Friday, September 16, 2011

Things We Owe to Shakespeare

Over Labor Day weekend Husband and I took another trip down to Ashland, Oregon.  This time around we stayed overnight so that we would have time to attend a show in the Oregon Shakespeare Festival.  We saw Love's Labor Lost, one of the plays that I we were not familiar with.  It is a comedy and we really enjoyed it!  In honor of our trip I thought I'd share this little find:


I don't know who the original credit for this lovely little tidbit goes to, but I love it.  Shakespeare is certainly not my specialty, but I'm not surprised how many phrases we owe to him.

I've been working on planning my syllabus for the freshman writing course that I am teaching this fall.  I'll have lots of thoughts about that coming soon!

Thursday, August 18, 2011

300 Words

After many months I have recently ended my on-again off-again relationship with Anne Lamott's Bird by Bird.  For now.  I end it with sadness that it is over, fond memories and plans to repeat the whole thing again in the future at any time the inspiration (or lack there of) should strike me.  One of my favorite little tidbits from the book is Lamott's repeated prescription to write at least 300 words every day.  Just about one page of writing, 300 words is just enough to keep you moving through writer's block, inspiration block and motivation block.  It seems like such a reasonable expectation.  Just there, I'm already a third of the way done.



This week I quit my long-time job as your local neighborhood coffee slinger and worshiper in the house of Howard Schultz.  At the end of September I'll begin a new life as a full-time graduate student and writing teacher to college freshman at Portland State University (more on that later).  In the meantime I'm going to have a little bit of time on my hands.  You may know that my husband and I recently bought a fixer.  The house itself, as well as the blog that goes along with it, are sure to take up a good chunk of my time over the next several weeks.  But I don't want descriptions of garden photos and instructions on how to paint 1970's paneling to be the only writing I do during this rare era of freedom.

So for the next six weeks, and maybe beyond, I plan to fill Lamott's prescription (pretty much) every day.  Some of those days I'll write here.  As I mentioned, I'll be teaching writing for the first time this coming fall and there is a lot going on in my mind to that tune.  I also want to start keeping a journal of sorts about our new house.  It will be a good supplement to all the photos and memories that we will have of our first real home.  And then of course there is always the house blog.  I suppose any real content there will count, too.  So keep your eyes out for more here soon.  I'll let you know how it goes.

And just to illustrate how easy this is... I just wrote 370 words.

Monday, July 18, 2011

Word Coasters

I may have mentioned before that I am into design.  Having an interest in design, reading and writing, I'm naturally drawn to the fusion of these topics.  Writing about design?  Yes.  Designs that incorporate writing?  Yes.  Today I came across these coasters that incorporate not just writing, but literature in their design.


The set of four handmade ceramic coasters features real pages from an antique copy of The Scarlett Letter.  What could be better for the home of a book lover?  I'm not being reimbursed in any way for promoting these coasters, I just thought I'd share because I like them so much.  See these and other (often word-related) coaster designs from the designer here:  http://www.artfire.com/users/CoastingAlong

Tuesday, July 12, 2011

Mark it in Pencil Wordle

Just something a little bit fun today.  Have you heard of Wordle?  At www.wordle.net you can analyze text to see what words you use most and make a fun image while you're at it.  Here's the wordle I made for Mark it in Pencil:

Thursday, May 26, 2011

Prepositions and Em Dashes

Today I want to share two things that were recently shared with me.  I've have always been of the opinion that writing rules are often a bit overrated and should be broken as a writer deems appropriate.  In some cases, however, I believe that rule-breaking can be a bit overdone.  I agree with an article from Slate Magazine that my sister sent along this week on the overuse of the "Em dash."  You know that good old dash - the one used to separate a clause or emphasize a point in lieu of other forms of punctuation?  Emily Dickinson may have used it well, but common usage has brought it to a whole new level - less artistic - and more - annoying.


Check out this article for Slate contributor Noreen Malone's argument against the Em dash:  http://www.slate.com/id/2295413

On a more positive note, for the rule breaking type at least, is a video from Merriam-Webster's "ask the editor" shared with me by my husband.  I have been long known to end a sentence with a preposition when the moment is right; check out Merriam-Webster's argument:


Happy rule breaking!

Wednesday, May 4, 2011

NW 23rd Ave Interview: Camille Pandian of Reveille


This week I interviewed Camille Pandian, co-owner of NW 23rd Ave newest addition, Reveille.  Just opened, the shop features a variety of hand-selected vintage clothing along with beautiful, high quality, original clothing, shoes and accessories for men and women.  Read about the owners' backgrounds, their love for Portland and the inspiration behind the shops beautiful goods and decor at www.nw23dav.wordpress.com.


Find Reveille on Facebook and watch for their future website at www.reveilleshop.com for more info and online shopping!

Tuesday, April 5, 2011

Back from Vacation. Back to School!

Sunset over Maho Bay, St. John

Right before we headed off on vacation a few weeks ago I got some great news.  I've been accepted into the Masters Program in English at PSU (Portland State University) for next fall.  On top of that, I've also been offered a graduate assistantship, which means I get to be even more involved in the department and I'll get lots of experience teaching and working in academics!  I'm really excited to get started with classes and new experiences, but that only leaves a few months of freedom before I'll be dedicating all of my reading and writing energy to academics.  In celebration, I'm planning a pre-grad-school pleasure reading marathon.  Starting school full time again is the perfect motivation to finish up all those books I've been meaning to get to.  In between house hunting and other summer adventuring, I'll be reading as much as I can!  But more on that later.  As I mentioned, I just got back from vacation!  If you haven't already seen where we were, check out www.maho.org.

Click below to keep reading - see photos of the trip and find out how the beach reading went!

Wednesday, March 16, 2011

Beach Reading 2

We're off for another beach vacation this week, so I thought I'd share with you once again what I'll be bringing with me.  Amazingly enough I haven't actually finished all the books I brought with me last time.  I tend to set books aside when I get distracted by something else and sometimes it takes me a while to get get back to them.

This time we're trying to pack light so I'm being very realistic about what I can (will) read in a week full of hiking, snorkeling and other beachy activities.

Bird by Bird: Some Instructions on Writing and Life

I've still (yes still) been picking my way through Anne Lamott's Bird by Bird.  This book is amazing and I don't want it to end.  I pick it up and read a little any time I need to be inspired.  But if I just go ahead and finish it I can always just go back and read it again.

Water for Elephants: A Novel 

I've actually bought Sara Gruen's Water for Elephants before another beach trip a few years ago.   It happened, however, to be the same trip that I started reading the Twilight series so you can guess what happened with that.  I've never gotten around to reading it since.  

I chose Water for Elephants because I was recently tipped off that it is being made into a movie.  I've heard great things about the book so I figured I should hurry up and get on the wagon.  Check out the trailer:




The SunOf course, I'll be bringing a few issues out of my big stack of unread Sun Magazines.  All the short stories, poems and interviews make for great beach reading (I highly recommend checking out The Sun at www.thesunmagazine.org.




By the way, if you want to know more about where I'll be spending my vacation go to www.maho.org.

See you in a couple weeks!

Thursday, March 10, 2011

Keep it Personal

If you read this blog you probably know that I write for a local blog here in Portland but did you know that I write two other personal blogs in addition to this one?  In addition to my love for all things reading and writing, I have a small passion for all things domestic.  On These Good Ideas I share (you guessed it) good ideas about all things that are happy and helpful for everyday life.  I share everything from new recipes to DIY projects to art and music finds.  The blog functions as a way for me to keep track of the things I want to remember and share them with others at the same time.  Multiple passions in life have a way of intermingling, don't they?  I have this little passion for design, but I notice that my design choices are often informed by my love of books and writing.  I am really into bookcases and decorating with books.  I also love to see pictures of typewriters and similar writing and reading inspired art.  Check out this picture I recently bought from 20X200.com:


I love this photo and I can't wait to frame it and hang it right over my writing desk.  Anywho, lately I've been thinking about personal writing.  I have most recently started a third blog, this time with my husband.  We are beginning the process of searching for a new home and (we hope) diving into the world of homeownership.  I do most of the actual writing for the blog and I've been working on keeping it really personal.  It is, after all, directly about my personal life.  I've come to realize that personal writing is not something that happens just because you decide to do it.  Really personal writing is something that you have to come into; it is a response to an emotional state that you have to find a way to get yourself into.  You have to really feel something about your subject or else it will come out dry and boring.  For most purposes I use free-writing to try to get into the right state of mind.  I find that if I write long enough, and more importantly without pressure to write certain things or in a certain way, I can usually get to the right place.  For blogging purposes, however, I've found a different tactic.  I find it really helps to imagine that I'm writing to someone.  Not a general audience but a specific person, anyone who might be reading and try to imagine what I would say to him or what I would write to him if he were the only one who was going to read it.  For the new blog I imagine that I am writing to my mother.  We live on opposite sides of the country and since she can't be here to help with the house search the blog is a great way to keep her up to date.  I definitely notice that when I stay in the mindset of writing to her my posts are shorter, clearer and easier to read.  I don't ramble as much, I just tell her what I think she would want to know and I write it just like I would write it to her.  I've been transferring this tactic over to my other blogs too and I hope it makes a difference.  Let me know what you think!

Monday, February 7, 2011

NW 23rd Ave Interview: An update with Nick Dothée

Photo by Corey Bruce www.aislinncreative.com
I'm excited to share my newest interview with local Portland singer/songwriter Nick Dothée.  Nick was my very first interview for the NW 23rd Ave blog back in June 2010.  In the past eight months Nick has completed his first solo EP and started a few other projects.

As always, Nick was a pleasure to work with and I couldn't be happier to support his new and upcoming music.

The EP, My Own Devices, releases tomorrow, February 8th, on iTunes, Amazon and in select stores.  It is available today and always at nickdothee.com.

Read my full interview with Nick at www.nw23rdav.wordpress.com.  Or for a direct link to the interview, click here.

Click here to read my original interview with Nick.

For a few more of my personal thoughts about Nick Dothée and what I'm excited about in his future, check out my alter-ego blog, www.thesegoodideas.blogspot.com.   For a direct link to the post click here.

I hope you'll check out the interview, Nick's website and his music.  And if you're in Portland, join us for his upcoming shows beginning in March.

Happy listening!

Saturday, January 29, 2011

Love Every Sentence

In my very first college writing class professor and mystery author William G. Tapply taught us along with so much else to "love every sentence."  This is one of those rare things that a professor said that has stuck with me and I think always will.  I think of that phrase every time I sit down to write and try my best to stay true to it.

How to Write a Sentence: And How to Read One
Professor Tapply died of Leukemia in 2009, but he would have been excited about Stanley Fish's newest book.  In How to Write a Sentence: And How to Read One, Fish discusses in detail the art of writing sentences along with the great sentences in literature and why and how language can be so effective.



Shout out to Sue for sharing a great article from Slate in which Fish shares his top five list of the best sentences ever written (click here for a direct link to the article).  My favorite of the bunch is Fish's fourth sentence:

Ford Madox Ford (from The Good Soldier 1915):  "And I shall go on talking in a low voice while the sea sounds in the distance and overhead the great black flood of wind polishes the bright stars."

I'm always impressed when a single sentence places you in a moment in a way some entire paragraphs can't.  Another one of my all-time favorites is from John Keene's Annotations:  "In the summer the heat would troll across the city like an immense Seine, gathering every living and inanimate thing in it's folds."  This sentence is one of many written in a journal that I keep just for the purpose of recording things worth remembering. 

I truly believe that while good writing is not all about beauty, a beautifully and effectively written sentence can work wonders in any form of writing.  I also believe that reading is as effective in learning to write well as writing is, so I am excited about Fish's use of both instruction and example.  I am greatly looking forward to reading and sharing more of Stanley Fish's great sentences.

Friday, January 21, 2011

Tibor de Nagy - Painters and Poets

“Pyrography: Poem and Portrait of John Ashbery II,” - Larry Rivers (1977)
Check out The New York Times' Weekend Arts section today for an article on Tibor de Nagy Gallery in New York City.  Beginning in the 1950s, Tibor de Nagy and his associate John Bernard Myers promoted little none painters and poets in the gallery and in a line of publications.  The gallery is celebrating 60 years with "Painters and Poets," an exhibition remembering the Gallery's beginnings and it's role in developing a relationship between the worlds of painting and poetry.

Click here to read the article online.

Or visit www.tibordenagy.com.

Tuesday, January 18, 2011

"Say It Like You Eat It"

I have recently submitted my application to the Masters Program in English at Portland State University.  For the second time.  There were a few different reasons that I didn't get in to the program last year, but among them, I believe, was a not-so-strong statement of purpose.  Not that it was a terrible piece of writing, but I was absolutely terrified when I wrote it.  I remember looking at those how to write a good statement of purpose articles online.  First of all, they wanted me to come up with some great story about why I wanted to go to grad school; something to get the reviewers attention and make them pick me above all the other candidates.  Well I didn't have some big story about why I wanted to go to grad school, I just wanted to go learn.  I wanted to be an English teacher and a Masters in English is a step in that direction.  What else could I say?  Second of all, these how to articles suggested that two months and ten to twelve drafts is a normal way to write a statement.  Multiple drafts I'm okay with, but I wouldn't be a very good English student if it took my two months to write ten to twelve drafts of a two page essay.  I started it the night before it was due.  Probably not the smartest idea, but mainly because as a result I was determined that I had to get it right on the first draft.  I remember specifically thinking that I just didn't want to make myself look bad.  Just stick to the basics, don't try anything fancy, there isn't enough time to worry about saying something stupid.  I think I succeeded in this goal, but the result was probably the most boring statement of purpose ever written.

Photo credit: Lindsay Brown

This year I didn't do much better on the time issue.  I sat down to write the morning before it was due instead of the night before, giving myself only a few extra hours.  This time, however, I sat down to write overflowing with emotion.  The application process brought back all the feelings of rejection, the feeling that I was misunderstood, that I hadn't presented myself properly.  I had continued taking graduate classes after I wasn't accepted last year and while I have definitely grown over the course of the year, I felt like this just proved that they should have let me the first time I applied.  I wanted to find a way to convey in writing that I have grown, that I have shown that I deserve to be in this program, but still that I am the same person I was last year.  I wanted to be honest, to be myself, and to not concede that there was any reason why I shouldn't have been in the program right along. 

So I decided to just write it all down.  Instead of sitting down to write a statement of purpose, I just sat down to write about what happened, why I wanted to go to grad school, how I had changed and how I hadn't changed, how I felt about not getting in last year, whatever.  I figured I'd end up with at least five pages, which I would then work down to a more appropriate two, but it turned out that I hit on some inspiration pretty quickly.  I got going on a train of thought and just kept going.  It turned out better than I could have hoped.

I asked my sister to read my statement and she responded with something amazing.  She said that she liked the way I told my story.  I hadn't even realized it, but I had a story after all.  Maybe it wasn't a story about a life-changing event that made me want to go to grad school, but it is my story.  I think in any piece of writing you have to tell the story.  In a cover letter you have to tell the story of why you came to want the job and how you are qualified for it.  In an essay you have to tell the story of your subject.  Even in story writing, where this would seem obvious, maybe we have to remember that we're not just sitting down to write a novel, we have to tell the story.

I am currently about halfway through my first reading of Elizabeth Gilbert's Eat, Pray, Love.  I say first reading not because I plan on reading this particular book multiple times but because yes, I really haven't read it until now.  In case you were wondering.  I bring this up because of a moment in Gilbert's story that I would like to channel.  She is in Italy and trying to explain some complicated emotions to an acquaintance:
...I'm still having trouble figuring out how to talk.  Giovanni smiles and says encouragingly, "Parla come magni."  He knows this is one of my favorite expressions in Roman dialect.  It means, "Speak the way you eat," or, in my personal translation:  "Say it like you eat it."  It's a reminder -- when you're making a big deal out of explaining something, when you're searching for the right words -- to keep your language as simple and direct as Roman food.  Don't make a big production out of it.  Just lay it on the table.
This is my process.  It's the only way that I can write really successfully.  I can't sit down to write a cover letter or an essay or a statement of purpose.  I have to sit down with the intention of telling the story; I just have to get it all out there, say it like it is without worrying about the purpose that I'm writing for.  Sometimes this requires lots of editing later, picking through pages and pages trying to find the good stuff.  But a lot of times it just seems to work itself out as I go.  Either way, like my good friend Lindsay says about writing and life: you have to trust the process, whatever that may be.  If you do, good things will come.

Wednesday, January 5, 2011

The Elements of Clunk

A professor who participates in the biweekly rhetoric and composition discussion group I attend shared this article.  It's an interesting perspective on the new problems of student writing and a good reminder for all writers.

Click here:  The Elements of Clunk
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