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Archive for the ‘Inspiration’ Category
You left your book in Idaho?
Monday, August 30th, 2010Write a novel in three days?
Thursday, August 26th, 2010You can do it! Check out Sean Di Lizio’s article at The Millions.
Where we write
Wednesday, August 18th, 2010From The Millions:
A lovely piece by Jessica Francis Kane on where we write.
Book re-collection?
Tuesday, August 3rd, 2010From the LATimes, here’s a wonderful story about a group of book lovers who are trying to re-collect the book collection of the late author David Markson.
Should they? or shouldn’t they?
Arranging things
Wednesday, July 28th, 2010
From Rita Konig at the New York Times:
“There is a definite art to filling bookshelves. I don’t think there is any right or wrong way; the only thing that doesn’t work for me is when they are empty. While scouring design books, I find that I am always drawn to rooms where an entire wall is devoted to books. Books, quite obviously, give depth to a room, since they are one of the sure signs that someone with a pulse actually lives there, and the colors of the spines give a wall that random pattern that modern interiors so often lack….”
Tell the truth
Wednesday, July 21st, 2010“The writer’s job is to tell the truth,” Ernest Hemingway once said. When he was having difficulty writing he reminded himself of this, as he explained in his memoirs, A Moveable Feast. “I would stand and look out over the roofs of Paris and think, ‘Do not worry. You have always written before and you will write now. All you have to do is write one true sentence. Write the truest sentence that you know.’ So finally I would write one true sentence, and then go on from there. It was easy then because there was always one true sentence that I knew or had seen or had heard someone say.”
— from Ernest Hemingway biography on PoetryFoundation.org
Forgiveness
Monday, June 14th, 2010
From “Saving CeeCee Honeycutt” by Beth Hoffman:
“Mrs. Odell once told me that forgiveness had a whole lot more to do with the person doing the forgiving than it did with the person in need of forgiveness. She said holding on to hurt and anger made about as much sense as hitting your head with a hammer and expecting the other person to get a headache. But too many years of resentment were swollen inside me, and I had no forgiveness to offer my dad.”
‘A story is a living thing’
Friday, May 21st, 2010
“What’s important is that a story changes every time you say it out loud. When you put it on paper, it can never change. But the more times you tell it, the more changes will occur. A story is a living thing; it moves and shifts.”
–Pat Conroy, “South of Broad”
Wrong community organizer
Thursday, April 1st, 2010“Obama is not a brown-skinned, anti-war socialist who gives away free health care.
You are thinking of Jesus.” — Episcopal Bishop Arizona
A bit o’ green for the day
Wednesday, March 17th, 2010
Books in Paris
Thursday, March 4th, 2010
The Guardian Book Blog visits the legendary Shakespeare and Company bookshop in Paris. Have a fun trip.
A Meditation on Trees
Monday, March 1st, 2010
At last, we say goodbye to the seemingly endless January and February and hello to March, the promise of spring to come. But before we welcome the verdant green that will be here in a few weeks, let’s pause to look around.
Take a look at a large tree. Have you ever noticed that, without leaves, the branches look just like the roots? It looks as if a giant hand had pulled the tree out of the ground whole, turned it upside-down, and shoved it back down in the ground, with the roots sticking out.
So, imagine that the “roots” you can see are trying to pull nutrients out of the air as roots pull them out of the soil. Can you imagine yourself mustering up your own energy and sending it to the tree, to feed it? Try it. Send it positive thoughts of strength, health, sunshine, love. And as soon as you do, I’ll bet the tree sends you more, right back. You may feel foolish at first, but eventually, I’ll bet it will make you smile.
We are all part of one energy force. Feed a tree.
Thank you to Lisa Scalfaro for the beautiful photograph.
Be happy!
Friday, February 26th, 2010
Today’s “One for the Books” column is “Don’t Worry; Be Happy!”
Eulogy for Robert B. Parker
Thursday, February 25th, 2010The Washington Post has posted the eulogy for the late Robert B. Parker (author of the Spenser novels) that was written and presented by his choreographer son, David. Just beautiful.
Help for writers
Friday, January 29th, 2010
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From FreelanceFolder: “20 Writing Mistakes That Make Any Freelancer Look Bad”
AND
Resources to Help You Improve Your Communication
Here are four great resources that can help you improve your writing:
- Grammar Girl Quick and Dirty Tips for Better Writing. Grammar Girl provides regular tips and podcasts to help improve your grammar.
- The Purdue Online Writing Lab. This is probably the best known of all the grammar sites. If you have an English usage question you’ll find the answer is here.
- Grammar Monster. This site contains interactive writing lessons and quizzes.
- Grammar Slammer. You’ll find some good snippets of information here.
Inspiring authors
Tuesday, December 29th, 2009The Web site Poets & Writers offers its list of 50 of the most inspiring authors in the world.
Merry Christmas!
Friday, December 25th, 2009
Have a Merry Christmas!
A healthier Christmas Eve
Thursday, December 24th, 2009The American people have been given a lovely Christmas present this morning. The U.S. Senate has voted to pass the health insurance reform measure, which will (eventually) make sure no one has to die from lack of health insurance or go broke or lose their home because someone in the family got sick. Thank you, senators, and God bless us, every one!
Another Christmas card
Wednesday, December 23rd, 2009
Click here
or on the envelope
for another
Christmas e-card.
Christmas card
Wednesday, December 23rd, 2009
Click here
or on the tree
for a
Merry Christmas
e-card.
12 Days of Christmas
Monday, December 14th, 2009
Do you know what the symbolism represents in the song “The 12 Days of Christmas”? Here’s one interpretation:
From 1558 until 1829, Roman Catholics in England were not permitted to practice their faith openly. Someone during that era wrote this carol as a catechism song for young Catholics. It has two levels of meaning: the surface meaning plus a hidden meaning known only to members of their church. Each element in the carol has a code word for a religious reality the children could remember.
- The partridge in a pear tree was Jesus Christ.
- Two turtle doves were the Old and New Testaments.
- Three French hens stood for faith, hope, and charity.
- The four calling birds were the four gospels of Matthew, Mark, Luke & John.
- The five golden rings recalled the Torah or Law, the first five books of the Old Testament.
- The six geese a-laying stood for the six days of creation.
- Seven swans a-swimming represented the sevenfold gifts of the Holy Spirit — Prophesy, Serving, Teaching, Exhortation, Contribution, Leadership, and Mercy.
- The eight maids a-milking were the eight beatitudes.
- Nine ladies dancing were the nine fruits of the Holy Spirit — Love, Joy, Peace, Patience, Kindness, Goodness, Faithfulness, Gentleness, and Self-Control.
- The ten lords a-leaping were the ten commandments.
- The eleven pipers piping stood for the eleven faithful disciples.
- The twelve drummers drumming symbolized the twelve points of belief in the Apostles’ Creed.
Happy Hanukkah!
Friday, December 11th, 2009
Hanukkah begins tonight.
I want to wish everyone a wonderful, glorious, blessed Hanukkah!
The science of reading?
Wednesday, December 9th, 2009
Fascinating. Alan Rinzler blogs about how your brain reacts when you read in “Lighting Up Your Reader’s Brain: Can Neuroscience Teach You to Be a Better Writer?”:
“… There’s scientific evidence that books really do turn on our brains. The brain’s response to the written word can be seen in scans using technology called Functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging (fMRI), that illuminate in bright lights and colors the increased flow of blood through synapses of the brain as we read. …”
Books and beauty too
Tuesday, December 8th, 2009
Here’s a photo tour of 20 of the world’s most beautiful libraries.
A Christmas story
Thursday, December 3rd, 2009The brand new pastor and his wife, newly assigned to their first ministry, to reopen a church in suburban Brooklyn, arrived in early October excited about their opportunities. When they saw their church, it was very rundown and needed much work. They set a goal to have everything done in time to have their first service on Christmas Eve.
They worked hard, repairing pews, plastering walls, painting, etc., and on December 18 they were ahead of schedule and just about finished. On December 19 a terrible tempest, a driving rainstorm, hit the area and lasted for two days.
On the 21st, the pastor went over to the church. His heart sank when he saw that the roof had leaked, causing a large area of plaster about 20 feet by 8 feet to fall off the front wall of the sanctuary just behind the pulpit, beginning about head high.
The pastor cleaned up the mess on the floor, and not knowing what else to do but postpone the Christmas Eve service, headed home.
On the way he noticed that a local business was having a flea market type sale for charity, so he stopped in. One of the items was a beautiful, handmade, ivory colored, crocheted tablecloth with exquisite work, fine colors and a cross embroidered right in the center. It was just the right size to cover up the hole in the front wall. He bought it and headed back to the church.
By this time it had started to snow. An older woman running from the opposite direction was trying to catch the bus. She missed it. The pastor invited her to wait in the warm church for the next bus 45 minutes later.
She sat in a pew and paid no attention to the pastor while he got a ladder, hangers, etc., to put up the tablecloth as a wall tapestry. The pastor could hardly believe how beautiful it looked and how it covered up the entire problem area.
Then he noticed the woman walking down the center aisle. Her face was like a sheet. “Pastor,” she asked, “where did you get that tablecloth?” The pastor explained. The woman asked him to check the lower right corner to see if the initials EBG were crocheted into it there. They were. These were the woman’s own initials, and she had made this tablecloth 35 years before, in Austria.
The woman could hardly believe it as the pastor told how he had just gotten the tablecloth. The woman explained that before the war she and her husband were well-to-do people in Austria. When the Nazis came, she was forced to leave. Her husband was going to follow her the next week. He was captured, sent to prison, and she never saw her husband or her home again.
The pastor wanted to give her the tablecloth, but she made the pastor keep it for the church. The pastor insisted on driving her home, saying that was the least he could do. She lived on the other side of Staten Island and was only in Brooklyn for the day for a housecleaning job.
W hat a wonderful service they had on Christmas Eve. The church was almost full. The music and the spirit were great. At the end of the service, the pastor and his wife greeted everyone at the door and many said that they would return.
One older man, whom the pastor recognized from the neighborhood, continued to sit in one of the pews and stare, and the pastor wondered why he wasn’t leaving.
The man asked him where he got the tablecloth on the front wall because it was identical to one that his wife had made years ago when they lived in Austria before the war; how could there be two tablecloths so much alike?
He told the pastor how the Nazis had come, how he forced his wife to flee for her safety and he was supposed to follow her, but he was arrested and put in prison. He never saw his wife or his home again, all the 35 years since then.
The pastor asked him if he would allow him to take him for a little ride. They drove to Staten Island and to the same house where the pastor had taken the woman three days earlier.
He helped the man climb the three flights of stairs to the woman’s apartment, knocked on the door and he saw the greatest Christmas reunion he could ever imagine.
True Story – submitted by Pastor Rob Reid
Happy Thanksgiving
Thursday, November 26th, 2009
Thanksgiving greetings!
May your stuffing be tasty.
May your turkey be plump.
May your potatoes and gravy have nary a lump.
May your pies take the prize.
May your Thanksgiving dinner stay off of your thighs!
Happy Thanksgiving to all!
‘Do all you can with what you have’
Thursday, November 19th, 2009
“Do all you can with what you have,
in the time you have,
in the place where you are.”
—Michael Kneale, 1942-2009
‘Poems have ideas’
Thursday, November 12th, 2009
“Langley used to bring back from the secondhand bookshops slim volumes of poetry and read from them as if poems were news.
Poems have ideas, he said.
The ideas of poems come out of their emotions and their emotions are carried on images.
That makes poems far more intersting than your novels, Homer.
Which are only stories.”
— from “Homer & Langley”
by E.L. Doctorow
How do you write?
Friday, November 6th, 2009In the Wall Street Journal, several prominent authors reveal some of their writing methods.
‘Prayerfulness’
Thursday, November 5th, 2009The National Catholic Reporter online reviews “Prayerfulness: Awakening to the Fullness of Life” by Robert J. Wicks