Category Archives: creativity and its discontents

The Abstract-Impressionism of Berthe Morisot and Joan Mitchell

    Guest blogger Paula Butterfield’s novel about the life and work of impressionist artist Berthe Morisot, “La Luministe,” will be published by Regal House on March 15, 2019. She stops by to discuss the surprising similarities between Morisot and … Continue reading

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Review: Becoming Mrs. Lewis

Becoming Mrs. Lewis, Patti Callahan’s just-published novel (Thomas Nelson; $25.99), is a fictional take on the story of poet Joy Davidman (1915-1960) and writer and academic CS Lewis. I had previously seen and adored the film Shadowlands, so I came … Continue reading

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End of Year Reading

As the new year approaches, I’m burying myself in a good biography, something I love to do. This one is Douglas Botting’s bio of Gerald Durrell, which is available on Kindle US for the bewilderingly cheap price of $1.99 (it’s … Continue reading

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The Downhill Slide: Two Literary Biographies

Shirley Jackson: A Rather Haunted Life by Ruth Franklin Manderley Forever: A Biography of Daphne du Maurier by Tatiana de Rosnay Literary biography can be such a depressing genre, although I read it, I realize, to feel vicariously alive, to really … Continue reading

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This Writing Life: Two Opinion Pieces

I was listening to the radio in the kitchen the other day, and the NPR announcer was talking about the search for the bones of the great Spanish writer Miguel de Cervantes, author of Don Quixote. Cervantes is very famous … Continue reading

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Write or Wrong Part 7: Melinda Clayton can breathe just fine, thank you…

Originally posted on The Lone Writer: Shannon Yarbrough:
I’m honored to have author Melinda Clayton as the guest blogger today! She is one of my favorite authors! No, seriously! She really is. I would like to note that Melinda and…

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You Can’t See The Interview, But I Did

Just bizarre! Since the new James Franco-Seth Rogen movie The Interview has been CANCELED—which I find outrageous—due to North Korea’s breathing down the neck of the studio, Sony, here is at least a review of the movie from “Time.” What … Continue reading

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Richard Yates (1926-1992), the author of Revolutionary Road and other novels, was a damaged man who produced beautiful, bleak books while he indulged his addictions and was in and out of mental hospitals due to frequent mental breakdowns (Yates was … Continue reading

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When I was an ardent young intellectual in the early ’90s, I took a class on Modernist Women Writers with the poet Kathleen Fraser at SFSU. One of our assignments was to do “a close reading” of our writer of … Continue reading

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So You Want To Make A Living Writing? 13 Harsh Truths.

Disclaimer: I haven’t read Bob Mayer’s books, but I always like his trenchant advice. Nos. 8 and 9 on this list particularly spoke to me.

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