On Top of It
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On Top of It #10: Holiday Market
On Top of It #10 by Lisa Martens Holiday Market Last year, I sold jewelry at the holiday market in Columbus Circle. This involved standing in the freezing rain with a heater at my feet. My hands and head cold. The soles of my shoes melting. Inching forward and back to wrap necklaces with a Continue reading
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On Top of It #9: Crap
On Top of It #9 by Lisa Martens Crap As a New York college student who has moved nine times in ten years, I try to live light. I fail, but I try. I love books, I can’t throw out gifts or cards, and well, to be honest, if I find the five of spades Continue reading
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On Top of It #8: Beginning the Getaway
On Top of It #8 by Lisa Martens Beginning the Getaway My grandma owns a small gated community in La Garita, Costa Rica. Since the infancy of my MFA days, I would brush my hair, gaze at the moon, and imagine hosting a writers’ retreat on my family’s property. Plenty of writers have visited us Continue reading
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On Top of It #7: The Customer is Always Right
On Top of It #7 by Lisa Martens The Customer is Always Right Beth walked in to pick up the latest hardcover edition of Stoner by John Williams. At dinner the other night, one of her professor friends had said it was “wonderfully droll” and “brilliantly bland . . . honest.” This was exactly the Continue reading
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On Top of It #6: Trolls, Predators, Confessions
On Top of It #6 by Lisa Martens Trolls, Predators, Confessions My Aunt Patricia introduced me to the fine art of trolling chat rooms when I was ten. My parents had just gotten Internet (dial-up, of course) in our grey, two-bedroom Dallas apartment. I don’t remember too much about the apartment: The walls were stained Continue reading
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On Top of It #5: Uncle Johnny
On Top of It #5 by Lisa Martens Uncle Johnny I was four, maybe five, the first time I went to Uncle Johnny’s house. Uncle Johnny was my grandfather’s older brother. Even back then, he had a fat gut, he was always red, and he had trouble walking. I remember that I refused to eat Continue reading
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On Top of It #4: Dancing with the Woman Who Tried to Sell Me
On Top of It #4 by Lisa Martens Dancing with the Woman Who Tried to Sell Me A week ago, my oldest aunt remarried. This meant I would have to see her mother, my maternal grandmother. My mom and her sisters whispered to me. Could we be in the same car? How would we interact? Continue reading
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On Top of It #3: Don’t Let EL James Ruin Fanfic
On Top of It #3 by Lisa Martens Don’t Let EL James Ruin Fanfic I’m not a fan of the Twilight or Fifty Shades franchises, but I can appreciate that Fifty came from fanfiction, because I think there is a great community around fanfiction, and it’s constantly dissed and ignored, no matter how much it Continue reading
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On Top of It #2: The Angel of Liquor at the Brooklyn Book Festival
On Top of It #2 by Lisa Martens The Angel of Liquor at the Brooklyn Book Festival This year marked the 10-year anniversary of the Brooklyn Book Festival. I love the festival; I volunteered last year, and have been behind the booth a couple times. So I went to the Brooklyn’s Book Festival with every Continue reading
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On Top of It #1: The Cube
On Top of It #1 by Lisa Martens The Cube I live in half of a living room in Harlem. My room calls it “The Cube” or, more preciously, the “open-plan Japanese-style abode.” The Cube is roped off by bookshelves and generic Chinese screens, like in massage rooms. Sometimes the room separators fall down, so I have piles Continue reading
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The Drunken Odyssey is a forum to discuss all aspects of the writing process, in a variety of genres, in order to foster a greater community among writers.
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