Posted in Art, Authors, Bones, Books, Creative Nonfiction, Gratitude, Memoir, Practice, Relationships, Taos, Vision, Writers, Writing, tagged artists, author interviews, becoming a writer, friendships, interview with Natalie Goldberg, loneliness, mentors, Natalie Goldberg, Old Friend from Far Away, teachers as mentors, the black dog, the writer's life, wild mind, Writing Down The Bones, writing memoir, writing practice, writing process, writing relationships, writing with students on May 13, 2008 | 27 Comments »
Old Friend from Far Away by Natalie Goldberg, images provided by Simon & Schuster, photo of Goldberg © 2008 by Mary Feidt. All rights reserved.
On Thursday, April 10, QuoinMonkey and ybonesy interviewed Natalie Goldberg, author of the recently released Old Friend from Far Away: The Practice of Writing Memoir. The interview was especially meaningful in [...]
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Posted in 25 Things, Art, Authors, Books, Creative Nonfiction, Culture, Fiction, Film / TV / Video, Growing Older, Money, Music, Photography, Politics, Reading, Writers, Writing, tagged 1970's Bestsellers, 1970's history, American bestsellers, goddess of poetry, goddess of wisdom, how literature enriches life, Jakob H. F. Fjelde, literature, Minerva, Minneapolis Central Library, the 1970's on April 24, 2008 | 22 Comments »
Minerva, 1889 - 1890, Roman goddess of poetry, music, wisdom, and warriors (Greek, Athena), bronze sculpture by Norwegian American artist, Jakob H. F. Fjelde, downtown Minneapolis Central Library, Minneapolis, Minnesota, photo © 2008 by QuoinMonkey. All rights reserved.
The first black hole was discovered in the same decade that Star Wars was released (and not by Columbo, [...]
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Posted in Authors, Bones, Books, Creative Nonfiction, Essay, Memoir, On the Road, Relationships, Spirituality, Writers, Writing, tagged An Evening with Elizabeth Gilbert and Anne Lamott, Anne Lamott, Bird By Bird, books about spirituality, Carolyn Flynn, Eat Pray Love, Elizabeth Gilbert, Grace (Eventually): Thoughts on Faith, Operating Instructions, Ruth Stone, spiritual paths, Traveling Mercies, UCLA events on April 9, 2008 | 33 Comments »
By Carolyn Flynn
For red Ravine
SAGE Editor, author and redRavine.com contributor Carolyn Flynn recently attended “An Evening with Elizabeth Gilbert and Anne Lamott” on the UCLA campus.
To loosen up before writing a new book, Elizabeth Gilbert invites one person to join her and live inside her head. She says she wrote Eat Pray Love as a [...]
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Posted in Authors, Bones, Creative Nonfiction, Gratitude, Memoir, Photography, Place, Reading, Writers, tagged book readings, book talk, Bookworks, how to write memoir, independent bookstores, mentors, Natalie Goldberg, new book releases, Old Friend from Far Away, support Independent bookstores on April 5, 2008 | 24 Comments »
Heart to Hands, Natalie Goldberg at Bookworks in Albuquerque, photo © 2008 by ybonesy. All rights reserved. (QuoinMonkey started the Writers’ Hands series; this photo is in that fashion yet not of the series. Deep bow to QM for the inspiration.)
It’s been almost a month since I went to Bookworks on Rio Grande Boulevard in Albuquerque’s Rio Grande valley [...]
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Posted in 25 Things, Art, Authors, Creative Nonfiction, Essay, Gratitude, Great Places To Write, Life, Memoir, Photography, Poetry, Practice, Relationships, Structure, Topic Writing, Vision, Writers, Writing, Writing Practices, tagged giving back, gratitude for community, red Ravine Guests, thank you, writing community on March 23, 2008 | 17 Comments »
Piglet Bearing Gifts, Minneapolis, Minnesota, December 2007, photo © 2007 by SkyWire Alley. All rights reserved.
I’m afraid the photograph of Piglet gives me away — I’m a little late posting this piece. I had wanted to get it out in January. You know what they say about the best laid plans.
Still, it wouldn’t be right [...]
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Posted in Authors, Bones, Books, Creative Nonfiction, Memoir, Writers, Writing, tagged A Girl Named Zippy, A Million Little Pieces, Alexandra Fuller, Augusten Burroughs, Beverly Donofrio, Creative Nonfiction, Don't Let's Go to the Dogs Tonight, fabricated memoir, Haven Kimmel, James Frey, Lee Gutkind, Looking for Mary, Love and Consequences, Margaret B. Jones, Margaret Seltzer, Mary Karr, Misha Defonseca, Running with Scissors, The Liars' Club, writing memoir on March 4, 2008 | 24 Comments »
What do James Frey — author of A Million Little Pieces — and Margaret Seltzer (who last week published a book under pseudonym Margaret B. Jones) have in common? Both wrote acclaimed memoirs that turned out to be fabrications.
Today The New York Times article ”Gang Memoir, Turning Page, Is Pure Fiction” detailed how Seltzer, who is white and grew [...]
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Posted in Authors, Bones, Books, Creative Nonfiction, Gratitude, Memoir, Photography, Practice, Quotes, Reading, Structure, Writers, Writing, tagged bookstores, Common Good Books, giving back, how to write memoir, mentors, Minnesota, Natalie Goldberg, new book releases, Old Friend from Far Away, support Independent bookstores, writing community, writing practice on February 18, 2008 | 36 Comments »
Old Friend From Far Away, Minneapolis, Minnesota, February 2008, photo © 2008 by QuoinMonkey. All rights reserved.
I bought Natalie Goldberg’s new book, Old Friend from Far Away: The Practice of Writing Memoir, on February 14th, Valentine’s Day. Actually, Liz bought it for me, the creative version of romance - a writer’s gift. We visited Common [...]
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Posted in Art of Rebellion, Authors, Bones, Creative Nonfiction, Death, Dreams, Essay, Practice, Quotes, Vision, Writers, Writing, tagged following your dreams, kids & creativity, living as a writer, Monkey Mind, Ray Bradbury, writing practice, Zen In the Art of Writing on January 13, 2008 | 15 Comments »
I wonder if the 8-year-old girl, who was sketching at the Frida Kahlo exhibit a few weeks ago, will someday look back with wonder like Ray Bradbury. It could happen.
Sometimes I am stunned at my capacity as a nine-year-old, to understand my entrapment and escape it.
How is it that the boy I was in October, [...]
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Posted in Authors, Books, Creative Nonfiction, Film / TV / Video, Gratitude, Memoir, Practice, Silence, Spirituality, Structure, Wake Up, Writers, Writing, tagged how to write memoir, mentors, Natalie Goldberg, new book releases, Old Friend from Far Away, video, writing practice on January 10, 2008 | 26 Comments »
from vodpod.com posted with vodpod
Natalie Goldberg, Old Friend from Far Away - The Practice of Writing Memoir, December 21st, 2007 (to play video, click either green arrow twice)
Natalie Goldberg has a new book coming out on February 12th, Old Friend from Far Away - The Practice Of Writing Memoir. One of our readers [...]
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Posted in Authors, Bones, Books, Creative Nonfiction, Photography, Poetry, Practice, Quotes, Structure, Wake Up, Writers, Writing, tagged Fitzgerald Theater, Galway Kinnell, Hide-and-Seek, Josephine Dickinson, letting go, MPR Talking Volumes, Natalie Goldberg, Ode and Elegy, Strong Is Your Hold, We Are Not the Poem, Writers Hands, Writers reading their work, Writing Down The Bones on December 12, 2007 | 27 Comments »
Curtains At The Fitzgerald, night of Galway Kinnell, Fitzgerald Theater, St. Paul, Minnesota, April 2007, photo © 2007 by QuoinMonkey. All rights reserved.
I pulled a Galway Kinnell book off the shelf last night while Liz was completing her take home final. We sat on the couch in dim midnight light, pecking at slippery keys. (One [...]
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Posted in Creative Nonfiction, Essay, Family, Food, Laughing, Place, Wake Up, tagged coffee, coffee beans, essays about coffee, humor, OmbudsBen, red Ravine Guests, social beverages on November 28, 2007 | 19 Comments »
By OmbudsBen
Yesterday Part 1 ended with my newsletter story “Coffee Muggings,” about the misappropriation of coworkers’ coffee cups. Little did I know, that was one of the more peaceful brew-hahas the stimulating bean would initiate for me. This was back in the years B.W. (Before Wife), and for a while I dated a lively young [...]
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Posted in Creative Nonfiction, Essay, Family, Food, Laughing, Place, Wake Up, tagged coffee, coffee beans, essays about coffee, humor, OmbudsBen, red Ravine Guests, social beverages on November 27, 2007 | 35 Comments »
By OmbudsBen
I’ve known a lot of women who rely on coffee for ignition. A kind of starter fluid, rise and grind. In my experience, it’s enough to draw a tenuous gender distinction, so long as I draw it carefully, or at a safe distance. Of course coffee can be starter fluid for men, too, but [...]
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Posted in Authors, Books, Creative Nonfiction, Dreams, Gratitude, Great Places To Write, Memoir, Photography, Practice, Reading, Writers, Writing, tagged Authors, Candyfreak, community, hands, Minneapolis Central Library, Not That You Asked, Steve Almond, Writers, Writing on October 12, 2007 | 28 Comments »
Writer’s Hands III, hands of Candyfreak author, Steve Almond, signing a copy of his latest book, (Not That You Asked) Rants, Exploits, and Obsessions, Minneapolis Central Library, downtown Minneapolis, Minnesota, October 2007, photo © 2007 by QuoinMonkey. All rights reserved.
It’s late and I’m tired. But I wanted to write a short note. I just got home [...]
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Posted in Authors, Bones, Books, Creative Nonfiction, Dreams, Family, Gratitude, Great Places To Write, Home, Photography, Place, Practice, Structure, Vision, Wake Up, Writers, Writing, tagged interviews, Natalie Goldberg, Writers, Writing, Writing Down The Bones, writing practice, Zen on October 3, 2007 | 36 Comments »
After listening to Natalie Goldberg’s new interview on ThoughtCast, ybonesy and I wanted to pass the information along to our readers. But we first wanted to take a moment to reiterate our gratitude for the teachings that Natalie has passed down to us. Our vision for red Ravine was born out of our writing practice [...]
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Posted in Authors, Bones, Books, Creative Nonfiction, Family, Fiction, Life, Practice, Structure, Vision, Work, Writers, Writing, tagged red Ravine interviews, Robert Wilder, Tales From The Teachers' Lounge, the practice of writing, the process of writing on September 21, 2007 | 23 Comments »
Images provided by Anna Crowe, Bantam Dell Publishing Group, Random
House, Inc.; Cover Art © 2007 by Jose Luis Pelaez, Inc./Picturequest; Cover
Design by Lynn Andreozzi. Photo of author Robert Wilder © 2007 by Jennifer
Esperanza. All rights reserved.
On Thursday, September 13, QuoinMonkey and ybonesy interviewed Robert Wilder, author of the recently [...]
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Posted in Authors, Bones, Books, Creative Nonfiction, Family, Life, Practice, Structure, Vision, Work, Writers, Writing, tagged red Ravine interviews, Robert Wilder, Tales From The Teachers' Lounge, the practice of writing, the process of writing on September 19, 2007 | 27 Comments »
Image provided by Anna Crowe, Bantam Dell
Publishing Group, Random House, Inc.; Cover Art
© 2007 by Jose Luis Pelaez, Inc./Picturequest;
Cover Design by Lynn Andreozzi. All rights reserved.
On Thursday, September 13, QuoinMonkey and ybonesy interviewed Robert Wilder, author of the recently released Tales from the Teachers’ Lounge.
The interview was so rich, [...]
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Posted in Authors, Creative Nonfiction, Culture, Personal, Practice, Structure, Vision, Work, Writers, Writing, tagged Elizabeth Statmore, Grace Paley, how to separate creator from editor, KQED, mentors, radio, red Ravine Guests, the practice of writing, the process of editing, the process of writing on September 5, 2007 | 13 Comments »
By Elizabeth Statmore
Here’s how a recent radio commentary emerged from writing practice to final recording.
This piece started life being written by hand as a 10-minute writing practice. Typed up, it came out to 595 words. Here’s the original, unedited writing practice:
I need to babble a bit and probably ramble on about things unrelated to my [...]
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Posted in 25 Things, Art, Authors, Books, Creative Nonfiction, Culture, Fiction, Film / TV / Video, Growing Older, I Don't Remember, Memoir, Money, Photography, Politics, Random, Reading, Spirituality, Writers, Writing, tagged 1960's bestsellers, 1960's history, American bestsellers, American history, how literature enriches life, literature, Minneapolis Central Library, the 1960's on August 30, 2007 | 29 Comments »
BookMark, Minneapolis Central Library, downtown Minneapolis, through the rain, August 2007, opened May 2006, architecture by the design team of Cesar Pelli & Associates, photo © 2007 by QuoinMonkey. All rights reserved.
Time for another decade of bestselling books. At the end of the 1960’s, gas was 39¢ a gallon, a 1962 Jaguar XKE would set [...]
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Posted in Bones, Creative Nonfiction, Culture, Dreams, Essay, Family, Jugular, Life, Memoir, On the Road, Personal, Place, Politics, Relationships, Structure, Work, Writers, Writing, tagged agents, Agents & Editors Conference, Austin, Carolyn Flynn, conferences, editors, red Ravine Guests, Texas, Writers, Writing on June 21, 2007 | 33 Comments »
By Carolyn Flynn
I keep telling my father to go away. But here he is in Austin, Texas, on the sign at the construction site one block from my hotel. FLYNN it says in all caps, Flynn Construction, and it’s red, white and blue like the logo for my father’s home building company. Just like it, [...]
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Posted in Authors, Body, Bones, Books, Creative Nonfiction, Culture, Dreams, Holding My Breath, Home, Life, Memoir, Personal, Place, Random, Structure, Writers, Writing, tagged Beginner's Mind, Monkey Mind, Natalie Goldberg, running through rain, Zen on June 14, 2007 | 29 Comments »
I feel like I’m starting over. I feel like I don’t know anything about anything. The journey to Pennsylvania and Georgia for research and writing walked the thin line between past and present. I didn’t know what I was doing or what I would discover. It was sometimes disorienting. Each day I had to open [...]
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Posted in Art, Authors, Body, Bones, Books, Creative Nonfiction, Dreams, Essay, Film / TV / Video, Jugular, Life, Love, Memoir, Money, Personal, Practice, Secrets, Spirituality, Topic Writing, Vision, Work, Writers, Writing, tagged Betty Crocker, detective stories, Emma Peel, Help Wanted, jobs, Lincoln, Miss America, red Ravine Guests, Sharon J. Anderson, writing about jobs on May 21, 2007 | 48 Comments »
By Sharon J. Anderson
Fantasy Jobs (in chronological order)
Miss America
Dorothy in “The Wizard of Oz”
Maria in “The Sound of Music”
Nancy Drew
Sherlock Holmes
Archeologist
Barbara Bain in “Mission: Impossible”
Stephanie Powers in “The Girl from U.N.C.L.E.”
Diana Rigg in “The Avengers”
Margaret Mitchell and/or Scarlett O’Hara
A keyboard player for Carole King, Judy Collins or Joni Mitchell
Ayn Rand
A gang member in “A Clockwork [...]
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Posted in Authors, Creative Nonfiction, Culture, Fiction, Memoir, Politics, Random, Structure, Writers, Writing on May 18, 2007 | 14 Comments »
The National Latino Writers Conference is in Albuquerque today and tomorrow at the National Hispanic Cultural Center. La Bloga has a blurb about it, with mention of a few books having New Mexico themes.
Conference registrants get a chance to have their manuscripts reviewed by published authors, in this case Rudolfo Anaya and Ralph Flores. And [...]
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Posted in Authors, Books, Creative Nonfiction, Culture, Dreams, Growing Older, Jugular, Life, Love, Memoir, Politics, Quotes, Random, Reading, Relationships, Structure, Vision, Wake Up, Writers, Writing, tagged A Dialogue: James Balwin and Nikki Giovanni (1973), Authors, Books, James Baldwin, Love, Nikki Giovanni, truth, Writers, Writing on May 14, 2007 | 3 Comments »
I was going through an old writing notebook I filled in Taos last year, when I ran across some notes I had jotted down on Nikki Giovanni and James Baldwin. It’s good to re-read writing practice notebooks. Sometimes there are helpful quotes, raw images, inspirational lines to be plucked from the pages of wild mind.
We read [...]
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Posted in 25 Things, Authors, Books, Creative Nonfiction, Culture, Fiction, Growing Older, I Don't Remember, Memoir, Personal, Poetry, Reading, Short Story, Structure, Topic Writing, Writers, Writing, tagged 10 Slam Dunks, Authors, Books, Ceremony, Frankenstein, Kahlil Gibran, Nancy Drew, Poe, Vonnegut, Writers, Writing on May 9, 2007 | 44 Comments »
It’s hard to come up with only 10 books that have had the most impact on my life. I’ve lived long enough to know there are many more than 10. But once I sat down to write, and began crawling through the recesses of childhood memory, a solid list began to form.
It reads to me [...]
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Posted in 25 Things, Authors, Books, Creative Nonfiction, Culture, Fiction, Film / TV / Video, Growing Older, Memoir, Music, Random, Reading, Short Story, Writers, Writing, tagged 1950's bestsellers, 1950's history, American bestsellers, bestsellers, Books, how literature enriches life, literature, the 1950's, Writers, Writing on May 2, 2007 | 10 Comments »
It was the 1950’s. Gas was 29¢ a gallon, cigarettes 25¢ a pack, a hospital stay was $35 a day. The Franklin National Bank in New York issued the first credit card, and the World’s first shopping mall in the U.S. - Seattle’s Northgate Mall was built. The First Grammy Awards happened, RCA’s Color Television [...]
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Posted in 25 Things, Art, Authors, Books, Creative Nonfiction, Culture, Food, Laughing, Memoir, Money, Photography, Place, Random, Structure, Topic Writing, Writers, Writing on May 1, 2007 | 24 Comments »
-Homage to a Candy Freak, May 1, 2007, photos by QuoinMonkey,
all rights reserved
Twin Bing, Nutty Chocolaty Cherry Treat!
Palmer Candy Company, Sioux City, Iowa
Owyhee, Idaho Spud, The Candy Bar That Makes Idaho Famous
Idaho Candy Company, Boise, Idaho
Sifers Valomilk, The Original “Flowing Center” Candy Cups
Russell Sifers Candy Company, Merriam, Kansas
GooGoo Cluster, Milk Chocolate, Peanuts, Caramel & Marshmallow
An [...]
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Posted in 25 Things, Art, Authors, Body, Bones, Books, Creative Nonfiction, Culture, Death, Dreams, Family, Gratitude, Growing Older, Home, Jugular, Life, Love, Memoir, Personal, Place, Politics, Practice, Random, Reading, Relationships, Secrets, Structure, Wake Up, Writers, Writing, tagged Beat Generation, Belief & Technique for Modern Prose, Blue Star Mothers, Books, Iraq, Jack Kerouac, Maya Ying Lin, On the Road, Vietnam Veterans Memorial, war on April 29, 2007 | 9 Comments »
I was listening to NPR early Saturday morning on the way to a meeting. The journalist was interviewing a soldier from Wisconsin who had been shipped to Iraq for another tour of duty. In his cache, the soldier had illegally stashed a stack of books, including a copy of Jack Kerouac’s On the Road. He [...]
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Posted in Authors, Books, Creative Nonfiction, Culture, Dreams, Film / TV / Video, On the Road, Personal, Place, Practice, Relationships, Secrets, Structure, Travel, Writers, Writing, Writing Practices, tagged Clutter Family, Harper Lee, Holcomb, In Cold Blood, Kansas, red Ravine Guests, small towns, Teri Blair, The Midwest, the practice of writing, Travel, Truman Capote on April 23, 2007 | 19 Comments »
By Teri Blair
I thought this directive, this encouragement, this heed applied only when things were going badly. You know, just keep going even though the chips are down on all fronts - when you have nothing to write in your notebook but garbage, when you just keep getting rejection letters from publishers, when you feel [...]
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Posted in Authors, Books, Creative Nonfiction, Culture, Death, Dreams, Fiction, Film / TV / Video, Haiku, Life, Nature, Poetry, Politics, Quotes, Reading, Structure, Vision, Writers, Writing, tagged Haiku, James Baldwin, Native Son, Practice, Richard Wright, Writers, Writing on April 21, 2007 | 3 Comments »
A few nights ago, I stayed up past midnight writing a piece. PBS was on in the background. I wasn’t paying much attention until pre-film credits started to roll and I glanced up to see opening scenes of Native Son.
Not the 1951 version where Richard Wright played Bigger Thomas. It was the 1986 version with [...]
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Posted in Authors, Books, Creative Nonfiction, Culture, Death, Family, Gratitude, Jugular, Life, Love, Obituaries & Epitaphs, Personal, Poetry, Reading, Relationships, Spirituality, Structure, Writers, Writing, tagged Authors, Death, Donald Hall, Galway Kinnell, How Could She Not, Jane Kenyon, Kurt Vonnegut, Life, Poetry, Reading, Strong Is Your Hold, Writers, Writing on April 13, 2007 | 10 Comments »
In the maelstrom of energy flooding paper, press, and print about the sudden death of Kurt Vonnegut, I’ve been reading everything I can get my hands on about his life. At 3 a.m. last night, I was running around the Internet linking to articles, gobbling up details of Vonnegut’s death, birth, slow literary beginnings, and [...]
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Posted in Authors, Bones, Books, Creative Nonfiction, Culture, Family, Gratitude, Life, Love, Memoir, Politics, Practice, Reading, Spirituality, Structure, Wake Up, Writers, Writing, tagged bell hooks, community, Love, Maya Angelou, Practice, Reading, Shambhala Sun, Thich Nhat Hanh, Writers, Writing, writing relationships on April 9, 2007 | No Comments »
I’m almost done with the bell hooks memoir, Bone Black. I posted a link to the bell hooks articles and profile in Shambhala Sun a few weeks ago in 10 Minutes with the King. But I want to repost Building a Community of Love: bell hooks and Thich Nhat Hanh as a separate log.
All of [...]
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Posted in Animals & Critters, Authors, Bones, Creative Nonfiction, Culture, Dreams, Gratitude, Memoir, Personal, Practice, Silence, Spirituality, Structure, Taos, Work, Writers, Writing, tagged community, interview, launch of red Ravine, mentors, Monkey Mind, Natalie Goldberg, Sounds True, the practice of writing, Writing Down The Bones, Zen on April 5, 2007 | 11 Comments »
As red Ravine gets ready to launch, I’ve been thinking about how important it is to have a teacher, a mentor.
Natalie has been that for me.
It didn’t happen right away. It developed over a long, slow time of showing up and not being tossed away. Sometimes it meant being willing to listen to what [...]
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Posted in 25 Things, Authors, Body, Bones, Creative Nonfiction, Culture, Death, Family, Gratitude, Growing Older, Home, I Don't Remember, Life, Love, Memoir, Personal, Place, Relationships, Silence, Spirituality, Writers, Writing, tagged childhood, eulogy, funerals, growing up in the South, letting go, Memoir, memories, Mrs. Jaurez, step-daughters, step-mothers, walking the labyrinth on March 30, 2007 | 3 Comments »
memoir
1567, from Anglo-Fr. memorie “note, memorandum, something written to be kept in mind” (1427), from L. memoria (see memory). Meaning “person’s written account of his life” is from 1673. The pl. form memoirs “personal record of events,” first recorded 1659.
- from the Online Etymology Dictionary
______________________
I’ve been thinking about memoir, the word, the difficulty people [...]
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Posted in Art, Authors, Books, Creative Nonfiction, Culture, Death, Family, Memoir, Money, Music, Random, Silence, Spirituality, Structure on March 25, 2007 | 4 Comments »
Sunday Morning really rocked today. The least of it was that it ended with my beloved sandhill cranes roosting on the Platte River. Beautiful.
And Stevie Nicks is still rockin’ in middle age, after 30 plus years, with no sign of stopping. She said she’s not the least bit interested in telling a partner when she’s [...]