Sitting in the garden at the Pasadena coffee shop called Zephyr, I whiled away a few good hours talking with my screenwriting friend Brian. We discussed the movie biz and the publishing world while a gentle breeze rustled the ivy covering the patio walls and handsome Armenians smoked hookahs at a table nearby. Russian literature […]
Having some difficulty creating full, true-to-life fictional characters? Why not let Marcel help you? Yes, that Marcel, the most famous one of all–Marcel Proust, author of Remembrance of Things Past, the only part of which I remember is when he waxed poetic about Madeleines, the shell-shaped, mini-cakes that melt in your mouth. Thanks to the […]
I'm a junkie for writing books. The good ones get me so excited about writing that I have a hard time finishing them because I put them down to go write (sort of like what I hope this blog does for people). And even the bad ones generally offer some tidbit or another. So when […]
My daughter is grown and gone, married now and thinking about having kids of her own (if the stupid army would ever let her husband come home). But sometimes often she comes to the house to do her laundry. Which is why, last week, I ended up down the basement folding a large load of […]
It rained yesterday. A lot. I drove home from a meeting on the freeway last night and waves of water splashed over the windshield, just like in winter. But I didn't mind. All day yesterday I waited for the rain to come in. It was hot and muggy in the morning, but there were hopeful […]
I have a love-hate relationship with the self-help industry. Mostly, I love it. Send me an email detailing the latest way to develop more insight and I'll click on your link any day. Show me an ad promoting some kind of "You Can Achieve More With Your Life" workshop and I'll read your long sales […]
I've been a bit distracted lately, which has caused me to Not Write. First of all, it is hot. Not like 90-degree hot. Oh, no, that's not good enough for us. We are suffering through 106+ weather, which is hot, hot, hot. It is so hot that we poor Portlanders don't know what to do […]
Awhile back I wrote a post called The Rule of Threes. In re-pondering this again recently, the thought occurs that I'm not generally much of a rule follower. In fact, you might even accurately describe me as a person who is incapable of following rules. I break them like crazy in real life (which is […]
Facing a rewrite can be difficult, if not downright daunting. You've written a draft (or two, or three), gotten feedback, and now you're ready to make the changes in your manuscript. So you open the file on your computer….and sit there and stare at the words on the page. Let's admit it, sometimes confronting a […]
A couple weeks ago my dining room table was covered with china, cut glass, pitchers, and an odd assortment of knick-knacks. This was all stuff brought over from my Mom's house, which we were cleaning out before an estate sale. I was really happy with all the things I'd claimed but the problem was that […]
