Finished another journal
I started writing in journals, at least more regularly, when I started at Bowling Green State University as a freshman. So I’m not surprised that I am starting a sixth notebook after four years. What surprises me is that I started the fifth journal near the end of June this year. It barely lasted six weeks. Then again I am making more of an effort to write in it everyday because of the morning pages in the Artist’s Way course, and I seem to write 4-7 pages instead of three.
Newspaper Blackout by Austin Kleon
Finished reading “Newspaper Blackout” by Austin Kleon. For examples of blackout poems, click here.
I took a pamphlet I purchased in New Orleans and had a blackout poetry contest with my friend. We sat down with three pages of text and a marker. She finished first. Still, it was fun to look at a sea of words and not read them in the order the author intended but instead search for a word that could follow what came before.
This book has a great outline of the history of newspaper blackout and instructions on how to do it yourself. Give it a try!
Cataclysm Baby by Matt Bell
I finished reading Matt Bell’s “Cataclysm Baby,” published by Mud Luscious Press.
Some of my favorite quotes (too many to list here):
- Only my wife cries. Only the birds caw, flap their wings. Only again a howl of spoor, cigar stutter.
- Hidden away in my house, my sons now celebrate their success: This is how you start a dynasty, one says over family dinner, a meal eaten behind blackout curtains, barricaded doors.
- I say, The end isn’t short, but long. And so always we must not rush, must be in no hurry.
- She says, In justice, we are divided, but in punishment, we are one.
Check out Matt Bell’s website here.
The Letter Project–Letter to Theresa
This is a letter I wrote to Theresa, sharing the creative process of my current novel.
A Letter from F. Scott Fitzgerald
I noticed this letter from F. Scott Fitzgerald to Frances Turnbull on a friend’s Facebook.
“You’ve got to sell your heart, your strongest reactions, not the little minor things that only touch you lightly, the little experiences that you might tell at dinner. This is especially true when you begin to write, when you have not yet developed the tricks of interesting people on paper, when you have none of the technique which it takes time to learn. When, in short, you have only your emotions to sell.”
The Letter Project–Letter from Whitney
This is the letter I received from Whitney.
The Letter Project–Letter to Whitney
Check out the letter I wrote to Whitney.
New Sourdough Recipe and more!
I’ve made Sourdough bread a couple of times before, and in one of my new cookbooks I found a slightly different starter. So I tried it.
Isn’t it beautiful?
And I made snickerdoodle cookies for the first time.
Most of them were eaten before I took this photo.
Ever since I saw this video, I’ve wanted to make the brownies. I finally got to them, and they are so delicious. Can’t really beat homemade.
Happy 4th of July!
Happy 4th of July everyone! I like to watch “National Treasure” to celebrate. And the fireworks.
One Year Anniversary!
Well, folks, it’s been one year since I started this blog. Check out the first post here.
In that year I’ve graduated from college and changed apartments. I completed NaNoWriMo for the third year in a row, this time with a sprained finger. I finished the second draft of my novel, and I’m working on the third. With three poems published and letters written to Theresa, Melanie, and Whitney, I would say the past year has been successful.
Suzanna and Writing 