Right now, my brain is burnt out. Just when I thought I had completed the manuscript for my forthcoming book, Romaine Brooks: A Life, I stumbled across a treasure trove of primary source documentation that is a game changer. The Chinese were right. I had always wished I could solve some vexing questions about Brooks’ last years because so many riddles still remained. Now that I have turned over the rock, I am entangled in what lies beneath. Tune in for more in the adventures of a scribbler.
First you get interested, then you do the research, then you write the book, then you go in search of a publisher — and when you succeed in getting one, the fun starts! This is truly what a writer’s life is. Chained to the computer until everything is in place. It’s true one can get lost in the process, but there is a world outside our individual bubbles.
Every time I pick up a newspaper or magazine or go online, I am bombarded with that reality. I try to remember we are the world; we make up the world we live in, and it is all part of what makes us human and united.
Hi, all, and welcome to the new CassandraLanger.com!
At last I have finished the draft manuscript for my Romaine Brooks book. I await editorial comments and am finalizing the manuscript to send to my agent. If all goes well, she will be pitching it in September. You can look forward to seeing the book sometime in 2015.
On the art-critic-and-book-reviewer front, my reviews of Joan Schenkar’s The Talented Miss Highsmith and Bette Davis: Larger than Life by Richard Schickel and George Perry are out from The Gay & Lesbian Review. I’m happy with them both. It was a lot of work, but I had fun reading both books.
Upcoming will be my Barbara Hammer interview, which will be out in time for Barbara’s retrospective opening in September at the Museum of Modern Art in NYC. After New York that show will be traveling to other venues, including the Tate on the other side of the pond in London. I’ll follow that up with a piece on recently retired poet Laureate (2008-2010) Kay Ryan for The Gay & Lesbian Review. All in all, a lot of good and productive work!
Rediscovering Romaine Brooks 