Category Archives: holidays

Some things my father said:

Stop shuffling.  Pick up your feet.  You’re ruining your shoes–walk from your heels to the balls of your feet. Stop kicking the back of my seat.  I’m trying to drive. Shift!  Left foot clutch, right foot gas–Brake! If you don’t know what you’re doing or why you’re doing it, don’t do it. You need toContinue reading “Some things my father said:”

Still MORE writing and music

With all the posts I’ve been writing lately about the influence of music on writing, I simply have to share this recent discovery:  It’s a song-sharing site called Stereomood, but the idea is not simply to share songs.  (The site is a streaming site, not a download site, so I’m sharing this because it actsContinue reading “Still MORE writing and music”

After life

Look upon the world as a bubble, regard it as a mirage; who thus perceives the world, him Mara, the king of death, does not see. ~ Dhammapada, Canto XIII, verse 170 I’ve become a student of many aspects of many religions, but one of the areas I pay most attention to is death andContinue reading “After life”

“Anybody can make history; only a great man can write it.”

Irish lit scholars, please don’t curse me for this. Because today is St. Paddy’s day, I thought I’d list — in no particular order and with deepest respect for anyone I’ve left off (and there will be a lot of those) — a few writers I have read and enjoyed who hail from the EmeraldContinue reading ““Anybody can make history; only a great man can write it.””

Writing as work; or, a new literary daydream

Wish I could claim this idea as my own, but I can’t.  In fact, it’s a kind of convoluted web of connection, appropriate to the Internet but a bit confusing.  I was reading a recent entry in the terrific little blog Literary Rejections on Display, which was in turn a reference to an e-mail commentingContinue reading “Writing as work; or, a new literary daydream”

Bleeding regions; plus, NaNoWriMo and happy holidays!

Still working on the Texas writers list, though it’s looking more and more impossible. Where do I put an author like Katherine Anne Porter, for instance? She was born in South Texas, lived a long time in Central Texas, and one of the major writing contests that bear her name is headquartered in North Texas.Continue reading “Bleeding regions; plus, NaNoWriMo and happy holidays!”

Halloween Horror Fest

I’ve watched an abnormal number of horror movies this year. Some of that is because my wife is researching portrayals of librarians in film, and the most recent batch she added to our collection simply happened to include a lot of horror flicks. But I’ve also been re-embracing my horror roots, not only in filmContinue reading “Halloween Horror Fest”