![](https://www.claireortalda.com/wp-content/themes/toolbox/timthumb.php?src=/wp-content/uploads/2013/06/catherine-sf-jazz-2.jpg&w=120)
SF Jazz Reading
Not only is Floyd Salas on the bill, performing his usual kick-ass poetry, but I will be performing my piece “NO-Body” with Catherine Matovich, violinist extraordinaire, on violin. We pl...
![](https://www.claireortalda.com/wp-content/themes/toolbox/timthumb.php?src=/wp-content/uploads/2013/02/California-English-2-2.jpg&w=120)
California English
What was basically my blog post of November 20, 2012 (the one with the dripping faucet), though modified, was published in California English: The Professional Journal of the California Association ...
![](https://www.claireortalda.com/wp-content/themes/toolbox/timthumb.php?src=/wp-content/uploads/2013/02/Monterey.png&w=120)
Monterey Reading
Floyd Salas and I will be reading, along with Diana Garcia, on February 27, at 7 p.m. at the East Village Coffee Lounge, 498 Washington Street, in Monterey. The Monterey Bay Poetry Consortium P...
![](https://www.claireortalda.com/wp-content/themes/toolbox/timthumb.php?src=/wp-content/uploads/2012/11/Phattitude-Cover-Claire.jpg&w=120)
Communion
My poem, “Communion” appeared in Phati’tude, Vol. 3, No. 3, Fall, 2011: Bridging the Cultural Divide: Remembering September 11th. They lift bread as an offering But really it is the body ...
![](https://www.claireortalda.com/wp-content/themes/toolbox/timthumb.php?src=/wp-content/uploads/2012/11/Rattling-Wall-Cover.jpg&w=120)
The Orange-Eating Lady
My short story, “The Orange-Eating Lady” appeared in The Rattling Wall, Issue 2, Winter 2012 [link]. It begins thusly: It is said that everyone has a core belief, a philosophy of life by which all...
![](https://www.claireortalda.com/wp-content/themes/toolbox/timthumb.php?src=/wp-content/uploads/2012/11/Dripping-Faucet-1.jpg&w=120)
First Words
This is the first of a series of blogs on the crucial importance of first words in a fictional piece. Attend any writers’ conference and one or more of the agents on the faculty will expound at leng...
![](https://www.claireortalda.com/wp-content/themes/toolbox/timthumb.php?src=/wp-content/uploads/2012/11/Tea-Cup-with-Poison.jpg&w=120)
Murder Most Soothing
W.H. Auden’s confession to being a “guilty” addict in the famous Harper Magazine article of 1948 (“The guilty vicarage: Notes on the detective story, by an addict”) gave a certain cachet to ...