Amy Tan's Blog
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Dec.16.2011
How do I account for things that disappear and suddenly return?
I went to see my eye doctor, presented ID and my insurance card, required. Inside also was a credit card. I always wear a wallet with a strap that hangs my neck, precisely so I don't lose things. I had no purse. My assistant was...
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Dec.02.2011
About two months ago, my pal and fellow writer Walter Kirn asked if I had any short stories, which might be suitable for a new online digital publisher called Byliner. I knew of the company, because I had bought a piece by Jon Krakauer called "Three Cups of Deceit," ...
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4 comments
Dec.02.2011
Twenty years ago, Kathi Kamen Goldmark had a whimsical idea. This was not unusual. She often has these things. And this particular one was a fantasy of starting a band of authors who would do a one time gig in a big rock and roll venue. It would be for a charitable cause --...
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Jul.22.2010
The Other Way Around: While going through 100 boxes of junk, I found a file of documents concerning my mother and father's expired student visas. There were handtyped notices threatening deportation. I never knew how close I came to growing up in a rice field during the...
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Jul.17.2010
Have Twitter and Facebook with their word limits dumbed us down to symbolic subtlety? Do icons like smiley faces shorthand our deeper emotions into cliche?
I am a novelist and have problems with word limits. If someone tells me I am limited to 4000 words, I feel caged in. If I am...
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Jul.17.2010
I've been reading a book on writing that includes stories of rejection from writers who later saw success. Stephen King, Andrew Sean Greer, myself. Reading them together, you'd think there was a contest on who was more brutally rejected. Fun reading. (Write That Book Already! by Sam Barry...
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Jul.15.2010
Peering into the Past: I thought all the files on my obsolete floppies from 1984- 2001 were gone from view. But my dear sweet brother, a desktop concierge, got me a gizmo that allows me to see, print, and transfer the files to DVDs. I'll soon see the business writing I did in 1984 and the first...
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Jul.14.2010
Like everyone, I get spam messages from people whose account was hacked. If you clink on the link, you're had. Who does that sort of thing? Tonight I remembered the pranks a group of us kids played calling random people listed in the phone book. If your clock running?...
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Jul.14.2010
I hooked my iPhone to portable speakers, set them outside, and played recorded crow calls, watching from indoors. The sky filled with two dozen squawking crows coming from all directions. After 15 minutes they wised up and left. Next time, I will add peanuts as incentives and eventually work toward...
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May.17.2009
I've been puzzling over the social form known as email. More often than not, people send me emails addressed with a salutation of the kind used with the other form of correspondence once simply known as a letter:
"Dear Amy" or "Hi Amy" or "Hello Amy" or "Hey...
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21 comments
Aug.12.2008
My best excuse for not having written a novel in the last three years is that I wrote libretto for an opera, "The Bonesetter's Daughter," which, by coincidence, is the name of a book I wrote. The composer is Stewart Wallace, who's done a number of operas, including Harvey Milk....
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19 comments
Jun.25.2008
After Bubba died, Lilli was depressed. She stayed at the top of stairs waiting for him. She slumped around, walking stiffly and slowly like an old dog, and after all, she was twelve years old and arthritic. She did not eat much and all the old treats held no interest.
That was one of the...
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3 comments
Mar.15.2008
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Above is our new pup's first email, which he produced by walking delicately across the keyboard in my lap. At 15 weeks, he already shows promise as a writer. Who knew? Notice how he began his story...
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25 comments
Jan.23.2008
Several dark thoughts:
1. The most trivial recent dark moment was what happened after I spent time writing this blog entry the first time, then pressing the button to preview it. The entry disappeared. Operator error no doubt, but anthropomorphically I imagine a computer in an internet cafe...
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Jan.15.2008
This is the internet cafe moment. Husband and I are in a remote place where you can check your email on your cell phone for $18,000 a minute. The other alternative was to spend $3 an hour and use a keyboard pre-conditioned by hundreds of thousands of tourists with sticky fingers who cannot...
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If you can't change your fate, change your attitude.”
—Amy Tan, The Kitchen God's Wife
About Amy
As a child Amy Tan believed her life was duller than most. She read to escape. Her parents wanted her to be a doctor and a concert pianist. She secretly dreamed of becoming an artist. She began writing fiction when she was 33. Her first short story was...
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Causes Amy Tan Supports
Self Help for the Elderly
Pets Unlimited
Squaw Valley Community of Writers
San Francisco Symphony
San Francisco Opera