Railing Against The Man

I was browsing LinkedIn this morning when I came across a Steve Chandler quote. (If you don’t know Steve, you really should.) It went something like this: Discipline has nothing to do with personality, it has to do with practice. In other words self-discipline...

Beautiful Language That Says Jack Shit

Lately, I’ve had my head in manuscripts just rife with purple prose. Purple prose, for those of you unfamiliar with the term, is writing that’s so extravagant, ornate, or flowery, it breaks the flow and draws excessive attention to itself. Purple prose is...

Advice To Writers

ADVICE TO WRITERS by Billy Collins from Sailing Alone Around the Room  (Random House) Even if it keeps you up all night, wash down the walls and scrub the floor of your study before composing a syllable. Clean the place as if the Pope were on his way. Spotlessness is...

On The Lighter Side

A post I wrote 7 years ago. When I was eleven, my mother signed me up for a weight loss class.  Having battled the bulge for years on end, she was alarmed when, at that awkward age, I, too, started piling on the pounds. So, every week we drove out to the local...

Relentless Pursuit Of A Dream

This is a guest post by Walt Hampton. A beautiful example of how one book can alter the course of a life. It had been a warm summer day in August of 1972. My father had purchased the book for me that morning in a Nantucket bookshop, the book that would change and...