Morning Thank-yous

I didn't sleep well last night. Some kind of heartburn, that luckily I experience only rarely, kept jolting me awake, and water, an extra pillow, and antacid pills couldn't keep it still. So it is sometimes, these unexpected little annoyances of life, and today I am tired, and a bit frustrated with political machinations at...

Perfect Contradiction: a few gems from Alan Hollinghurst’s “The Line of Beauty”

Last week, I began reading Alan Hollinghurst's The Line of Beauty, a brilliant tour of Thatcher-era upperclass London, narrated in close third-person focus on unabashed gay hedonist Nick Guest. Although the window into Nick's world is undoubtedly fascinating, it is Hollinghurst's writing that I have been most entranced by. And that's what I'd like to...

Winter’s Approach, and Sexuality Week

This morning, Sunday, the frost has spread out over the land, licking up to the edges of the water, playing its spider-crystals from leaf to fence to the slippery road. Winter is on its way, and as the nights creep ever closer to the afternoon, with their wild jump forward at daylight savings time last...

Synecdoche & Metonymy: Figurative Language Bootcamp #3

This post is third in a series about figurative language. The first post in the series discussed simile, metaphor, and symbolism. Last week, we explored personification and zoomorphism. Today, we will drive on to the realm of some lesser-known cousins, synecdoche and metonymy. Synecdoche A subset of metaphor, synecdoche refers to a part of an...

Personification and Zoomorphism: Figurative Language Bootcamp #2

The menagerie of figurative language is large, unruly, a great joy to study. Last week, we explored its three most essential forms: simile, metaphor, and symbolism. Today, we reach forward to two more specific species: personification and zoomorphism. Personification Personification refers to any simile, metaphor, or symbol that lends human qualities to something nonhuman. In...

Simile, Metaphor, and Symbol: Figurative Language Bootcamp 1―#AuthorToolboxBlogHop

This post is part of October's #AuthorToolboxBlogHop event. Every month, save November and December, we post tips for writers on our respective blogs. Check out other great posts or join the hop yourself here! Figurative language: all those saying-something-we-don't-means, the hyperbole and understatement, bread and butter of the writer, or maybe just the cherry on...

The storm ongoing: stress and education

Today's post moves away a bit from writing. I apologize, even as I violate key blogger advice of "sticking to one's niche." In truth, this post is about what has been making it hard for me to do much writing recently, committed as I remain. Readers, I thank you for sticking with me. I can...

A Plotter Pantsing: what I’ve learned, and what I’m still trying to figure out

In Twitter's #WritingCommunity, the discussion of plotting and pantsing our stories is a common thread. Plotting, the careful outlining of a story before writing, and pantsing, the seat-of-our-pants, unplanned, accepting-what-comes creation of a story, each draws a crowd of strong adherents. Out foraging for mushrooms this week, we came across this beautiful chanterelle, late for...

Reading Bashō, remapping genre

Following the example of the ancient priest who is said to have travelled thousands of miles caring naught for his provisions and attaining the state of sheer ecstasy under the pure beams of the moon, I left my broken house on the River Sumida in the August of the first year of Jyōkyō among the...