I first heard of addiction horror through Michele Weinstat Miller. I wrote about her first two books, “The Thirteenth Step: Zombie Recovery” and “Widow-In-Law,” for The Fix—the largest addiction and recovery website. She introduced me to author Mark Matthews who also writes in the genre of addiction horror. I interviewed him for my latest article “Halloween Special: Tales of Addiction.” his new anthology, Lullabies for Suffering: Tales of Addiction Horror.

Mark Matthews spent years fighting the insatiable monster that screams for more. He says that he still dreams about the electricity of cocaine, the soothing caress of heroin, the heaven in a bottle of Stoli vodka. But the party for him ended long ago. By age 23, Matthews was a wreck. He had alcoholic hepatitis of the liver, swollen pancreas, and a bleeding stomach. 

The Fix article begins with my favorite Matthews quote:

Mark Matthews spent years fighting the insatiable monster that screams for more. He says that he still dreams about the electricity of cocaine, the soothing caress of heroin, the heaven in a bottle of Stoli vodka. But the party for him ended long ago. By age 23, Matthews was a wreck. He had alcoholic hepatitis of the liver, swollen pancreas, and a bleeding stomach. 

After several failed detoxes, Matthews still didn’t wanna go to rehab, no, no, no. But at last he hit bottom and crawled into residential treatment. Getting sober was excruciating, yet rewarding. Equipped with his new recovery tools, he learned to manage life without killing himself. He returned to college and earned a Masters in Counseling and a BA in English.

Click here for interviews with Mark Matthews and Caroline Kepnes:
Halloween Special: Tales of Addiction Horror

Matthews put me in touch with: Caroline Kepnes, whose story, “Monsters” is an exquisite contribution to Lullabies for Suffering. You may already know her name. She is the bestselling author of YOU, which became the binge-worthy Netflix series. Horror master Stephen King tweeted about YOU, calling it “Hypnotic and scary. A little Ira Levin, a little Patricia Highsmith, and plenty of serious snark.”

The four additional contributors to Lullabies for Suffering are: Gabino Iglesias, Kealan Patrick Burke, John FD Taff and Mercedes M. Yardley.

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Enclave Reading series on Saturday night was standing room only. Held at Alan Cumming’s Club Cumming in Manhattan’s East Village, the joint was full of hot bodies and talent. As I looked around, it gave me a feeling “down there.” Okay, so I just shamelessly lifted that phrase from Joan Jett, which fits the Enclave’s theme—FRAYED IN NEW YORK—with a focus on the 70s, 80s and 90s. It’s a time I remember oh so well.

The Enclave Opener

“I was so fucking depressed last night,” emcee Brooks said, referring to another hell week with the GOP’s spoiled toddler. Not The Orange Swamp Thing, the other entitled white baby in a suit, Brett Kavanaugh, the sobbing, blubbering, self-pitying Supreme Court nominee.

Brooks got huge laughs with a funny bit about the Unabomber, and talked about the night before the Enclave reading.

“Friday night…I decided to drown my tears and indulge myself in a twink…the magic of an iPhone app is this guy shows up, 22, cute as fuck, and, you know, huge. He had a reckless quality which I find attractive in a twink.”

Unfortunately, the young hottie ruined the action in the middle of it by calling out, Daddy!

“Being called Daddy during sex,” said Brooks, “is the gay equivalent of finding a fly in your soup at a fancy restaurant. You go from, this is gonna be good, right? — to what the fuck?”

I laughed so hard I nearly choked on my seltzer.

Frayed in New York

Jeremiah Moss, the man behind the award-winning blog and book, VANISHING NEW YORK read about what’s gone. It was apt for me. As I’d ambled past Tompkins Square Park on the way to the club, the recurring stab of sadness got me in the gut. My native Manhattan looks nothing like it did and often feels like an empty town filled with ghosts

In the 80s, whenever I was hit with an emergency need for drugs at 3am, it was that park that beckoned, luring me toward Alphabet City. It was a suicide mission back then. Being an ex-junkie, though, it’s not surprising that my wasted ideas always made perfect sense. The coils of my head kick off a Pavlov’s dog-inspired rush of endorphins that leaves me drooling at memories from years of debauchery.

Moss at the Mic

Moss at the mic lamented his arrival to what he refers to as the end of New York City: 1993. He was 22 then. Moss read, “I was Harold and New York, my Maude.” He openly admits his bias and lack of objectivity in his signature prose. Self-deprecating words inspired laughs from the audience but the biggest howl came when he quoted reviewers: “The New York Times called me a curmudgeon with a penchant for apocalyptic bombast” and “The Daily News dubbed me a fetishist for filth.”

Lara IS Sharp

DO THE HUSTLE is Lara B. Sharp’s memoir-in progress. It’s about being raised in New York City’s foster care system and her exploits as a crustie and grifter. She chose a chapter that is set in 1984 and appropriately titled Gypsies, Tramps and Thieves. “A crustie,” Sharp explained, “is a homeless runaway, living on the streets of downtown Manhattan.”

Sharp as a Whipped Crustie

The author opens by telling the audience a little background info.

“I was 14 years old and I ran away from foster care. I’m just kind of living in Washington Square Park because that was a done thing then…My mom was an alcoholic and a drug addict…but [she was] awesome because she taught me everything I needed to know. She taught me how to lie, cheat, and steal.”

In addition to writing, Sharp has performed in a number of theater productions, including Penny Arcade’s original production of the Sex and Censorship Show, BITCH! DYKE! FAGHAG! WHORE! Sharp’s author reading was a performance piece because she’s charismatic and naturally theatrical.

She nailed the accents for the scene’s two characters. One voice is Sharp at age 14. The other is “Gay Cher.” He is her new kinda-sorta mentor who tells the young Sharp that he can easily make her look 18 if she steals beauty products from Duane Reade. The motivation behind wanting to look older, was practical. She wanted to find a job.

Sharp reads in Gay Cher’s midwestern accent: “I’m the most beautiful, half-Mexican faggot boy ever to escape Kansas. I looked like a fat old milk cow, but not no more. And, honey, I can fix you up. I mean, you’re a mess. But, I have talents. No offense but your white eyelashes are disgusting.”

Huge laughs from the crowd.

Then, narrating in her younger self’s voice: “He scratches his left arm making the needle sores bleed. He rubs the blood into his stone wash cut-offs…. He yanks my scrunchie and runs his dirty fingernails through my long blonde hair, pulling at the matted sections.”

I quit drinking, drugging and smoking, but I can’t get enough of Sharp’s writing. Saturday night’s performance proved that I’m addicted to her prose.

Barb Morrison

I chatted with Barb Morrison. Yes, THE Barb Morrison—recording artist, hit songwriter, platinum and gold records producer. Morrison has played with Blondie, The Runaways, Johnny Thunders and plenty more biggies. Morrison’s pronoun is they. They told me they grew up in the East Village and Chelsea after arriving here at 17. They came to the city after a childhood in Albany.

“Did you runaway?” I asked (spontaneously) because I had. At 15, I moved into the Hotel Earle on Waverly (now, Washington Square Hotel). It was only one block from the park I’d fallen in love with. I found it romantic that Joan Baez sang about Bob Dylan smiling out of the window of that crummy hotel over Washington Square.

“Yeah, I ran away many times,” Morrison said. They laughed. “I disappeared into the city. You’ll hear all about it when I read.”

Reading from a memoir-in-progress, Morrison talked about being a squatter and a musician on her way up and joining a band called The Loveless. “I tried out a few bands but none of them fit the way this gang of misfit rebels fit me…. I wanted to get in bar brawls with my guys and wake up the next morning not knowing which bruise was for what reason.”

The band had their first show at the underground Lismar Lounge. “You had to enter through one of those gates in the sidewalk that went down into a basement. Most of the bands on the Lower East Side couldn’t play worth shit and we actually had some good songs, so we instantly gained a following the night of our first gig. I remember pushing our amps up First Avenue after that show. Someone rode past in a cab and yelled “LUHHHHHVVVV LESSSSSSSSSS!” at us. We were too broke to take a cab but we felt like the most famous rockstars on the planet that night.”

Christopher Stoddard

Author Christopher Stoddard read from his new book (AT NIGHT ONLY). His words were about the universal feeling of yearning for an ex to come back and convincing yourself that just by wanting it, you can make it so. Max, his dog, is also an important character in the chapter.

“I’m wondering what he’s doing right now….He didn’t text from Montreal to let me know he landed safely—like he did when we were still in a relationship.” Then he describes pulling out his iPhone to contact his ex. The foreshadowing makes it clear that is always a bad, bad, bad idea. Stoddard’s voice is easy to listen to and, yes, his was one of the hot bodies I had referred to in my second sentence of this recap.

Pedro J. Rosado, Jr., actor, dancer and stage manager. He stage-managed Penny Arcade’s BITCH! DYKE! FAGHAG! WHORE! at Performance Space New York. He can be seen in Joan Moossy’s MISS MOOSSY’S NEIGHBORHOOD MYSTERIES on YouTube singing “It’s Important to be Friendly.”

Despite a packed room, Alissa Brianna, the solo bartender for the evening, breezed through the night and looked calm and poised amidst the madness. She banged out those drinks—which I was told were fantastique!

Also in Attendance:

Elizabeth Wurtzel, celebrated author of  PROZAC NATION and BITCH: IN PRAISE OF DIFFICULT WOMEN
(the lyrics are awesome!)
He may be a middle-aged white heterosexual man/But he’s friendly/He’s not an ageist, sexist, racist, homophobic pig/He’s friendly.
Be like him/ Be friendly.

Lauren Pine, downtown debutante and horse lover, as in horse trainer and horseback rider, not to be confused with old slang for heroin. Glad we cleared that up. Pine, Morrison and Sharp are alumnae of the Don Hill’s Thursday night Squeezebox Parties and have known each other for 30 years.

Melody Jane, danced in Penny Arcade‘s 2018 BITCH! DYKE! FAGHAG! WHORE! at Performance Space New York

Elizabeth Collins, writer and comedian (RAISED BY GAYS AND TURNED OUT OK!)

Clayre Saxon Morrison, British fashion stylist and photographer

Steve Zehentner, stage designer and sound designer who has collaborated with theater artist, writer and performer Penny Arcade for 30 years. One of their collaborations was the Lower East Side Biography Project. If you’ve never experienced it, I recommend clicking on that link.

Gavin Van Vlack, guitar, bass and vocals and member of the bands Canonized and Burn

Liza Béar, artist, photographer, writer, filmmaker

Albie Mitchell, well-known downtown photographer who documented the East Village for over 40 years, and worked for the Village Voice and for the original production of Penny Arcade’s BITCH! DYKE! FAGHAG! WHORE! at PS122 and the Village Gate.

Jenny Gorman, practicing fine art and photography in New York City and the Hamptons for over 25 years.

Cid Scantlebury artist and musician. Cid was an original Bitch from the Don Hill’s ‘ladies metal’ night of that name, a Loser’s Lounge singer, and she sings at F*Bomb NYC shows several times a year.

Sean Harris, artist, whose works in paper collage and mixed media can be viewed on Instagram @seansheengram.

AUTHOR BIOS

JEREMIAH MOSS, creator of the award-winning blog Vanishing New York, is the pen name of Griffin Hansbury. His writing on the city has appeared in the New York Times, the New York Daily News, and online for The New Yorker and The Paris Review. As Hansbury, he is the author of THE NOSTALGIST a novel, and works as a psychoanalyst in private practice in New York City

LARA B. SHARP‘s writing has appeared in various print and online publications, including Longreads and Teen Vogue. A native New Yorker, she has also written for and performed in a number of national and international theatre productions and live storytelling events in New York City, London, and Philadelphia. She was an original member of Penny Arcade’s BITCH! DYKE! FAGHAG! WHORE! in the early 90s and toured with Penny Arcade. Sharp earned her BA from Smith College, where she was an Ada Comstock fellow, and is working on a memoir about her childhood in the New York foster care system.

BARB MORRISON is a musician and producer who uses music as a platform of advocacy for the transgender community. A regular performer at The Ritz and CBGB’s, they were the saxophonist, guitarist and singer for the bands Gutterboy and Itchy Trigger Finger, which were signed to Mecury Records and toured with Lollapalooza in 1999. Barb has co-written and produced songs for artists such as Blondie, Rufus Wainwright, LP, and Franz Ferdinand. They also wrote the scores for films, including The Safety of Objects (2000), which starred Glenn Close. Their writing has appeared in various publications, such as the New York Times and The Good Men Project. Currently, they are at work on their memoir.

CHRISTOPHER STODDARD’s new novel At Night Only from Itna Press released this June, which has been praised by The Paris Review, Kirkus, Slate, Lambda Literary, and authors Edmund White and Gary Indiana. Featured in OUT Magazine’s “Tastemakers” issue in 2015 for his contributions to literature and publishing, he’s written two other novels: Limiters (Itna Press, 2014), and White, Christian (Spuyten Duyvil, 2010). He lives in Brooklyn, New York.

—

To learn more about The Enclave Reading Series, visit theenclavereadingseries.tumblr.com or follow on Facebook and Instagram.

For more info on events at Club Cumming, visit clubcummingnyc.com or follow on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram.

—

Dorri Olds is an award-winning freelance writer whose work has appeared in book anthologies, and publications including The New York Times, Marie Claire, Woman’s Day, Time Out New York, The Fix, The Forward, Yahoo, and Tablet. Visit her YouTube channel and see other works she’s done for Honeysuckle here.

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How did an extraordinarily well-qualified, experienced, and admired candidate — whose victory would have been as historic as Barack Obama’s — come to be seen as a tool of the establishment, a chronic liar, and a talentless politician?

That’s the question Pulitzer Prize-nominated author Susan Bordo, Ph.D., asked and answered in her new book, “The Destruction of Hillary Clinton” (Melville House Publishing, April 2017). Bordo, a media critic, cultural historian and feminist scholar, presents myriad reasons for Clinton’s shocking defeat. The biggest culprits included sexism, the right’s attacks on her, Russian interference in the election, and “media madness.”

Bordo told the Forward in an exclusive interview, “We’re inundated every day with sound bites — fragments of supposed breaking news. Anyone on Twitter or Facebook, or watching CNN, MSNBC or Fox News, saw this endless repetition of clickbait headlines. Phrases became stamped into brains: ‘Momentum for Bernie Sanders: Hillary Clinton likely to be charged with email crime.’”

The author also referred to “two immensely powerful assaults” on Clinton’s candidacy. One was FBI Director James Comey’s “inappropriate, inaccurate, and inflammatory interference in the general election.” Bordo was, of course, referring to Comey’s letter, made public 11 days before the election, stating that the FBI was opening a new investigation into recently discovered emails from Anthony Weiner’s laptop. By the time Comey issued his second letter to Congress, on November 6 stating that those emails did not change the FBI’s July decision that neither Clinton nor her team had committed any prosecutable offenses, it was too late.

The other huge offense, according to Bordo, happened much earlier, during the primaries. In February, we all saw Senator Bernie Sanders throw shade on Clinton, shouting to his growing millennial fan base that Clinton wasn’t a “true progressive.” He branded her “The Establishment.”

Bordo told me: At first, I’d identified with Sanders. He and I have virtually the same background. He grew up in Brooklyn. I grew up in Newark, New Jersey. Both working class Jewish families, left-leaning, secular. He sounded like one of my relatives—kind of fun, a bit exotic. I think for many young people across the country, he was like a character from a situation comedy.

His appeal to the younger generation of voters seemed to be a combination of his grandpa persona and his socialist-sounding ideals. Bordo writes that Sanders became a bigger problem in May when he referred to Clinton as “the lesser of two evils.”

“People who think if Bernie had gotten the nomination he would have been able to defeat Trump, just don’t get it,” Bordo said. “Anti-Semitism, with the power of the GOP to use that in ways to alienate people from Sanders, was just lying in wait. You even saw it creep up for Clinton although she isn’t Jewish.”

That reminded me of the sickening Trump tweet with an image of Hillary Clinton surrounded by money, with its white lettering against a red Jewish star that read, “Most Corrupt Candidate Ever.” Millions of Clinton supporters, like myself, have been left mourning what could have been while having to listen to the deafening blame heaped onto Hillary: that she ran a weak campaign.

Bordo said, “All campaigns make mistakes. It’s as though the critics were blind to the enormous character assassination that was happening to Clinton on a daily basis. On the day after Donald Trump’s inauguration, millions gathered around the world to protest his policies. A newscaster asked, ‘Where was this energy before the election?’”

Clinton lost, Bordo said, “because of a slender but critical mass of voters” who decided late for Trump — after the second Comey announcement — or voted third party or didn’t vote at all. Most were “hardworking people with little time to research facts, and trusted the morning and evening news.” That segment included “white, middle-class, suburban women who’d seen Clinton caricatured as untrustworthy, a self-centered elitist who didn’t understand the problems of ordinary people,” as well as “rust-belt men who learned from fragmentary sound-bites that Clinton was a corporate shill who had proposed putting coalminers out of business—rather than an honest candidate describing an economic reality.”

For the many of us still shell-shocked by this unrecognizable America, Bordo’s book offers a clear analysis of how a candidate who received the overwhelming majority of the popular vote, did not win the presidency.

“Until Trump actually won,” said Bordo,

many young, straight, white women may have believed that the rights they had enjoyed all their lives were somehow secure. The election woke them up, and propelled them to become a part of the resistance that Blacks, immigrants, and LGBTQ citizens were already engaged in — because they always knew safety was an illusion. If that resistance remains as diverse and committed as those first post-inauguration protests it will change the landscape of American politics.

Perhaps change has come already — since election day, according to Emily’s List, close to 13,000 Democratic women are ready to run for office and 7,000 have signed up to help them win.

Click here for more articles on the Forward.

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“A huge part of my alcoholism was anxiety,”20/20 anchor Elizabeth Vargas told me. “I had panic attacks since kindergarten.” During our interview and in her new book, Between Breaths: A Memoir of Panic and Addiction, the veteran newscaster was candid about almost losing everything.

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The memoir “Free Refills: A Doctor Confronts His Addiction” is the harrowing tale of Harvard-trained Dr. Peter Grinspoon, a primary care medical doctor whose life ran horribly amok through his addiction to prescription opioids. The book is also about his recovery and despite the somber topic, Grinspoon offers a lot of hilarity. Dorri Olds landed an exclusive interview with the candid doctor.

Dorri Olds: During your opiate addiction how many pills were you taking?

Peter Grinspoon: It would always depend on what I could get my hands on. I was taking somewhere in the range of 10 to 20 a day. Depending on if I had any major obligations, which would prevent me from taking a lot and if I had a reasonable supply.

Vicodin, OxyContin or Percocet?

All of the above. It started with Vicodin, but the opiates are all similar to each other in how they affect you. It was whatever I could get my hands on.

Did you experience side effects?

Yeah, I was constipated and sort of drowsy. I mostly had side effects when it wore off. I would be jittery and shaky and jumping out of my skin.

Some men on opiates experience impotence and lack of libido. Did you?

Yes, but my marriage was so messed up at that point anyway.

Was the marriage happy before your pill addiction?

No, we were already unhappy but my addiction made it a lot worse. That was the nail in the coffin. She knew the extent of my problem. She gets angry, so I tuned her out.

Do you think anybody could’ve done or said anything that would have helped you?

Coercing people into treatment is a controversial topic. I was forced into treatment because I wanted to get my medical license back. I think the coercion is part of what helped me. I don’t think I was able. I didn’t have it under control at all. I cannot think of anything that anybody could have said or done, that they didn’t already say or do, that would have helped me.

Can you tell me about your father? He was one of the earliest people in favor of medical marijuana, correct?

Yeah, he wrote a book in 1972 called ‘Marijuana Reconsidered.” He kept intending to write a book about how dangerous it was but when he looked into the research he found out that it wasn’t dangerous at all. That coincided with the time that my brother Danny, who has passed away, had leukemia. He found it helpful back then for the nausea and the vomiting that came along with chemotherapy. My parents had a firsthand proof of how helpful medical marijuana could be. That converted my dad who at age 87 is still chugging away trying to get marijuana legalized. He’s retired as a psychiatrist and no longer sees patients but still works at advocacy of medical and recreational cannabis. My parents were too old to have been part of the hippie movement, but their hearts were definitely with the hippies.

And the beats! It’s interesting that Carl Sagan and Allen Ginsburg were houseguests.

Yes, there were many people like that who were fixtures of my childhood. Carl Sagan was there all the time, he was good friends with my dad. And I remember Allen Ginsberg croaking at me—they’d been smoking and smoking. “Boy,” he said, “get me some water.” I wasn’t thrilled with being called boy, but in all fairness, I was only nine.

Let’s talk about your patients now. How did you talk them into giving you drugs?

Oh great [said sarcastically], the part of the story I’m most proud of. [Laughs] It was my patients who were prescribed a lot of opiates and I suspected they weren’t using them entirely above board.

You mean you sensed they were addicted?

Addicted, or selling. I was a friendly doctor so I was like, “Hey, you know I get bad migraines. What if I prescribed 215 instead of 200 and you gave me back 15?” Not one of them seemed surprised or said no.

It takes an addict to spot another, eh?

Yeah, it was like we were on a subliminal addict communication channel.

How many relapses did you have after you were arrested and forced to do your rehab stint?

I had three brief ones. I was caught through drug testing and got reported to the medical board. But I quickly got my act together because I didn’t want to lose every chance of getting my medical license back.

What does being a doctor mean to you? Was it because you had a family to support? Was it because you’d done all that education towards being a doctor? Was it you wanted to please your parents?

All of the above. But mostly, being a primary care doctor is my identity. That’s what I chose. I killed myself to become a primary care doctor. We do okay but we’re among the lowest paid doctors in the country. It isn’t lucrative or glamorous. Surgeons, dermatologists, ophthalmologists make the big money. We’re like the second-class citizens of medical care. But I have connections with patients and feel like I’m helping people. I couldn’t imagine giving that up.

“Free Refills: A Doctor Confronts His Addiction” by Dr. Peter Grinspoon is available for purchase here.

Written For Honeysuckle magazine

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MY BOOKS

I am proud to say that my short stories have been published in the following book anthologies.

Chicken Soup for the Soul: The Power of Positive: 101 Inspirational Stories about Changing Your Life through Positive Thinking (2012)

Attitude is everything. And this book will uplift and inspire readers with its stories about the power of positive thinking! In bad times, and good, readers will be encouraged to keep a positive attitude.

Chicken Soup for the Tea Lover’s Soul: Stories Steeped in Comfort (2007)

Is enjoying a cup of tea the favorite part of your day? Is the brewing of a ‘cuppa’ a ritual that centers and calms you? Reconnect with the silent intimacy and introspection experienced while sipping tea.

Chicken Soup for the Chocolate Lover’s Soul: Indulging in Our Sweetest Moments (2007)

If you can’t live without a daily bite of chocolate, have visions of chocolate truffles dancing in your head, you will savor the decadence of this collection of stories.

Chicken Soup for the Recovering Soul: Your Personal, Portable Support Group with Stories of Healing, Hope, Love and Resilience (2005)

Find inspiration for change and personal growth in each story as people in this dynamic community share their experiences of transformation, of lives reclaimed, of relationships renewed and futures full of promise.

Chicken Soup for the College Soul: Inspiring and Humorous Stories About College (1998)

A collection of stories meant to guide, inspire, support and encourage readers throughout their college experiences.

At Grandmother’s Table: Women Write about Food, Life and the Enduring Bond between Grandmothers and Granddaughters (2001)

What would you give for an afternoon in your grandmother’s kitchen? Leaning over the countertop, you watched as she added the flour, just a little at a time, to the bowl. It seemed like magic.

The Ultimate Christmas: The Best Experts’ Advice for a Memorable Season with Stories and Photos of Holiday Magic (2008)

An entertaining, touching, and uplifting collection of true stories and awe-inspiring photographs of holiday magic, love, family — and a bit of mania.

and

This past year I had the pleasure of working with rock icon Frank Zappa’s younger brother Bobby Zappa on this coming of age memoir. The book is full of rich stories that will stay with me always. It would be fun to go back and tell my teenage self that in 2015 I would have this wonderful opportunity to write about one of my favorite musicians. To learn more visit Bobby’s website: bobzappa.com.

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The Forward

Say No to the ‘C’
Interview with author Jennifer Margulis about the risks of Caesarean sections.

A Tour of Jewish China
Interview with Israeli entrepreneur Yael Farjun who runs a travel company in China.

A Journey of Recovery From Eating Disorders
Interview with comedian-actress Stacey Prussman who does outreach at campuses to help those suffering with eating disorders.

The Fix

Directing Sarah Silverman as an Addict
Interview with Adam Salky about the comedian-turned-dramatic-actress Sarah Silverman and his movie “I Smile Back” based on the novel by Amy Koppelman.

Rape, Trauma, PTSD and Bill Cosby
A personal essay about my own experience with rape and why women are terrified to tell.

Bob Zappa on Frank, Smokes and Addiction
An interview with Frank Zappa’s younger brother about Frank’s addiction to cigarettes, which led to designing the cover and copyediting his memoir “Frankie and Bobby: Growing Up Zappa.” and becoming dear friends with Bob and his wife Diane.

Meet the Remarkable Woman Who Is Saving Afghanistan’s Heroin Addicts
Since the fall of the Taliban, the production of opium has skyrocketed. Afghanistan produces 90 percent of the world’s supply and 11 percent of the population there are addicts. Laila Haidari, a former child bride, runs two addiction treatment centers and offers hope and healing to addicts in Kabul.

More 2015 Olds News

My New York Times Essay “Defriending My Rapist” became required reading for a course on Victimology at John Jay College of Criminal Justice, CUNY

ASJA

I spoke on two panels at the 2015 American Society of Journalists and Authors (ASJA) annual writing conference. The sessions included “Secrets of Interviewing Famous People” and “Use Social Media to Land Writing Gigs and Make Money.” And I have been asked back for 2016! So excited. My panel will be on Sat., May 21, 2016 2-3:30 pm at the Roosevelt Hotel. For more info visit the website: ASJA.org.

Book Expo

Spoke for Susannah Greenberg on a UPublishU panel a BEA about writers promoting themselves on social media.

Celebrity Interviews and Photo Ops

And, of course, I interviewed a ton of celebrities, attended press events, and screened a gazillion movies during 2015. Some of the standouts were Robert de Niro, Julianne Moore, Glenn Close, Lily Tomlin, Laverne Cox, Kristen Stewart, Ben Kingsley, Sam Waterston, Lorraine Bracco, Kim Basinger, Patricia Clarkson, Alex Gibney, Edward James Olmos, Nancy Spielberg, Alicia Vikander, Oscar Isaac, Peter Sarsgaard, Amy Koppelman, Tim Blake Nelson, Shia LaBeouf, Nat Wolff, Paul Sorvino, Debi Mazar.

Websites

Created a bunch of new websites. Here are my faves:

Holly Rizzuto Palker
Juliana Neiman
Cheryl Morrison’s Docuclear

DOGS, DOGS, DOGS!
And let’s not forget the fantastic doggie fundraising events I photographed this year!!

Enjoy!!

And write to me on Facebook and tell me about your high points this year.

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I can lose track of where I am as my mind visits an old disapproving comment or a stupid argument from decades ago. My friend, actor Jay Patterson, jokes that he has arguments with people who’ve been dead for thirty years.

That is the main thing that grabbed me about “What’s Never Said;” this idea that you could go see an old flame that you ached over only to find out he doesn’t remember you. That would make anybody doubt if the relationship was all just a fantasy (I had a few of those).

Another intriguing aspect of this book is the way it switches back and forth between the mind of the protagonist and of her professor. It’s a clever way to be invited into his perspective. It’s the humor and blunt phrasing that unveils the vulnerabilities and flaws of both main characters. A great read for your August beach days — or any time. Other Shapiro novels I loved are “Speed Shrinking” and “Overexposed.”

Come to her FREE event on Tuesday, September 8th at 7pm
Barnes & Noble 150 East 86th Street & Lexington Ave.

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I just finished editing My ASJA Conference Notes! Now they are legible enough to share with you in a Google Doc. This Google Doc contains my “scribblings” from the panels that I attended at this year’s #ASJA writers conference. I also added a few post-conference bits. Please note, these were written for myself but it would take me too long to go in and delete all of my side comments (Like, “Hahaha” or “Weeeee!”) so those were left in. Please feel free to ignore those side commentaries. I promise you there is a ton of useful info for all writers in this doc.

This year, I spoke on two panels, which I’ve done for many years. One panel was “Use Social Media to Land Writing Gigs and Make Money” and here’s a link to my social media handout.

My second panel was “Secrets of Interviewing Famous People.”

For any writer who doesn’t already know, ASJA is the American Society of Journalists and Authors. It is a non-profit organization for writers to network with each other and with editors, publishers, agents. This org has been incredibly helpful to me and is a big chunk of what helped me become a full-time freelance writer.

The other great boost to my writing career came after I’d published a few short stories and a couple of articles. I decided to get serious about full-time writing and took Susan Shapiro’s “Instant Gratification Takes Too Long” essay classes. The idea is to write and sell a piece during the class to pay for the class. She’s a phenomenal teacher and I love to tell people about her.

Speakers quoted in my notes include:

Susan Shapiro, author and professor

Daniel Jones, Modern Love editor, NYTimes

Honor Jones, Opinionator editor, NYTimes (no relation to Daniel)

Rob Spillman, editor at Tin House literary magazine

and many more…

Laura Shin, Catherine Dold, Linda Konner, John Hanc, Susan Lennon, Beena Kamlani, Kirby Kim, Renee Zuckerbrot, Victoria Moy, Katia Bachko, Whitney Frick, Molly Langmuir, David Lidsky, Jessica Winter, Royal Young, Kate Walter, Gabrielle Selz, Kevin Scott Hall, Sharon Goldman, Alicianne Rand, Clare McDermott, Laura Lorber, Allison Mezzafonte, Jack El-Hai, Tina Traster, Laurie Chittenden, Tracy Bernstein, Shaun Dolan, Kathleen Napolitano, Sherri Amatenstein

Tutorials

Please contact me if you’d like to learn social media tips and tricks that can land you writing gigs and sell your books. I give classes in person or via Skype or telephone. If you email me with the subject line #ASJA2010 or #BEA15 and let me know that you are contacting me to set up a lesson, I will give you the discounted price of $80 per hour. My normal fee is $100/hour.

We will discuss your specific business goals and who your target audience is. Then I will provide you with instruction tailored to your unique needs.

In addition to social media, I teach branding, marketing and SEO (search engine optimization).

Click here for my Google Doc of ASJA Conference Notes

The post Notes from #ASJA2015 Annual Conference for Writers appeared first on Award-Winning Writer and Graphic Designer.