Last fall I wrote a post that has had more hits than anything else I wrote: “Waiting for the Call You Think Will Change Your Life.” I saw that it struck a chord with a lot of people. In it, I described my career as an author, and how for many years I eagerly jumped Read more about No Longer Waiting for the Call You Think Will Change Your Life[…]
WriteSpa – An Oasis for Writers
Many great writers were inspired by a real-life muse (like Dante’s Beatrice – who didn’t have a clue) or even a fantasy (Keats was crazy about a prostitute, who also didn’t have a clue). But the fact that they hardly knew each other did not make their love any less poignant, rich, and inspiring.
Elizabeth Barrett and Robert Browning – famously the most romantic couple ever to fall madly in love before they met – used poetry and letters to get to know each other. One wonders what their emotions were like when they first set eyes on each other after having written letters and poems like the ones they did! Was there worry? Curiosity? Disappointment? Or was there really just sheer bliss and joy and an immediate determination to run away together?
Two things touched me yesterday in my reading travels: the story in the New York Times of John Bowe’s (hopeless?) search for true romantic love and Norah Pollard’s poem St. Valentine’s Day. Valentine’s Day breaks my heart every year. There’s something about the high expectations lovers put on each other, the materialism, the yearning for Read more about Valentine’s Day Decision[…]
WriteSpa – An Oasis for Writers [audio:http://winsloweliot.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/mp3/writespa6.mp3] Writing Practice – Writing for the Ages Everyone has an interior age, which they fundamentally ‘are’ not matter what their biological age. What’s yours? One way to discover it is by working with this writing practice: Writing for the Ages.
WriteSpa – An Oasis for Writers
For many years, every morning I write down three phrases that I call my ‘daily happinesses.’ These are simple – usually appealing – images that help me peek into another, more objective, reality.
In a way, they are also writing prompts. Each one of these little phrases conjures a vignette, a mood, a story, a person. For example: “Planning for a garden of rare and wild roses.” “Penguins diving into the sea.” “The silence before applause.” […]
WriteSpa – An Oasis for Writers When I moved to England at age eleven I remember being amused by the amount of conversation people spent discussing the weather. The reason was that it hardly ever seemed to change. The weather was pretty much misty and drizzly and sometimes it might rain harder, other times it Read more about WriteSpa #21 – Writing about Weather[…]
WriteSpa – An Oasis for Writers [audio:http://winsloweliot.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/mp3/writespa-1b.mp3] Writing Practice – Men and Women What is the difference in writing style between men and women? And why is it important that we learn to view the world and people through the eyes of both men and women?
Along with millions of others this past week, I have longed to be able to do more than send money to help the survivors of the devastating earthquake that struck Haiti. I’m not a doctor, nor a relief worker, nor a journalist – so what can I do? Money is good – it helps. But it leaves a buffer between me and the actual people to whom I could reach out. I want to be with them. […]
I love conclusions. I remember a friend saying that she dreaded coming to the final chapters of a novel because she couldn’t bear the story to end. I’m the opposite: I love the moment the story draws to a close; the conflict over; the exhausting seeking ended; the relationship resolved; the tears drying; the murderer found… […]
We had a good class today – at least it was better than I expected, given that it was the first English class after the holiday break and I figured the students wouldn’t be in the groove yet. I certainly wasn’t. […]
I used to be a fortune-teller – this is something only a few people know about me. I actually had a psychic practice in NYC, where I offered Tarot and other readings. Fortune telling is an odd practice though. I don’t predict, for instance; it’s more an insight into the situation at hand and how Read more about Fortune Telling[…]
WriteSpa – An Oasis for Writers
The week between Christmas and New Year’s is a peculiar one. Some of my friends are in Florida, basking in the sunshine. Our president is on beautiful Oahu, where I love to imagine him in peaceful sunshine, with the trade winds to soothe and rejuvenate. I have friends from long ago who still gather every year at the castle they own on the west coast of Scotland. Still others are stacking wood for their wood stoves and cozying up in intimate family togetherness. Others are partying and feasting in the city.
This morning I was engaged in a particularly spirited intriguing Twitter connection – a highlight being introducing two fellow authors to each other.
I wondered afterwards why I am on Twitter and why people think I am. Pretty much everyone I know who tweets regularly is selling something. They are not explicit sellers, they’re implicit sellers. They have wonderful websites that engage, expatiate, offer, market… in a word: they sell. […]
Why do we garden? Gardens are backdrops to every Arabian Night tale, crucial to Alice in Wonderland’s mysterious adventures, vital in some Shakespearean dramas. Whether it is a miniature nature corner in a city apartment or a famous estate designed for an emperor or a queen, the garden is a symbol of something internal and eternal in each of us. Ideally, of course, the whole world is our garden. But it’s also one of the most personal, daily aspects of our lives.
WriteSpa – An Oasis for Writers If you’ve read as many fairy-tales, fables, stories as I have, you’ll know that making a wish is not as simple as it may at first appear. The magic lamp must be used with care. The generous flounder does its best to give the fisherman’s wife her heart’s desire, Read more about WriteSpa #16 – Make a Wish[…]
Ask anyone who knows me: I don’t much like contract killers (even if they have a hearts of bronze), or murderous midgets, bloodcurdling giants, gorgeous hit gals, or absurdly violent torture scenes. But I was enthralled by Lethal People, I couldn’t wait to get my hands on Lethal Experiment, and when John Locke asked if Read more about John Locke – Lethal Books[…]
For a couple of years I mysteriously received a daily musing in my inbox from a stranger. I did not know who Mark Kolke was, but I was captivated by his musings. He would set off every morning with his dog, Gusta, describe her wellbeing and the weather, and then launch into an intriguing, thought-provoking Read more about An E-zine for Eclectic Thinkers[…]
I was eighteen when I first moved to the United States after having lived abroad since I was two. Experiencing my first Thanksgiving here, I was cynical. Like the dubious celebration of Guy Fawkes Day in England, Thanksgiving seemed historical propaganda with little resonance of either spirit or nature. My cynicism increased over the years: Read more about Thanksgiving: Worship Privately, Rejoice Together[…]
Seventh graders have a rich emotional life which may leave them feeling inwardly chaotic. They are excited one moment, despairing the next; they are confident then miserably insecure; socially they swing from being best friends to sworn enemies. How to find balance?
During the November full moon – called Frost Moon, or Beaver Moon, and in some places (probably farther north) Snow Moon by some Native American tribes – a poet-friend and I decided to try to collaborate on a poem together. He lives near the beach in Florida and I live in the mountains of New Read more about Creating a Poem[…]
Santa Claus really does exist! When I was seven years old and my brother was eight, my parents took us on a seven-month-long freighter trip. The year was 1963-64, and that story is told in my mom’s book “Around the World by Mistake.” We spent that Christmas at sea, as our little freighter crossed the Read more about Santa Claus’s Secret Name[…]
Every Wednesday my (FREE) WriteSpa – an Oasis for Writers is sent out to subscribers. (You can sign up to receive this on my web site). This week’s topic is “Asking the Question.” From Parzival’s mysterious quest, to Hamlet’s despairing plea for meaning, to our every day encounters with fellow-travelers through life when we ask Read more about WriteSpa – Asking the Question[…]