Best Blogs 2008
May 22, 2008
- Aside from a few discreetly placed signs, there is little to distinguish this old brown house from others in the neighborhood or proclaim its role in American literature. However, Concord’s Old Manse, former home to Ralph Waldo Emerson and Nathaniel Hawthorne and a large jewel in Concord’s crown of literary landmarks, is one of the many literary landmarks dotting the New England landscape. ...
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May 3, 2008
- As I writer, I’m fascinated by human motivation. Lately I’ve been really interested in how we respond to fear. A friend of mine said the other day, “sometimes you have to be the bad guy.” That struck a chord with me on several levels. No one wants to be the bad guy. Okay, maybe someone does, but mostly not so much. What makes a person the bad guy? Well, that’s not so easy to define. ...
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April 28, 2008
- Around 1986, I interned at the L.A. Weekly. This was pre-... well, pretty much pre-everything. Wednesday was layout day; the entire production crew was quarantined for the duration. Some of them were locked in a separate room of typesetting machines (you read that correctly) transcribing articles written on "type-writers" (these were loud and could not play MP3s) which were then spat ...
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April 22, 2008
- In the Shadow of His WingsToday I read the first negative review of my work. It struck me as a blow. Like some stranger had passed by and proclaimed my child ugly, unworthy to be born.I suppose I have been spoiled thus far in my journey as an author, as it was the first to wound me so. I found myself questioning everything, even my heart’s cry to proclaim the love of God as I pour all I have ...
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April 22, 2008
- For those of you who tune in regularly to hear me read my Caffeinated Ponderings essays, thank you, and I hope you’ll bear with me with this one. While I normally ponder that which is light and, hopefully, entertaining, this piece comes straight from my heart, from my soul, and from my blasted tear ducts. It occurred to me to write this essay when I saw my oldest daughter had checked out ...
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April 6, 2008
- Hi all, I'm a little behind in blogs, I've gotten sidetracked helping out on the film "In The Pines". It was a really interesting experiance and I even got to be a corpse! So look for that in DVD stores soon. I wanted to reprint an out of print story I did some years ago, first published in Shooting Star Comics Anthology #6, written by me and drawn by Nat Jones (of Spawn: The Dark ...
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April 1, 2008
- As we kick off national autism awareness month, I'm out doing my part. I wrote a short essay for CNN's I Report that you can read here: http://www.ireport.com/docs/DOC-7427I'm out there talking about autism, Asperger's, neurological differences, and making it in the world. I've got a bunch of speaking engagements in schools this month.Some of the schools I visit focus on kids with neurological ...
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March 24, 2008
- "Listen to people's stories and they could all be entitled, 'Why I Cannot Be At Peace Now.'" This is a quote from the philosopher Eckhart Tolle's non-fiction book A New Earth.I was driving on the Highway 880 at 10:30 at night listening to Tolle's book on CD.I thought: this is the essential dramatic question.I also thought about how nervous I was, I was not at peace, especially with the ...
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March 7, 2008
- As writers continue to write, a national literary crises looms and no one seems to be paying it much attention. Libraries are in big trouble. As city and county budgets across the country tighten, libraries and other cultural departments, including museums and recreation, are among the first to feel the pinch.The San Francisco Chronicle carried a front page story February 21 with the headline: ...
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February 20, 2008
- In what Harken House Publisher Sylvia Wiseword says is "a natural evoution," human authors will be phased out of the book-production process nearly entirely by 2010."Although naturally, this is a stressful period for some, it was really the natural evolution of narrative production," Wiseword said Monday. "Since the advent of computer programs such as Final Cut and Sense ...
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