Learning to Write

"Anybody can observe the Sabbath, but making it holy surely takes the rest of the week."

Sun, 09 Sep 2012 13:20:26 -0400

“Anybody can observe the Sabbath, but making it holy surely takes the rest of the week.”

- Alice Walker (via kimberlyshorter)

"I don’t know karate, but I know ka-razy!"

Sun, 02 Sep 2012 19:21:03 -0400

““I don’t know karate, but I know ka-razy!””

- James Brown (via kimberlyshorter)

Man vs. Books

Sun, 02 Sep 2012 19:19:10 -0400

Man vs. Books:

Cool blog celebrating READING, an men who do it.

A place for Men to read, write and rediscover their love of books—from Austen to Dickens! Reading is Sexy!

"GIVEN - A Very Personal Apocalypse" - the trailer.

Tue, 24 Jul 2012 08:03:34 -0400

"GIVEN - A Very Personal Apocalypse" - the trailer.:

Morris-Henshaw’s book is finally available in paperback (or will be, Friday).

I got a Kentucky meal. I had a coupon for a breast and two vegetables. If I pay for it, I go to Chick-fil-A. « Grandmatical English

Fri, 18 May 2012 07:10:19 -0400

I got a Kentucky meal. I had a coupon for a breast and two vegetables. If I pay for it, I go to Chick-fil-A. « Grandmatical English:

Brett Wilke’s blog about his grandma.

"You must remember, family is often born of blood, but it doesn’t depend on blood. Nor is it..."

Tue, 15 May 2012 10:02:04 -0400

““You must remember, family is often born of blood, but it doesn’t depend on blood. Nor is it exclusive of friendship. Family members can be your best friends, you know. And best friends, whether or not they are related to you, can be your family.””

- ― Trenton Lee Stewart, The Mysterious Benedict Society

I like potato salad on crackers. « Grandmatical English

Sun, 13 May 2012 08:04:13 -0400

I like potato salad on crackers. « Grandmatical English:

Funny things said by Brett’s Grandma. :o)

Grandmatical English

Sat, 12 May 2012 06:56:34 -0400

Grandmatical English:

My friend Brett R Wilkes is posting quotes from his Grandma, every day. A must read.

"One of the few graces of getting old—and God knows there are few graces—is that if you’ve..."

Tue, 08 May 2012 11:56:57 -0400

“One of the few graces of getting old—and God knows there are few graces—is that if you’ve worked hard and kept your nose to the grindstone, something happens: The body gets old but the creative mechanism is refreshed, smoothed and oiled and honed. That is the grace. That is what’s happening to me.”

- Maurice Sendak

excerpt

Tue, 24 Apr 2012 14:09:14 -0400

All of this sped through my mind in a split second as I shook out the hem of my blouse and swatted at my shorts, sending clouds of dust into the air. The remaining shoe, the one on my right foot, had seen better days. I wondered if I’d ever be able to brush the fine grey powder out of the suede. Peering into the hole from which I had recently emerged, I saw no trace of the missing shoe. In a quick second, my mind was made up: the Clarks had met their demise.

two-thirds of the way through. :o)

Thu, 12 Apr 2012 05:25:31 -0400

two-thirds of the way through. :o)

excerpt

Fri, 06 Apr 2012 15:01:37 -0400

Here are a few paragraphs from a chapter I wrote today. The working title is, “How Jonah Lehrer Saved My Marriage (And Possibly My Life)”

Technically, he told all of us about his research at Pixar. Every egghead in the room heard him say, “Daily crit sessions and debate are the prime mover behind Pixar’s record for excellence.” As far as I was concerned, though, all of the other professors had disappeared. Jonah was talking to me. It was as if we were sitting at Starbucks and he reached across the little round table to straighten my glasses. They had been set on my face at an unhealthy angle for so long, I had grown accustomed to the blur. “There you go,” he said with a smile. “Now you’ll see everything more clearly.”

“Thank you, Jonah,” I said in response, stifling tears so as not to look like a jerk. The art history professor to my right glanced at me sideways and scooted away, as far as his padded seat would allow. I didn’t care. Jonah had fixed me. The world looked different—clearer, brighter, and infinitely more hopeful. I stayed around after the meeting to thank him for real.

Rough Draft: The Art of Making Mud

Tue, 03 Apr 2012 10:24:01 -0400

Producing a rough draft is creation, in the purest sense. Before the draft exists, it simply doesn’t. Visual artists can’t make that claim. Painters begins with a canvas. Sure it’s blank, but even the size and shape and texture of the canvas serve to inspire, and provide parameters for the finished work. Similarly, sculptors draw inspiration from the stone they have chosen, or from their lump of clay. They enter into their work with pre-existing stuff. Writers start with nothing.

In my imagination, jotting down a draft is the creation of the clay. Editing is the process of sculpting the lump into something beautiful.

writingstraight.com

Sun, 01 Apr 2012 19:15:42 -0400

writingstraight.com:

My friend Holly’s novel got picked up by an agent. Wonderful stuff! :D

"The future has many names. For the weak, it means the unattainable. For the fearful, it means the..."

Sun, 01 Apr 2012 07:16:25 -0400

“The future has many names. For the weak, it means the unattainable. For the fearful, it means the unknown. For the courageous, it means opportunity.”

- Victor Hugo (via ellaherself)

"Creativity is not about efficiency. Creativity is about serendipity."

Fri, 30 Mar 2012 19:07:17 -0400

“Creativity is not about efficiency. Creativity is about serendipity.”

- Jonah Lehrer

"As a writer, I live in daily awareness of how much easier it is to edit a book than edit a life."

Thu, 29 Mar 2012 11:08:00 -0400

“As a writer, I live in daily awareness of how much easier it is to edit a book than edit a life.”

- Philip Yancey, from the introduction to All is Grace, by Brennan Manning

Recently I made a list of every chapter in my proposed book. To...

Tue, 27 Mar 2012 12:02:15 -0400

Recently I made a list of every chapter in my proposed book. To date I’ve written just over a third of them. At first, deciding which chapter to tackle was easy. I had good stories in mind—the stories that inspired the book—each of which illustrated a clear point. And, I had written those stories before, some of them many times, in various forms.

This week I find myself in the exciting position of not knowing what lies ahead. I look at each remaining title, my thirteen as-yet-unwritten chapters, as if I’m peering into a fog. I can’t see anything clearly; rather, large shapes come into view one by one as I move forward through the mist. The details are completely elusive. This lack of clarity is not scary or tiresome; rather, it creates atmosphere, like fog on the Savannah marsh. I like it. In fact, I think I almost prefer this misty haze to a crystal clear sunny day. There is excitement in not knowing.

Given, by Morris-Henshaw

Tue, 27 Mar 2012 10:09:54 -0400

Given, by Morris-Henshaw:

My friend Morris-Henshaw is about to release his long-awaited book, Given.

kimberlyshorter: “If there is a book that you want to read, but...

Fri, 23 Mar 2012 12:54:01 -0400

kimberlyshorter:

“If there is a book that you want to read, but it hasn’t been written yet, you must be the one to write it. ” ~ Toni Morrison