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Write. Think. Learn.

My wonderful sister-in-law alerted me to a Q and A from November 3, 2006 Aspen Institute with David McCullough here.  When I heard these words, I stopped what I was doing and transcribed his spoken...

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Notes of Condolences

“What should I say?” Don’t we all have a hollow stomach when it comes time to write a note or make a phone call to a friend who has experienced the death of a loved one?  It is awkward and difficult...

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One Paragraph, Eight Hours

  Move over, David McCullough.  Make room for another Pulitzer Prize winner, Barbara Tuchman, to stand next to you on the pedestal of my high esteem.  Folks, I have found an  Important New Author....

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Best Of

I picked up a book and learned enough HTML on Saturday to add a little module on the side called Best Of.  I put  links to my favorite posts there.  When I’m new to a blog, I appreciate reading the...

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Six-Word Story

Have you heard of the six-word story? Ernest Hemingway’s is the most famous:For sale: baby shoes, never worn.The distillation process intrigues me.Because all that is not written captures the essence....

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What Fascinates You?

  What I decided to do was to sit down and, very quickly, make a list of things that I most liked in other people’s fiction — these could be thematic, character driven, very general or very specific. I...

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Zinsser on Friday

Zinsser on Friday is a sweet reward for waking up on Friday. What is Zinsser on Friday? A weekly posting about writing, the arts, and popular culture by William Zinsser, author of On Writing Well,...

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Celebrating a Simple Conversation

Because I see my doctor once a year, more or less, I was surprised that she remembered me. “You are a writer, aren’t you?” was her cheerful greeting.  Of course, I was *writing* in my journal as she...

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Murder Your Darlings

  I’m reading and thoroughly enjoying, in dribs and drabs, Alphabet Juice: The Energies, Gists, and Spirits of Letters, Words, and Combinations Thereof; Their Roots, Bones, Innards, Piths, Pips, and...

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What’s on Your Nightstand, March 24

Although I love the concept of What’s on Your Nightstand, a monthly overview of one’s reading, I have only participated a few times. In a rare and wonderful synchronicity, I  deep cleaned my nightstand...

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Reviving A Comatose Pencil

Curt and I, young and pre-children, had moved and were getting to know our new pastor at our new church in our new city. We explained that we’d loved to involve ourselves, but were burned-out and...

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Quotes I Copied in 2016

From this year’s journal, for the patient and curious reader: GPS sets us in the center of the map and then makes the world circulate around us. In this miniature parody of the pre-Copernican universe…...

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