Comments on: Like A Restless Wind Inside A Letter Box

By: Jerri

Jerri — Thu, 09 Oct 2008 01:46:06 +0000

Thank you, Haven. Something important just clicked in my head, reverberated through my bones down to my toes and back up to my head, where it promptly fell out of my right ear.

It has been on my mind so much lately, this thing that allows a lover of words to truly be a writer. I do (and have for many years) make a living arranging words into patterns that convey meaning, but am not yet really a writer.

And for the life of my, I haven’t been able to figure out why. Until I read this post.

Of Flannery O’Connor you say “she seemed unafraid of the terrible, funny world she had created.” And therein lives the absolute mystery of it.

After a lifetime of trying to fit in, I realize that to write, you have to stop putting lip gloss on your life, stop wearing hats to cover the shape of your head. In fact, you have to be brave enough or crazy enough to point to your head and say, “Did you see how weird this is?”

That’s a tall order. You need a companion, a guide who will say, “I want you to be as smart as you feel like being.” Or maybe some of us have to be our own guides in that area.

But this is for sure and for certain: until one is (heck–until I am) willing to be as smart as I feel like being or as totally whacked out as I am, nothing will come of my work other than arranging words and being paid by the hour.

I truly cannot thank you enough. Finding your blog is like finding an actual diamond in one of those mine-your-own state parks.

Must go read more now.

By: orthotic insoles

orthotic insoles — Wed, 03 Sep 2008 05:02:49 +0000

I’ve only been reading since the last few posts, but I am enjoying your views more and more. I’ll be back for more and will be sure to subscribe!

By: caryl hayes

caryl hayes — Sat, 30 Aug 2008 05:17:37 +0000

I had to revisit this post to read again your feelings on The Optimists Daughter. Thank you thank you for Eudora Welty, we might never have met but for you, and then to read Katherine Porter and know I just have to return home to the South. Even though Iam born and raised in Southern California I am not from here, and now I know why. THe good you do with this blog..

By: Ernie Smith

Ernie Smith — Fri, 29 Aug 2008 09:09:45 +0000

Haven,

I love your books. Thank you for continuing to write novels. I am looking forward to your next work.

Ernie

By: suzanne fennimore cooper

suzanne fennimore cooper — Tue, 19 Aug 2008 04:38:02 +0000

Iodine exists, and it manages to be smart, haunting, hilarious and unique. like all your books but different. genius is often met with adversity. but it exists, Iodine; it’s too late for anyone to un-exist it. oh and by the by, may anyone who harms you be stricken with smallpox and impaled on a snag in Death Valley, where hyena have WINGS. and may the hyenas have been starved for five days before.

By: dianne dear

dianne dear — Sun, 17 Aug 2008 08:25:19 +0000

Haven:
I have had the entire text of Iodine tatooed on my (now) absent right leg. I’ve mailed it to Tony Soprano, who we know adores you deeply. So, he’s on the case, and I’m working on other ideas as well, though they mostly require cooperation of extra-terrestrials, tricky in current political climate. I’m sure we will pull successful things out of all our asses.
xoxox
Di

By: Bryan

Bryan — Fri, 15 Aug 2008 23:44:57 +0000

how funny that i’ve been reading Flannery (why is it that all my favorite quotes from her are unprintable, although I am eagerly anticipating our next visit so’s we can sit around being VERY bad whilst quoting her!!) and Carson in anticipation of “Iodine.” Of course, the backwater that is New Orleans has yet to receive any copies as of yet so I wait on tinterhooks, although I have absolutely no idea what that means. anyhoo, glad you still have your left leg and I will continue to love you and patiently wait…

By: Jen Wills

Jen Wills — Fri, 15 Aug 2008 22:59:54 +0000

Haven. Kimmel.

You probably don’t remember me, but I worked with you at a certain large chain bookstore (do people know this about you, am I spoiling your image?) in Durham for something like 5 1/2 seconds before Zippy came out.

Anyway, I jumped from the “Random Former Co-worker” category into the “Serious Fan” category long, long ago but that is neither here nor there for the purposes of this rambling comment.

Nor am I responding directly to the amazing (both in style and loathesome-publisher subject) blog post above.

No. I am here because I just finished Iodine and have been having a borderline psychotic break ever since. Seriously! (Okay . . . perhaps I exagerate. It happens.)

All evidence to the contrary, I am without words. I can’t stop thinking about the book. And I find it ironic that the thoughts I’ve been having about you and your writing are the same ones you use to describe Welty and Porter.

I have never written a fan letter ever, not even to Donny and Marie when I was seven. And I loved Donny and Marie. Just know that I am honored to have once stood next to you at a cash register.

Also, I’m a librarian-in-training now, so fear not that the word on Iodine will be spread. Oh yes it shall

Keep writing, for Pete’s sake!

By: Michael T

Michael T — Fri, 15 Aug 2008 02:26:22 +0000

I find it a bit rude that http://www.simonsays.com/ still has you listed and will sell your book/s after what the have done. Maybe this is not a bad thing I don’t know I am just venting.
The freepress is a imprint of simon schuster.

I am starting Invention of Hysteria
(thanks for that not really)

Anyway
Love and Respect
Michael T

By: Jamie

Jamie — Wed, 13 Aug 2008 15:28:54 +0000

I’m thinking, since we haven’t heard from you in the comments, that you are still reeling, but dealing with the situation in your singular way, Haven. It’s going to be okay. When you can breathe without pain again the road is going to open up right in front of you and you’ll be on your way. Maybe it already has and you are right now moving along it.

[waves from the sidewalk]