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Barbara Falconer Newhall

Veteran journalist Barbara Falconer Newhall riffs on life as she knows it.

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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.

The Writing Room: Writer’s Block and the Toxic Reader

May 11, 2009 By Barbara Falconer Newhall 1 Comment

writer's block is addressed insightfully in Jane Anne Staw's book Unstuck

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

May 10, 2009 By Barbara Falconer Newhall Leave a Comment

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

May 6, 2009 By Barbara Falconer Newhall Leave a Comment

[caption id="attachment_1186" align="alignleft" width="141"] 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?

May 1, 2009 By Barbara Falconer Newhall 3 Comments

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.

Writing Room: The Punch Line Always Goes Last

April 17, 2009 By Barbara Falconer Newhall Leave a Comment

Everyone knows that the punch line goes at the end of a joke, not the beginning. A mystery writer knows to set the story up and get all the necessary events and clues in place before revealing that the pizza delivery guy did it. The same is true of a paragraph and a sentence.

Simone Weil on Prayer — First, Pay Attention. Book Openers

April 6, 2009 By Barbara Falconer Newhall Leave a Comment

retablo-chimayo-joseph

Simone Weil’s life was a short one, but her startling insights into the nature of God and God’s relationship to humanity pertain today.  Read more.

The Writing Room: Is Less More? Or Is More More?

April 3, 2009 By Barbara Falconer Newhall 2 Comments

What’s wrong with this sentence? “It was a letter from my lover; my heart thumped, my stomach sank, my breath stopped, and my hands shook as I opened it.”

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ON THE FUNNY SIDE

‘The Lifespan of a Fact’ — Fun Words, Now Playing in Berkeley

the-lifespan-of-a-fact

Good natured but dead serious, “The Lifespan of a Fact,” raises questions that writers of nonfiction are constantly asking themselves.  Read more.

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TO MY READERS

Please feel free to share links to my posts with one and all and to quote briefly from them in your own writing, remembering, of course, to attribute the quote to me and to provide a link back to this site.

My Oakland Tribune columns, btw, are reprinted by permission of the Trib. With the exception of review copies of books, I do not accept ads or freebies of any kind. Click on the "Contact" button if you have questions. Enjoy!

 

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writer's block is addressed insightfully in Jane Anne Staw's book Unstuck

The Writing Room: Writer’s Block and the Toxic Reader

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farmers-maret

We Are Pushing 80 — Do We Stay Out of Supermarkets? Sheltering at Home Day 5

gallery-goers view Nancy Selvin's works in gouache on paper at the Light Room, Berkeley, CA, 11-2013. Photo by BF Newhall

How to Grandmother – When the Grandkids Live 2,500 Miles Away

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