Happy New Year, my friends. I hope you have a great upcoming year. Thank you for being supporters of my blog and my writing. I appreciate your time and your attention to 20 Minutes a Day. I look forward to spending more time with you in 2016. I have no idea where the year will…
Category: Reflections on Writing
The 21 Best Things I Did in 2015
Upon reflection, here are twenty-one of the best things I did in 2015. These are in no particular order. I just want to remember what I did that brought me happiness this year. 1) Spent a day a week with my granddaughter. This might top the list as “best” since this lovely child has been…
Happy News
My student Oona Oglesby received the word tonight that she has been accepted to Bard College based solely on the Bard Exam. The Bard Exam consists of four scholarly essays of no less than 2500 words in science, philosophy, literature and art. Hours of work to produce four thought-provoking essays, but clearly well worth the effort….
An Interview – If Someone Asked About My Life (Con’t)
Yesterday I wrote about the earlier part of my life, my husband and family. Today the focus is on my writing life. Again, this topic is inspired by a college essay prompt that one of my students was writing on: interview yourself. Here’s the second part: Tell me about your writing. I began to write…
A Heavy Work Week Ahead
I am helping a student with the Bard exam. This includes four 10 page essays on art, literature, science and philosophy. If the student makes a B+ or higher, then they receive an automatic acceptance to Bard College in New York. My student and I are reading Tolstoy, Galileo, Kant, and more. We are both…
Highly Recommended: M.E. Neidhardt’s Fantasy Novel: Abysmal Canyon
My old friend, M.E Neidhardt, has written and published a highly entertaining young adult fantasy novel entitled, Abysmal Canyon. I can highly recommend this book to any fantasy lover. There is intrigue, romance and a plot that will keep you guessing. You can buy is for a trifle on Amazon ebooks at http://www.amazon.com/Abysmal-Canyon-Crossworlds-Science-Fantasy-ebook/dp/B014C2UTP2. Learn more…
What’s Good about “Six Feet Under”
Ray and I are down to the last four episodes of the television series Six Feet Under, which aired from 2001 to 2005. (Yes, I know we are slightly behind the rest of the modern world.) I have a few thoughts on this series before I view these last episodes. I may not feel a…
Art of the Personal Essay
I visited the Beverly Hills library yesterday and found this book by Phillip Lopate, who is considered one of the top American essayist of our time. This is an anthology of wonderful essays spanning from ancient times to the present with writers as varied as Seneca to Joan Didion. I love the form of the…
Feeling Heartened
I am in Week Two of my “Writing Short” class that I am teaching for Story Circle Network and I just have to say how much I am enjoying this experience. I have taught this class many times over these past several years and each time, there is a wonderful coming together of personalities and…
Handwriting versus Typing on a Keyboard
I am an excellent typist. I mean I can zip around a keyboard like nobody’s business. This is all thanks to learning to type on a typewriter in high school. We had actual typing classes back then and I can type without once looking down at my fingers. Yep, I am pretty good at that….
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