So often is the virgin sheet of paper more real than what one has to say, and so often one regrets having marred it. Harold Acton, Memoirs of an Aesthete, 1948 Far be it from me to disagree with a writer from the past, but in this case, I do. We must dive into the …
I found in an old notebook last night a quote I’d written down months ago. “A man’s character is his fate.” Heraclitus. And a woman’s too, I suppose. When I write about my characters on the page, I am bound by the dictates of who they are. There are some things that Eleanor of …
Photo provided by Carolyn Williams A friend of a friend took this photo, and Carolyn was so inspired by it that she sent it on to me. I am not certain where this photo was taken…Maine? France? North Carolina? (Where Carolyn and I are from) In a way, it doesn’t matter, because this photo, the …
Sometimes we have to take a moment, even in the midst of a revision, to step out of the Cave and look at the mountains in the distance. They are our goal, some of which we will never reach. The heights of brilliant prose, of beautiful storytelling, of magic that enchants us as well as …
A few months ago, I dreamed that I was sitting with an angel talking about my life. She wasn’t just any angel, but a personal friend. My life was sort of her case work, the way a social worker might meet with one of her case files. We sat and talked for hours, and we …
“A story is a letter that the author writes to himself, to tell himself things that he would be unable to discover otherwise.†― Carlos Ruiz Zafon I pick up my pen and I wonder, what will I tell myself today?