Hell's Kitchen: my new home

I signed a lease Friday, and I'm moving to Hell’s Kitchen next week. (Pix soon.)

I had two big reasons from the outset:

1.  Get closer to the city.
2. A second bedroom for an office in a real room with a real door, and room for two tables for writing vs web. That worked really well in Denver. I need it badly.

I found a great apartment in a cool building in a great spot: in midtown, a five-minute walk from Times Square, which sounds horrifying, but that crap ends abruptly and HK is completely different. This is where friends said I belonged a year ago, but I had to test out the Upper West Side. They were right. The UWS is OK, but feels a bit far, and not at all my people. Somebody else’s neighborhood. This feels like home.

My Lincoln Center apt open to sublet

I'm officially moving. Signed a lease Friday on the way to the airport to head to Tucson.

More about that very soon, but first I thought I'd let you know that my current apartment near Lincoln Center (71st & West End) is open for re-subletting immediately.

In Tucson for the Book Festival today

I landed in Tucson last night and man, it's summer here. What a nice time for a book festival. And I've only gotten to my hotel, but so far it's a very tranquil place. Such a different feel flying in from Manhattan.

I'm looking forward to a great day.

My panel this morning is 'Bringing Meaning out of Meaninglessness: How Literature Can Respond to the January 8th Shootings.' Roger Simon is the moderator, and lots of other great journos. It's 10:00 AM - 11:00 AM. Chemistry - Room 111. We'll all be signing books immediately after.

Tonight I'm also doing a Dart Society seminar to support local journalists who have been covering the tragedy. That should be really interesting, too. I hope coming out is helpful to them.

Thanks very much to Dart for sponsoring my trip, to make both events possible for me.


I will post more soon, and watch my facebook page for updates and pix. And I have so much to say about my wonderful week of high school visits about Columbine in Chicago and St. Louis last week.

(I signed a lease on a new place in Hell's Kitchen yesterday. It's been a frantic search. More on that soon, too.) .

And free Columbine Teacher's Guide here. And here is my Columbine Intro Video.

Why Do Writers Abandon Novels? NYT vs Black Swan

“A book itself threatens to kill its author repeatedly during its composition,” Michael Chabon writes in the margins of his unfinished novel “Fountain City.”

 That's the opening line of a new essay in the New York Times Book Review: Why Do Writers Abandon Novels?

There are a lot of interesting thoughts on that from very successful writers, though none live up to that amazing opening line.

I felt Columbine trying to choke me to death countless times. And about three years into the process,

Back out to high schools about Columbine this week

I'm off to LaGuardia for a great week of high school visits about Columbine in Chicago and St. Louis areas. Free Columbine Teacher's Guide here.

I'm also doing the Tucson Book Festival a week from Saturday, a panel titled 'Bringing Meaning out of Meaninglessness: How Literature Can Respond to the January 8th Shootings.' Sat 10:00 AM - 11:00 AM. Chemistry - Room 111

More soon, and watch my facebook page for updates and pix.

Here's a pic from my assembly at Hersey High last year: