Modernist manuals on writing often conflate every story with conflict. This reductionism reflects a culture that inflates aggression and competition while cultivating ignorance of other behavioral behavioral options. No narrative of any complexity can be built on or reduced to a single element. Conflict is one kind of behavior. There are others, equally important in […]
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Nurtured by Books: Laurie King
We had snow in western Oregon last week and it’s still melting around here. It was utterly lovely and created such a hushed, soft world. And I enjoy few things more than watching heavy snow tumble from the sky. Talk about a magic show. I want to call your attention to a fascinating autobiography piece […]
Read the rest of this entry »Poetry shapes the world
I wouldn’t be surprised if poetry–poetry in the broadest sense, in a world filled with metaphor, rhyme, and recurring patterns, shapes, and designs–is how the world world. The world isn’t logical, it’s a song. ~ David Bryne
Read the rest of this entry »Happiness is Reading
Happiness is in the quiet, ordinary things. A table, a chair, a book with a paper-knife stuck between the pages. And the petal falling from the rose, and the light flickering as we sit silent. ~ Virginia Woolf I’ve never used a letter opener as a bookmark, but I’m sure we agree that a delicious […]
Read the rest of this entry »From Gretchen Felker-Martin
Horror is all about unspoken drives, desires, and fears. If you can sublimate that on the page, you can elicit a reaction from the reader, and you can give someone the relief of knowing they’re not alone with their forbidden thoughts or shock someone into wondering why these thoughts are forbidden in the first place. […]
Read the rest of this entry »Gratitude, Ali Velshi’s Banned Book Club, Ray Bradbury, & Fahrenheit 451
I want to thank everyone who joined us this past Saturday morning for the Grand Canyon Sisters in Crimes panel on Self Editing. It was a lot of fun, especially hanging out with Christine Estes, Susan Budavari, Denise Forsythe, Yvonne Corrigan-Carr and other board members. As usual, I had much to say and I believe […]
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