writing

Of Bootstraps, Climbing and The Eye…

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“Every piece of writing is a bootstrap affair whereby you use the crisis of the next sentence to get to the one beyond.”

–Kris Saknussemm ( Write what you know–and be sorry) The Writer Magazine May 2010, author of the novels, Private Midnight and Zanesville

The word bootstrap usually conjures ideas of a man-child walking in the snow for miles on his way to school, alone and persevering against the elements.

How many times have we heard a parent or grandparent extol how the challenges he endured as a child made him the adult he presently is?

Many jokes center on the extrapolation of one’s difficulties that either did not exist to the degree described or simply sprang from tales spun to inspire awe and respect.

And yet writer, Kris Saknussemm aphorism touches on an all too apparent truth that many of us writers miss or choose to avoid.

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Of Terry Brooks, Magic, and The Writer vs. The Author…

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“There are writers and there are authors. Writers seek to write, and they seek to write better and better with every book. Authors seek only to be published, and they seek advances to match their egos.”

–Elizabeth George in Sometimes the Magic Works: Lessons from a Writing Life by Terry Brooks.

Elizabeth George offers this word of advice on the third page of the Introduction in Terry Brooks’ book on the craft of writing. That is what Brooks focuses upon in the tightly written book of 197 pages Sometimes the Magic Works: Lessons from a Writing Life. Clearly his words have left an impression on me. This is my third blog on his book and I’ve yet to finish it.

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Writing, Transformation, and The Unadulterated Truth…

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Of how Nella’s Down’s Syndrome has changed her, Kelle Hampton writes, “I’ve learned how “pain” shapes you as a person and propels you to new depths and how “perfection” is not the glossy magazine cover that Hollywood portrays. I’m learning to shed off the shallow parts of my character I’ve adopted over the years and replace them with love and appreciation for real, painful, beautiful life.”

I can’t say that I have mastered the ability to write to my core in such an eloquent way.

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Of Blogging, “Motherwit Four,” and Generosity…

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Of the mother wit and wisdom in her writing Angelia Menchan says, “My mother was 30 years old before she decided to have children. I had these old women around me. My grandmother and then godmother lived to be 102. I was one of those old souls at a very young age. You know that story about the girl born with the veil over her face that would be me. And I just kind of tossed that over my shoulder. On August 9, 2010 I’m publishing an anthology of stories called, “Motherwit Four,” in honor of my mother.”

Author, Angelia Menchan, discusses “Ramblings,” “Schae’s Story,” “Is No Not Clear Enough for You?” and her recent novel, “Mrs. Black”.

She has also published an anthology, Women’s Writes, co-authored with Jennifer Coissiere, Darnetta Frazier, and Shaneika Ferguson.

Visit Angelia’s blogs, Angelia Vernon Menchan, Write or Die Woman, and Angel08.

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Men, Women and The Taboo of Love and Romance in Marriage…

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Author, poet, novelist, and writing teacher, David Mura states: “Identifying what compels you to write, reveals the reason we are driven to write each or our works.”

To complicate things, I find that not only is the reason that I write multi-faceted, it also evolves and shifts at various intervals in my life.

I initially began to write because I wanted to read stories of characters with whom I could identify with by culture and race.

On a deeper level, I wanted to read about characters who shared not only my race and culture as an African American woman of the American South, but of a middle class background, who in many ways could appear quite Waspish, but was not.

Men, Women and The Taboo of Love and Romance in Marriage… Read More »

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