Newsletter

Newsletter

We All Are Constant Comets

We All Are Constant Comets

A bronze statue of author Jack London in a vigorous pose juts up at Jack London Square (well, where else would it be?) in Oakland CA. It bears a plaque that bears a quote from Jack that bears repeating.

read more
How to Build Your Process

How to Build Your Process

If writers were awarded a nickel every time they were asked, “So, what’s your process?”, they could probably retire to a lovely Greek isle and never need to scribble another line in their lives.

read more
An Analog Man Logs In

An Analog Man Logs In

My early childhood was haunted by a nightmare in which skin on my body progressively thickened till it turned as dense as crocodile hide. Every sensation then proceeded to disappear—I could no longer feel a thing.

read more
On All Parades Some Rain Must Fall

On All Parades Some Rain Must Fall

It’s no use trying to divide life into good and bad parts, into the painful and the pleasurable, or—more palpably—into the stuff you prefer to accept versus that other crap which you feel must be shunned at all costs.

read more
An Open Road is a Blank Slate

An Open Road is a Blank Slate

All clichés about U.S. pavement bard Jack Kerouac aside, chasing life along America’s roadways does provide a fine chance to get some good writing done.

read more
Agency in Shakespeare’s “Romeo & Juliet”

Agency in Shakespeare’s “Romeo & Juliet”

The main thing those two crazy kids in Verona just absolutely had to have was a fair chance to find true love. But they got stymied by their crude, violent, chaotic city. Verona seems, “A town without pity…” as an ol’ American pop tune spins it.

read more
Keep Our Indy Bookstores Alive

Keep Our Indy Bookstores Alive

Christie Olson Day believes if we can bond with books and bookstores as kids, we’ll blaze a trail to a wellspring of stories that can sustain and nurture us throughout life.

read more
Learn to Untie the Tongue

Learn to Untie the Tongue

Maybe you’ve heard a bon mot like this: “The secret to public speaking is sincerity. Once you can fake that, the rest is easy.”

read more
Film’s Tremendous Tug on Storytelling

Film’s Tremendous Tug on Storytelling

A century-plus of humans viewing cinema has forever altered the ways in which we all perceive and receive our stories. Consequently, that century ought to show some effect on how we craft our stories, too.

read more