Author Archive
First Paragraphs: The Paper Palace, Miranada Cowley Heller
Things come from nowhere. The mind is empty, and then, inside a frame, a pear. Perfect, green, the stem atilt, a single leaf. It sits in a white ironstone bowl, nestled among the limes, in the center of a weathered picnic table, on an old screen porch, at the edge of a pond, deep in […]
Read the rest of this entry »So when people say poetry is a luxury…
So when people say poetry is a luxury, or an option, or for the educated middle classes, or that it shouldn’t be read at school because it is irrelevant, or any of the strange and stupid things that are said about poetry and its place in our lives, I suspect that people doing the saying […]
Read the rest of this entry »Inspired Openings
The day is starting under a smudged sky and I’m happy to report rain arrived last week–a lovely relief in our baked, thirsty part of the world. And autumn is in full swing–halleluja. Yesterday I walked along leaf-strewn paths on a small nearby mountain and while it’s covered mostly in Douglas fir trees, the big […]
Read the rest of this entry »Marie Kroyer: an artist’s tale
In case you needed some quiet beauty today, this painting is called The Orange Glass Jug and Green Cutting. It was painted in 1894 by Marie Kroyer Let me pass along some information about Kroyer. I’ve been learning about the Skagen Painters lately and am fascinated by this flourishing artist colony who were part of […]
Read the rest of this entry »Make Your Character Out of Sync and Uncomfortable
Tension must be intricately laid throughout a story, not just appearing in moments of distress or while a character strives for a goal. A great trick for inducing a constant underlying tension is to portray your protagonist as uneasy, uncomfortable, or at odds in each scene. She can be hot, cold, bored, nervous, lonely, hungry, […]
Read the rest of this entry »It’s a Calling, Margaret Atwood
It’s not a profession, this track you’re on. It’s a vocation – a calling. There’s no pension plan, there are no guarantees, and there’s no magic potion. What you’ve chosen to do is brave and risky, but it’s also necessary – increasingly necessary as we move into a future for which no one, right now, […]
Read the rest of this entry »Stories are Like Life Rafts
Autumn is whispering to me. It reached 92 today and 100 is forecast for tomorrow, but regardless of the coming temperatures, the seasonal change is beginning around here with burnished colors. Last week I camped–in a tent–and woke early with the temperature a brisk 46 degrees. Unfortunately, campfires aren’t allowed now in Oregon parks because […]
Read the rest of this entry »
