What’s in a Tagline? Picking Apart My Tagline

Photo Credit: Woman with veil, dark Gothic fantasy image, uploaded December 24, 2014 by LoganArt: LoganArt/ Pixabay/CC0 1.0 Last week, the Sisters in Crime organization held a webinar for authors about author branding. The idea of “branding” is relatively new buzzword in business and marketing (when it comes to people rather than products, that is) but …

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Not So HAE (Happily Ever After)

The epitome of the happily-ever-after romance ending — the handsome couple off against the sunset with the calm waters and the palm tree. Photo Credit: Silhouette of a loving couple against a sunset, uploaded 25 April 2017 by 5187396: 5187396/Pixabay/CC0 1.0 “We are writers and we destroy lives and worlds and ideologies. And sometimes, we …

Adventurous Perception: The Individual Creative Process

Photo Credit: Photograph of Maurits (M.C.) Escher, around 23 Nov. 1971. Photograph probably made by Hans Peters (ANEFO), Ga het na (Nationall Archief NL): Vysotsky/Wikimedia Commons/CC BY SA 3.0 Many artists talk about the creative process. It’s one of those illusive ideas that fascinates non-artists and weighs heavily on the minds of artists because creativity …

The Emotional Badlands of Language, or, Language is Not Just Data

Photo Credit: Canadian singer Leonard Cohen in Trouville-sur-Mer (Normandy, France), taken 26 January 1988 by Roland Godefroy: Teddyyy/Wikimedia Commons/CC BY 3.0 “If words are the arrow, we ourselves — our interior landscapes, our outward actions, the authenticity of our lives — are the bow.” (Popova, par. 1) As many of my blog readers know, I …

The Transition from Hands To Mouth of Jacqueline Du Pre

Photo Credit: Jacqueline du Pre on the cover of her Dvorak Cello Concerto in B Minor album with the Chicago Symphony Orchestra conducted by Daniel Barenbom (who was also her husband), 1971, EMI Records: amadeusrecord/Flickr/CC BY SA 2.0 “Well, that just means I’ve had to use more my mouth than my hands.” – Jacqueline du …

Denying Categories

Photo Credit: Newly molted shell of spiny lobster at point of molting. Like the lobster, writers must shed the shell of convention for a new one in order to grow creatively. From D. R. Crawford and W. J. J. De Smidt, 1923, Freshwater and Marine Image Bank, University of Washington: BMacZeroBot/Wikimedia Commons/BD UWash FMIB “Creativity …

The Author-Editor Partnership

One of the most famous editors who was known to be the writer’s collaborator was Maxwell Perkins. As editor of Scrivener’s, he infamously nurtured the talents of writers like F. Scott Fitzgerald, Ernest Hemingway, and Thomas Wolfe. Photo Credit: Photo of Maxwell Perkins, 1943, New York World Telegram and Sun newspaper, Library of Congress Prints …

Radio Interview on KPFA Radio

Photo Credit: Vintage retro antique radio photo, created February 26, 2016 by Lubos Houska: LubosHouska/ Pixabay/CC0 1.0 I am so excited to post my first radio interview! A friend of mine, author/performer/radio host Jovelyn Richards chatted with me for KPFA’s Cover to Cover Open Book about my new release Gnarled Bones and Other Stories. You …

Strangers Working in Strange Lands

 Photo Credit: Freud with some of his followers. Otto Rank is standing behind Freud’s chair. 1922. Library of Congress Prints and Photographs Division: Prosopee/Wikimedia Commons/PD EU no author disclosure “[I]f we want to catch glimpses of the truths that govern human culture and behavior, we must open ourselves to the wisdom, no matter how surprising …

Dream -Anxiety and Voice

Photo Credit: Hope, Zelda Fitzgerald, 1938, Montgomery Museum of Fine Art, Montgomery, AL. Like her writing and her speech, Zelda’s art shows her unusual perspective on the world.: ShanMcG203/Flickr/CC BY SA 2.0   In my blog tagline, I include dreams because my intention was to discuss my own dreams or other writers’ dreams (as in …