When I’m having a hard time getting started for the day, sometimes I browse. Browse is such a nice word, “an act of casual looking or reading.” I love to browse the stacks in a library, for example. I turn down an aisle marked “635 – Domestic Gardening” and end up in an easy chair, … More Browsing to Connection
Do you know about Wunderkammern, Cabinets of Wonder? Earliest examples were mini-museums for natural history objects–shells, bones, rocks, leaves, feathers. They could hold anything about which one was curious–hence, their other names, “Cabinets of Curiosities,” or “curio cabinets.” I like “cabinet of wonder” better; “curiosity” can mean “odd or strange” and “curios” can descend to … More A Writer’s Cabinet of Wonder
Have you ever gotten impatient with a descriptive passage, wondered why it seemed to go on and on, maybe skipped over part of it to get on with the story? Try to describe something at length to your friends, and it can be a conversation ender. We’ve all been there. We’re hungry for the witty dialogue … More About Those Lengthy Descriptions
“A formula, Mr. Lee, is like a unicorn. There isn’t any such animal for me.” … More No Formula Could Produce These Stories
Books reflect the characters of the people who write them. Their language and tone, their themes and plot lines, the experience awaiting inside a book’s cover, all depend on the author. Of course, the rest takes place inside the reader, when the author’s words combine with the reader’s imagination, character, experience, and thoughts. That’s how we … More An Author’s Voice is the Key to Many Doors
The more I read, the more I appreciate Emilie Loring’s artistry. … More Sometimes, It Pays to Look Deeper
I have just finished a spate of travel–five states in eight days–to Kansas, Wisconsin, Arizona, California, and Colorado. Settling down to write again has me thinking about writing routines, writing materials, and writing rituals, all of which require a re-start after interruption. For Emilie Loring, as for me, concentration was essential to composition; every competing … More Writing Through Interruption
The Emilie Loring Collection 