I began to think that I would like to experiment with non-fiction, maybe with any luck invent a new kind. Then I read David Shields' Reality Hunger and decided to start out. I have always written my novels with no form or genre in mind, no plot, just a scene--a room, a setting--and some characters that have sprung into my head. I then followed them from day to day, not knowing what the next day would bring. I tried to let my imagination be completely free. Could I do this with non-fiction? I have been experimenting with this since July, and strangely, I see themes develop, find myself understanding some things I didn't before. It is not a memoir, but is what my imagination comes up with, the real, the actual.

This blog started out as a non-fiction experiment, a memoir, tracing my way from birth. trying to understand what my life means.  I stopped writing in it when I accepted an offer to write a weekly column, State of the Art, for the Telegraph Journal art insert, Salon. I didn't have the time or energy to write the two novels I've written since 2006, the column, as well as blog entries.