Dispatches From The Road

2 weeks ago | dianaspechler.substack.com | Diana Spechler |Greg Olear

Today marks 100 years since The Great Gatsby entered the world and the formidable has released a beautiful new edition of it that includes an essay I wrote. For a year of my 20s, I had a stalker. I’ve never published anything about him before. I’m including the essay in full below. It’s unfashionable now to like it, but The Great Gatsby is one of the most gorgeous novels ever written. I hope you’ll re-read it and see for yourself.

2 weeks ago | dianaspechler.substack.com | Diana Spechler

Hi!I’m so excited to offer this one-hour Zoom class on April 29 at 7 p.m. Central (that’s 8 p.m. Eastern, 5 p.m. Pacific, the middle of the night in Europe, etc). The Art of the Personal Essay is perfect for anyone who wants to learn (or learn more) about how to write a compelling personal essay. For over two decades, I have been working as both a professional writer and a teacher of creative writing on the college, graduate, and adult-education levels.

3 weeks ago | dianaspechler.substack.com | Diana Spechler

I used to include a writing prompt in every post, inspired by the essay’s subject. I stopped sending out prompts in May 2024, but the prompts are back! I’ve compiled all of the old prompts here, each linked to the post that inspired it. I’ll add to this document each month—one on-topic prompt per essay I send out. If enough people express interest, I’d like to hold Zoom sessions for paid subscribers who want to read from the work that the prompts generate.

1 month ago | dianaspechler.substack.com | Diana Spechler

Recently, a stranger cried to me. She worked in a hotel I was writing about in the wilds of Texas. We had met the day before when she’d shown me to my room, where the sliding bathroom door had come off in her hands. We’d struggled together unsuccessfully to get it back on its rails, finally leaving it propped against the wall. She was strikingly beautiful, with a thick, black braid pulled over one shoulder, big turquoise earrings, and a pre-Columbian carving of a face.

2 months ago | dianaspechler.substack.com | Diana Spechler

The whole thing stemmed from a miscommunication. Last fall, I received an email from the PR representative of an Oklahoma City hotel, inviting me to “experience the property.” Travel writers get invited to “experience” a lot of “properties”. Some property-experiencing prospects entice more than others. For the hell of it, I checked Google Maps and saw that from Dallas, I could drive to Oklahoma City in three hours.