Frequently and infrequently asked questions
Where did you take the author photo for Touch? What’s up with the photo of you in The Lobster Kings?
For the author photo in Touch, my wife took the photo of me while I was standing in the front yard of my house in Ithaca, NY (you can find it near the bottom of the ridiculously long Praise for Touch page). Yes, the snow was really that deep. Yes, I was cold. For my author photo for The Lobster Kings she wanted me to try recreating the photo (same pose, jeans and a dark shirt) while I was standing in the ocean. It didn't work. I’m not posting that one. Then, a close friend, Becca Hagen, of Becca Hagen Photography, took some photos of me. I think they are great, and the one I liked was on the right. I have to say, if you live anywhere near the Ithaca area and are looking for photos of your family or your kids, you’ve got to hire Becca. I’d post the pictures she took of my daughters but they are so beautiful they’d melt the internet. My publishers, however, asked me to submit a few, and they ended up picking the one on the About page, which once again happened to be taken by my wife. She is rather tickled that she gets a photo credit.
When / where do you write?
I keep banker's hours and usually work out of my house. Except for days I’m teaching. Or when I go to coffee shop.
Where can I see you read / see you on a panel / take a class with you?
See the Events page for details on upcoming appearances. I frequently read or lecture at book stores, conferences, universities, and festivals. As for teaching, one of my favorite things is having somebody come up to me after a panel or a craft lecture and ask me where I teach. I'm an Assistant Professor at Binghamton University and a faculty member in the Sierra Nevada College low residency MFA program. I occasionally work as a visiting writer or professor at conferences and schools.
That’s it? What else you got?
I tweet or post stuff to Facebook occasionally, but mostly it’s pictures of my dogs or funny things my kids have said. Probably about one in five is book related. If you want to follow along, there are supposed to be links somewhere on the website [note: see sidebar]. There are also links to interviews, vaguely bloggy things, and fiction available online. That means that if you are a student emailing me so that I can do your homework, please read that stuff first.