A Single Layer

on all hallow’s eve when the spirits of saints rise with a whisper and a rap on your door, we gather, we children who are not afraid, we gather  to send them all home. we send them all home  with fire and song, we send them all home with dancing.

A week ago I went to an open mic night at a local coffeeshop with a friend of mine. She sang along with a dozen or more other performers for about three hours, and I listened. The mic was open for poetry as well - or "spoken word," as it's apparently called now - but I didn't have anything with me, and I wasn't really in the mood to get up on stage. Sometimes developing your creativity requires stepping back and listening. Setting aside the urge to be heard, and opening your own ears. This is why the most oft repeated rule for writers is "read more." Because you do not develop an ear or an eye for your own work if you do not exercise that same ear and eye with other people's works.  I learned a few things last week. First, that it's a good thing to cheer loudly for everyone, whether they were any good or not. At the very least, you are cheering on their bravery. Second, that imitation really is an excellent starting point for any work (t

1. Stop measuring your work by word or page count. Write until you've said something and said it well. 2. Study grammar in your spare time. Put down the Sunday morning crossword and start diagramming sentences. 3. Only steal ideas from the Greeks. 4. Write with a fine pen on beautiful paper. Your words will be better. Guaranteed. 5. Don't sacrifice good storytelling for accuracy. Unless you're writing non-fiction, of course. 6. There are few books ( The Idiot , the Bible) that can get away with a protagonist who has no flaws. Your book probably isn't one of them. 7. There is no substitute for reading a good book. If you write but do not read, you're doing something wrong. 8. Be nice to people. 9. If everyone followed the rule "write what you know," our libraries would be very small indeed. 10. Every writer starts with people-watching. 11. Be careful pulling stories from your past. You may begin to confuse your memories with your manusc

Vaguely considering compiling Advent-related poetry here as we approach that season. Thoughts?

Designed  by Tim Easley .

Here's a slight derivation from the norm... I've been thinking lately what a pity it is that caring for the environment is so often associated with political inclination. There's nothing inherently politically liberal about wanting nature to be right and healthy, yet we frequently assume there's some necessary connection between preferring big government and collecting reusable shopping bags. I prefer small government because I love communities. And I believe that change begins on a local level, because you have to change a culture to change behavior. Also, I'm stubborn. I'd rather my neighbor and I partnered together to clean the streets than have someone in a city on the other side of the country telling me I have to. The danger for me is in assuming that because I prefer small government, I shouldn't care for all the causes the big government people care about. Saving the whales and lowering carbon emissions isn't actually just for democrats.