Category Archives: writing

Script Frenzy

I don’t expect anything like the success I had with NaNoWriMo, partly because I’ll be on vacation for 10 out of April’s 30 days, but I plan to participate in Script Frenzy this year.  I’ve long wanted to adapt my dissertation novel as a graphic novel, and I’ve taken a few tentative stabs at itContinue reading “Script Frenzy”

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”

The Road

It’s been a long time coming. When I first heard Cormac McCarthy‘s brilliant novel The Road was being developed as a film, I noted the release date on my mental calendar and held my breath. That was back in early 2008. When the movie finally did get released more than a year and a halfContinue reading “The Road”

The hardest thing about writing

I’m preparing one of my novels for submission, and I’m writing a synopsis.  I hate synopses.  Like all prejudice, it’s an irrational loathing–I always feel like I’m crushing the story, stripping away the beauty and leaving just a skeleton, and I can’t help but think that if people want to know what a book isContinue reading “The hardest thing about writing”

A Writer’s Notebook: Haiku

Since I mentioned Benzaiten (and suggested a possible connection with haiku) in my last patrons post, I’ve had haiku on the brain. I am not a poet — or, certainly not an accomplished one — but I have always felt comfortable with the haiku. For me, haiku represents the best of what poetry can offer:Continue reading “A Writer’s Notebook: Haiku”

Patrons of writing and teaching: Saraswati/Benzaiten

Saraswati is an interesting woman. As an expression of female creative energy in Hinduism, she carries a lot of power, said to act as the goddess of music and poetry, the visual arts, literature, and knowledge. All knowledge. There are varying accounts of her origins — some say she was the daughter of Brahma and Durga,Continue reading “Patrons of writing and teaching: Saraswati/Benzaiten”

International Prize for Arabic Fiction

This is a bit slow in coming, but I’m working on an article for Driftless about reading culture and the Abu Dhabi International Book Fair, and I remembered that last year around this time I posted about the shortlist and winner for the Booker-sponsored International Prize for Arabic Fiction. So I thought I’d post theContinue reading “International Prize for Arabic Fiction”

A Writer’s Notebook: The salty but true story of the origins of one Capt. Ted Snoek

I thought I’d try my hand at some non-fiction this week, though I confess this is not my forte.  For the reason I’ve engaged this genre–and, as always, for the exercise itself–see below. I come from a line of seamen. My father, and my father’s father, and my father’s father’s father-in-law, all were captains ofContinue reading “A Writer’s Notebook: The salty but true story of the origins of one Capt. Ted Snoek”

The importance of Prince Henry the Navigator was in the inspiration

If I ever have a chance to teach a freshman seminar course — to explain to students in their first several weeks what it’s going to take to succeed in college and what the value of their education might be — this would be my entire syllabus: Peg took courses, a different course each winter,Continue reading “The importance of Prince Henry the Navigator was in the inspiration”