Tonight was the fourth and final class of my second go in Gish’s “Writing Short Stories” course, and it was most enjoyable because each classmate got to take some time to both talk about why they wrote the story they ended up writing for class, and sharing portions from those stories. And there were...
Read more →After the whirlwind Wisconsin trip this weekend, I enjoyed going to the third class of Gish’s Short Story writing workshop. The more time I spend around him in that class, the more I realize how little I know about so many aspects of writing, and particularly in its technical dimensions. Gish is great at...
Read more →It was a pleasure to start another four week course with Robert Gish at UNM Continuing Ed tonight. I wrote a little about Robert before when I took this class with him a first time. The class is on short story writing- some theory and some practicum. Robert is a Ph.D., but above that,...
Read more →When Clairabelle was born, her father, Joseph Merritt More, or “Hammer” as his gang called him, was drinking Schlitz with the boys down at the Regal Bowling Alley. He was bowling a 212 average entering his third game of the evening and he didn’t think once about his gal Sassy being pregnant, or in...
Read more →I regularly experience in my writing process that if, say, I tell myself I want to write a short story, I’ll have a quick clear thought about what it should be. In my head I see a character have an experience, and they are changed. BAM! There it is! The automatic short story is...
Read more →When I joined the GoodReads book community a few years back, I discovered the website’s Reading Challenge app at one point, and decided when the new year rolled around, I would hop in and set a goal. Basically, GoodReads lets you set a goal of how many books you are going to read within...
Read more →
It’s been a mixed bag today. It was warm out and the sky was blue this morning, and then it grew colder and gray as the afternoon advanced. I came home from work and turned on the gas fireplace so the cats could curl up in front of it, and then I sat down...
Read more →I finished a volume of Steinbeck’s early short stories yesterday, The Long Valley, and as usual, was overwhelmed at his careful development and delivery of each story (highly recommend!). I am always stuck in the giant empty room of my mind when it comes to actually thinking of topics. His stories are rich in...
Read more →