Roget’s Thesaurus. Ah, heaven. I try my best to educate my students on the necessity of having a hard copy of this three-inch thick book around if they are truly interested in writing. After all, when we’re stumped for just the right word, they see me stand up and head to my bookcase. “It’s time…
Tag: writing discipline
Out of Balance
Am I the only one? I can not seem to balance my life to save my life. And I do mean literally. I don’t know if the Puritan work ethic was injected in my veins at birth or if I just lost the ability to engage in leisure time activities somewhere along the way, but…
Similes: Trickier Than You Think
“Similes: Trickier Than You Think” isn’t exactly a title that brings most people running to read a blog post. Dear Lord, you might think, just how wacky has this poor woman gotten that she is now worrying herself silly about the difficulty of a simple figure of speech? Dear, dear, the poor thing needs a…
Flash Essay: Pasta Making Party & Recipe
Tonight we had friends over for a pasta making party. I made the pasta dough in advance so it could “rest” at least 30 minutes before our friends arrive. Plus, I had the marinara sauce, turkey and chicken sausages, broccoli and chocolate cake with cream cheese frosting all ready (our friends were bringing bread and…
Flash Essay: A Honey-Sweetened Chocolate Cake with a Secret Ingredient
A chocolate cake I like to make has a secret ingredient: mayonnaise. The recipe comes from the Cake Bible, and I’ve made it several times. It’s delicious. We don’t eat refined sugar, so I substitute one cup of honey for the one cup of sugar. Other than that, it’s the same and makes a very…
Flash Essay: Thunderstorm on a Sunday Afternoon
Thunderstorms. Texas is famous for them. This afternoon the sky grew gray off to the west, and in a short time the wind picked up and the smell of rain was in the air. I barely had time to go across the street and retrieve the dogs from their play date with our neighbors’ beagle…
Flash Essay: No Fun Tonight
Saturday night. Sick. Yuck. Woke up this morning feeling too tired after so many hours of sleep. Then intestinal woes hit me and I’ve been limping ever since. Party tonight and I’m at home with the dogs. I just didn’t feel like going. Think I’ll head back to bed. Just want to rest. My body…
Flash Essay: Lots of Driving and Another Building Project
We are now back in Texas. We left LA at 3 pm on Wednesday, drove to Flagstaff, AZ, arriving at 1:30 am, then left the next morning, arriving in Sherman at 3:30 am. this (Friday) morning. That seems like a long time and a lot of driving. And, of course, it was. We are only…
Flash Essay: Men and Women: Brain Differences
Just this morning my husband Ray said, “I don’t like Mozart. I feel as if he was just writing to get paid.” In contrast, he adores Mahler, who poured his emotions and life into his compositions while Mozart (in the same school with Beethoven) wrote some of his happiest music when he was in the…
Flash Essay: The Fun of Writing Personal Essay
I just completed teaching an online course for Story Circle Network entitled, “Writing the Personal Essay.” The course was five weeks long and each week the students were assigned reading material on a different type of essay, then required to write that type of essay by the end of the week. Just so that we…
20 Minutes a Day 