If ever in the small hours of the night, when everyone else is either snoring or rolling over, you find yourself waking, spinning into the darkness, Continue reading
Tag Archives: writing
Virginia Woolf: Words Fail Me
15 MayLeave it to the BBC to store bits of Virginia Woolf’s psyche for us mere mortals to sift through on a whim. The broadcast of Woolf’s essay, “Craftsmanship,” was first heard on April 20, 1937. Five years later, it was published in a book called “The Death of the Moth, and other essays,” the year after she walked into the Ouse River with rocks in her pockets.
In “Craftsmanship,” Woolf insists that “words never make anything useful” and “tell nothing but the truth,” contradicting both meanings of “craft” in the dictionary. She says that words “hate being useful, that it is their nature not to express one simple statement but a thousand possibilities…”
Further into the essay, she says that “a useful statement is a statement that can mean only one thing. And it is the nature of words to mean many things.” Hence, words combined into statements cannot be useful. Writing is not useful.
Should I just end my life now?
Martian Haiku – Ground Control to Major Tom
5 MayPostmodern Donkey tipped me off to a haiku competition called Going to Mars with MAVEN, sponsored by the University of Colorado-Boulder. The word “maven” means “accumulator of knowledge” in Yiddish, but it stands for Mars Atmosphere and Volatile Evolution Mission. The Website explains: Continue reading
The Art of Cohabitation — Do Opposite Muses Attract?
30 AprYears ago when we first moved to San Francisco, I found a painting by Lance Morrison at a local gallery. “Jilanne,” it said. “Take me home and I will be your writer’s muse.” The hummingbird, flapping its ethereal wings faster than the eye can see, looking solitary, magical, and somewhat spiritual, whispered its way to my heart. I bought it. The title of the painting?
One Lovely Blog Award
13 AprThanks to 4amWriter, otherwise known as Limebird Kate, for sending the One Lovely Blog Award my way.
Clearly, she has never seen my office, brushed aside the cobwebs, or moved the piles of mail and newspapers off my dining room table so that food can be eaten.
When I think of “lovely,” I think of all things clean, orderly, and quietly beautiful. I think of a sense of calm and perhaps a bit of the sublime.
sublime [səˈblaɪm]
adj
1. of high moral, aesthetic, intellectual, or spiritual value; noble; exalted
2. inspiring deep veneration, awe, or uplifting emotion because of its beauty, nobility, grandeur, or immensity
3. unparalleled; supreme a sublime compliment
4. Poetic of proud bearing or aspect
5. Archaic raised up
n
the sublime
1. something that is sublime
2. the ultimate degree or perfect example, the sublime of folly
vb
1. (tr) to make higher or purer
2. (Chemistry) to change or cause to change directly from a solid to a vapour or gas without first melting to sublime iodine many mercury salts sublime when heated
3. (Chemistry) to undergo or cause to undergo this process followed by a reverse change directly from a vapour to a solid to sublime iodine onto glass
[from Latin sublīmis lofty, perhaps from sub- up to + līmen lintel]
So perhaps, my blog is this fantastic mask,
Who is the real me?
a face presented to the world that is not completely accurate or truthful. Or perhaps it’s a different kind of truth. I posed this question once long ago: Warp and Woof
Or maybe I’m reading too much into this word, lovely, which is something I often do because I’m avoiding other work that is more pressing and likely to give me heartburn.
But Kate’s award is a blessing that comes with no rules–and no GI distress. I’m freeeeee! And freedom tastes of reality!
—or does it?
This freedom feels like a freewriting exercise, morning pages. Who knows what will fall from the sky? Sometimes nothing, not even a cloud. But at least I’ll be here writing when something does happen. Like when that Lovely Blog award showed up in pink on my blogstep–and put a smile on my face.
Thanks, Kate!
I’d like to send my own little package of goodness to these folks who are busily blogging into the fresh hours, not knowing when the universe will send something their way, be it dark matter or a pink package filled with appreciation. Three are new to my list of favorites, but I have mentioned the other two before. No matter. It just means I’m still enjoying them. And like I said, no rules rules!!!
Fictionfan (book reviews)
CafeCasey (essays)
Alarmingman (haiku)
Shrinksarentcheap (poetry)
Mypenandme (poetry)
The Writer’s Demon Rears Its Ugly Head
8 AprIn response to Julia’s 100 Word Challenge:
As the line was crossed and t’s were dotted, the s’s felt incomplete. Not unusual for s’s, a motley group of tail-enders often bringing up the rear, like late arrivals to a party long since ended. Like the football team that can’t claim title to their effort, only to their losses—those last to reach the finish line insist it tastes of victory, that finishing deserves its own gold medal. But this meager plot of land so often claimed by other also-rans is merely well-worn turf. My jealous heart desires real victory, claiming untilled soil that I cannot admit does not exist.
Humor and Tragedy for SCBWI
8 MarWell, folks, the SCBWI’s spring conference at Asilomar was inspiring, despite the food provided by ARAMARK. The glutinous pad thai noodles, grey prime rib, and screams for life-rings from the nicoise salad ingredients as they bobbed above the pool of nondescript salad dressing—all this failed to throttle the enthusiasm of the children’s book writers and illustrators assembled on a glorious weekend in Monterey to celebrate the HUMOR in kid’s literature. Between Daniel Handler, Lisa Brown, Jon Agee, Lin Oliver, Lisa Jahn-Clough, and Ed Briant, no joke was left unturned.
Fittingly, Handler’s talk was particularly heady. Continue reading
The Writer’s Shadow
Making Tracks…
Missed Any of These? Hmmm??
Thank you, 4am Writer!
Thank you CalloftheSiren!!
Thank you SAMIR!!
Thank you Scribblerbean!!
Thank you ReadnCook!!
Thank you NYParrot!!
Thank you WhatsItAllAbout!!
