I lurve me some Halloween. I’m not big on the grody stuff, like vampires and tombstones. What I love is dressing up, the fall weather, carving pumpkins, caramel apples, candles flickering, and neighborhood kids running around in the night. What I also love is re-reading Harry Potter. There are two series of books I try…
It’s coming… And it’s National Novel Writing Month. I know I blog (a little obsessively) about this twice per year, but I am still going to tell any uninitiated readers what NaNoWriMo is. NaNoWriMo is always in November (which makes October, affectionately and unofficially, NaNoPlaMo, or National Novel Planning Month). NaNo hosts a great website…
Making that Best Books List for Comedy a few weeks back really made me wonder why I didn’t include comedy on my Best Books List. Then I wondered why I didn’t include memoir, history, travel, nonfiction, food, journalism, graphic novels, YA, and literary. Besides (already included) philosophy and religion, these are all things I love…
Recently I witnessed a most miraculous transformation, as a self-proclaimed political poet showed up to a local reading group and read what was his “first attempt” at a short story. It was so decent (read: better than decent) that I was further in awe when he shared offhandedly that it was completely not autobiographical. Besides…
Let’s face it. Stuff around us matters. That’s the reason so many writers have such elaborate rituals. What we can hear matters. How cold it is matters. That giant oak tree outside the window matters. Whether we’ve have a cup of coffee. What our husband said to us last night. Not that all stars have…
Inevitably, when someone asks me a writer- or reader-question in real life, it is going to end up on the blog. This used to happen with my food blog. The thing is, if someone has taken the time and effort to ask a serious question, there are probably other people wondering the same thing. Plus,…
The Hero With a Thousand Faces, by Joseph Campbell and published in the third edition by New World Publishing in 2008. The original was published in 1949 by Pantheon Books. Before I begin my review of this particular book, I want to answer a question for those of you who don’t know the answer. What…
The Doctor Proctor’s Fart Powder series for kids, by Jo Nesbo. Currently, there are four books in the series. I read them in English translation by Aladdin Books, 2007-2012, illustrated by Mike Lowery. The series includes: Doctor Proctor’s Fart Powder Bubbles in the Bathtub (Doctor Proctor’s Time Traveling Bathtub) Who Cut the Cheese? (The End…
What is Wattpad? In theory, many of you don’t need to be told, because, after all, it has 25,000,ooo users. In reality, however, I have found not a single person who knew what I was talking about at the word “Wattpad.” I had read a blurb about Wattpad in some sort of What’s New? section…
It’s not easy to find a good laugh. But I often find myself thinking, “I sure could use a good laugh.” Comedy is tough business, which is why most nights when I go looking to laugh all I end up with is crossed eyes from an optical illusion and an urban definition for the phrase…
I want you guys to take a look at something. It’s an online preview of a novel written by a friend/fellow writer, Matthew Talamini. I can’t show it to you here, which you’ll understand as soon as you see it. So follow this link and then come back. Whuddya’ think? Yeah, it is really cool.…
Magnificent Principia (2013), by Colin Pask, as a way to read–without actually reading–Isaac Newton’s The Principia, or more correctly, Philosophiæ Naturalis Principia Mathematica or Mathematical Principles of Natural Philosophy, 1687 (last edition, 1726). Magnificent contains important chunks of Principia, although what percentage I am not at all clear on, and it digests those chunks for…
I have been having such a good time journaling, lately. Now, I have always been a journaler, which is not surprising, as a writer. I have also always been a doodler, which also isn’t surprising, as a visual artist. (I also love photography, which means, taken all together, that my family is going to have…
Many of the things we need to know and learn as writers (and/or publishers), we need to know and learn for life. I often find that something from my personal life applies to this blog because, let’s face it, maturity as people helps us toward maturity as writers. Of course, there are job-specific things to…
No, not the Kenneth Branaugh version from 1993, although we will talk about that in a bit, but the 2012 Jos Whedon version. And yes, you did read that right. Now, how did this happen? How did I end up watching this film? NO idea. It showed up at my door from Netflix and I…
Searching for Sugar Man, 2012, a Swedish-British documentary directed and written by Malik Bendjelloul and about musician Sixto Rodriguez. Perhaps you don’t know why I would be reviewing this movie for a writing and publishing blog. Well then, just hold on tight and I will tell you. After I tell you this. It seems like…
Sure, it sounds like a garage band, but it is really something that every indie author needs at the ready. It’s your platform toolbox, and it better be stocked. The deal is, no author can breathe a sigh of relief on their publication day, anymore. Even if you have solidified a nice publishing deal with…
The Clarice Bean trilogy by Lauren Child, published from 1999-2006. The series includes, in order, Utterly Me Clarice Bean, Clarice Bean Spells Trouble, and Clarice Bean Don’t Look Now. There are three more books related to the series, but they are picture books and I did not read them. Best I can decipher, Child started…
I find myself with very little to say, today. I am supposed to be relaxing with my family, enjoying the cool rain of upstate New York, but instead I have stayed back from the annual trip to the pet store in order to get my bi-weekly blog up. I have not finished any books lately…
A few days ago, my nine year old daughter received a letter in the mail. It was from her last year’s teacher. Now, my children are in a smallish Montessori school, which means that they switch teachers and classrooms only every three years, and each of these transitions is somewhat of a big deal. Both…
the starving artist 