Books… How Do I Know? 6 Jun 2011 A friend asked today, "How do I know if anyone wants to read what I'm going to write?" Great question! Here are my first three thoughts about that: 1) You…
Caring… Record of Settlement 4 Jun 20113 Jun 2011 Icelander Baldur Hedinsson can trace his lineage to 1075; that's how complete the Icelandic records are. It's a culture based on reading through the dark winters and they wrote, too. (Oh,…
Books… Rhyme Time 2 Jun 20112 Jun 2011 Children's book editors conventionally whine about rhyme. It's so hard to write tight in rhythm and rhyme, they'd rather not brave it. Then they have children of their own, and…
Blogging… Are You Addicted to Blogging? 23 Apr 201123 Apr 2011 My last post introduced me to bloggers reporting on a poll, "How Addicted to Blogging Are You?" My own results: So what does 55% mean? I thought addiction was like…
Art Books… Books: Too Good to Die 14 Apr 201117 Apr 2011 True--you're reading this online and you probably read eBooks of some sort. But technology also expands the options for traditional books as well. Back in 2005, Valerie Kirschenbaum published Goodbye Gutenberg:…
Change the World… In Case of Rejection 13 Apr 2011 As poet Wesley McNair braved rejections, his mentor Donald Hall comforted him with these observations: "These feelings simply do not end! Believe me I am sympathetic with your feelings, but…
Blogging… The Sport of Writing 9 Apr 2011 Some sports are played against the clock. Their time-centered rules vary greatly, but they include judicious use of the time available. Basketball rushes through its quarters with shot clocks to…
Caring… Quakebook 29 Mar 201130 Mar 2011 This might be a new speed record in book collaboration and instant publishing. 2:46 Quakebook. Call for submissions: Twitter's @OurManInAbiko. Three weeks later: an online version of the book. It's…
Brain… If You Build It, They Will See It 14 Mar 201114 Mar 2011 Some people go to all the trouble of designing and producing buildings, only to make them ugly. Why not hire an architect who understands proportions? Select beautiful colors for the…
Change the World… Tell Your Story, Inspire World Peace 12 Mar 201112 Mar 2011 "Peace comes about when one party recognizes the narrative of an antagonistic party and sees its point. Peace presumes the capacity of one party to enter in some way into…
Animation… Modern Magic 5 Mar 20119 Mar 2011 “Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic.” ~Arthur C. Clarke This weekend, I watched ITT Tech Tempe's graduating design students present capstone projects of architectural plans, or animation, or…
Books… Friday Flick: Book Pusher 11 Feb 201113 Feb 2011 Nancy Pearl is my new book pusher. Every library and every writer needs a Nancy. This inspires me to check out all 1,800 of her favorite picks. It might take…