Popular Posts
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A Writer's Moment: 'Property of the imagination' : “The English language is nobody's special property. ...
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“One of the great joys of life is creativity. Information goes in, gets shuffled about, and comes out in new and intere...
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A Writer's Moment: 'Information In; Creative Responses Out' : “One of the great joys of life is creativity....
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A Writer's Moment: 'Be willing to fail' : “I'm always terrified when I'm writing.” – Mary Karr ...
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“Librarians and romance writers accomplish one mission better than anyone, including English teachers: we create readers for life - and w...
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A Writer's Moment: 'Story ideas surround you' : “I always tell my students, 'If you walk around with your eyes and ears...
Thursday, November 30, 2023
A Writer's Moment: 'There never was an uninteresting life'
'There never was an uninteresting life'
“There was never yet an uninteresting life. Such a thing is an impossibility. Inside of the dullest exterior there is a drama, a comedy, and a tragedy. (As writers) We recognize that there are no trivial occurrences in life if we get the right focus on them.” – Mark Twain
When I was a kid I found myself mesmerized by Mark Twain’s writing. I clearly could become Tom Sawyer or Huck Finn or any of the other characters he brought to life. I wished not only to be them but to be in the places in which they were living, and when I opened one of his books I was immediately transported from our South Dakota farm to the streets of Hannibal, MO or a raft on the Mississippi River.
He was born Samuel Langhorne Clemens on this date in 1835, shortly after a visit by Halley’s Comet. He famously predicted he would "go out with it" too, and he died the day following the comet's subsequent return in April of 1910.
“Anybody can have ideas,” Twain wrote to an author friend. “The difficulty is to express them without squandering a quire of paper on an idea that ought to be reduced to one glittering paragraph.”
Wednesday, November 29, 2023
A Writer's Moment: 'Write the book that wants to be written'
'Write the book that wants to be written'
Tuesday, November 28, 2023
A Writer's Moment: 'It's the art of the possible'
'It's the art of the possible'
Monday, November 27, 2023
A Writer's Moment: 'Show up every day'
'Show up every day'
Saturday, November 25, 2023
A Writer's Moment: A 'Cold Moon' looms
A 'Cold Moon' looms
Today, snow is falling steadily in Colorado, a precursor to December’s “Cold Moon” and winter's formal arrival.
As we leave Thanksgiving Day and Autumn behind under a blanket of newfallen snow, here for Saturday’s Poem is prolific New England writer May Sarton’s,
After a fall of snow
I look out on the field
Shining there in the moonlight
So calm, untouched and white
Snow silence fills my head
After I leave the window.
Hours later near dawn
When I look down again
The whole landscape has changed
The perfect surface gone
Criss-crossed and written on
Where the wild creatures ranged
While the moon rose and shone.
Why did my dog not bark?
Why did I hear no sound
There on the snow-locked ground
In the tumultuous dark?
How much can come, how much can go
When the December moon is bright,
What worlds of play we'll never know
Sleeping away the cold white night
After a fall of snow.
Friday, November 24, 2023
A Writer's Moment: 'It's the best part . . . the creative part'
'It's the best part . . . the creative part'
Wednesday, November 22, 2023
A Writer's Moment: 'It's never too late to achieve'
'It's never too late to achieve'