“Dull”
Soft gray overhead,
brief lackluster afternoon
with two bright blue spots.
Steve D
Book Review: “The Minuteman” versus Nazis in America
This will be a short review for a short book, but I just wanted to draw attention to another Audible Original: Greg Donahue’s “The Minuteman, The Forgotten Legacy of Nat Arno and the Fight against Newark’s Nazis”.
A brief overview of the life of professional boxer-turned mob enforcer Nat Arno, “The Minuteman” describes how a New Jersey street tough became one of the most outspoken resistor’s of the Nazi presence in the US before World War II. Continue reading “Book Review: “The Minuteman” versus Nazis in America”
Exercise 6, Part 1: The Old Woman
Back at it with Exercise 6 from Ursula Le Guin’s Steering the Craft book. Chapter 6 was about verbs, specifically dealing with person and tense. This serves as a prelude to chapter 7, which is a long chapter on point of view. I have to admit I procrastinated on this exercise – and I did so for a reason that surprised me! First, though, the prompt:
“Exercise Six: The Old Woman
This should run to a page or so; keep it short and not too ambitious, because you are going to write the same story twice.
The subject is this: An old woman is busy doing something – washing the dishes, or gardening, or editing a PhD dissertation in mathematics, whatever you like – as she thinks about an event that happened in her youth.
You’re going to intercut between the two times. “Now ” is where she is and what’s she’s doing; “then” is her memory of something that happened when she was young. Your narration will move back and forth between “now” and “then.”
You will make at least two of these moves or time jumps.
Haiku Sunday – Undiscovered
“Undiscovered”
Recommendations
lead down the rabbit hole to
new musical lands.
Anybody want to listen to some power metal/melodic death metal? Unleash the Archers had popped up in my YouTube recommendations before, but none of their songs caught my ears until the one below. After listening more closely, I’ve just ordered this album Apex off their site.
Steve D
August Write Day: Energy Lacking
July strangely felt like a long month, but I still can’t believe it’s August. Summer is almost over! And I haven’t been to the beach! I’m hoping to have an extended beach weekend in October, when there would be fewer crowds and (ideally) still some warm weather. But we’ll see.
I procrastinated soooo much in July. Maybe I cursed myself by declaring the Return of the Summer Doldrums. I also feel like I haven’t had a free weekend in months. We’ve been going pretty hard at home improvement things for like eight straight Saturdays.
Still, I did halfway decently with my goals.
August Writing Goals and Recap
That sound you just heard was July whooshing by and now it is August. I confess I did nothing towards my writing goals (with the exception of posting here regularly) until the last week of July. I co-procrastinated (if that’s not a word, it should be) those alongside a work writing project that had a hard submission deadline at the end of July. But! I got everything in on time (well, more or less).
Recap of July Goals (linked here for accountability purposes):
1. Keep posting here on Mondays and on my other blog, Illustrated Poetry, on Tuesdays.
Did this! At least one post per week on each blog. Didn’t adhere to the precise day of the week so much on my other blog, but eh.
2. Rewrite the first chapter of Enjoinjure.
This I put off until the absolute last minute. I do mean opening the file on July 30 and working on it on July 31. I’m fudging a little because I didn’t really attempt to smooth out and combine the new bits with the old bits until this weekend, which is technically August.
3. Put together an outline for my current untitled story.
I did do this!
I kept the bar low on these writing goals, I know. But overall it worked – I finally addressed that first chapter, which I had been actively avoiding.
Haiku Sunday – Delay
“Delay”
Delaying one vote
and criticizing the same
is power gone mad.
Steve D
Haiku Wednesday – Creativity
“Creativity”
Why write on writing
when the story itself glares,
demands attention.
Steve D
This is my lame excuse for not having a meatier post this week. I really just want to finish my short story. Hopefully, I’ll not waste this opportunity and have good news on that front next week.
Exercise 5: Chastity
The exercise Le Guin’s proposes at the end of chapter 5 takes far longer to complete than her short little chapter (just two and a half pages!) on adjectives and adverbs would lead you to believe. She admits that this one is hard and suggests you do it away from the pressure of a class or group. I did find myself staring at the blank page for quite a while…once I did start writing, I was surprised at the sinister turn my little paragraph took.
Exercise 5: Chastity
Write a paragraph (200-350 words) to a page of descriptive narrative prose without adjectives or adverbs. No dialogue.
The point is to give a vivid description of a scene or action using only verbs, nouns, pronouns, and articles…
Ursula Le Guin, Steering the Craft, page 45.
Continue reading “Exercise 5: Chastity”
Haiku Sunday – Chore
“Chore”
A menial task
becomes a temporary
escape from hosting.
Steve D
Evening Satellite Publishing 