Ann S. Epstein Writer

What I’m Reading: Fake Accounts by Lauren Oyler

My Amazon and Goodreads review of Fake Accounts (Rating 2) – False Hype for a Worthless Recounting. The nameless narrator in Lauren Oyler’s Fake Accounts comments, “I can’t help but feel the books of collected tweets you occasionally see displayed on tables at Urban Outfitters would be better as novels or memoirs that contain no tweets.” Oyler should have taken her protagonist’s advice. The fake accounts in this book — her boyfriend’s conspiracy blog, the outlandish profiles the narrator creates on dating apps, her rambling observations about life — don’t attain novel or memoir status. Noteworthy characters and a memorable story are absent, while the social media posts lack originality and insight. I offer this judgment not only as a disappointed reader, but also as a conscientious writer (see my Amazon author page and Goodreads author page). The raves for Fake Accounts strike me as “false” hype for a worthless “recounting.” Reading it was akin to wasted hours scrolling online.

Why writers read: “Knowing you have something good to read before bed is among the most pleasurable of sensations.” – Vladimir Nabokov

Pandemic Thoughts: Write or Be Damned

Asked by The New York Times what she had made during the pandemic year, actor and writer Sharon Horgan replied, “I wrote tons. I hope that’s not a smug answer. It was like work or be damned.” The lockdown may intensify that feeling, but for me, and I suspect most writers, writing versus damnation are the ordinary poles of non-pandemic life. A day without writing, or comparable creative activity, is a woebegone day! Read more of my thoughts about writing at REFLECTIONS.

A day without writing is a woebegone day

Why writers write: “Find out the reason that commands you to write. Confess to yourself you would have to die if you were forbidden to write.” – Rainer Maria Rilke

Pandemic Thoughts: Reopening Opens Anxiety

“I’m getting stressed imagining the world opening up. If I have a creative epiphany before then, it would make me feel like this time is done” (musician Phoebe Bridgers). I too am both anxious and eager contemplating a return to normal social interaction. I don’t need an epiphany, but I need reassurance that my creativity as a writer during the pandemic will continue after restrictions ease. Read more of my thoughts about writing at REFLECTIONS.

I’m anxious in both senses of the word about the pandemic ending

Why writers write: “A writer is someone for whom writing is more difficult than it is for other people.” – Thomas Mann

Pandemic Thoughts: Half Full or Half Empty?

Asked by The New York Times what they’ve accomplished during the pandemic, creative people offer opposing responses. “I have never gotten so much work done! There are so few distractions or interruptions. Even if you choose to do nothing, you can do it with intensity” (Sheila Hicks, fiber artist). “I’ve made nothing. Creatively, I’m lost. It’s why I’m doing this interview. I’m guessing some other artists identify” (Tracy Letts, playwright). I’m with Hicks. Not because I have more time to fill, but because writing offers solace. I immerse myself in my characters who, while coping with other problems, are decidedly not living through this pandemic. Read more of my thoughts about writing at REFLECTIONS.

Is your pandemic year creatively half full or half empty?

Why writers write: “A book is not an end in itself. Like a newspaper or magazine, a book is a means of communication.” – Isabel Allende

More Microfiction Published at 50 Give or Take

“Too Old for Grievances,” a work of microfiction, has been published at 50 Give or Take. This online publication from Vine Leaves Press emails a story of 50 words or less to each subscriber’s inbox every day. All are welcome to read, subscribe, and submit. FREE. Check out these stories of mine:
Hit SEND November 25, 2020
Test Results December 22, 2020
Fido’s Lament February 13, 2021
Window Seat March 17, 2021
Too Old for Grievances April 04,2021

50 Give or Take: A story in your inbox every day. Subscribe, read, and submit for FREE!

Why writers write: “Keep a small can of WD-40 on your desk — away from any open flames — to remind yourself that if you don’t write daily, you will get rusty.” – George Singleton

What I’m Reading: Things That Crash, Things That Fly by Scott Gould

My Amazon and Goodreads review of Things That Crash, Things That Fly (Rating 5) – A Good Storyteller with a Good Story to Tell. Scott Gould’s memoir, Things That Crash, Things That Fly, speaks to everyone recovering from an experience — in his case a divorce — that has left them blind-sided and angry, in search of explanations and revenge. On the eve of a trip to Italy, including the small village where his wife’s family is from, she announces that she will leave him when they return. Readers recognize her sadism, but in his desperation to remain married, Gould is in denial until a “piercing” revelation (I won’t spoil it by revealing more) releases his rage. Wallowing in post-divorce misery, Gould returns to Italy to investigate the death of a young American World War Two bomber and tarnish his ex’s reputation. A good storyteller, with a good story to tell, Gould has an outward-looking eye for detail and an inward-looking eye for reflection. As an author myself (see my Amazon author page and Goodreads author page), I appreciate the dexterity with which Gould interweaves these two perspectives. In search of revenge, he experiences gratitude. In search of closure, he instead opens himself to new people and possibilities. Gould discovers that the dead soldier is kept alive by the stories of the villagers. Likewise, this return journey is a resurrection for the author. He tells his own tale and in the end, the book and its author soar.

Why writers read: “Good friends, good books and a sleepy conscience: this is the ideal life.” – Mark Twain

Pandemic Thoughts: Literary Shin Splints

“(Our) bad idea in the pandemic was finishing our daily dance regimen jeté-ing and tumbling down the promenade in Riverside Park. It was a total blast — until it gave us really bad shin splints” (Choreographer Justin Peck, The New York Times). Shin splints are caused by prolonged running, typically on hard surfaces. I wondered if there was a writer’s equivalent and concluded that it’s overexplaining, telling the reader what you’ve already shown. The cure for physical and literary shin splints? Give it a rest! Read more of my thoughts about writing at REFLECTIONS.

Dancers and writers can both get shin splints when they come down too hard

Why writers write: “The most beautiful things are those that madness prompts and reason writes.” – Andre Gide

Pandemic Thoughts: Aging and Mortality

“[During the pandemic] my older themes have been coming back into my work” (artist Eddie Martinez, The New York Times). That’s not true for me as a writer. However, I’ve always been drawn to writing about the elderly, due in part to growing up with my grandmother and also working as a Junior Red Cross volunteer at a “home for the aged and infirm” in high school. This year’s losses from COVID-19 have spurred reflections on aging and mortality. I started a new novel set in an old age home in the 1960s. Although the idea has been percolating for a while, I believe the pandemic made me choose to write this book now. Read more of my thoughts about writing at REFLECTIONS.

The pandemic’s severe impact on the elderly spurs thoughts of aging and mortality

Why writers write: “If my doctor told me I had only six minutes to live, I wouldn’t brood. I’d type a little faster.” – Isaac Asimov

What I’m Reading: My Year Abroad by Chang-Rae Lee

My Amazon and Goodreads review of My Year Abroad: A Novel by Chang-Rae Lee (Rating 3) – Bifurcated, Half Good. My Year Abroad by Chang-Rae Lee, is the story of a year in the life of Tiller Bardmon, a twenty-year-old, motherless, one-eighth Asian, upper middle class dropout from a New Jersey college town. In this bifurcated tale, part of Tiller’s year is spent living semi-anonymously with an older woman who is in a witness protection program and has a young son. The unlikely threesome form a quasi-family, and Tiller becomes a father figure to the boy, who possesses an uncanny talent for cooking. Tiller has spent the earlier part of the year in China, taken there by a wealthy Asian-American businessman, who is both mentor and father figure. His adventures abroad range from exotic to kinky to torturous. “Adventures” implies an exciting journey for the reader, but Lee’s overlong and fanciful descriptions of bizarre figures and unbelievable events were boring. As a fiction writer myself (see my Amazon author page and Goodreads author page), I found the author’s riffs to be self-indulgent. By contrast, Tiller’s tame domesticity, in the company of fully drawn characters, especially the young boy, was moving and engaging. A better book would have truncated the unconventional experiences abroad and remained stateside, delving deeper into the creation of an unconventional family.

Why writers read: “We read to know that we are not alone.” – C. S. Lewis

Pandemic Thoughts: Regaining Focus and Momentum to Write

“When time becomes hazy and slippery, [our] focus is scattered. After a while, you gain a little clarity. Quarantine becomes a microcosm of life itself: When you come to the end of it, what would you like to be able to say you’ve done? Doing something is better than doing nothing. And a tiny bit a day, I began to write” (novelist Carolyn Parkhurst). My chronology has been the reverse. The longer the pandemic drags on, the more ambiguous the endpoint, the more effort it takes to keep going. But, because I’m a worker by nature, I continue to write every day, and the energy is self-sustaining. Read more of my thoughts about writing at REFLECTIONS.