writers' Conference, talk about "research rapture," that great black hole that looms over the writing process and too often swallows both writer and work. I knew precisely what he meant. (more…)

THE WAY-BACK MACHINE FOUND THIS MUSING FROM Tuesday, January 14, 2003 WHILE I WAS WORKING ON MY NOVEL, FLASH HOUSE...

I recently heard the novelist Arundhati Roy declare that she collects shopping bags full of words. I think, in my case, it would be more accurate to say, I collect words by the dumpsterful.

Initially, of course, we’re both talking about the impulse to gather language. Words wink and tempt us, beckon from the sidelines and far reaches of the brain, from billboards and snatches of overheard conversation, from the echoes of memory. Use me! Take me! Play with me! Keep me! Words are like neglected pets hungering for a home. (more…)