A Year In New York

Today I’ve been running last-minute errands and pondering what it all means, spending a year in New York City. I’ve worn through a lot of shoe leather in this crazy town and learned some hard lessons,  and now it’s time for me to pass those lessons on to you.
Here goes:

1. The World Won’t End If [...]

[Read more →]

I’m happy to announce that a story I wrote about ice climbing made the cover of the latest issue of Sierra magazine. The story is part of a package of tantalizing winter trips, and my contribution tells of a lesson I took last March on the frozen waterfalls of the White Mountains, 371 miles’ drive [...]

[Read more →]

Writers are like cats: a single animal can be companionable and charming, but a whole pride of them is a house divided against itself. Don’t be surprised if they hiss and spit at each other, strike poses on top of the refrigerator and stalk off to sulk under the bed.

[Read more →]

Yesterday Paragraph, my writing community, took on the editors of New York magazine for a semi-friendly game of softball, the city’s scribes being loosely affiliated into a league and this game, in the sunny and mild week before Labor Day, being the season’s final inning.
Team Paragraph arrived early at East River Park (no bosses overseeing [...]

[Read more →]

My friend Dane Golden is in town from San Francisco and wrangled us a tour of the offices of Mad magazine, the publication that was honing satire to a lethal edge years before Stephen Colbert and the editors of The Onion were even born.
The office is in a glitzy tower on Broadway near Times Square, [...]

[Read more →]

Today I reported for my first session at Paragraph, a haven for writers that sits above a funky lamp store near Union Square. New York is a city of extremes and Paragraph occupies its own special niche: It is a very, very quiet place.

[Read more →]