I’m heading back to Portland this afternoon, and I am, as always, sorry to leave Nashville. I am not, however, sorry to leave the weather behind. Yesterday there were tornado warnings which were relayed to me through a sort of old-fashioned round robin system. Friends of Sue and Walt’s who live up the street called […]
Reading as a Writer Last night Terry Price and I hosted a dinner for the new students entering the Loft, and, big surprise, the conversation was all about writing. One of the things that Terry talked about was how, in the past, some of his students would complain that they didn’t have time to read, […]
I’m in Nashville, which is beautiful and warm (although pretty much anything is probably warm compared to Portland) and would be perfect in every way except for….the pollen. Which has me sneezing and my eyes running and itching in a way I’ve never quite experienced before. It still does not affect my love for this […]
I am in beautiful Springfield, Tennessee, where there are rolling green fields and the air feels totally different than it does in beautiful Portland, Oregon–mostly because it is warm. I’m staying at the home of Terry Price, and we are theoretically working on the Loft. No, we are really working on it–we have been chatting […]
This is a photo of Carl Sandburg’s home, Connemara, in Flat Rock, North Carolina, which is south (I think) of Asheville, not too far, and is apparently now a retirement community. I can see why–it is quite beautiful and peaceful and charming. I never knew that much about Carl Sandburg, except for the "fog creeping […]
This is a photograph of Thomas Wolfe’s grave, which is in Riverside Cemetery in Asheville, North Carolina, where I happen to find myself today. Turns out that North Carolina is a state with an amazing literary heritage, claiming authors as diverse as Wolfe, Carl Sandburg (more on him later), O Henry, and tons of others. […]
Welcome to a new series on creativity and how to unleash it in your writing. Today I’ll be presenting the 15 crucial keys to consistently accessing your creativity. First, though, I want to talk about creativity in general. I consider it to be one branch of the Three-Fold Writer’s Path, and in many ways, it […]
A new idea for a novel is forming in my brain. I have to be very, very careful with it. I’ve still got a draft and a half of the current novel to finish, so I can’t do anything with this new idea yet. And, one thing I’ve learned is that I can’t even pay […]
I used to love to write in coffeeshops. Now, not so much. But lately I’ve been thinking I need to get back in the habit of going to Starbucks or an equivalent to write. We’ve got the most fabulous coffeeshop/cafe right down the street called the Daily, and I always see people in there working […]
It’s Earth Day and I’m in an airplane winging my way across the country, wasting resources, specifically, very expensive jet fuel. Guess they haven’t yet figured out how to make airplanes run on bio-diesel. I’d buy carbon offsets but I just read that they are pretty much b.s. Anyway, having written a long ebook on […]
