The chir of nighttime insects and the wide dark blue of the moonlight sky over the Texas Hill Country is not nearly as pleasant as a long, late-night conversation with my brother on our parents’ back deck. (Oops! I missed last week’s “small stone”! But I forgive myself, because I was preparing to fly acrossContinue reading “Small stone, Vol 2, #10”
Tag Archives: writing
A Writer’s Notebook: life study / character notes
This is a true story. For now. The taxi driver’s name was Muhammad. He is from Pakistan. He has warm, kind eyes, something between hazel and blue in the dim passing light of the street lamps on the highway. A faint downturn at the outer edges, where his dark olive skin creases in fans fromContinue reading “A Writer’s Notebook: life study / character notes”
A Writer’s Notebook: Mapping a story
This past Tuesday, I visited Zayed University to speak to an education class studying youth literature and preparing to write young adult stories of their own. (I’ll write a fuller post on this experience later this weekend.) We talked about books they were reading and how they might begin to write their own stories. TheContinue reading “A Writer’s Notebook: Mapping a story”
Small stone, Vol. 2, #9
An afternoon on the couch, back flat and knees bent, the dry pulpy scent of paper and ink, the rich texture of a world unfolding in fine brushstrokes of words.
A Writer’s Notebook: “Bridge the Gap”
I’ve done photo stories before (here, here, and here), but this one is a little different: this one involves two photos. I’ll explain more below, but just so you know up front why I’m using two pictures, the idea here is to get from the picture on the left to the picture on the rightContinue reading “A Writer’s Notebook: “Bridge the Gap””
Small stone, Vol. 2, #8
A few minutes ago, I helped a stranger cat to die. Not directly, but it was close enough. He’s a street cat, beefy and tough and full of spit and bravado. He’d been hit by a car. I think his hip is shattered. With the help of some neighbors, I coaxed his broken body intoContinue reading “Small stone, Vol. 2, #8”
A Writer’s Notebook: “mentor texts”
I think I might accidentally have started a new novel. It doesn’t look like much in this exercise, I admit, but believe me, it’s frighteningly large inside my brain. I don’t have time for this right now, frankly, and I’m going to have to put this on hold for a while (I might save itContinue reading “A Writer’s Notebook: “mentor texts””
Ask an author: Lori Ann Bloomfield
My friend Lori Ann Bloomfield, of The Last River Child fame and author of that Elvis story I liked to a while back, is opening up the floodgates to reader questions over at her First Line blog. Got a burning question about writing, reading, or publishing? Go visit her blog and drop her a lineContinue reading “Ask an author: Lori Ann Bloomfield”
A Writer’s Notebook: dream journal
I can’t explain why, but I woke up with this in my head: Like everyone else, the caricaturist had good days and bad days. On good days, the people would laugh and clap their hands, touch his shoulder, would point to their hairdos or their cocked grins and say, “Oh, that’s me exactly! That’s meContinue reading “A Writer’s Notebook: dream journal”
Small stone, Vol. 2, #6: SPECIAL JAPAN POST
I wanted to write a haiku today, for Japan. But nothing I could write would ever feel sufficient enough, or delicate enough, or helpful enough. Then I found this video post from Jenn, an American teaching in Japan, and her words are excellent. Better still, she offers links and suggestions for ways to help JapanContinue reading “Small stone, Vol. 2, #6: SPECIAL JAPAN POST”
Samuel Snoek-Brown 