Tag Archives: Texas

Student revenge: assign a teacher homework!

This April, when I return to the States and visit my family in Texas, I also am going to attend the huge conference of the Popular Culture Association/American Culture Association, held this year in San Antonio. I’m reading fiction there, and I’m planning to reconnect with a bunch of scholars and colleagues I used toContinue reading “Student revenge: assign a teacher homework!”

Small stone #21

Walking in a rare, chilly rain, the weather here in the Middle East more autumnal than wintry, my wife and I daydream of weather in more northern climates, pine trees and damp soil and fires in fireplaces. I mention that if we have a fireplace again in our near future, I’d like to split myContinue reading “Small stone #21”

11-11: Memoir review (Elmer Kelton)

A short while ago I mentioned that I plan to read new types of books this year — eleven new categories of books, in fact — and so far, I’ve read a lot of graphic novels. Which isn’t really new for me, and which certainly isn’t on my list of eleven categories. But I just sneakedContinue reading “11-11: Memoir review (Elmer Kelton)”

“The United States of Texas”

I’ve written a lot about Texas, both in my fiction and in this blog (most notably in my blog post on Texas regionalism), partly because Texas is so diverse it leaves room for a lot of literary exploration.  But many people outside Texas–and probably many people in Texas, as well–might not realize that Texas isContinue reading ““The United States of Texas””

A Writer’s Notebook: The great outdoors

This is a fairly old-school, simple exercise, but it’s one I keep returning to again and again.  But as usual, more on that below. I’ve never seen the skies in other vast states, like, say, Wyoming or Montana, but I’ve seen skies in California, skies in New York, skies in Wisconsin and Florida. And itContinue reading “A Writer’s Notebook: The great outdoors”

A Writer’s Notebook: 1,000 words

This exercise calls for writing from a photograph. This is the photo I used (click on the photo to go directly to the photo series that includes this pic): For a description of the exercise, see below.  But first, what I wrote…. It was sunny but cool that Sunday afternoon when we drove out toContinue reading “A Writer’s Notebook: 1,000 words”

A Writer’s Notebook: Revision

I’m chest deep in a revision of my novel right now, but I’m also reading Alice Munro, who makes me want to work on short fiction. So I figured this week, I’d put my hands together and do a revision exercise on one of my long-problematic short stories. Because this is slightly complicated, I’m goingContinue reading “A Writer’s Notebook: Revision”

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!”