Blogging and Writing

Saturday, June 28, 2008

It is obviously the case that I have not been blogging. As much as I love to blog, there is a very good reason for my absence--which is that I have actually been writing. And lately it has felt to be that blogging and writing are uneasy--if not impossible--bedfellows. And not that I'm making excuses, but I have also been busy promoting the newly released paperback of Black & White. Promotion and writing are also not such a great combination. But I'm thrilled with the beautiful paperback edition by Anchor Books, which the New York Times Book Review featured in last week's Paperback Row. It's been a pleasure to do some terrific radio and to visit over the telephone with book clubs such as the Literary Lyres--a group of sorority sisters who live in the San Fernando Valley. Talking on the phone with book clubs is one of my favorite things to do. The members always have great questions, and I don't have to get out of my pajamas! In this particular case, the Literary Lyres prepared a feast of black and white food, and wore black and white attire, as you can see.



As summer gets underway--which also means longer days to work as my son gets on the bus to camp at 8 in the morning and returns (happy, dirty, exhausted) at 5--I am hoping to have the stretch of hours I need in a daily way for my new book. I don't mean that I am sitting at my desk writing for six, seven hours. Instead, I am doing yoga and meditating (yes, meditating) every day. I am immersed in a stack of books ranging from Walden to Karen Armstrong's Buddha, to a biography of Menachem Schneerson. And I am driving around the countryside more than I should, given gas prices, because there's something about the act of driving that frees up my mind. And freeing up my mind is what it's all about these days.