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In The Cab, Barrelling To Get To An ATM Because He Only Takes Cash

I'm geting car sick. Stop. Go. Skid to a stop jerk to the left while I slide to the right whip smart barf in car driving. My mouth is filling up with saliva and I am getting that wierd feeling in my jaw.

Nothing Beats A Motel Swimming Pool

Sipping Daiquiris and Avoiding Other Writers

It's reported that Hemingway once said that the reason he didn't like hanging out with other writers is that it was like "too many flies all competing for the same piece of shit."

I love Hemingway, and I have learned a lot from his work, but this is one of those times that I would have to argue with him. Well, I would argue with him about sipping daiquiris, too. Because he drank the fuck out of the syrupy frozen concoction, and I am not a big fan of anything served with an umbrella.

In fact, I have been blatantly disobeying Hemingway and hanging out with writers and avoiding daiquiris as much as I can. I started a writers' group in 1997 and since then, three out of the twelve members (Doris Elaine Sauter, Me, Harry Hunsicker) have gone on to publish with major New York publishers, and the rest, I promise you, are on their way. I find this to be a phenomenal occurrence. And I attribute it to the supportive nature upon which the group was founded. I firmly believe that joining a writers' group is the first step you should take on the long marathon run that is getting published.

My writers' group at our founding location: Legal Grounds in Dallas, Texas

The second thing I did to hang around writers was go to Bread Loaf Writer's Conference.

This is like Valhalla for young writers and poets. Founded by Robert Frost himself; John Irving, Carson McCullers and Eudora Welty have matriculated. It's two weeks in Vermont's Green Mountains where you can talk about "your novel" and no one will roll their eyes. I made some really great friends, and I also met my editor there.

Tom Gratton, Pattabi Seshadri, Murad Kalam and Me at Bread Loaf.

If you have any writerly aspirations, I suggest you make Papa spin in his grave: Start a writers' group and apply to Bread Loaf.