Blog entries

Becoming an Introvert

Julia Dvorin — Wed, 29 Feb 2012 06:00:00 +0100

You know what’s weird (besides Leap Day)? I think I’m becoming an introvert. I know, I know...those of you who have known me for more than, let’s see, 30 seconds are probably snorting liquid out your noses right now at the suggestion. Believe me, it’s tripping me out too. Me, an introvert? Me, the one who loves all kinds of people and their stories, who is perfectly comfortable in a crowd, throws big parties, loves a good gabfest with friends and will happily start cha...

Pinball Wizard

Julia Dvorin — Thu, 16 Feb 2012 06:00:00 +0100

Please insert ritual apologies for having not posted in far too long here. There haven't been any crises or upheavals preventing me, just the usual struggle to cram the too many things I want to do into too little time. I've mostly been spending my time writing fiction rather than blog posts, which is a great change of pace and I'm glad for it, but I do feel the tug of wanting to produce more content for poor Parentheticals. All of which leads me to today's metaphorical musing, about being a ...

20 Years Since Being Told "The Bad News Is...It's Cancer"

Julia Dvorin — Mon, 23 Jan 2012 04:36:38 +0100

Today is my birthday (yay!), but for those of you who've been around for awhile, you know it's also the anniversary of my cancer diagnosis (Stage 2 Hodgkin's Lymphoma). Of particular note today, however, is that it's also a Big Number anniversary: 20 years. 20 years! That's a damn big number. 20 years since I heard a new doctor in a new town say to me, "well, I've got good news and bad news. The bad news is...it's cancer. The good news is, if you had to get any kind of cancer, this is the kin...

My 2012 Intention: Practice with a Capital P

Julia Dvorin — Thu, 05 Jan 2012 06:00:00 +0100

Instead of making specific resolutions this year like "walk more/eat less" or "write every day" (though I have some of those too), I have decided instead that what I really want to do is set an overarching intention for the entire year ahead. In that spirit, then, I declare that 2012 is going to be the Year of Practice. It will be the year I stop planning to do things, and do them: I will marry epiphany to action. It will be the year I put into practice all the things I have learned about mys...

Year End Reflections, 2011 Version

Julia Dvorin — Sat, 31 Dec 2011 06:00:00 +0100

I’m sitting on the couch of a rented house, looking out over the gray and foggy ocean out here in Stinson Beach. I’m here with my extended family on our annual holiday vacation, and I’ve finally found a moment of calm in the midst of the competing demands on my attention to sit down at the computer and start my ritual of year’s-end reflection.

So what was 2011 like? Well, just like every year, it was a continuation of many of the previous year’s patterns a...

Celebrating Hanukkah in the Middle of Christmas

Julia Dvorin — Wed, 21 Dec 2011 08:49:02 +0100

(Yes, Parentheticals has been distracted by the holidays. But I’ve been *thinking* about blogging, doesn’t that count? Yeah. I know. I didn’t really think so.)

Anyway, today’s seasonally appropriate topic comes out of various experiences I’ve had over the last month with feeling especially aware of my Jewishness—and therefore, my outsider-ness—in the midst of a Christian-centered culture. It always comes up this time of year, when no matter wha...

The Day On Which Our Heroine Focuses on Giving Thanks

Julia Dvorin — Fri, 25 Nov 2011 06:00:00 +0100

Yes, it’s that time of year again. I really like having a day specifically to focus on the things I am thankful for in my life. I try to bring a general sense of gratitude to every day, and with my new appreciation of appreciation as a tool for social change, I also try to verbalize the appreciation of the things or the people I am thankful for to their source as often as I can. But Thanksgiving (and the days around it, which inherit many of its holiday characteristics) is a day to real...

Only 1,250 Books Before I Die: Confessions of a Lapsed Reader

Julia Dvorin — Thu, 17 Nov 2011 08:50:58 +0100

I’ve been thinking a lot lately about reading, and its place in my life. Specifically, I’ve been thinking about how it was being a voracious reader as a kid that made me want to be a writer, and about how these days I write a lot more than I used to, but in “olden days” I used to read a whole lot more than I do now. I miss reading. I miss that feeling of diving into a book and not coming out for hours and hours, finally surfacing blurry-eyed and satisfied out of story ...

World Fantasy Convention 2011: A Solipsistic Report

Julia Dvorin — Mon, 07 Nov 2011 06:00:00 +0100

(Sure, I know it’s a week overdue, but better late than never, right? Right.)

The 2011 World Fantasy Convention (or WFC for short) was held in San Diego this year, right before Halloween. This was my third year going to WFC, and I have to say this con is probably my favorite now (though Worldcon has also proved to be pretty awesome most years too, and I’m not knocking Worldcon). WFC is smaller than Worldcon, and feels more like a “trade” con than a “fan&rd...

The Long and Winding Road From "Writer" To "Author"

Julia Dvorin — Tue, 25 Oct 2011 09:59:09 +0100

I recently found out that a big hairy audacious dream of mine just moved one huge important step farther towards reality: my novel Ice Will Reveal has been accepted for publication by Hadley Rille Books, with a tentative publishing date of early 2013. I am, how can I put this...oh hell, why not: verklempt. It’s actually kind of hard to describe exactly what it feels like, but I kind of want to, which is why it’s taken me a week to actually blog the good news. I know...metaphors to...

Rites of Passage at Burning Man: Part 7

Sat, 17 Sep 2011 05:00:00 +0100

Once we bid farewell to the sunrise and the playa, we came down from the DJ booth and dragged ourselves back to camp and to the flurry of final camp breakdown and packing the car. I was exhausted by the time I finished packing everything back up again, but Isis really wanted ...

Rites of Passage at Burning Man: Part 6

Fri, 16 Sep 2011 05:00:00 +0100

Saturday was really our last day at Burning Man, since we were going to try to leave really early on Sunday morning, so there was lots to choose from to do. I chose to go off on a bike ride on my own in the relatively cool morning hours, leaving Isis to go do her o...

Rites of Passage at Burning Man: Part 5

Thu, 15 Sep 2011 05:00:00 +0100

On Friday we had sort of a slow start to the day because of our late night the night before, but eventually I got myself together to go bike over to Center Camp to fetch us the ice we never got the day before. It was the first time there that I’d ridden my new beater bike (boug...

Rites of Passage at Burning Man: Part 4

Wed, 14 Sep 2011 05:00:00 +0100

Wednesday night was probably the one night that I actually got a full night’s sleep the whole time I was out there, and it was a good thing too because I had had such a mind-blowing, epiphany-full day the day before, I really needed to re...

Rites of Passage at Burning Man: Part 3

Tue, 13 Sep 2011 05:00:00 +0100

Wednesday morning we got up around 8 and looked around Sacred Spaces Village a bit and then finished setting up our camp. We put up a big EZ-up shade shelter in front of our tent, and under that we put the hammock on a stand that Isis had brought with her. I also staked everything down, and arra...

Rites of Passage at Burning Man: Part 2

Mon, 12 Sep 2011 05:00:00 +0100

So after much conversation and intention setting, Isis and I finally arrived at Black Rock City (which is what we call the city that springs up every year around Burning Man) early Tuesday evening, almost two days into the event. It took us about an hour or two to get...

Ending the Parentheticals Summer Hiatus With a Big, Flaming Rite of Passage: My Trip to Burning Man

Sun, 11 Sep 2011 05:00:00 +0100

Ok, even though it’s not quite technically Fall yet, the Parentheticals summer hiatus is now officially over! (What, you didn’t know there was going to be a summer hiatus? Well, neither did I. Sometimes things come as a surprise even to the creator.) After spending a summer full of travel and family time and “filling-the-well” activities, I’m ready to get back into the rhythm of experience-reflect-share-repeat.

Nu, so what kinds of activities and epiphanie...

Making Things Can Change the World: A Reflection on the Bay Area Maker Faire

Julia Dvorin — Mon, 23 May 2011 05:00:00 +0100

Ok, I realize that I’m extremely late to the party on this one, but I feel like I have to talk a little bit about the Maker Faire, which we finally went to for the first time this year. Although I’d heard of it for years from various friends, and was told that I’d enjoy it, I apparently wasn’t listening hard enough, because we never made the effort to go before this. I have to say, I’m so glad we went—I was tremendously inspired, even despite having to ...

Memory, and the Lack Thereof: Adventures in Personal Archeology

Julia Dvorin — Tue, 03 May 2011 02:52:13 +0100

I have been thinking a lot about memory lately. I’ve been doing some personal archeology in my own past, both as a form of research for the new novel, and as a part of the ongoing inquiry into issues of personal identity and self-(re)construction. I’m constantly amazed at how little I remember of my own life (let alone what was going on around me on a community, national or global level). I feel like the memories I do have are the equivalent of a small shoebox full of faded, oddly...

Writing or Having Written? or, A New Project Is Hard To Do

Julia Dvorin — Fri, 22 Apr 2011 04:10:03 +0100

I’ve heard it said that there are two types of writers: those who like writing, and those who like having written. I’m definitely one of those in the latter camp. I look forward to revisions, to having clumps of raw material to play with and tweak and reshape. The hard part, to me, is producing that raw material in the first place. The difficulty is not so much coming up with new ideas (which are usually plentiful and fun to play with), but that actual starting part, where all kin...