I'm so pleased and happy to share that today Everyday Poets has published another of my poem's here. Everyday Poets is a site I check for daily inspiration-- not only to catch up on poetry being written by poets from around the world but for frequent inspirational essays on themes and form.

This particular poem "The Trophy Bride" came together through a funny set of circumstances. After long reflection on a character I'd played in the Funny or Die short film above-- reflection concerning what I felt I'd done well versus what I felt I could improve on after finding it surprisingly challenging to bring depth or sympathy to such a shallow character-- well, around that time I happened to read an Everyday editor's post on Greek mythology and (what with having trophy wives on the mind) wondered to myself: how might Midas's wife have felt about her husband's obsession with the finer things...? The result was this poem. I hope you enjoy it. Thank you!
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Izzy

Postcard Shorts is a wonderful site for fans of micro fiction. The site only publishes stories so short they could "fit on a postcard"-- so about 250 words or less. I've been exploring the Japanese prose poem form called haibun this summer (more about that here) and challenging myself to describe moments using as few words as possible. My biggest weakness in writing is self-editing. Instead of writer's block I've got the opposite, and it's an affliction just as serious. If Flaubert described good writing as finding "the one precise word" no matter the time or effort involved-- and his efforts involved spending a lot of a time in "the shouting alley" shouting his work aloud to himself-- then I am in trouble. Today I feel like  I've won one battle at least, even if not the war.  My first micro fiction story "Concerning a Lost Balloon" was just published. You can read it here and then enjoy paging through the site. You could spend hours: there are many stories that are like little gems on there, and I'm honored to be included among them.    
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Izzy

I'm very excited to share with you that my flash fiction story The Italian Lesson is now available as a podcast on iTunes and Everyday Fiction. Please check it out here. I loved the experience of recording it, and Everyday Fiction has asked me to do more. Everyday Fiction is a wonderful resource for writers-- even when they reject your stories you get detailed feedback from their team of editors, and when they accept them you also get feedback from your readers on the site's forum. It's an invaluable learning experience for young writers. I'm delighted to be able to work with them in another capacity as well.

I've done a lot of voiceover work in New York, and it's been some of the most fun I've had as an actor. It's nice not to have to worry about hair or makeup or lighting, which unfortunately actors, even male actors, can become incredibly focused on instead of their craft. I worked with a famous actor once who was getting beaten to death by a gang of thugs in a fight scene. Between each take his own personal makeup assistant would come on set to touch up his foundation and fix his hair!

Please watch out for more links to stories I'll be reading and recording-- some my own and some not.

Thanks!
Izzy

Many years ago I was lucky enough to see Kurt Vonnegut speak live. This was in the East Village a few years before his death. He showed up to some kind of writer's night. I can't remember what the event for was any longer, and I realize now-- as I didn't then-- what an honor that was-- someone like Mr. Vonnegut showing up to something so casual and non-glitzy and 100% not paid like that event in a blackbox theater without airconditioning. Back then with the innocence or arrogance of extreme youth, I just thought, "Hey, this is New York City, and seeing great writers in the flesh is just one of those things that happens here." Unfortunately, I can't claim to remember much of the speech either. His garb that night-- black robes and a mortar board hat-- far overshadowed the speech he gave, or re-gave rather, claiming to have just given a commencement address and not having had time to write a new speech. He addressed his small, bemused East Village audience thus: "Dear students, professors and graduates of Duke University..." The only other bit of the speech I can recall was this one bit that's stuck with me my whole life: "Don't worry so much about being famous. Just be nice to your neighbor. That's an achievement enough."

It wasn't a revolutionary idea or anything, but it made a strong impression on me at the time. You know, hearing what Kurt Vonnegut, world-famous author, valued most, and it wasn't the adulation and fame and best-sellers or anything. Instead it was personal relationships. So when I found some writing advice attributed to Mr. Vonnegut on another blog-- first, just as he always does-- he made me laugh. And then he made me think. I hope you find his advice as fun, funny and helpful as I have.

Kurt Vonnegut's Eight rules for writing fiction:

1. Use the time of a total stranger in such a way that he or she will not feel the time was wasted.
2. Give the reader at least one character he or she can root for.
3. Every character should want something, even if it is only a glass of water.
4. Every sentence must do one of two things -- reveal character or advance the action.
5. Start as close to the end as possible.
6. Be a sadist. Now matter how sweet and innocent your leading characters, make awful things happen to them -- in order that the reader may see what they are made of.
7. Write to please just one person. If you open a window and make love to the world, so to speak, your story will get pneumonia.
8. Give your readers as much information as possible as soon as possible. To heck with suspense. Readers should have such complete understanding of what is going on, where and why, that they could finish the story themselves, should cockroaches eat the last few pages.

-- Izzy