Surviving a Writer's Life

California book editor, novelist ( Remember Me ) and self-described voracious reader, Lipsett here produces a small gem of a book. A collection of memoirs and en passant advice/therapy for writers, her journal is notable for its lapidary phrasing (``a New York accent as forceful as a subway'') and candor. Lipsett's traumas and tests--her mother's death during her childhood, a rape, a trip to Africa, motherhood and breast cancer--occasion reflection. Lipsett also offers wry tales of her editing apprenticeship (``Willis L. Parker was looking for a serf''), her hazardous venture into ghostwriting and her attempt to organize the Bay Area Freelance Editors' Guild, a group she left after a year when her enthusiasm flagged. One concluding anecdote--about a Late Bloomers' party she hosted for ``gifted women of a certain age'' who have grown into their work as artists, therapists, gardeners, etc.--may speak most to Lipsett's peers, but her book should inspire anyone who struggles with words. (Mar.)