I have been working with one of my students on African American poetry. Interesting facts I’ve learned about Frederick Douglass: 1) He was considered one of the most highly regarded African Americans in the 19th century. 2) He was a brilliant writer, speaker, social reformer, and statesman. 3) He was 1/2 white. His father was…
Tag: writing discipline
Our Flawed Selves
Today, while helping one of my students, I read several poems by Vievee Francis, who I have mentioned before on my blog. Her book Blue-Tail Fly is a series of persona poems about various figures ranging from before the Mexican American War until after the Civil War. One of those characters is Abraham Lincoln. One…
Pann’s Restaurant – A Destination of Choice
Pann’s Restaurant – home of fried chicken wings and waffles – was featured in the film Pulp Fiction. I love that film and I love Pann’s. We often go there when we’re taking someone to LAX to fly out since it’s right on the way. Pann’s has been around for over 50 years and is…
My 401st Post and a Big Thank You
Switch Sexes and You Have My Current Life This is my 401st blog post, which seems amazing to me. I began this process a little more than a year ago to see how 20 Minutes a Day of writing might be helpful to my writing process. I would say so far it’s proving to be…
Family Day from 6 am – 10 pm
Here is a picture of my Utah family. We are all tired after a very full day. We got up early and went to volunteer at the homeless breakfast. That was from 6 – 10. Later, half of the group went to the Petersen Auto Museum while the other half stayed home (my group) and…
A Delicious Holiday Cookie Recipe
Today we made honey-sweetened orange cookies. They are cake-like with a cream cheese frosting. I highly recommend them. We made one batch and they were gone almost as soon as they came out of the oven. We have a request to make a double batch tomorrow. Of course, we used fresh oranges from our orange…
The End of a Busy, Happy Day
I’m sitting here with our guests – or at least the ones who are still awake – Liz; boyfriend, Ron; Ron’s friend, Kevin; my niece-in-law, Karri; and Ray. A Food Network show is on television and we’re all sitting around telling jokes – mostly off-color – and laughing. Our Thanksgiving dinner was a resounding success….
Last Minute Work While Awaiting Our Guests
I am sitting with my student, Madison, and we are both having trouble writing today. It is, after all, the day before Thanksgiving and there are so many more interesting pursuits that we both could be doing. Still, we only have one hour together today before the celebration begins so I’m using this time to…
Long Day of Work and Anticipation
The dogs are barking outside. It is 9:43 pm and I have no idea who or what they are responding to. I am tired. I started today at 6 am, was cooking by 6:30. Pumpkin in the oven followed by yams. It’s tough when you just have one oven. Rachael came yesterday and we cut…
My Love Affair with the LA Phil
I am in love with the LA Phil. Today we went to Disney Hall in downtown LA for an open house. Here is Disney Hall: We got a back stage tour of the hall – something I’ve really wanted to do since I’ve been curious what behind the scenes looked like for the LA Phil…
20 Minutes a Day 