Writing process
Waiting…sometimes patiently
The author, waiting (photo by Ron Davis) If you’re anything like me, you spend a good deal of your life waiting, watching, squinting your eyes toward the horizon, pacing, jingling the coins in your pocket, taping your foot, drumming your fingernails on the tabletop, wondering if maybe, just maybe that speck out there is the…
Read MoreDavid Blackwood dreams…. a Newfoundland history
When I was in Newfoundland recently I came upon a book of David Blackwood prints. I’ve been a fan of Blackwood’s work for a long time. His images of whales in black, impossibly deep waters and men in impossibly small dories next to icebergs the size of skyscrapers; veiled mummers and steadfast grandmothers; lost ships,…
Read MoreThat's some good place…
The lonely, perfect beach at the end of Skerwink Trail, Newfoundland (photo: Ron Davis) As I’ve doubtless said before, I am drawn to the wild and windswept places in the world, and few spots fit the bill like Newfoundland where The Best Beloved and I recently spent a holiday. Twenty-two years ago, when he and…
Read MoreShiny things
A magpie with stolen treasure (illustration by Scott McKowen) The sub-heading of this blog is: “the semi-regular musings of a literary magpie who is easily distracted by bright shiny things.” Perhaps a variation of that ought to be my epitaph. (Much better than “Don’t Try!” which was Charles Bukowski’s.) The truth of it is that…
Read MoreVery Superstitious
The Fearless One! I don’t think of myself as an overly superstitious person. I walk under ladders, although I do check first to see if there’s a can of yellow paint hovering over me. I don’t mind black cats walking in front of my path, although I admit I do get the feeling sometimes that…
Read MoreTwelve Steps for Writers
Last week I wrote about how both people wishing to stay sober, and people wishing to be writers had more than one thing in common. I also said I’d give some thought as to what the 12-steps for Writers might look like. Here we go – please feel free to keep your sense of humor…
Read MoreDiscipline — for writers and drunks
As a writer, I have learned the benefit of regular habits. Although I realize some writers only scurry to the typewriter (oh, how I date myself!) when the inspiration strikes them, I am in agreements with March Heaton Vorse, who said, “The art of writing is the art of applying the seat of the pants…
Read MoreThe outline of a writer's day…
There’s an interesting website that give a wee bit of insight into “how writers, artists, and other interesting people organize their days,” called DAILY ROUTINES. My friend, poet and novelist Lisa Pasold (who’s first novel will be out this fall — look for it!), told me recently that Philip Roth was downright monastic in his…
Read MoreThe effect of real and imagined landscapes
I read an interesting article recently in the Boston Globe by Jonah Lehrer, in which the author explores recent studies into how living in cities can hurt your brain. I forwarded it to my Best Beloved, with “I told you so” in the subject line. In Lehrer’s article, he acknowledges that cities have historically been…
Read MoreSharing the creative journey
Yesterday I sat in a little office in Trinity Church, Princeton. It has cream walls and book shelves a sort of subdued jade, and a mullioned window looks out over the old cemetery, where the bone-grey tilting stones, more than a few graced with a Celtic cross, mark the graves of churchgoers dating back to…
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