Miriam Forster, of the charmingly monikered Dancing with Dragons is Hard on Your Shoes blog, has issued a challenge to writers (and readers!). It springs from an annual event sponsored by the American Library Association, called Banned Books Week. From the ALA site: Held during the last week of September, Banned Books Week highlights the [...]

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Some things are just too entertaining and… unclassifiable not to pass around. Hence: “Marcel the Shell with Shoes On.” [Hat tip to Eileen of Speak Coffee to Me, temporarily coming out of... well, you know.]

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This utterly breaks with the whiskey river Fridays tradition here. But the most recent post there seems to demand passing around among ourselves. From whiskey river: I had hardly begun to read I asked how can you ever be sure that what you write is really any good at all and he said you can’t [...]

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[The scene opens in the waiting room of Super Mega Giant medical center in a mid-sized city in northern Florida, USA. He is a middle-aged male, and has been for some time. This report includes two Shes: A, a medical assistant; and J, a nurse practitioner.] A: Mr. He? He: Right here. A: Very good, [...]

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From whiskey river (italicized portion): People don’t realize how much they are in the grip of ideas. We live among ideas much more than we live in nature… I think a person finally emerges from all this nonsense when he becomes aware that his life has a much larger meaning he has been ignoring — [...]

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[Alfalfa, of the Our Gang comedies, sings of his love for sweet little round-faced, soft-focus Darla. And yes, I know: the song title doesn't have that extra syllable in it. :)] Whom, exactly, do you try to impress? Note that I’m not asking about classes or groups of people. Most of us would like to [...]

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[Image of Fay Ray, by William Wegman (1988), found here, as well as elsewhere on the Web (e.g., Style Me to the Moon)] From whiskey river: My Hand See how the past is not finished here in the present it is awake the whole time never waiting it is my hand now but not what [...]

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['Super Powers,' by Mark Stivers. Click to view the full set of six.] Given a choice, I think the caption below my portrait — in ten words or less — would say something like writes brilliant stories one hour at a time*. (My Kryptonite: the Internet.) Yours? _______________ * Edit to add: Just to make [...]

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Every year around now, a large chunk of blogosphere real estate is turned over to posts, tweets, Facebook status updates, and Flickr albums about a gathering called BlogHer. As the conference title suggests, the focus in on women who blog — it’s apparently attended by a number of guys, as well — and for the [...]

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My review of this book is now up over at The Book Book. So is another reviewer’s, as of yesterday — and we’re just following on the heels of the first, from a year ago. Clearly a book that draws reviewers like flies! I liked the book very much although (as you can see from [...]

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