Taking a Break

"Your First Page" followers will have noted a hiatus in my postings. The silence you hear is in fact the sound of your editor at work on his own fiction, toiling at Draft # (fill in outrageous figure) of his novel-in-process, making glacial progress. If you've submitted your first page and have yet to hear from him by way of a critique, this is why. Be forgiving: for he must write.

By way of compensation--and as proof of the above—I offer my own first page (after prologue). Have at it. Go ahead: make my day!

As for when I'll resume the blog, that will depend on the kindness of my muse, agents, editors, and how busy I find myself otherwise.

Meanwhile I invite all new visitors to this blog—as well as those who aren't new—to read and comment on the existing posts. And do check out the column in The Writer magazine.

Also, for any of you who may be interested, my O'Connor Award-winning short story collection, Drowning Lessons, is now available in paperback from the University of Georgia Press. And my first memoir/essay collection, Confessions of a Left-Handed Man, is due out in the Fall of 2011 from the Uiversity of Iowa Press / Sightline Books. Look for it!

Yours,

—Peter Selgin