where the writers are
Joshua Keidan

The quiet of the birds

a food cart in beijing

"I prefer the voices in my head to the voices outside" Said my friend. "The voices in my head know when it is time to be quiet."  Before he continued before I called over the bored waitress and asked her to get a beer for my friend. My friend has seen quite a lot in his life that people were not meant to see and as a result his sanity tends to move in opposite ...

Midge Raymond

How writers write

I love this Wall St. Journal article about writers sharing their processes. Maybe it’s the onset of fall, the recent time change, or the fact that Mercury was in retrograde for a while — but I’ve found that this article has really resonated with fellow writers, not only for the insider’s view into some of our favorite writers’ practices but for the comfort of knowing that there’s no ...

Caleb Ross

The Colbert Report and Charactered Pieces

If any of you caught The Colbert Report last night, you definitely did not see an interview with me about my chapbook, Charactered Pieces: stories. I had been sweating the non-interview for weeks, well-aware of how Stephen Colbert treats his guests (victims?). Claiming fairness and balance, his questions instead aim to further weave his delusional and increasingly erratic conservative narrative. ...

daniel curzon

Thankful

I don't know much, but I do know a few things that we can be grateful for this Thanksgiving: Carrie Prejean (Miss California) resigned as governor of Alaska, LaToya Jackson did not do a memorial album for brother Michael, and Amy Winehouse won the Cy Young Award.

Stephen Evans

Excerpt from The Wedding Gift, my new...

 In the Twenty-Third Century, the most popular wedding gift will be Oxygen.

Craig McDonald

ROGUE MALES: SUBJECT #13, DANIEL WOODRELL

DANIEL WOODRELL

(Author’s note: Rogue Males: Conversations & Confrontations About the Writing Life, is a collection of author interviews. It includes Elmore Leonard, Stephen J. Cannell, Pete Dexter, James Ellroy, Alistair MacLeod, Craig Holden and James Crumley. Rogue Males also features an account of a trip to the desert to interview crime fiction greats Ken Bruen and James Sallis about the craft of ...

Alan Black

Cheat? Thierry Henry - Member of the...

HENRY.jpg

 The Hand of HenryThink of all those brand names that players pick up as endorsements. And make bags of money in the process. And the team strips emblazoned with corporate logos. But maybe it's time for a new logo to be branded across the chests of our favorite soccer stars -- those ones who like to flop, or use their hand to earn a goal. Welcome to soccer's growing, dynamic brand: CHEAT. To ...

Sam Barry

The Daily Sam: Disneyworld

Mickey Mouse

I should have known it was going to be bad day when the traffic reporter on KQED radio said there was still a problem on the N line after telling us about an as-yet undiagnosed problem on the L line. San Francisco’s mass transit system (MUNI) of buses, light rail, trolleys, cable cars, carrier pigeons, sleds, and roller blades always has its problems, but it usually doesn’t make the traffic ...

kasmik zenter

THE ROLLER COASTER OF LIFE

GOLIATH

ENJOY THE RIDE!This past Halloween, I visited Six Flags and waited in line for almost two hours to get a ride on the 'Goliath', one of the larger roller coasters in North America. Even in the drizzle and cold weather, I felt warm and prickly inside, excited by the anticipation of the enormous 200 foot climb to the top. Finally, I boarded a car, seated next to a stranger, who was equally charged ...

Simon Wood

TENTHS OF A SECOND

I’m happy to announce the release of my first audio story original. Sniplits.com bought the audio rights to TENTHS OF A SECOND and it’s now available for download—all for the price of an iTunes download. The story can be downloaded to computers, iPods and smart phones etc. TENTHS OF A SECOND is about a struggling young racecar driver who is given the chance to get an edge on the ...

Annette Dunlea

books in the media

honey5.jpg

Books in the Media List1. Lustrum by Robert Harrishttp://astore.amazon.com/annduniriwri-20/detail/00918010012. Tricks of the Mind by Derren Brownhttp://astore.amazon.com/annduniriwri-20/detail/19050263823. Flash Forward by Robert J Sawyerhttp://astore.amazon.com/annduniriwri-20/detail/B000OTNVG24. Family Planning by Karen Mahajanhttp://astore.amazon.com/annduniriwri-20/detail/006153725X5. The ...

James Hoch

afternoon to write!

School was only a half day.  The sub job I had was a piece of cake.  Got to do some notes for chapters.  This afternoon I will get to write.  Yesterday, I wrote @1200 words.  What a good day!!!  Still dark and gray, but at least no rain.  Another storm is on the agenda for tomorrow...more wind and rain.  At least, it's not snow and I don't have to shovel!!!

Rand Bishop

When It Began With Me

When it began with me.I did my first bit to stop the war in the spring of 1968. However, my actions to end the conflict in Viet Nam were not altogether altruistic or free from self-interest. I had arrived on the campus of Oberlin College the previous September, two weeks shy of my 18th birthday, the benchmark at which all U.S. males of the day were required to register for Selective ...

Rosy Cole

Pax Aeterna

SantaChiara.jpg

        They are getting closer. I hear them, wave upon wave, mounted upon terrified steeds, poor abused beasts who have no Francis to calm them. I hear the clash of steel, the primal screams and cries, the whinnying, the shuddering clack of wood upon wood and stone. Francis raised these walls with his own bare hands until they were chafed sore and ...

Ryoma Collia-Suzuki

A place to 'be'

Gina and myself Nov '09

I’ve found it surprising to realise how ‘noisy’ and chaotic most of my life has been. That’s not necessarily a bad thing, however it’s been interesting for me to look back at my life and see that even as a child I always sought ways to find a place just to ‘be’, no distractions, no chaos; just me, my thoughts and I. From around the age of nine or ten I used to spend a fair amount ...

Virginia Moffatt

Revolutions

Yes, I know it was last week's blog but I forgot to post. So here is what I might have posted. One of a series of bicycle poems I had to submit for an assignment last year. I'm not a fan of my own poetry, but this is one that I quite like - the nearest I've ever got to a love poem.Revolutions. You were half a world away, planningpeaceful revolutions. You lunched atbreakfast, slept at tea, woke ...

Vanessa Lillie

Ignoring your baby

Rosemarys Baby.jpg

I’ve been working on my “Duchess” WIP for something like five years…probably more. I’m at over 400 pages and am at the half-way point (obviously, I’m an over writer). I’ve read lots of good advice about sticking with a project to the bitter end, but I also recognize that it’s my very first book. My baby. I've been learning how to write as I've been writing. As all those who have ...

Linda Ballou

Feel Good Story

        In search of traditional Hawaiian healing venues I circumnavigated the Big Island sampling lomi-lomi, and other forms of massage along the way. What better way to rejuvenate body and mind than in the knowing hands of masters and restorative waters of Hawai’i. If you follow in my footsteps, I promise you won’t be sorry.  Healing Hawaiian Holiday featured article in Real Travel ...

Steven Travers

WHAT IT MEANS TO BE A TROJAN:...

The SIXTIES   BILL REDELL 1960 (Freshman Team) Quarterback   I was very fortunate to go to USC when I did go there. It's part of my college experience and I consider myself a Trojan. I'm not bitter or feel I was treated unfairly just because I left. I loved the experience I had there.        I was at the USC extension school from 1959-60 and played freshman football 1960. ...

Eve Kushner

Special Delivery: Part 3

I’ve discovered two new ways of offending the Japanese: 渡し箸 (watashibashi: resting one’s chopsticks across the top of one’s bowl)     to cross over + chopsticks 渡り箸 (wataribashi: using one’s chopsticks to jump from side dish to side dish without pausing to eat rice in between)     to cross over + chopsticks Both actions are considered breaches of etiquette. Just ...

Claire Elizabeth Terry

Why Literature?...

For this week's Red Room blog on 'peace', I'd like to once again share a contribution from 'The Art of Living'*, this time by Mario Vargas Llosa, whose essay, "Why Literature?" brilliantly highlights how literature is "one of the common denominators of human existence" and how the "unvariable truth ... that men and women from across the world are equal" that ...

Karen Berner

The Death of the Oprah Dream

I don’t know about most of you, but today’s announcement by Oprah Winfrey to end her syndicated television show left me empty, morose and wanting to crawl back into bed, never to surface again. This reaction, however, is not due to the impending absence of “The Oprah Winfrey Show” in my life, although I have been a viewer on and off for most of her years on TV. No, it goes far deeper than ...

Michael Pokocky

Quote by Michael Pokocky

Imagination

"Books are like wines.  You develop a taste for them, and everyone has, a unique palette." __Michael Pokocky 2009

David Moolten

Celebrity

 Marilyn Monroe rules the world, at least The part visible in a photograph, standing Above the troops she’s about to bless With a song in her porous sequin dress, her arms Durably outstretched. She hasn’t aged a day In fifty years. The men too appear impossibly Young, mooning boys clotted around a woman Who just might show them something they’ve never seen. Picture the millions ...

Angela Nickerson

Scala Contarini del Bovolo

Medieval and Renaissance Venetians often built exterior staircases on their homes to save precious living space.  But the architects of the Scala Contarini del Bovolo -- or staircase of the snail shell -- took the art of floor-to-floor mobility to a new artistic level.  Peter Contarini added the staircase and series of loggias to his palazzo near the end of the 1400’s.  The staircase and ...

enoch john

Oprah and Adaptability

The news of the moment is that Oprah Winfrey is to end her  daytime show.Oprah is coming off the air.Michael jackson's passing ,to me, was far more dramatic and shocking.Oprah coming off the air is a straight case of collateral damage  and changing cultures.Of course I empathise with her, but let's get serious.I have been writing all along about how America is in deep trouble and all that and ...

Nina Amir

Make $150,000 from Your Book Before It's...

Many professionals choose to write books to help them achieve expert status, bring in more clients and, ultimately, build their businesses. This offers a viable strategy for many business people, especially those whose companies have a client base, such as consultants and coaches. With the ease and affordability of print-on-demand (POD) publishing, almost anyone wanting to utilize a book to ...

Jennifer Jean

At Peace

Jennifer Jean

I’ve been thinking a lot about “peace” lately.  I’m publishing my first poetry chapbook called In the War about how my father’s war related Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder affected his life and our family—and I’m supposed to start lining up readings, getting reviews and stuff.  But, the title worries me.  What if someone asks me about it?  I guess I can refer to my pitch, fall ...

J. Ruth Gendler

Peace in Three Parts: Two Children's and...

Peace in Three Parts   Part I:  A Third grader Personifies Peace Peace is a child, small, invisible, yet powerless over Anger and Ruthlessness, who seem to control war, the very enemy of Peace. But Peace would not go to war with Anger nor Ruthlessness, for she is Peace, after all. She would not go to war. Even though, of course, Peace is very busy, with lots of war going on. Alex Trux, ...

Kelly Tweeddale

Pilgrims, Peace, and Purpose

Peace Pilgrim

This time of year usually brings to mind pictures of pumpkins, horns of plenty, and pilgrims. We are asked to be grateful, to give thanks, and to invest large amounts of time and effort to create savory foods we may only eat once a year.  There can be great comfort in the predictability of the ritual. Some might call it downright peaceful. But I’ve never been able to get the image of an ...

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