“ALL CHANGES, EVEN THE MOST LONGED FOR, HAVE THEIR MELANCHOLY; FOR WHAT WE LEAVE BEHIND US IS A PART OF OURSELVES; WE MUST DIE TO ONE LIFE BEFORE WE CAN ENTER ANOTHER.” —ANATOLE FRANCE
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The Thrills of Real Life
Last night I had the chance to hear director Doug Liman speak at the Santa Fe premiere of FAIR GAME, a riveting feature film based on two books: FAIR GAME by former CIA operative Valerie Plame Wilson and THE POLITICS OF TRUTH by Ambassador Joe Wilson. During a Q&A session, Liman (who also directed the film The Bourne Identity) spoke on the evolution of the original film script to the final story, focusing on the relationship between Valerie Plame Wilson–outed as a CIA NOC during the Bush administration’s countdown to the invasion of Iraq in 2003–and her husband Ambassador Joe …
THOUGHTS ON CREATIVITY AS THE YEAR TURNS
“The role of the writer is not to say what we all can say, but what we are unable to say.” ~Anais Nin “I’m a terrible cook, but if I could cook, I would see that as art as well, it’s how much creative energy you put into something.” ~Tracey Emin “Write while the heat is in you. The writer who postpones the recording of his thoughts uses an iron which as cooled to burn a hole with. He cannot inflame the minds of his audience.” ~Henry David Thoreau “If there is a book you really want to read, but …
TECHNICALLY CHALLENGED
For the past three weeks I’ve been dealing with a series of tech issues that directly effect my ability to communicate with friends around the world. It seemed to begin with my computer’s logic board, now replaced. Then a lightning strike. Surge protectors handled the worst of that, but then they “died” taking the battery back-ups with them. Once they were replaced, along with a router, I had to replace my wireless phone because of a megaherz conflict. My mail disappeared and reappeared. And then the web server that hosts my domain died for 36 hours. Enough whining… The lessons …
Today’s Quote on Writing Memoir-I Then, I Now
Two quotes today, both from Thomas Larson’s wonderful book The Memoir and the Memoirist: Reading & Writing Personal Narrative: “It feels natural to see the remembered self as a character who has an independent life, chooses for himself, indulges free will. But memoirists avoid such self-casting. The memoir writer does not situate himself in a recreated world as though he were a literary character. What the memoirist does is connect the past self to–and within–the present writer as the means of getting at the truth of his identity.” “For such emotionally intense memoirs we need emotionally revealing memoirists, authors who …
10 Things I know about writing (not in order of importance)
Continued with 6 -10 6) I know great things will happen if you write in the morning—or in the virtual morning. Morning is the time for fishermen, birders, bakers, and writers. Those few minutes before your normal wake-up time, are great for catching fresh ideas. That’s the time when you’re least likely to think logically and most likely to let yourself be wild and surprising. Begin while you’re still asleep and when you can hardly form a cohesive thought much less worry about writing well. Write lying down with eyes closed. If you’re really bold, try your keyboard before your …
Welcome!
This is it, my first day on the blog. As a writer, I’m always beginning–new stories, new drafts, new novels. Beginnings are exciting. They are filled with promise. At first glance, beginnings may seem to be free of the burden of commitment. Anything is possible, isn’t it? And yet, as a storyteller, a novelist, I know that each beginning contains the whisper of its ending–just as each ending circles back to its beginning. This is where I write about writing–beginning, ending, and everything in between–and books, and creativity, and one writer’s life. This blog is meant for writers, readers, those …