Writing Process Tips by Damaria Senne
Damaria Senne, my blogging buddy and friend from South Africa, is adept at both professional and creative writing. Check out her tips here as she describes her process.
Blowing Bubbles: Playing to Learn
Blowing bubbles as a scientific experiment. How far away from your mouth makes the best bubble? Where on the hill? What about wind currents? Children know the answers to these questions. Do you?
“Savage Detectives,” by Roberto Bolano (reviewed by Mathew Freeman)
JGR Note: The Savage Detectives (Los Detectives Salvajes in Spanish) is an award-winning novel published by the Chilean author Roberto Bolaño in 1998. Go here for a cool Excel chart of the mammoth second section of “Savage Detectives.” ____________________ Roberto Bolano is newly the ‘it’ guy of world literature. In Savage Detectives he takes us…
Blog Action Day: Climate Change (Readers Write)
For this year’s Blog Action Day’s topic on Climate Change, I asked Riehlife readers to share their observations and village wisdom. Here’s a sampling. –JGR _____________________ Xian Yeagan (Lake County, N. California…gonzo artist) sent this poem: Climactic Chains All Summer in California it was dangerously hot and dry. Until last week. Today it is cold…
John Nunley: “There are no straight lines in Africa.”
Africa is all about the undulating line. Linear functions don’t apply.
Attention Shapes Our Reality–guest post by Judy Tart
I’ve been reading an interesting book, Rapt: Attention and the Focused Life, by Winifred Gallaher. I’ve run across a great definition of reality: Reality is an intentional, first-person experience that you construct from the material of attention. I’m having a hard time contradicting this definition. Though reality, I know, has been defined in many other…
Book Party! “Worth Remembering: The Poetry of Our Heritage”
A cozy group of old pals gathered in my father’s parlor on our home place to celebrate the birth of our newest poetry book. Visiting, a brief reading, and home baked refreshments crowned the the afternoon. In addition to Pop and me, three of the poets featured in “Worth Remembering: The Poetry of Our Heritage…
Success Your Way vs. O.P.E. (Other People’s Expectations)
Wanna know a beauty of a survival technique for those of us not yet on Oprah? Mosey over to Telling Her Stories to read our latest Creative Catalyst post “Success Your Way” on how to keep your sanity in an all-too-predictable mainstream culture. Collaborators: Janet Riehl and Stephanie Farrow
Woman of Letters: Ah, the glory and the drugery!
After moving to St. Louis I found myself engaged in a variety of tasks related to writing and literature. Hard put of how to encapsulate and describe what I did besides my own writing, my friend Stephanie Farrow suggested that I put “Woman of Letters” on my card representing my work. This I did. “Woman…
“Africa is a continent, not a country!”
“Africa is a continent, not a country!” Have you noticed that folks all too often flatten out the mind-spinning variety of African topography, countries, cultures, languages, beliefs, architecture, conflicts, joys and sorrows…by referring to the single word “Africa”? It’s easy to do. I’ve done it myself. But, remember the nuance. Remember the vastness.