Gather 'round…
Eleven years ago, for reasons unbeknownst to me, I printed out an email. It didn't contain directions, or any other information that I needed to make portable. It wasn't a recipe that I wanted to add to my binder, or a receipt I needed to file (you know, back in the day that we filed... Continue Reading →
Things are tightening down a bit. And loosening up. My image of God, my perception of the Truth, my model of Perfection. They are being honed in and refined, while at the same time broadening out and becoming more and more universal. It is an interesting process, and one which has proven greatly frustrating, and... Continue Reading →
I just hit send, submitting my first opinion article to a local magazine. And I'm only sweating a tiny little bit. Who knows if it will ever see print, but I am pretty excited to have even tried, so I'll take that as a win. Thanks to you, dear blog readers, for your likes and... Continue Reading →
My family has been enjoying watching episodes of a very well-done show on astrophysics, quantum theory, and all the big questions that they raise. We've seen lots of approaches to the biggest and smallest science can fathom, and this series is head and shoulders above the rest. It helps that Morgan Freeman hosts, because who... Continue Reading →
The word 'humility' comes from the Latin word 'humus' which means fertile ground... [It] is the situation of the earth. The earth is always there, always taken for granted, never remembered, always trodden on by everyone, somewhere we cast and pour out all the refuse, all we don't need. It's there, silent and accepting everything... Continue Reading →
I can write about it now because it's over. Or at least in the process of being overcome. Words are flowing again, and the mind-numbing force of writers' block is passing. I had been bound up, churning out nothing but frustration for months, and while plenty of other productive things were happening, the brutal fact... Continue Reading →
Last night was the first meeting of a small group of writers in my life, some amazing and wonderful fellow homeschoolers and a couple of glorious folks from A Weekend With Your Novel. Despite the numerous and compelling reservations many of us had about our physical ability to take on one more thing, we all... Continue Reading →
Writers are scribes of the human experience. To write about life we must see it and feel it, and in a way that eludes most. We are not better people in any way - read the biographies of great writers and this becomes crystal clear - but we are alive in a way that others... Continue Reading →
New goal: Write with the passion with which The Lone Bellow performs. Seriously, we saw them last night at the Stoughton Opera House, and they were nothing short of amazing. The video is good, but it doesn't do them justice. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zJyf5NqiMNE
Why do we? Why do I? It seems to me that writing has to be a non-optional part of life for it to work. Something so integral to who you are that it might reside up there in the upper echelons with lasagna and chocolate. You know, just below faith and breathing and kidneys. I... Continue Reading →
Applied simply... conflict is little more than incident, anecdote or news. Made complex, active, climactic and complete, it becomes a plot. Developed in depth and with layers added, plot in turn enacts our human frailty and fears. It asserts the lasting strength of our dreams. Donald Maass, Writing the Breakout Novel
So, there's a little more to my Donald Maass epiphany... A while ago, just after I started learning a little bit about the publishing business, I ran into him. Not him, really. That would be worthy of, like, a whole post. With pictures. As it is, I met him through an interview I stumbled... Continue Reading →
Tales From the Nexus 