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Leopold Bloom is the protagonist of Ulysses, yet he doesn’t show up until page 55. And even then, he’s not the first to speak in his own chapter. James Joyce gave that honor to Bloom’s unnamed cat. Scholars have long…
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Ice, Isolation, and Solitude
I. On Friday, the snow started falling and falling, but it was soft and dry, unusual for the Portland area. The ice came quickly after in some areas, which is not so unusual. The snow in my back yard remained…
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A Gawain for All Seasons
SAYING IT IN LARGE TEXT: I 100% REVEAL THE ENDING OF THIS MOVIE IN THIS ESSAY. If you’ve seen it or that doesn’t bother you (it is a good movie worth watching), read on. Here’s the thing about Sir Gawain…
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Sci-Fi Facing Backward
For decades, genre fiction of all kinds—sci-fi, fantasy, horror, romance, and historical fiction—was relegated to the pulp racks and considered beneath the notice of serious readers. Many of these books, while fun, were not masterpieces, and the few that could…
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Bête of Burden
During the first summer of the Covid-19 lockdown in 2020, I decided to tackle my first translation of a book from French to English. Voyage Around My Room by Xavier de Maistre seemed like an obvious choice that summer, since…
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Must Of Been a Mistake
I received an email from my website form about people using “of” where they should use “have” in their writing. It was really more of a comment than a question. I wasn’t going to address it because I didn’t know…
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Donna Tartt, Queen of Punctuation
My friend Carly, who knows how my brain works and can wind my literary obsessions up like a toy, told me over dinner one night that she had decided that Donna Tartt was the queen of punctuation. She was reading…
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My Go-To Freelance Tools and Apps
I’ve noticed, after six months of stay-at-home orders during the COVID-19 pandemic, that a lot of people are striking out on their own to build freelance businesses. I’ve been out here living a freelance life since 2006, and I would…
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Making a Mistake, Then Making It Better
On May 19, publication day for Life Among the Paiutes, I sent out about a half-dozen copies to friends and family, including the artist who did the cover. I printed out the labels and left them for the mail carrier…