“To boldly go where no man has gone before.” Nitpickers and pedants take exception to that stirring old Star Trek slogan. I don’t.
On Writing & Reading
Here you'll find author profiles as well as mini – and not-so-mini – book reviews. I’m a writer who loves to talk about writing, so if you like to write I hope you’ll stop by now and then for some writing tips and to chat about the writing life.
What’s Rhetoric? Let My Two-Year-Old Enlighten You
My daughter Christina discovered the art of rhetoric when she was being weaned from baby bottle to plastic cup. She’d say, “I want milk and I don’t want it in a cup” — an elegant illocutionary statement that usually got her what she wanted, her bottle.
A Case of the Human Condition: Jane Johnston Schoolcraft and the Indian I Wanted to Be
Growing up in Michigan, I read “Hiawatha,” but I was never exposed to the poems and stories of Jane Johnston Schoolcraft, a nineteenth-century Ojibway Indian from the Upper Peninsula. I was culturally deprived.
The Writing Room: Writer’s Block and the Toxic Reader
Writer’s block? Not my problem. At least, that’s what I thought until I read Jane Anne Staw’s book, “Unstuck.” Read more.
The Writing Room: Writing About Your Mother? — Words of Caution from Lori Gottlieb
Planning to write about your mother? You might reconsider after reading Lori Gottlieb’s essay in today’s New York Times. Or are you a mother writing about your kids . . .
GodsBigBlog: Kids and Money — Saving It, Spending It, Sharing It
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Three Cups, by Mark St. Germain, is illustrated by April Willy.[/caption]
Three Cups, by Mark St. Germain, is illustrated by April Willy.[/caption]
Looking for a way to teach generosity and life-long charitable giving to the children in your family? Author Mark St.Germain and artist April Willy have a suggestion: Give them each three cups. Read more.
The Writing Room: To Niche or Not to Niche?
Where’s my niche – spiritually, philosophically, politically? As a writer? For a writer, nichelessness can be a problem. I’m a hopelessly open-minded, doubting, wondering, yearning skeptic who senses the Holy at work in all sorts of people — Christians, Jews, Buddhists, Muslims, atheists.