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Same as in previous post, but the full story in one place and html corrected. Thanks Moi!
( Here it is again! )
( Here it is again! )
Tags:
Same as in previous post, but the full story in one place and html corrected. Thanks Moi!
( Here it is again! )
( Here it is again! )
Tags:
While searching for something else entirely, I came across this comment I'd made here on January 2, 2004:
"I didn't accomplish anything that would look impressive in a newsletter last year either, but managed to have quite a pleasant time despite failing to achieve any of the goals I had sworn to achieve by the time I turned thirty. On the other hand "turn thirty in Kyoto" had never been on that list, and yet it was very nice to do so.
On the third hand, a guy I know who's a third degree black belt and brilliantly good, who can stand in front of you and kick you in the back of the head-- without hurting you-- says that studying karate is like walking in a spiral. You're always making progress, but you can't see it from where you stand.
With that in mind, I like to think that you and I may feel like we've been spinning our wheels, when really we've been walking a spiral path to somewhere really cool."
Here's a timeline of the last two years, reconstructed via email:
October 29, 2002: Turned twenty-nine.
November 5, 2002: Went to Japan for the first time.
Mid December, 2002: Read Augusten Burroughs' hilarious memoir about his bizarro upbringing in a home-based lunatic asylum, Running with Scissors.
December 17, 2002: I email him a fan letter mostly consisting of an account of my own bizarro childhood.
December 18, 2002: Burroughs emails me to tell me I should write a memoir.
June 2002: Finish the first draft of my memoir. Spend next seven months doing rewrites and pursuing agents.
October 29, 2003: Turn thirty in Kyoto.
January 2, 2004: Make post quoted above.
January 3, 2004: Query hot New York agent Brian DeFiore about my memoir.
January 6, 2004: Brian asks to read my manuscript.
January 14, 2004: Brian becomes my agent.
February 27, 2004: Rodale buys the memoir. I spend the next eight months doing rewrites/finishing the book.
ETA: July 2, 2004: Walk away from a high-speed rollover car crash which the highway patrol thought should have killed me. The fact that I had to ETA this shows just how much I SOLD A BOOK WOO-HOO means to me, I think.
October 29, 2004: I turn thirty-one, having now sold a book, traveled in Japan, gotten my brown belt, told my family the truth about my childhood and my beliefs and found that we all still talk to each other, and with more creative work available to me than I have time to do it in.
Now, I figure that if the undersized offspring of a pair of Jewish hippies who was raised on a bizarre ashram in India for seven years and spent the next fourteen years being clinically depressed can make it, and if Augusten Burroughs, who has no formal schooling and was quite literally raised by lunatics can make it, then all of you are also-- right now-- walking along the spiral path which leads into your very own cool place.
"I didn't accomplish anything that would look impressive in a newsletter last year either, but managed to have quite a pleasant time despite failing to achieve any of the goals I had sworn to achieve by the time I turned thirty. On the other hand "turn thirty in Kyoto" had never been on that list, and yet it was very nice to do so.
On the third hand, a guy I know who's a third degree black belt and brilliantly good, who can stand in front of you and kick you in the back of the head-- without hurting you-- says that studying karate is like walking in a spiral. You're always making progress, but you can't see it from where you stand.
With that in mind, I like to think that you and I may feel like we've been spinning our wheels, when really we've been walking a spiral path to somewhere really cool."
Here's a timeline of the last two years, reconstructed via email:
October 29, 2002: Turned twenty-nine.
November 5, 2002: Went to Japan for the first time.
Mid December, 2002: Read Augusten Burroughs' hilarious memoir about his bizarro upbringing in a home-based lunatic asylum, Running with Scissors.
December 17, 2002: I email him a fan letter mostly consisting of an account of my own bizarro childhood.
December 18, 2002: Burroughs emails me to tell me I should write a memoir.
June 2002: Finish the first draft of my memoir. Spend next seven months doing rewrites and pursuing agents.
October 29, 2003: Turn thirty in Kyoto.
January 2, 2004: Make post quoted above.
January 3, 2004: Query hot New York agent Brian DeFiore about my memoir.
January 6, 2004: Brian asks to read my manuscript.
January 14, 2004: Brian becomes my agent.
February 27, 2004: Rodale buys the memoir. I spend the next eight months doing rewrites/finishing the book.
ETA: July 2, 2004: Walk away from a high-speed rollover car crash which the highway patrol thought should have killed me. The fact that I had to ETA this shows just how much I SOLD A BOOK WOO-HOO means to me, I think.
October 29, 2004: I turn thirty-one, having now sold a book, traveled in Japan, gotten my brown belt, told my family the truth about my childhood and my beliefs and found that we all still talk to each other, and with more creative work available to me than I have time to do it in.
Now, I figure that if the undersized offspring of a pair of Jewish hippies who was raised on a bizarre ashram in India for seven years and spent the next fourteen years being clinically depressed can make it, and if Augusten Burroughs, who has no formal schooling and was quite literally raised by lunatics can make it, then all of you are also-- right now-- walking along the spiral path which leads into your very own cool place.
Tags:
While searching for something else entirely, I came across this comment I'd made here on January 2, 2004:
"I didn't accomplish anything that would look impressive in a newsletter last year either, but managed to have quite a pleasant time despite failing to achieve any of the goals I had sworn to achieve by the time I turned thirty. On the other hand "turn thirty in Kyoto" had never been on that list, and yet it was very nice to do so.
On the third hand, a guy I know who's a third degree black belt and brilliantly good, who can stand in front of you and kick you in the back of the head-- without hurting you-- says that studying karate is like walking in a spiral. You're always making progress, but you can't see it from where you stand.
With that in mind, I like to think that you and I may feel like we've been spinning our wheels, when really we've been walking a spiral path to somewhere really cool."
Here's a timeline of the last two years, reconstructed via email:
October 29, 2002: Turned twenty-nine.
November 5, 2002: Went to Japan for the first time.
Mid December, 2002: Read Augusten Burroughs' hilarious memoir about his bizarro upbringing in a home-based lunatic asylum, Running with Scissors.
December 17, 2002: I email him a fan letter mostly consisting of an account of my own bizarro childhood.
December 18, 2002: Burroughs emails me to tell me I should write a memoir.
June 2002: Finish the first draft of my memoir. Spend next seven months doing rewrites and pursuing agents.
October 29, 2003: Turn thirty in Kyoto.
January 2, 2004: Make post quoted above.
January 3, 2004: Query hot New York agent Brian DeFiore about my memoir.
January 6, 2004: Brian asks to read my manuscript.
January 14, 2004: Brian becomes my agent.
February 27, 2004: Rodale buys the memoir. I spend the next eight months doing rewrites/finishing the book.
ETA: July 2, 2004: Walk away from a high-speed rollover car crash which the highway patrol thought should have killed me. The fact that I had to ETA this shows just how much I SOLD A BOOK WOO-HOO means to me, I think.
October 29, 2004: I turn thirty-one, having now sold a book, traveled in Japan, gotten my brown belt, told my family the truth about my childhood and my beliefs and found that we all still talk to each other, and with more creative work available to me than I have time to do it in.
Now, I figure that if the undersized offspring of a pair of Jewish hippies who was raised on a bizarre ashram in India for seven years and spent the next fourteen years being clinically depressed can make it, and if Augusten Burroughs, who has no formal schooling and was quite literally raised by lunatics can make it, then all of you are also-- right now-- walking along the spiral path which leads into your very own cool place.
"I didn't accomplish anything that would look impressive in a newsletter last year either, but managed to have quite a pleasant time despite failing to achieve any of the goals I had sworn to achieve by the time I turned thirty. On the other hand "turn thirty in Kyoto" had never been on that list, and yet it was very nice to do so.
On the third hand, a guy I know who's a third degree black belt and brilliantly good, who can stand in front of you and kick you in the back of the head-- without hurting you-- says that studying karate is like walking in a spiral. You're always making progress, but you can't see it from where you stand.
With that in mind, I like to think that you and I may feel like we've been spinning our wheels, when really we've been walking a spiral path to somewhere really cool."
Here's a timeline of the last two years, reconstructed via email:
October 29, 2002: Turned twenty-nine.
November 5, 2002: Went to Japan for the first time.
Mid December, 2002: Read Augusten Burroughs' hilarious memoir about his bizarro upbringing in a home-based lunatic asylum, Running with Scissors.
December 17, 2002: I email him a fan letter mostly consisting of an account of my own bizarro childhood.
December 18, 2002: Burroughs emails me to tell me I should write a memoir.
June 2002: Finish the first draft of my memoir. Spend next seven months doing rewrites and pursuing agents.
October 29, 2003: Turn thirty in Kyoto.
January 2, 2004: Make post quoted above.
January 3, 2004: Query hot New York agent Brian DeFiore about my memoir.
January 6, 2004: Brian asks to read my manuscript.
January 14, 2004: Brian becomes my agent.
February 27, 2004: Rodale buys the memoir. I spend the next eight months doing rewrites/finishing the book.
ETA: July 2, 2004: Walk away from a high-speed rollover car crash which the highway patrol thought should have killed me. The fact that I had to ETA this shows just how much I SOLD A BOOK WOO-HOO means to me, I think.
October 29, 2004: I turn thirty-one, having now sold a book, traveled in Japan, gotten my brown belt, told my family the truth about my childhood and my beliefs and found that we all still talk to each other, and with more creative work available to me than I have time to do it in.
Now, I figure that if the undersized offspring of a pair of Jewish hippies who was raised on a bizarre ashram in India for seven years and spent the next fourteen years being clinically depressed can make it, and if Augusten Burroughs, who has no formal schooling and was quite literally raised by lunatics can make it, then all of you are also-- right now-- walking along the spiral path which leads into your very own cool place.
Tags:
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