Why Do(n’t) You Write?
Last week, while on vacation, I spent one mid-morning watching tv with my younger two children. They channel-surfed between PBS, the Disney Channel, and the Cartoon Network with the navigation of a highly trained professional. I was extremely impressed with their efficient use of commercial time to 1) find other shows not on commercial break, [...]
Will the Immediacy of Technology Be Our Personal Downfall?
On February 4, 2004, Mark Zuckerberg and a few other friends at Harvard created Facebook for the purpose of staying in close touch with other friends. Two years later, Zuckerberg created the ever-popular (and oft-criticized) NewsFeed to allow Friends the chance to know what other friends were doing, and with whom. In that same year, [...]
Does an exercise regimen make us better writers?
I am in my fifth week of working out more consistently than I have in years, perhaps even a decade. In 1992, I lost nearly 40 pounds as I worked on the final stages of my first novel. The writing was some of the best I’ve ever done, before and since, and I stayed in [...]
Using Alternating Points of View in Fiction (CNF as well)
Today is only the fifth day of summer break, and I cannot remember another summer when I’ve been out of the starting gate so ahead of where I thought I would be, less than a week following the last day of school. You see, I took the time in May, believe it or not, to [...]
Let’s not get all emotional, now
I am quite humbled by the fact that I am 43 and I continue to learn things about myself on a daily–sometimes hourly–basis. The funny thing is (and I do mean in the strictest of ha-ha ways) that the things I am learning have been common knowledge, I am sure of it, among my closest [...]
authentic living, authentic writing
If we shadows have offended, Think but this, and all is mended, That you have but slumber’d here While these visions did appear. I’ve been having some rather candid conversations with fellow writers in Towson and around town about the importance of authentic writing. Repeatedly, the same troubling concern rises to the primary focus of [...]
A Writer’s Day
By all measures, I had a writer’s day.I woke up early (but not as early as I intended; still, 6 a.m. did the trick) and hit the daybook immediately, followed by a full hour of watercolors before the family started to stir. I’ve been experimenting with various blends, wet and dry brushes, all with bringing [...]
What do you pursue?
Earlier this month I picked up Shady Grove by Jerry Garcia and David Grisman, a 13-track compilation of acoustic folk songs and ballads that Jerry and David did between 1990 and 1995. A few days ago, I heard Jerry and David do “Bag’s Groove, Take 1″ on the Dead channel on Sirius Radio, and they [...]
Muse Maintenance at the Bean Hollow
My “check engine” light came on last Thursday, but it wasn’t like I was surprised. A few months ago I heard a report on NPR that the 3 months/3,000 miles mantra for changing your oil no longer applied to cars that had been made in the last 5 to 7 years. Apparently, cars are built [...]
The Deeper Side of the Short Story (an epic post)
I spent nearly the entire day yesterday immersed in the study of reading and writing. It was an intense day that started a little before 6 a.m., where I wrote about 3,000 words in my daybook about various things; that writing session served no other purpose than as my Morning Pages, epic-style, for those of [...]
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