process
Writing daily
I've been trying, for the last week or two, to string together as many days of I wrote words today as possible. Today, I think, means I've written daily for two weeks (with the exception of one day when nothing quite worked right). All of this
Love or fear
Last week I listened to an episode of Off Camera, in which Sam Jones interviewed Rashida Jones [https://offcamera.com/issues/rashida-jones/watch/#.YV2_MC9lC-o] about her life and career. At one point, asked how she made some career choices, Jones said her father, legendary music producer Quincy Jones, had
Morning view
Up a bit early this morning. I wasn't the first one awake—Felicia's often up before me, getting a workout in—but I was the only one stirring upstairs. I went from window to window, pulling curtains and raising shades. The sun wasn't yet
Friday Harbor
For the last fifteen or so years—I honestly can't remember when it started; perhaps with a long weekend in Cambria, CA, while writing Eleanor [https://www.jasongurley.com/eleanor]?—I have taken a week off in September, then traveled somewhere alone to work on whatever project I
Brothers on a hotel bed
Recently I spent a few bucks to watch a livestream of Death Cab for Cutie playing a show at Red Rocks. The band was on its first (small) tour in nearly two years, playing a vaccinated crowd; the idea of being in a crowd, regardless of vaccination status, still sets
Wonder famous almost boys
Recently I was talking with Felicia about movies, in particular movies about writers. Movies about writers shaped my beliefs, as a younger man, about what a writing life would be like; for the last many years, I have learned to unwind those beliefs, as they don't reflect any
Dear Mrs. Gruhn
Recently I received a letter in the mail from my high school creative writing teacher, Mrs. Gruhn. We've been in touch here and there the last few years, but it's been a little while since the last time. In the letter, she hoped my writing was
The books on my desk
A couple of years ago, taking a cue from Austin Kleon [http://fromyourdesks.com/2011/05/19/austin-kleon/], I squeezed a second desk into my study. In Steal Like an Artist, Kleon wrote: > I have two desks in my office—one is “analog” and one is “digital.” The analog
A place for writing
I built my first web site a little over twenty years ago. Twenty-three, I think. At the time, I worked as a computer salesperson for a small shop in Anchorage, Alaska. We weren't terribly busy, I wasn't a very good salesperson, and I didn't
Two drafts in one
Sitting on a hard drive in my study are my earliest novels, each written in Microsoft Word in the mid-to-late nineties. That's how I started writing Eleanor [https://www.jasongurley.com/eleanor], too; somewhere along the way, however, I migrated to Scrivener, though I never really took advantage