Jill Jepson's Blog
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Nov.13.2012
Radical compassion is such a hopeful idea that, even amid the darkness of violence, poverty, injustice, and the seeming impossibility of accomplishing anything positive in the world, it raises a glowing torch of possibility. Empathy, writes philosopher Khen Lampert, is the ability to put...
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Nov.12.2012
“Writers don’t write from experience . . . Writers write from empathy.” — Nikki Giovanni
If writers had a deity, I believe it would be Guanyin.
In East Asian Buddhism, Guanyin is a boddhisatva—an enlightened being who vows not to enter Nirvana until all beings are free—but she was...
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Nov.10.2012
This week has been all about the mythic, the intuitive, the Shadow Self. It’s been a week of abundance. Books, websites, articles, poems—I’ve stumbled across a wealth of interesting material. Here is just a sample of them on this Great Stuff for Writers Saturday:
The Passion of Isis and Osiris...
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Nov.08.2012
All week, I’ve been exploring the Realm of Osiris, Egyptian God of the Underworld—a place writers often wander. (You may meet me there: I’ll be the one without a compass or map).
We’re lured into this mysterious world by the elusive call of intuition, hunch, and instinct—reason has its place...
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Nov.07.2012
I’m exploring myth these days, considering what mythic archetypes can teach us. Most recently, I’ve been looking at Osiris, the ancient Egyptian god of the Underworld.
Like all writers I am often a traveler in Osiris’s realm, a place located below the horizon, out of reach of the sun. It...
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Nov.06.2012
When an interviewer asked suspense novelist James W. Hall where he got the ideas for his horrifying villains, he offered an intriguing answer. “They must come from some zone in my consciousness that we all have. That place where our nightmares bubble up. . . from the unrestrained creative,...
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Nov.05.2012
I discovered mythology as a girl and was enthralled. I read Greek myths mostly, devouring mythology books almost as voraciously as I did ones on astronomy. When I wasn’t inviting friends over to look through my telescope, I was trying desperately to get them excited about Greek gods and goddesses....
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Nov.02.2012
If you’ve never thought of writing horror, consider for a moment the role of fear in fiction. You don’t have to be a horror writer to use this most powerful of emotions. A hovering sense of dread, a jolt of alarm, a surge of panic—these can sharpen the tension in your fiction and help make your...
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Nov.01.2012
Last week, I wrote a bit about horror fiction—about what makes horror horrifying. Because we’re still in the season of Samhain, and because I’m still in a Halloween mood, I thought I’d add a bit to that discussion. Here is my tip on this Tips for Writers Thursday: To make horror truly frightening,...
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Oct.31.2012
It was All Souls’ eve, and the wind howled along the bleak hill side, whistling drearily through the naked branches of the forest trees, whose last leaves it had long since stripped; the sun had disappeared; a dense and chilling fog spread through the air like the mourning veil of the widowed,...
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Oct.30.2012
No you don’t. There will none of that in this house. Listen to me: The most important thing is submission.
There will be no hiding in your room. No locking the door. No refusing to go out when the weather is nice and life is calling. No clinging geekishly to your computer. When I say it’s time, you...
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Oct.29.2012
This is a post about teaching (that impossible work to which I’ve devoted much of my adult life). This is also a post about animal rights (a topic some readers would prefer I leave alone). But mainly this is a post about writing: about the sheer force of the written word, when it is written well.
I...
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Oct.27.2012
Years ago, I wrote a short essay for a newspaper for the tiny fee of thirty dollars. The piece was about the town I lived in—and more broadly, about the meaning of community. I was residing in Central California at the time—dry, hot farm country between the South Coast Range and the Sierra...
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Oct.26.2012
Earlier this week, I wrote about Indian poet Meena Kandasamy. Kandasamy is part of a wave of writers emerging out of the Dalit class—the more than 15% of India’s population once called “Untouchables.” This extraordinary movement is one of the most interesting recent developments in global...
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Oct.25.2012
It’s nearly Halloween, which, among other things, means my laugh is growing more like a cackle. There is always a hint of madness in the air this time of year. My particular madness this Halloween comes in the form of a young adult fantasy novel on the verge of completion: a threshold where demons...
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About Jill
I have spent a lifetime exploring spiritual traditions throughout the world--from Siberia to Afghanistan, Syria to Japan. I have also spent a lifetime writing. In my work, I weave together those two threads, combining the spiritual and the artistic,...
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Causes Jill Jepson Supports
Humane Society of the United States, Defenders of Wildlife, Interational Society for the Protection of Burros and Mustangs, National Wildlife Federation,...