Blog

I'm a writer who has published two books with major publishing houses, plus poetry, articles, and other creative work in lots of venues. Shouldn't *that* make me happy?

If the emotional lives of authors who are far more famous than I are any indication, the answer may be "no."

When I began my first novel in my mid-30s, I tried to make light of the feelings I found myself struggling with by flippantly asking my then-colleague, the novelist Pete Rock, whether writing fiction caused manic-depression or merely mimicked the symptoms of manic-depression. He answered, “Yes,” a cleverly enigmatic but also oddly confirming response. What I was feeling, he seemed to say, was common among writers.

Click hear to read the whole essay.

I'm really pleased that this piece in The Millions has gotten so much positive attention, and that they changed my title to something a little more upbeat.