What I'm reading and writing, in a walnut shell.

This week I'm reading more Raymond Carver, The Giant's House: A Romance by Elizabeth McCracken, Bird by Bird (again), Best American Short Stories 2008 ed. Salmon Rushdie (just finished "Quality of Life" by Christine Sneed), Gilead by Marilynne Robinson (stalled about a third in) and Livability by John Raymond (a Barnes and Noble Discover Great New Writers pick). I have too many on my nightstand but glancing over at the spines as I'm turning pages and taking a sip of Santa Cristina is a quiet joy. I'm writing a short story narrated by a man who is, at his mother's request and during the narration, washing black ink and blood out of his younger brother's sheets. Posted this from my cell phone from bed.