It occurs to me that blogging (at least for some of the bloggers I follow) is a kind of therapy. You get it out, you release it, it’s gone…only unlike therapy, tons of folks are going to read about it and maybe judge you for it, but fuck it, you’ve released it, what do you care. And I suppose that’s what I do when I write. There’s an emotional disconnect that’s already set in by the time I actually publish the book, story, whatever… I  no longer feel exposed or embarrassed or protective of…

Photo by Celia Sorhaindo - me reading at the Nature Island Literary Festival.

So the question I think I got most at the Nature Island Literary Festival was some version of what do you do? Ironic, considering I was at a literary festival, but understandable when you consider that most of us aren’t…

Judy Blume wrote of puberty in Are You There God? It’s Me Margaret, a favourite of mine going way back. Tayari Jones’ blogging here at shewrites.com and later a facebook ‘friendship’ had landed her acclaimed Silver Sparrow, a tale from the perspectives of two daughters of a bigamist, on my to-read list. I just happened to be here this week for the NY launch of my book Oh Gad! (June 23^rd 4 p.m. at Antigua and Barbuda House 12 West 122^nd Street, Harlem, NY), and in the…

It’s probably a bit of a cliché by now - a Caribbean novel with scenes of Carnival - but Carnival was such an important part of my childhood, and especially of summer, that it’s bound to sneak in when I'm writing about summer in Antigua. If you come to Antigua between the months of June and early August, you'll find that much of the radio talk, music, and energy there are directed at Carnival. Well, Carnival and politics - but once you begin to understand the lingo, you’ll understand that…