Writing about place, people, and whatever parts of the universe I'm lucky to see.
This month of school has galvanized my awareness of global heating like nothing before. It began with a presentation by an Australian member of staff about the bushfires still blazing, an impassioned plea that this is the world we are in. Changes are happening now, and not in a distant future. Changes are necessary and... Continue Reading →
Human languages glitter with variety. Rife with synonyms, recursive structures, nuances of tone and pronunciation--the ways we speak and write possess the subtlety of art. Today, we'll examine how sentence structure in English can be modified to bring our texts to life. Let's see. Linguistic Background Multilingual people often debate the merits of their languages.... Continue Reading →
I'm afraid a quick post today is all that I can manage. I've slept in late (9:44 the time reads now), and at 11:30 I'll head on down to campus for the Sunday study hall I lead, three meetings with students scheduled up, and a set of tests haranguing me for grades. It's also my... Continue Reading →
This post is part of the monthly #AuthorToolboxBlogHop, where you can find a great cadre of writers sharing wisdom, tips, and inspiration. Check out these great writers! One year ago this month, I tentatively made my first four short story submissions to literary magazines. I'd done a little research and spent a little time, but... Continue Reading →
I've never had jet lag this bad before. I lie down. My mind is racing. I follow where it goes and end up in some kind of loop. The wind is howling mad outside. I get up, read. It's four a.m. Yesterday, I finally fell asleep at six. I slept til noon. Why this time?... Continue Reading →
I wrote five letters of recommendation for students in the wake of Christmas. Five good students. Five iterations on a form. Five attempts to capture the standout. Five people to reflect upon. I'm not sure I've met a teacher who enjoys writing recommendation letters, although perhaps I just assume. We smile graciously when asked. "I... Continue Reading →
I nipped into the ceramics room during my free block the other day, flipped the kiln on so the temperature would show--24 degrees. I flipped it off. I'd left my two bowls at the bottom of the kiln, quick glazed them up last week after five hours of oral exams, until at last I could... Continue Reading →
I return today to a question that has arisen frequently on this blog, that nagging issue in fiction I've not yet been satisfied with my own answers to, that I feel like this week I've stumbled haphazard into a new idea about--today, let's circle back to that question of conflict. When I taught high school... Continue Reading →
Last week, I began reading Alan Hollinghurst's The Line of Beauty, a brilliant tour of Thatcher-era upperclass London, narrated in close third-person focus on unabashed gay hedonist Nick Guest. Although the window into Nick's world is undoubtedly fascinating, it is Hollinghurst's writing that I have been most entranced by. And that's what I'd like to... Continue Reading →
This post is third in a series about figurative language. The first post in the series discussed simile, metaphor, and symbolism. Last week, we explored personification and zoomorphism. Today, we will drive on to the realm of some lesser-known cousins, synecdoche and metonymy. Synecdoche A subset of metaphor, synecdoche refers to a part of an... Continue Reading →
Jimmy Kindree 