On October 11, I’m giving a one-hour talk called “Death to Jargon,” and I could use your help. In many ways this talk is just a condensed version of the workshop I’m teaching in November, “Writing for the Web.” For the “Death to Jargon” presentation, hosted by the Outagamie Waupaca Library System, I want to […]
I’ve been blogging every month at ALA Techsource for two years, and have decided it’s time to move on. Here’s my last post. It was a good run and I look forward to seeing where it goes (just as I was pleased to see Joe Janes step in as the Internet Librarian, a column I […]
I baked it just for you. As the title suggests (“Wikipedia’s Awkward Adolescence”), I tried to hit the middle ground; like Google and the Big O, Wikipedia isn’t going away any time soon, so I’d rather be constructive than dismissive, especially for a tool I use every day. Wikipedia is a hugely fascinating culture; to […]
I’m delighted to report that Nerve just published my essay, “Range of Desire. (No, that’s not me in the hot pants. I haven’t had a bottom like that in several decades.) Nerve has an excellent pedigree and has published essays by people I would like to be. (I’d really like to be Steve Almond. Not […]
A few lucky devils get to Be Writers, and have daily schedules neatly arranged into writing, a light lunch, and more writing, followed, I guess, by lovely evenings spent catching up on other writers’ output, whilst the house help brings you champers and oysters to keep the edge off. But the rest of us squeeze […]
White Crane, Summer 2007 Originally uploaded by freerangelibrarian The summer 2007 issue of White Crane arrived Friday afternoon, two days before my 50th birthday, and there could have been no better birthday present. In this issue is my first “literary” publishing effort, “David, Just as he was,” a portrait of my friend David Hummel, who […]
I tinkered with the feeds for this site yesterday (and also for the new church site). First, I installed Feedsmith, a Feedburner plugin which almost does what I want it to do. It redirects my main feed and my comment feed to Feedburner, and it also bundles my main feeds into one Feedburner feed, and […]
It has taken me a while to admit this — to really feel it in my bones — but what many writers say is true: the longer I do not write, the harder it is to begin writing again, and conversely, the more frequently I write, the faster and better I write, and the less […]
(Note: this review is based on an advance reader’s edition provided by the publisher through the LibraryThing Early Reviewers program. Per the publisher’s request, I do not quote directly from the uncorrected proof.) Mamas, don’t let your babies grow up to be math geeks. That is at least part of the message from Gifted, an […]
Tonight the Tallahassee Writers Association featured a talk about description by Janet Burroway, FSU writing prof and author of the classic textbook, Writing Fiction. I was cranky and had a pounding headache when I arrived, but Burroway engaged so wonderfully with her audience that I forgot all about the challenges of the day as she […]