Susan’s comment on my last post got me thinking.

Every so often you still hear the cliche: Those who can’t, teach.

Not true.

I know so many accomplished writers who teach not because they need the money but because they enjoy teaching or they feel teaching allows them to give something back.

Sure, teaching can be a drag. But after an all-day class like the one I taught today at UC-Irvine, I remember how much fun teaching can be. I have such respect for my students who could have been doing so many other things on this beautiful summer day but they chose to be sitting under florescent lights progressing their writing. There was gobs of talent in the classroom today, so much so that I felt invigorated.

This goes for all of my students. I’m lucky I get to help them along their path.

We’re in the desert for our annual end-of-school vacation. Yesterday, as we left the Blue Coyote in Palm Springs, the car’s thermostat said 120 degrees. Or was it 122? I can’t remember; I was delerious.

Actually, it’s not that bad. It’s balmy at night in the pool.

Here are Brian’s glasses. Well, his old glasses. Because the sun and the heat cracked them like marbles dropped in a kettle of boiling water.

My first summer vacation book: Sideways by Rex Pickett. I loved it. Absolutely loved it. Laugh out loud funny and a tearjerker at the end. Enjoyed the movie and have been curious about how the book was. Some of the writing wasn’t great but overall I loved it. A guy’s book. Very enjoyable. Anyone else read it?

What are you reading and recommend?

Today, Reuters has an interview with Amy Tan.

At the end of the interview, she says, “I never talk about what a new book is about as it will leave me. There is a story in Chinese where a man goes to a magical place and is overwhelmed by the beauty and the peace. He has to leave and they tell him that if he tells anyone where this place is he will never find it again. That is the metaphor for writing. You are in a secret place and discovering it but once you tell people it is gone.”

I write about this very thing in Pen on Fire, how talking about a work can cause it to evaporate. I used to talk about my works-in-progress so very much. Dangerous stuff.

Hence, shhhhhh……..

Real quick…..

Have you donated to Darfur yet? I just did. I’ve been meaning to, but you know how it goes.

So my class just ended, Trav is at a friend’s, Bry is at a gig, and I turned on the TV–wishfully hoping for Angels baseball snippets? Instead, my attention is captured by images of a refugee camp accompanied by a Tony Bennett soundtrack and then Tony comes on and urges the viewer–me!–to donate to the cause, and I got right up and marched to the laptop and did it. TV rarely moves me to do a thing. I was moved.

Only $100, but it’s something.

It’s serious over there. I can’t even imagine.

I just came across this portal to all sorts of literary links. It’s called New Pages.

Utne Magazine, one of my very favorite magazines (to which I subscribe), says, “NewPages.com, the best overall Internet portal to the alternative press, independently organizes pages of links to hundreds of magazines, independent publishers and bookstores, literary magazines, newsweeklies, and review sources. NewPages.com also publishes unique book and zine reviews, and an interesting weblog broadly covering the world of arts, publishing, and libraries.”

Check it out! (Just don’t spend so much time there that you forget to write.)

A friend wrote to me and said a friend of his was interested in an agent who charged a “registration fee.” This wasn’t a fee to read the manuscript, the agent said.

Sounded like a crock to me.

So I asked Linda Konner, a literary agent in NYC that I met through ASJA (American Society of Journalists and Authors), and here’s what she said:

“Registration fee? Hmmm… What precisely are you registering for? It does sound like a convenient variation on a reading fee which, as we know, isn’t charged by respectable agents, eg, members of AAR (Association of Authors Representatives). Some agents will charge clients minimal expenses fees associated with the submission and follow-up of proposals and related author materials. But unless this agent is promising something beyond the standard agent duties, no up-front fees should be paid.”

Enough said?