The Write Place
Here you will find everything to do with writing, whether it is my writing or what I'm learning from reading books on writing. Reading, vocabulary, and grammar are the tools of the trade. The very best people to learn from are the ones who are seasoned writers who teach writing. You would be wise to enlist them as your mentors, as I have.
- In: The Write Place
On March 19, that's just 4 days away, spring begins. Winter over, I already see the signs of spring in the return of several birds to my neighborhood, the crocuses that are not only pushing up from the dirt but that have also opened with the tulips and jonquils not far behind, plus the buds appearing on the tips of many trees that surround our home in rural New Hampshire. Now is the time to start clearing away the old dried plants and weeds from around the yard, trimming bushes, and preparing for new growth all around. And this year, unlike previous years, I won't be in such a hurry to get away from those duties and instead get out to visit with friends because as we all know by now, it is in our best interest to stay home and away from others who may be infected with the COVID 19 virus. More deadly than any we have known in some time and taken right off the screen of a Hollywood movie we are hunkering down and taking care of ourselves and staying indoors. Perfect time to get down to business with my writing and actually complete another book or two since that is my immediate goal.
- In: The Write Place
I am always one who believes there is always more that I need to know about a subject and that can't be more true than with writing. I often feel I must go back to the beginning learning or relearning the fundamentals in any given topic before I put pen to paper. So when I saw 'Craft of Writing' for Free as a Kindle download on BookGorilla, I couldn't push the Buy Now button fast enough on Amazon.
- In: The Write Place
Just last year I decided it was time to put an end to 'arts and crafts' shows that I had been participating in for several years. When I was painting exclusively (not writing at the time), I participated in the outdoor "Artists in the Park" shows, lugging E-Z Up tents, panels, tables, a vast assortment of originals and prints and a number of other items to spend the day, after a 2 hour drive, hoping to sell enough to cover the cost of the space I paid to rent. If I didn't have the help of my husband, I never would have done this alone. Just a few years ago I decided it was time to be done with outdoor shows. You hoped for a nice day and if it rained and decided not to go you were out the $$$ with no chance of trying to recoup the cost.
- In: The Write Place
I'm currently working on a new collection of literary short stories. The characters are based on people I knew in my past. I came from a lower middle class family with a father who was a postal worker and my mother was a housewife who worked at a variety of blue collar jobs, as they used to be called. Basically that means no formal education is needed. This is where I came from and these are the kinds of people I met and worked with in several of my early jobs. And now, looking back on those days, these are the people whose lives are the most interesting to me if only because they lacked the knowledge and experience to carve out for themselves a more meaningful and prosperous life.
- In: The Write Place
May Sarton’s childhood was rich and intellectually stimulating with a father who was an international scholar and a mother who was an artist. Both parents were avid readers and exposed their daughter to an abundant cultural life. Although Sarton was supposed to go to Vassar, the theater became her passion. But the depression soon ended that and with a $100 a month allowance from her father she sold poems and later short stories to popular magazines. Her editor at Houghton Mifflin told her he felt she was a novelist rather than a short story writer. Thus began her career as a novelist. But poetry was at the core of Sarton’s creativity.