January 27, 2005 – 8:57 am
Susan Gibb is putting up course notes in an alternative space called Learning to Spin. She will provide us a good example of using the technology as a focused learning space.
January 12, 2005 – 11:24 pm
A nice, small, and fun gathering with the narratives group tonight. It was a great cap to John’s demos of Deus Ex and Medal of Honor. Thanks, John.
Good to see Josh, Kasandra, Neha, Susan, Barbara, and John around the table.
At the narratives meeting, we read some great work, had nice conversation, and missed our [...]
November 22, 2004 – 9:21 pm
The master and his translator at work on two visions of time and space
But what lay beneath us was even worse than the products of the shade. Under the water great riddled leaves waved like dominoes of ocher velvet, lures and traps. On the surface floated clusters of dirty bubbles, varnished over by reddish pollen, [...]
November 21, 2004 – 12:24 pm
A few comments on “Indian Rain,” a poem in progress by Neha Bawa. At a recent writing group, we had a nice dicussion of Neha’s poem. What stood out to me was the underlying image “for” longing in the piece, brought home by the final line, which is:
Someday I will be home again.
Home in the [...]
November 17, 2004 – 5:26 pm
In fiction writing, we never know when an idea will come or what’s waiting “around the corner,” as Tobias Wolff examines:
I was on a bus to Washington, D.C. Two days I’d been travelling and I was tired, tired, tired. The woman sitting next to me, a German with a ticket good for anywhere, never [...]
October 2, 2004 – 10:12 pm
Everyone knows that breathing is important, but can reciting poetry increase health? Of course. From October Scientific American
Cardiovascular and respiratory responses are not normally in sync. Rhythmic fluctuations in blood pressure take place naturally in 10-second-long cycles known as Mayer waves, whereas spntaneous breathing normally occurs at a rate of approximately 15 breaths per minute.
Dirk [...]
October 1, 2004 – 1:13 pm
Last night’s narratives meeting was a smash hit in terms of workshop and gathering. We had nice numbers and a good planning session. We miss those who weren’t able to make it and those who are at a distance. Hopefully, some of the regulars can get back into the action and that schedules come together. [...]
September 17, 2004 – 5:53 pm
Over at Wanderlust Neha is struggling with the third stanza, which is cut and pasted thusly:
Drops of silver on soft white flesh
like sparking diamonds under a golden sun
rolling down twisty branches, weary of weight
carried through endless nights and endless days
Onto quivering hidden lips
waiting to sprout green once again.
I’m sort of partial to an “oval” diamond [...]
August 4, 2004 – 11:43 pm
I had a great time at Narratives. Good food, good talk, good friends. And we’ll be missing one of our members as she moves on to other hopefully fulfilling enterprises. We had a discussion in the midst of which I had to leave about publishing issues. Aside from the process, the subject got me [...]
This is just really tight and “up,” if you know what I mean. As in this cluster:
Rarer still, this sudden ache for brush and paint and paper when the popcorn puffs and lines and swirls go by. Cluster clouds are best for finding faces, gargoyles easiest of all because they lend themselves to all the [...]
How to write a novel:
Invent a person you want to spend three years with then spend three years with them in language.
In this scenario of the novel, the invented persona better be interesting. They must hold your attention. They have to have a few things:
1. Memory (history: history is just numerous kinds of memory)
2. A [...]
So, the festival is completed. Ernie Dorling had some nice grit and a strong messages about truth in non-fiction. Colin McEnroe gave a splendid talk on memoir with engaging and sincere discussion, and Professors Hamilton, Brown, and Abbot gave each excellent presentations on query letters, newspaper writing, and poetry. I left Abbot with considerations [...]
April 27, 2004 – 10:28 pm
The writer’s festival put together by Neha and the gang (Susan and other Narratives helpfuls) is going quite smartly. If Jerz or anyone else from SH read this then I urge you to put Ms. Bawa to good work, whatever the smoking policy. She’s a great organizer, has lots of potential as a writer and [...]
March 31, 2004 – 12:09 am
What is it about Mark Twain? That’s a rhetorical question. In my understanding, Clemens, the writer was always willing to include himself among the “rabble,” about whom we spoke a lot in British Literature, and the duped. Consider this passage from “Does the Race of Man Love a Lord?” first published in North American Review [...]
My wife and I finally got around to some of the comment features on Babylon 5 DVDs, a few interesting discussions of the making and other background. J. Michael Straczynski, the force behind Babylon 5, had a few criteria on character issues that are simple and foundational:
1. What does the character want?
2. How much do [...]
