THE POWER OF MEMOIR is one of my favorite topics. I recently heard this one-minute radio essay that brilliantly argues about the positive aspects of my favorite genre. Please listen in. It’s here.
Creative Inspiration? Look Around
April 11, 2012 By Leave a Comment
CREATIVE INSPIRATION CAN COME from anywhere. It’s all around you, though most of us are too busy worrying, planning, texting, phoning or talking to notice. The human propensity for missing inspiration is a real shame, especially for writers, who often go far out of their ways to seek such inspiration, forgetting that much like Dorothy’s ruby slippers, it’s right there under their noses. Want some inspiration? You’ve come to the right place. [Read more...]
Writing Memoir? Trust, But Verify
March 21, 2012 By Leave a Comment
“TRUST, BUT VERIFY.” Reading those words, I simply smiled from earring to earring. Such good advice. Such good advice for writers of memoir, whose inclination is to think that what they feel is true, and therefore needs no checking. How sure are you that your facts are correct? How sure can you be, and what lengths do you need to go to prove your truth? [Read more...]
Your New Best Friend:
The Deadline Calendar
GO ON, TRY my interactive calendar of emotional high holy days, regular-version high holy days and more. Hover your cursor over a cinnamon-colored date to see what pops up. Use it to start personal essays, radio pieces and op-eds to submit on deadline. How? Look three months out for radio ideas; six to twelve for magazine pieces. Pick it, write it, submit it. You’re a writer. That’s what writers do.
| Mon | Tue | Wed | Thu | Fri | Sat | Sun |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| « Apr | Jun » | |||||
| 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5May, 5 2012Cinco de MayoIt is Cinco de Mayo, commemorating the Mexican army’s unlikely victory over French forces in 1862. This is a great one for everything from a memoir about someone else’s cultural holidays, some food memoir perhaps, or a piece of memoir placed at celebration for the day. | 6 | |
| 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 | 11 | 12May, 12 2012Hurricanes Finally Get Named for Men, As WellIt was on this day in 1978 that hurricanes also were named for men. Previously named only for women, this seems like justice, however late. What’s in a name? My sister has something to say about that, named as she is, for a racehorse. I told this story on NPR’s All Things Considered. Have a look. | 13 |
| 14 | 15 | 16May, 16 2012Fiddlehead TimeIt’s Fiddlehead time. Fiddlehead ferns that is, sold and eaten while they are still rolled up. Fiddleheads are the unfurled fronds of a young fern harvested for food consumption. Called a fiddlehead because it resembles the curled ornamentation (called a scroll) on the end of a stringed instrument, such as a fiddle, it is It is also called a crozier since it also resembles the curved staff used by bishops, which has its origins in the shepherd’s crook. Got some food memoir? I lap it up, and write it down here. | 17 | 18 | 19 | 20 |
| 21 | 22 | 23May, 23 2012The Father of Taxomony is BornOn this day in 1707 was the birth of Carl Linneaus, the man who created order out of chaos by creating a classification system for naming and identifying plants. I created one of those, though mine divides by people, asking if you are either a burger or a burrito. Check it out. | 24 | 25 | 26 | 27May, 27 2012Rachel Carson’s BirthdayOn this day in 1907 was the birth of Rachel Carson, one of the greatest advocates the earth will ever know. The New Yorker magazine took a chance on her, first publishing her in 1951 and in 1962 serializing Silent Spring, in which she took on the subject of the ravaging effects of pesticides. The book is still regarded as the cornerstone of the new environmentalism. She inspires me, and I might write a piece of memoir about reading that book or what she has meant to me. You? What creative inspiration does she provoke in you? |
| 28 | 29 | 30 | 31 | |||
Book Giveaway & Interview with Jeff Goins
February 10, 2012 By 66 Comments
TALKING TO JEFF GOINS, the word “comfortable” frequently comes up. He uses it, and I’m feeling a distinct sense of comfort as we breeze through a recent phone conversation. It’s odd, since the subject is a distinctly uncomfortable one. We’re talking about publishing, a topic that has never been one anyone might find comfortable. Competitive, cut-throat, cold, scary, unknowing, secretive, privileged. Closed. Impossible. Uncaring. Now those are words that come to mind when the subject is publishing. Not when speaking with Jeff, though, and his comfort is contagious. [Read more...]
Knitting + Memoir = New Friends
February 5, 2012 By Leave a Comment
FEW THINGS BEAT a great conversation. But a great conversation about both writing and knitting, well, that beats all. And that is just what I got to have last week with a new friend named Brian Crimmins, who writes a blog where a few of my favorite things are discussed. Want to listen in? [Read more...]
Writing Memoir Using Nature’s Calendar
February 1, 2012 By Leave a Comment
YOUR BLOG AWAITS. You write about your life. In other words, you write what you know. But right now you feel like you don’t know much. What to do? [Read more...]
Writing Memoir? Read Memoir
January 22, 2012 By 3 Comments
WHILE I HAVE no required reading list for my classes, I always ask what people are reading. And, at some point, I’ll pass around a list of books that have informed my work. Would you like to see it? [Read more...]
Creative Inspiration: Meet Kristen Lamb
January 17, 2012 By 10 Comments
SNAPPY. CLEVER. CARING. While this might not be everybody’s criteria for a pal, it’s one I’ve used to look online for a particular kind of new friend in the writing business. Why snappy? Because sometimes you need someone to give you a little bite to get you going. [Read more...]
Memoir: Read it in the Want Ads
January 15, 2012 By Leave a Comment
THE FINE PRINT is where you’ll find great creative inspiration. I mean, have you looked in the want ads lately? If not, you should. [Read more...]
