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Barbara Falconer Newhall

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

  • A CASE OF THE HUMAN CONDITION
  • MY EVER-CHANGING FAMILY
  • WRITING & READING
  • MY ROCKY SPIRITUAL JOURNEY
  • WIDOWED
  • FUNNY BUTTON

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: Is Less More? Or Is More More?

April 3, 2009 By Barbara Falconer Newhall

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.”

The Writing Room: Two Must-Have Craft Journals for the Literary Writer

March 30, 2009 By Barbara Falconer Newhall

craft journals. books on shelf by john gardener, sands hall, strunk and white, noah lukeman, robert mckee, theodore m bernstein, stephen koch, susan shaughnessy. Photo by Barbara Falconer NewhallOf all the books and magazines that come my way each week, my favorites are the ones that talk about writing — like Poets & Writers and Writer’s Chronicle. Read more.

Book Openers: Green for God

March 27, 2009 By Barbara Falconer Newhall

A review of two new books that explore the confluence of spiritual and environmental concerns, “Holy Ground: A Gathering of Voices on Caring for Creation” from Sierra Club books, and “The Green Bible: Understand the Bible’s Powerful Message for the Earth” from HarperOne.

Writing Room: Ending Paragraphs and Sentences with a Bang

March 20, 2009 By Barbara Falconer Newhall

A stack of books on getting published in the library of author Barbara Falconer Newhall. Photo by Barbara Newhall

The most powerful place in a paragraph is its last sentence. More precisely, the most powerful place in a paragraph is the last few words of that sentence. Read more.

Book Openers: The Emerging, Emergent Church — What’s Up Next for Christianity?

March 13, 2009 By Barbara Falconer Newhall

“About every five hundred years the Church feels compelled to hold a giant rummage sale,” Phyllis Tickle writes in her new book, “The Great Emergence.” In the two thousand years since its founding, Christianity has reinvented itself several times.

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LET’S CONNECT

ON THE FUNNY SIDE

I Can’t Believe I Got in the Water With That 1400-Pound Whale

Marine World foto, Newspaper reporter Barbara Falconer Newhall in wet suit and Marine World trainer Deirdre Ballou in boots and rain coat with bottle-nosed dolphin Spock at edge of tank in 1979. Marine World photo.

Last weekend I watched the CNN documentary “Blackfish” and saw a Sea World trainer attacked and pulled underwater by an out-of-control killer whale. I had to wonder — could that have been me? “Blackfish” traces the deadly history of killer whales at places like Sea World, and it brought back memories of the day I found myself in a tank of water with a 1400-pound pilot whale named Koko. Read more.

MORE "ON THE FUNNY SIDE"

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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!

 

DON’T MISS!

President Barack Obama at his desk, thinking. White House photo.

Book Openers: Barack Obama — How He Got So Smart

lumberjack-in-tree

Buzz Saw Bliss — Sheltering at Home Day 3

An exotic orange blossom from Bloomster's floral designer Kren P. Rasmussen. Photo by BF Newhall

I Can’t Take My Eyes Off Those Flowers — From the Mighty Rose to the Humble Daisy

Sam Lamott portrait photo c Talena Smith & Ricci Nazareth-Silva

Sam Lamott Couldn’t Make It, but Anne Arrived With a Bouquet of Bons Mots

MORE DON'T MISS!

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