Writing Exercise: Color List – Black
The month of March has crept up without me presenting a color list exercise yet, but here we go. I have one more color left, I think, and that's an easy one: black. For the uninitiated, the idea is to come up with ways to evoke black without mentioning the color itself since one of the challenges of writing effective [...]
On Having a Local Bookstore or Life after Borders
I've been cleaning up my desk (a highly overdue task) and came across this Borders bookmark. I was about to toss it in the recycling bin, when I stopped myself: "Wait a minute," I realized. "this is historic now. There aren't any more coming from where this came from." Namely, the Borders bookstore that was three blocks from where [...]
Reflections on a Year of Blogging
Nevada Road - see corresponding photo essay on wild horses What a ride it has been! I started this blog in January last year because I wanted to have a web presence as a writer, and a friend had recommended a blog as an easy way to do that. Little did I know that blogging would open up a whole new world. I had [...]
Writing Exercise: Color List – Purple
Since we already did red, which would also have been appropriate for February, the month of Valentine's Day, the color for this month is purple. At least there is some red in there. Purple is my daughter's favorite color (those are some of her clothes in the photo), so she helped me come up with the initial list here, [...]
Space Camp
Since I went with my two older kids when they were in 3rd and then 4th grade, a trip with my youngest, now in 6th grade, was overdue. So I booked us to go over New Year's, which seemed a good time to be traveling south.It's been a tradition in my family for me and one of our children [...]
Writing Exercise: Color List – White
Dusty Miller at the Lincoln Park Conservatory Even though there still is no snow outside here in Chicago, the color for this month is going to be white, perhaps because at this point I am really craving white! Snow, snow, snow! For the uninitiated, the idea is to come up with ways to evoke white without mentioning the color [...]