Cassandra Langer

The ASJA went fairly well this year. I had seven interviews. Three of them were promising and a friend also put me in touch with an agent who was interested in the ms. The organizations is very professional and the information one gets in the panels helpful. Although I belong to PEN and have belonged to the Writer’s Guild I find ASJA the most pragmatic for those of us who are journalists as well as authors, critics, etc. I always meet interesting people, make new friends and get practical tips for realizing the goals I have set myself. Each organization has its strengths and weaknesses. I respect them all.

The publishing industry is changing so rapidly that anyone wanting to do a serious book who isn’t a celebrity is going to have to face more than a few challenges. The important thing is to believe in the work you are doing regardless. Remember not to get carried away by the hype agents put out about 6 figure books and so on and so forth. That’s all nice, well and good but reality is if you get your work out it’s all good. If you make a little money to carry you through to the next book–even better. If you do better than that with a nonfiction book that isn’t trendy–you get the gold ring. Now I have to print out the entire ms. and send it out to the agent who I think I may be working with depending on our rapport. The bottom line is keep trucking.

In service of doing that I am working on my last two chapters of the Romaine Brooks book. In rushing around last week I managed to fracture my ankle in two places rushing to catch the R train to get somewhere.  For those of you who rush around and have an A personality (well more or less) try to remember that while the mind may think it has wings the body reminds one you don’t and things can happen that really, really slow you down. So I am happily off the walker and on a cane with five weeks to recovery to go.

Despite the lay up I am working on poems, paintings and various book reviews. Let’s not talk about pain management–that’s entirely another realm. Anyone with any kind of chronic problem understands exactly what I am talking about. My latest, would you believe Lana Turner on Roller skates, is out in HG&L reviews. My Richmond Barthe just went in for edits.

Starting work on the Francis Bacon exhibit. It is hot, steaming and raw up to a point. After the late seventies it starts to taper off into monumental, decorative and a little vapid for my tastes. I think Bacon lost his edge. In many ways like Munch and Ensor who eventually made a kind of peace with their individual demons. Meanwhile back to the aftermath of World War II. and Romaine Brooks’s accommodation.