Yet more wonderfulness from The Writer’s Almanac on NPR. I want to schedule all of my teaching so that it ends at 7 and I can drive home to The Writer’s Almanac. Sunday it was the birthday of George Eliot, born Mary  Anne Evans near Nuneaton, England (1819). Author of Middlemarch, The Mill on the [...]

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Today was writer Beryl Bainbridge’s birthday, born in Liverpool in 1932. She died last summer. I’ve always loved the name Beryl. It sounds so English. And it also sounds like something that grows on a tree. Or a vine.(photo from the Daily Mail UK). She was a dry, funny writer. Sort of a British Dorothy [...]

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Perfectionism is a primary writer’s block. We want to write–we just want to do it perfectly. Deliberately indulge in some “bad writing.” The danger of writing and rewriting at the same time is that it is tied in to mood. In an expansive mood, whatever we write is good. This makes writing a roller coaster [...]

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Great, funny blog on author photos from MobyLives (why don’t I read MobyLives more often?), which is actually from Flavorwire. Here’s an excerpt: 1. The Sophisticated Photograph (aka “The My-head-is-so-weighted-down-by-great-thoughts-it-requires-additional-support”) It’s the two-fingered peace sign of tourists. The “say cheese” of extended-family portraits. The pouty lips of Facebook users. The middle finger of punk rockers. [...]

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I’ve posted before about how I’m always writing lists. Lists of things to do (tomorrow, later, next week), lists of things to buy (glue, glitter, gum), lists of events coming up (B-day party Saturday, Mike and Jake’s going away party). I write probably three lists a day, minimum. That’s why my blog is covered in [...]

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Finished my first week back teaching after a far-t00-idle summer. Four classes and a fifth starts in October. I need to be busy again. Busy-ness makes me feel better. Having things to do, having places to be and responsibilities. I’d like to think it pushes me creatively, too. This summer was just a wash–too much [...]

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Where to begin? I seem to keep taking too long to post new blog entries. Sorry. This has got to be one of the slowest summers — as far as (paid) work for me — I’ve ever had but still I find myself busy, frazzled, distracted. So, first, Fishtrap. Got back from my 8-day writing [...]

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Today I head out to Northeast Oregon for a writing conference and retreat at Fishtrap. I’m one of the five fellows (that sounds funny… but I mean myself and four others have a fellowship for the week)– and I’ll be taking a writing seminar/workshop/class three hours every morning with the writer of one of the [...]

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Awesome news. WS Merwin is such a sweet, spiritual man–a Buddhist and Environmentalist– who lives in Hawaii. (pic from Univ. of Arkansas Daily Headlines). And, he’s 82! Today NPR interviewed him (click to listen) for just a couple of minutes and he read this poem, so tiny and beautiful: Separation by W. S. Merwin Your [...]

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I’m making my way through Tinkers, this year’s recent Pulitzer Prize winning novel by Paul Harding. Yesterday I took it to a coffee shop, had an iced coffee and a cookie and sat out on the patio and read for an hour and a half of uninterrupted bliss. I’m torn between really loving the book, [...]

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