“When the Muse comes She doesn’t tell you to write; / She says get up for a minute, I’ve something to show you, stand here.” –Michael Goldman In a previous post I commented on my struggle to read Annie Dillard’s Pilgrim at Tinker Creek. The Blackstone Audio edition of Pilgrim, narrated by Tavia Gilbert, transformed my […] (Read more)
I began journaling 30 years ago. To give my journal a focus, I created an imaginary alter ego to whom I bared my soul. I began blogging seven years ago without knowing to whom I was writing or why. I wrote whatever came to mind and posted it. I don’t promote a product or a service. […] (Read more)
My online life began in late 2006. The rationale behind an online existence was to create a space to share aspects of my life with family and friends through writing supplemented with photographs. With the help of a professional web designer, I built a web site. The web site design was beautiful and functioned exactly as I wanted. […] (Read more)
How I Read I love to hold a book. I love the weight of a book and the texture of the pages as I turn them. Depending on where and how it’s been stored, a book can have a unique smell. A comfortable chair, a good reading light, a lovely cup of tea, and a […] (Read more)
What I Read “Have you read…?” is a question I ask often. If the answer is “No,” I say something I liked about the book. “It’s a beautiful story. I thought how much you would enjoy it.” I don’t mind being asked “Have you read…?” when the question is asked out of curiosity. What I […] (Read more)
Why I Read Mark Twain observed that “the [one] who does not read has no advantage over the [one] who cannot read. Reading is important. For writers, reading is essential. “If you don’t have time to read,” says Stephen King, “you don’t have the time—or the tools—to write.” In a recent blog post, writer Delia Latham […] (Read more)
The water from our well smelled like rotten eggs and tasted terrible. We bought bottled water for drinking and cooking. Bottled water was delivered once a week in five gallon glass bottles that we put on a ceramic water crock dispenser. In 1968, two five gallon bottles cost a little over two dollars a week. […] (Read more)
In photography, composition is everything. Good composition means an identifiable subject and background, balance, point of view, and simplicity. It takes time to frame a shot that meets my criteria for good composition. Sometimes I have good results and sometimes not so good. Sometimes I am surprised. I used to be surprised. When I shot […] (Read more)
My grandmother gave me a copy of Frances Hodgson Burnett’s Little Lord Fauntleroy.It was a sunny May afternoon in Sacramento several days before my tenth birthday. Gramma could never wait for the actual day. If she had a gift to give, she had to give it. We were on the front porch of her house […] (Read more)
In Woody Allen’s film, Midnight in Paris, Gil has a fantasy about being transported back in time to Paris in the 1920s. Call me Gil. My Paris fantasy began with reading Hemingway’s A Moveable Feast in 1965. NPR’s “All Things Considered” was my favorite news program when I was on sabbatical at the University of Southern […] (Read more)