At Ron Rash’s reading yesterday, he mentioned a few things that collectively were like an epiphany to me. He said he rewrote Serena 14 times and that somewhere in those revisions he discovered the character Rachel. He said that while Serena remains somewhat constant, he needed a character who changed — for instance, he said, Gatsby is static, whereas Nick Carraway changes. He also mentioned he structured the book like an Elizabethan drama, and on a related point he had the character Serena speaking in iambics. All kinds of conscious decisions the critics will be parsing over for years.

Point being, Serena was wrought from incredible hard work. In emulation of my literary hero, and because I’m not an innate genius, I’m off to the grindstone with renewed vigor after this weekend’s festival. Thus, I’m putting this blog on hiatus. I’ve announced a hiatus for the blog before, but I really don’t have the time to be an artist and a commentator, and really only one of those identities means anything to me. I’ll keep the publications page up to date.  Otherwise, if you’d like to chat about books, shoot me an e-mail or find me on Facebook.

I’m off to Gardner-Webb to commemorate one of my literary heroes. Still undecided about running the Rash Rush 5K.