One of the most common pieces of advice given to writers is “Write!” Another is “Read!” I’m currently reading Save the Cat, by Blake Snyder, which is a book aimed at screenwriters, but applies to fiction writers in general. It’s interesting to see the techniques screenwriters use to create their characters and scenes without any [...]
Archive for December, 2008
20 Dec
Too many cooks = momma’s day off
While I’ve never gone to culinary school, I do know two things about it. First, you cook with the very best ingredients. Second, there are only invisible, non-existent calories there. Two daughters are home for the holiday, and K, my culinary student, has volunteered to teach her sister B all about cooking. They’ve made a [...]
15 Dec
The greatest gift
Civilization is a wonderful thing. Every so often we venture from our small town where the locals’ idea of foreign food is Taco Bell and Guido’s Pizza, to a “real” place. You know, the kind of city with lights for miles at night, real shopping malls, and diversity? I had such an opportunity this weekend, [...]
11 Dec
‘Tis the season
I bet over the years I’ve gone to 100 holiday concerts. Some were mine, as a child. Some of my favorites then were the ones at Euclid Senior High, where old chorus director Sam Taylor taught the Hallelujah Chorus, from Handel’s Messiah, and each year any alumni in the audience came on stage to sing [...]
9 Dec
It’s aboot the cheese, eh
I’m really looking forward to several visits from family and near-family over the holidays, including a first from the charming Canadian host of our stay in Toronto. He and B will be here for Christmas–i.e. he can meet the whole clan and decide if he ought to bail before it’s too late– and it will [...]
7 Dec
(Broken) Home for the holidays
A phenomenon many divorce attorneys encounter each year between mid-November and January 2 is the sudden drop-off of clients and client activity. Yes, ladies and gentlemen, it’s the holiday lull, the last-ditch effort to grasp the fast-fading warm feeling of family or at least the rational attempt to try to preserve the illusion that ‘everything [...]
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