And The Same Goes For Blogs / Posts

The only important thing in a book is the meaning that it has for you.
––    W. Somerset Maugham
.
On This Day In:
2019	Not Enough
2018	One Thing We Do Know
2017	Preservation
2016	Going Back
2015	Just For Today
2014	Reaching For Destiny
2013	Still Just Passing Through
2012	Live Or Die
2011	On Secession
2010	A Rocky Weekend

Read Full Post »

Insensitive To Silence

Writing engenders in us certain attitudes toward language.  It encourages us to take words for granted.  Writing has enabled us to store vast quantities of words indefinitely.  This is advantageous on the one hand but dangerous on the other.  The result is that we have developed a kind of false security where language is concerned, and our sensitivity to language has deteriorated.  And we have become in proportion insensitive to silence.
—   N. Scott Momaday
.
On This Day In:
2019	Don’t Be Small
2018	Persistence
2017	Are You A Loser?
2016	Constitution And Conscience
2015	Separate, Fearful And Imprisoned
2014	Something Worth Making
2013	Absolutely
2012	Can Do
2011	Wise Criticism

Read Full Post »

Why Are So Many Of My Posts Simply Quotes?

Why need I volumes, if one word suffice?
—  Ralph Waldo Emerson
[Usually, because their authors are so much better writers than I am.  But I do keep trying…  No matter how problematic it is for you to read my original thoughts.  LoL   —  KMAB]
.
On This Day In:
2019	Two Books
2018	Prime Example = #45
2017	Building On
2016	Dueling Heroes
2015	Remarkable Creations
2014	Measured Faith
2013	April Fool, n.
2012	Faith, Ego And Patriotism
	As It Happens
2011	What Counts

Read Full Post »

Write For Yourself

Better to write for yourself and have no public, than to write for the public and have no self.
–  Cyril Connolly
.
On This Day In:
2019	I’m Actively Irresponsible
2018	I Will Love You… Forever
2017	Pebbles In Your Shoe?
2016	Resolute Will
2015	Absorbed And Civilized
2014	Relax And Lead
2013	Location, Location, Location
2012	Are You Really Good?
2011	Relatively Objective, Anyway

Read Full Post »

I Think I’ve Just Been Argoted

Every human pastime — music, cooking, sports, art, theoretical physics — develops an argot to spare its enthusiasts from having to say or type a long-winded description every time they refer to a familiar concept in each other’s company.  The problem is that as we become proficient at our job or hobby we come to use these catchwords so often that they flow out of our fingers automatically, and we forget that our readers may not be members of the clubhouse in which we learned them.
—  Steven Pinker
[Apologies to all you linguists out there.  I believe I just turned a noun into a verb.  —  KMAB]
.
On This Day In:
2018	Good-Bye AG Jeff Sessions
2017	On Our Wall (Part 2)
2016	I Beg The Question
2015	By Their Fruit
2014	Proven Worth
2013	From Missouri
2012	Recipe To Write: Start With One Aching Urge
2011	Ip And Rib
	Real Things
2010	Final Competition

Read Full Post »

In All Its Messy Complexity

Writers tend to fare badly under autocrats.  Dictators understand very well that the strength of thought and analysis that literature embodies is a threat to the mind control that is an essential feature of tyranny.  In countries like China, Russia, Turkey, Myanmar and Bangladesh, writers are routinely jailed or killed for creating work their governments find threatening.  For American writers, the reality of such scrutiny and peril can be hard to fathom.  We need to write now, write well — tell the truth in all its messy complexity.  It’s our best shot at helping to preserve a democracy in which facts still exist and all of us can speak freely.
—  Jennifer Egan
From her opinion piece / editorial: “Facts Still Exist“
Appearing in: Time Magazine
dtd: 24 Dec / 31 Dec, 2018  (Person of the Year, double issue)
It also appears online at:  http://time.com/5475490/writers-truth-democracy-jennifer-egan/
.
On This Day In:
2018	Danger = Opportunity
2017	True And Great
	Sand At The Beach
2016	There Is A Difference Between Dangerous And Frightening
2015	Always A Goal
2014	Standing Strong
2013	Shaken And Stirred
	The Bird With The Broken Wing
2012	Friends In High Places
2011	Objective Independence

Read Full Post »

Let Us Dare

The true source of our suffering has been our timidity.  We have been afraid to think.   . . . .   Let us dare to read, think, speak and write.
—  President John Adams
.
On This Day In:
2017	Two Good To Be Real
	Secrets
2016	Learning Subtle Differences
2015	Dog Eat Dog World?
2014	And Sometimes Blogs About It
2013	Outside-In
2012	They Are All Perfect
2011	Delegation – The “How-To’s”
2009	Diet Update and Other Bits & Bobs…

Read Full Post »

And Blog Posts, Too

One always has a better book in one’s mind than one can manage to get onto paper.
––  Michael Cunningham
.
On This Day In:
2017	Just Doin’ It
2016	Definitely Not Bell Shaped
2015	Dreadful Pity
2014	Worse Than Useless
2013	Personal Prisons
2012	So, Not Yet Then
2011	Real Love

Read Full Post »

Not Sure Anyway…

We are writers, and we never ask one another where we get our ideas; we know we don’t know.
—  Stephen King
From his book:  “On Writing: A Memoir of the Craft“
.
On This Day In:
2017	Forms Of Conservation
2016	Oh, So Lacking
2015	e pluribus unum
2014	Nothing So Far Removed
2013	Positions
2012	Two Errors
2011	Long Live The King!

Read Full Post »

Tic-Toc

Having imagination it takes you an hour to write a paragraph that if you were unimaginative would take you only a minute.
—  Franklin Pierce Adams
[Maybe procrastination has a little bit to do with it, too.  —  KMAB]
.
On This Day In:
2017	Explaining Working Class Support For Donald
2016	Not In My Experience
2015	Effort
2014	Honest Wants
2013	Faith, n.
2012	Surprise Me
2011	Confused With Truth

Read Full Post »

Daydreams And Wanna-Be’s

“On Writing: A Memoir of the Craft” (2000©)  —  book review
Who hasn’t day-dreamed of writing the “great American novel” and becoming wealthy and celebrated?  Okay, maybe not me in over 40 years, but still…
Today’s book review is for “On Writing“, by Stephen King.  Yes, that Stephen King.  The horror novelist / writer.  Well, actually, he does write in other genres, too, but that’s the one I know him for.  This book came recommended to me by various sources – some “best of” lists and also a couple of blogs / sites I follow.  I found it on sale for $3 at my local Half-Price Books store, so I snatched it up.
The book is basically a three-part tome: King’s life leading up to writing, how to write well, and finally, advice on life and how to get started getting your writing published.  Part one is extremely interesting and amusing.  I got several belly laughs out of it.  Part two is mundane, yet (probably) useful.  I have already begun applying some of King’s suggestions in my own writing here on this blog.  Part three will probably be useful if I ever (again) imagine myself sitting down to write the great American novel or autobiography.  One of King’s recommendations is to write about what you know.  I’m afraid the only thing I know the most about is me.  (Sad, but true.)
So, final recommendation: very highly recommended!  Is this the finest book I’ve ever read on being a writer.  Yes!  With the qualification it is also the only book I’ve ever read on being a writer.  Having said that, it is a fast read at less than 300 pages and I found it enjoyable and informative.  And, of course, multiple quotes will appear on this blog in the future…
One last mention: King recommends all wanna-be writers start off by reading Strunk & White’s “The Elements of Style“.  (According to part 1 in the book, King is a former high school English teacher.  Go, figure.)  Fortunately, for cheapskates like me, the book (“Elements“) is out of copyright and you can find it in pdf format at multiple locations on the web.  At fewer than 30 pages, it should also be a quick read.  The book cover on Amazon looks very familiar, so maybe King’s book is the second book I’ve read on writing.  LOL…  I probably read “Elements” in high school and blotted the contents out of my memory.
.
On This Day In:
2017	Summer Pale
2016	Ain’t It Funny
2015	At Both Ends
2014	Whiner(s)
2013	Just Passing Through
2012	Dog-gone Heaven
2011	Occasional, Sad Results

Read Full Post »

Start Typing

If there is a book that you want to read, but it hasn’t been written yet, you must be the one to write it.
–  Toni Morrison
.
On This Day In:
2016	Just Saying (Nothing)
	Thought Of You
	Saldaga (“As I’ve Lived”)
2015	A Terrifying Cycle
2014	Rights
2013	Do Bold Things
2012	Seven Causes
2011	I Feel A Tingle Coming On

Read Full Post »

Garden Dreaming

if i fall asleep with a pen in my hand, don’t remove it — i might be writing in my dreams.
—  Terri Guillemetsqe
[Found at:  I Didn’t Have My Glasses On  at  http://ididnthavemyglasseson.com
The specific link: http://ididnthavemyglasseson.com/2017/07/01/magical-writing/
… and thanks for introducing me to Terri’s site:  The Quote Garden  —  KMAB]
.
On This Day In:
2016	Well, Maybe Not “No” Talent
2015	An Appetite For Life
	A Trip To The Library
	Great Expectations
2014	Pass The Soul
2013	Zapping Music And Art
2012	Not Quite Fantastic
	That Kid Is Back
2011	Wolves At The Door
2010	I’m Feeling Patriotic… (Well, more than usual, anyway.)
	Beating the Heat…

Read Full Post »

How Long Is A Piece Of String?

For to know a man’s library is, in some measure, to know his mind.
—  Geraldine Brooks
[Read any books lately?  I would argue the same is true for a person’s blog…   Have you written / read any blogs lately?   —  KMAB]
.
On This Day In:
2014	Heathen, n.
2013	Wisdom’s Folly
2012	When The Student Is Ready
	Disconnected Leadership
2011	The Complex Richness Of Life

Read Full Post »

I Hear Voices

One glance at (a book) and you hear the voice of another person – perhaps someone dead for thousands of years.  Across the millennia, the author is speaking, clearly and silently, inside your head, directly to you.  Writing is perhaps the greatest of human inventions, binding together people, citizens of distant epochs, who never knew one another.  Books break the shackles of time.
—  Carl Sagan
Found on the site: THINKING SCI-FI
Located at:  http://thinkingscifi.wordpress.com/
The specific post is:  http://thinkingscifi.wordpress.com/2014/03/06/cosmos-revisited/
.
On This Day In:
2013	Ethics And Standards
2012	Swing Higher
2011	Convicted For Life

Read Full Post »