Monthly Archives: February 2011

View Finder

Remember those little photo wheels that you slipped into a view finder when you were a kid — and how they suddenly brought a tiny photo to life and made you feel really close to the scene? That’s how I … Continue reading

Posted in Uncategorized | 2 Comments

Persuasive Punch

“Find your voice.” That’s the tag line for The King’s Speech in recent newspaper ads and it seems apt, since the film continues to garner rave reviews for its script (see Ripe Writing). In a recent USA Today story called … Continue reading

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged , , | Leave a comment

Walden Ponders

“I went to the woods because I wished to live deliberately, to front only the essential facts of life and see if could not learn what it had to teach, and not, when I came to die, discover that I … Continue reading

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged , , | Leave a comment

The Wardrobians

Quotation for Wednesday, February 23, 2011: “Well, Sir, if things are real, they’re there all the time.” “Are they?” said the Professor.” The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe C.S. Lewis is an amazingly prolific writer. During decades of creativity, … Continue reading

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged , , , | Leave a comment

Distractable You

How often has this happened to you? You can’t seem to focus, so you try to stoke your concentration with caffeine, hoping that a jolt will pry the creative cobwebs loose and set your ideas a flowing. Only it doesn’t … Continue reading

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged , , | Leave a comment

Getting Published

I just spent an energizing afternoon with two publishing dynamos, Arielle Eckstut and David Henry Sterry, the authors of a terrific new writer’s resource called The Essential Guide to Getting Your Book Published. This cheerful husband-and-wife team are also the … Continue reading

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged , , | 1 Comment

Wonderful Stories

Sometimes life just hands you a gift. One gift it’s handed me is my little community of dog-walking friends. We walk just about every day in a park right near my house and chat about anything and everything: kids, food, … Continue reading

Posted in Uncategorized | 3 Comments

Tumbling Down

“There is no greater power than the power of the word.” Yogi teabag tag In the Bible’s Book of Joshua, the walls of Jericho come tumbling down after seven days, destroyed by trumpets and human voices raised to stone-shattering pitch. … Continue reading

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged , , | Leave a comment

Ripple Effect

Just for fun, I decided to check in on the BAFTA (British Academy of Film and Television Arts) awards program — it’s the British equivalent of the Oscars, complete with black umbrellas because there was a spot of typically English … Continue reading

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged , | Leave a comment

High Hurdle

There’s an old river guide saying that goes something like this: “You can’t push the river.” Right now, I’m feeling as if that’s exactly what I’m doing. I’ve hit a another rough patch in my YA novel and it’s slow … Continue reading

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged , , | Leave a comment