I need a critique group. I need the imposed discipline. I need the conversation. I need the support. But mostly, I need the brutal truth about my writing. I don’t want, “oh that’s really good.” Or, “I like this.” What I want is––”no, you used that same word five times on the same page,” or,…
Whovians
Wow. Fifty years, seems like too long a period of time and still wow! I love stories about how we came to have post-it notes from 3M. Or how cranberry juice overcame the faux cancer scare of the 1950s to become a product that is on the shelves 365 days per year. The business person…
History
History, the word, has a sort of panoramic ring to it, covering whole epochs, defining eras, labeling ages. At least the history I grew up with was papered over with dates and places, impacts on countries and peoples, all very Charlie Brown’s I love mankind, it’s people I hate attitude. A phrase I repeat often is Memory is…
Language and Labels
Language can be obtuse. Labels can be insidious. There was a time, at the beginning of the last century, after what was thought to be the ‘war to end all wars’, when we thought we could work together as sovereign nations. That was when President Woodrow Wilson came up with the idea of a League…