Corollaries of the Words We Use
A cliff edge that dares the speaker to leap. A journey home. Other words bubble to the surface when you cannot sleep. Northern insomnia. Or are found pressed like flowers between the pages in memory's hefty book.
A January Dance
Red sky in the morning.j. laster A dusting of snowfall transports me to distant winters and the stillness of early mornings at the edge of a wilderness. On the trail. The whisper and long shhhhhhhhh of skis on new snow. Gravid sky.j. laster Impending ...
One Word at a Time
"All my life I've looked at words as though I were seeing them for the first time." Ernest Hemingway Peach and gray daybreak.j. laster Brimming with New Year's resolutions, I find most of them have to with words. I continue to work on a novel that is nearly ...
THE ACCIDENTAL ORIGAMI OF WINTER
“I prefer winter and fall, when you feel the bone structure of the landscape – the loneliness of it, the dead feeling of winter. Something waits beneath it, the whole story doesn’t show.” Andrew Wyeth The wind folded, ice creased
Shivers and Simmering Brews
"Suddenly the day was gone, night came out from under each tree and spread." Ray Bradbury, The Halloween Tree A month of urgency: the tipping from fall into winter. The waxing of a moon. The chilling of air. I peer through a mental View
Candles in the Dark
“But nature is always more subtle, more intricate, more elegant than what we are able to imagine.” ― Carl Sagan,The Demon Haunted World, Science as a Candle in the Dark. Grandfather Spruce, Clay Products - j. laster “Why are there trees I never walk under but large and ...
Centrifugal Words
j. laster “The words echoed around the cavern and broke through mere rock, so great was the force behind them, melted mere mountains, screamed across the miles.” Terry Pratchett I've been watching the news, the weather, the pandemic reports from our nation and the world. However, the Writer ...
Time is ticking, ticking, ticking…
“Here we are, trapped in the amber of the moment. There is no why.” ― Kurt Vonnegut I hope that each and every one of you is safe and taking as many appropriate steps to stay that way
SOS: Saving Ourselves
The Writer Elkhound is telling me that spring is on the way. Spring implies hope and a kind of jauntiness, a willingness to let old winter bygones be bygones. However, we are now collectively in that strange position of wondering what is going to happen next. I say strange but really the entirety of human experience is made up of unknowns, question marks, dire warnings or no warning at all.
Artesian Wells of Words
“Writing floats on a sea of talk.” 1970, James N. Britton, author of Language and Learning j.laster In both the revision process and in brainstorming for my next project I pay close attention to dialogue. An antenna for odd bits and barbs of discussion is required. j.laster ...