I write like I play Scrabble: A feature story is only as good as the interview that precedes it, like a game is only as good as the letters you draw. But you have to make the best of what you have whether you’re playing Scrabble or writing a story. I write like I play […]
Writing is elemental. Once you have tasted its essential life, you cannot turn from it without some deep denial and depression. It would be like turning down water. Water is in your blood. You can’t go without it. ~ Natalie Goldberg When a dark thought or a growing insecurity wakes me in the middle […]
New Year’s Day 2010: I like a simple life, when a lunch made from scratch and a walk to the mailbox are the highlights of the day. When I’m free to drop what I’m doing to photograph swirling shapes of steam coming off a freshly poured cup of tea illuminated by afternoon sun. I like […]
I drove way out into what seemed like no man’s land, to Camp Powhatan in Hiwassee Virginia, on Saturday. I went there to do a story on Camp Treehouse, a day camp hosted by hospice for kids who have recently had a death in their family. I wasn’t there for five minutes when a woman […]
That question came to mind as I realize that I’ve been in a bathing suit exactly one time so far this summer. As I ponder the weeds and bugs in my garden and feel shocked that my dying pumpkin plants have revealed big orange pumpkins so early in August. As I ignore cleaning the kitchen […]
I write because it’s the way I synthesize what I’m learning at the time. I write because I hate to lose things and writing them down is a way not to lose them. I write because on a good day, my pen is like a dowsing stick that finds a well of meaning I can […]
I was feeling overwhelmed and in a funk, looking for receipts to send to our tax accountant that would show my writing expenses. I didn’t want to pay unnecessary taxes on the modest amount I earned writing this year, which in some cases (when I match time spent against pay scale) I was underpaid for. […]
I write poetry by ear like a musician who doesn’t read notes can still play music. ~ Colleen Some people make quilts, stitch blocks of designed fabric together. Others mix colors and paint. The theme of my creative life has been finding my voice and using it through speech and the written word. Considering that, […]
Writing is a struggle between presence and absence. Inspiration enters at the border between hard work and laziness. ~ Lu Ji Joe: Did you get your new story sketched out yet? Colleen: Sometimes a great first line will come on its own and I can jump off from there. But if that doesn’t happen I […]
The following was published in The Floyd Press on November 13, 2008. Floyd County Moonshine is described on the publication’s MySpace page as “Floyd’s first Literary and Arts Magazine.” Its editor, Aaron Moore, is a graduate of Floyd County High School, Radford University, and is currently a graduate student of Literature at Florida State University. […]
I. A couple of weeks ago I laid my husband’s yoga mat out in the middle of the yard at night and stretched out on it to do some stargazing. Watching the night sky made me feel timeless, vast and minute at the same time. Then, the phrase WE PUT STARS IN POEMS popped into […]
I’ve recently been involved in a self-study of Billy Collins. Here are some of his comments and advice on writing poetry that resonate most with me, collected from interviews found online: ~ Poetry is the most ancient form of human expression, and it forms the only true history of human emotion. ~ Part […]
