There are hinges throughout the entire body. Not just the obvious ones—hips, elbows, knees—but the less obvious, too, shoulder blades, the vertebrae of the spinal column that lift and lower our ribs and that turn our upper body counter to our lower body (CBM). In fact, there are hundreds of hinges, named and unnamed. You […]
Reformed Self-Pubber back pedals
November 14, 2012 by
Today, I’m overwhelmed by the process and choices of ebook publishing. As book designer Joel Friedlander describes it, the process looks like an “out-of-control spaghetti party.” Doubt creeps in when I look at the number of romance, mystery, thriller, and erotic books on the do-it-yourself site.
My baby is none of the above. It’s literary mainstream. It doesn’t have too many adjectives and adverbs. The F word appears in it exactly 0 times. Hey, I better stop trying NOT to sell my book here. It’s titillating in other ways—ways that complex thinkers, literati, and others in the formerly rarefied air of publishing can appreciate. It’s lonely at the top.
OK, I’m coming back down now.
Memoir: Faithful Narratives are Boring
November 13, 2012 by
Nobel-prize winner, Eric Kandel talks about how the time we spend remembering far outweighs the time we spend living. Kandel describes two brains, two bodies—one that experiences and one that remembers. The one that remembers, according to Kandel’s research as I understood it, uses a different clock, one that is what I’ll call qualitative, as opposed to the clocks that measure precise seconds, minutes, hours. So for example: as a child my family spent anywhere between three and five days of each summer down the shore. But Down the Shore dominates the map of my memory, extends and flows over all else that happened during those three humid months. The rest of my childhood summers were spent longing or feeling restless (to escape NJ). Indeed, if I probe and look deeper, I find the other stuff.
What can writers learn from the presidential campaign?
November 11, 2012 by
Developing the “narrative,” staying “on message”—these are oft-used phrases in politics and in writing. Just as writers are advised to know their reader, politicians only stay in office if they speak to their constituents’ interests.
Self-Pub Skeptic reforms
November 11, 2012 by
After taking Carla King’s Self-Publishing Boot Camp. Her schedule is here, I fell down off my horse. Yes, I’ve been a skeptic for a long time, but I saw the light. If all goes according to plan within a week or so I should have my 2000 novel, The Last Cannoli (currently available only in hard copy) published as an eBook.
Yoga for Tango Dancers
October 30, 2012 by
MaryEllen Whitton & Camille Cusumano bring years of experience in yoga to help you get grounded in tango; stay balanced, stay on axis, transfer weight like a butterfly, breathe like a yogi, and find total relaxation in the dance. We’ll limber you up, calm you down, build your confidence. Namaste!
TEDx Does Tango
October 30, 2012 by
Many months ago, Todd, a young man from Manhattan called to gauge my interest in being part of a TEDx Talk—The Hero’s Journey (à la Joseph Campbell). He had read my book, Tango, an Argentine Love Story, and thought my tango journey fit the theme.
Memoir Writing/Study Workshop
October 17, 2012 by
Let’s look at memoir (creative non-fiction) through the back door deeply.
Memoirist, let the ‘dogs of narcissism’ in
September 27, 2012 by
Listening to Terry Gross last night interviewing J.R. Moehringer who is the author of the memoir Tender Bar, I was captured by his phrase—keeping “the dogs of Narcissism” at bay when writing his own memoir. He was explaining that when he ghost wrote the memoir for Andre Agassi he didn’t have that concern. He had […]
Tango, Internet Fraud
September 14, 2012 by
This is to alert tango teachers about Internet Fraud – yes, I fell for the scam until the last email below. Duh. The sender, “Jean” professes to be Greek. But when I got the first phone call—no doubt, Jean is a man and Nigerian. The scam’s been reported to the FBI and to another Internet fraud source. Jean still writes me.: