One of my early inspirations for writing was Neil Peart, the drummer and lyricist for the band, Rush. I discovered his words when I was a teenager, probably no more than 13 or 14 years old. A guy that sat next to me in one of my classes let me borrow a cassette tape of… Continue reading
Mr. Roth is one of those authors I’ve known about but never had the opportunity to read. I had heard of some of his novels: Portnoy’s Complaint, American Pastoral, Ghost Writer, along with his most famous (and recurring) character, Zuckerman. I’ve read of the controversy, the claims of antisemitism, the accusations of misogyny, but as… Continue reading
So my friend and I completed our 14-day creative challenge. I think it went well. Our biggest complaint was the time constraint…having to come up with something in such a short period of time. Full-time jobs, chores, family obligations all get in the way. But we pushed ourselves and did a little something every day.… Continue reading
I’ve added a new page to the site – Reading List. I’ll post the books I read over the course of the year. I’ll also note the books I’ve read the past few years. The ones I like you’ll see that I’ve reread. I’ll star the ones I haven’t gotten around to rereading…yet! RB
An artist friend of mine recently convinced me to participate in a 14-day creative challenge. The basic premise is that she will pick a random word from a jar each day, and she and I each have to create something based on that word. Seeing how she is an artist and I’m a writer, the… Continue reading
I was in a store yesterday and while browsing the shelves I came upon an electric typewriter. No, it wasn’t used or vintage. It was brand new, still in the sealed box, for $99.00. I stopped to admire it for a few minutes and chuckle over the fact that on the same day, in two… Continue reading
Coming up with story ideas isn’t terribly hard. I have my list of story titles that often provides inspiration, and other times ideas spring from things I’m reading, or maybe a movie, and sometimes they just come out of nowhere. I don’t think I’ll ever have a shortage of story prompts, of which my only… Continue reading
Telling a story seems straight-forward…you start at Point A and work your way to Point Z. Beginning and ending. It’s been that way since humans first told stories to one another around a camp fire in the faded past and continues today with e-books. The thing is, an A – Z approach to storytelling gets… Continue reading
“I must not fear. Fear is the mind-killer. Fear is the little-death that brings total obliteration. I will face my fear. I will permit it to pass over me and through me. And when it has gone past I will turn the inner eye to see its path. Where the fear has gone there will… Continue reading
I’ve been working my way through a copy of Raymond Carver’s collected short stories. I had read a handful of his stories when I was in college and I found a writing style that I wanted to mimic. That’s the thing with writers, especially when we’re still trying to find our footing…we feel a connection… Continue reading