Author: deborahb
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Alan Ball on creation
Was lucky enough to attend the Alan Ball interview at the Opera House tonight. He’s a warm, funny man & down to earth, surprised, I think, by the event & the crowd. I thought: this is what you get when you talk to a real writer, that acknowledgement of how hard won the successes are,…
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Cultural Stealth Wars
Mark Twain Home, An Anti-Imperialist, New York Herald [New York, 10/15/1900] I left these shores, at Vancouver, a red-hot imperialist. I wanted the American eagle to go screaming into the Pacific. It seemed tiresome and tame for it to content itself with the Rockies. Why not spread its wings over the Philippines, I asked myself?…
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Frederick Karinthy, Soliloquies in the Bath
Oh, this short story is marvellous! I must track down more of this Karinthy fellow. Apparently he also came up with the ‘six degrees of separation’ idea. Brilliant! Digging up diamonds in my latest digital spring clean.
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Blog aggregators
Does anyone have a recommendation on a blog aggregator? Trying out both Google Reader & Bloglines at the moment. Google Reader appears to be winning, on account of being easier to manage.
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The best readings are not readings
Loving this article (for real, I’ve read it twice) on how to have good & bad author readings. Sez Michael H. Miller of the New York Observer, A good reader is either a natural performer, or knows how to throw a party. Think I originally pilfered the link from Ms Girlie Jones? My favourite writer’s…
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One day’s freedom: Dani Shapiro
Dani Shapiro writes about freedom – both examples-from-life freedom and Freedom, the software product that lets you temporarily block internet access so you have the freedom to write: “I have a piercing nostalgia for the places in which I used to write. A small room on the top floor of an old building on the…
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Kaaron’s spark
AND I’ve been forgetting to mention the marvellous inspiration of Kaaron Warren’s Sparks series. I love Kaaron’s energy & optimism, & was proud to be invited to be one of the writers discussing story sparks over at Kaaron’s blog.
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Flowers and candy and other rewards of the business
Ask a roomful of successful authors why they decided to write and not one of them will answer “for the money,” any more than a hooker would say she chose her profession “for the flowers and candy.” — Paul Carr, “Mr. Swift’s Moronic Proposal: Ebooks Will Keep Writers from Writing“, The Awl And this…