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NEW YORKER THURSDAY IN THE MAIL, A LESSON IN READING

The New Yorker magazine is my only subscription and I’m surprised how much fun it is. I actually look forward to it, which has been a surprise over the past year. I know what I’m doing on New Yorker Day:

WRITING ROOTS: HOW DEEP DO THEY GROW

Writing roots are reading roots. Everybody knows that from their first grade if they had a teacher as good as Mrs. Baker. I recall her saying, ‘Our writing is a reflection of our reading.’ I believed it then as I believe it now. (Folding a corner to mark my place in Patrick DeWitt’s novel The […]

WRITING CLASSES? THE WRONG WRITING CLASS

Who has taken writing classes? Everyone who went to high school, went to college, or joined a writers’ group. It starts early and keeps going. By that standard, everyone is a writer? Yes, you are. Here’s why:

PEOPLE UNITED BY GIVING WRITERS

Needy people? You see them all over the place? So do I. I’m one of them. Oh, and so are you. We need things we don’t have. Writers give some of those things, or at least the feeling of giving. So what?

BETTER LIFE BEGINS WITH _____

A better life begins right where you are, not over there. Or there, or there, but right where you are, which might be the reason change is so hard. The funniest thing I’ve heard about making a change is, “We haven’t done anything and we’re fresh out of ideas.” But that’s not you? Let’s be […]

BLOGGER COMMUNITY, NOT A WRITING COMMUNITY

The blogger community runs parallel to the writing community. From most vantage points, it’s looks similar, but it’s not. The biggest difference is accountability, and that means money, a question of either making money, spending money, or both. The correct answer is both.