My Writerly Life

Tag: Introspection

  • DISCOVERING SHAKESPEARE

    Like many people, I suspect, I was slow to embrace Shakespeare. In fact it did not happen until the senior year of my BA in Literature, when I had no choice. Fortunately, my instructor was the head of the department and a Shakespeare scholar. As a result of her forced immersion, I now include a…

  • CITY MOUSE & COUNTRY MOUSE

    Years back, I was living just down the road from my cousin—the inspiration for the lead character in my novel, WRANGLE. The blogsite, Women Writing the West, was kind enough to print this post about Sharon’s ranching life, and I’m sure they would not object to a reprint: My cousin Sharon McAmis was the inspiration…

  • SURRENDERING TO POETRY

    Poetry was once a major literary form, but has faded from popularity in a world of impatient, busy people who write in emojis. Now imagine trying to get college freshmen to slow down and dig through the elevated language and hidden meanings and to stop and absorb the poem’s emotional gifts. As an instructor, I…

  • FROM CAIRO TO TEXAS

    As a former journalist, I am interested in the career of others in the profession—and that of Lawrence Wright has confounded me for some time. Why does the author of the internationally acclaimed book, The Looming Tower, choose to write two politically charged books on Texas in later years? That strikes me as a strange…

  • HARDING: THIS OTHER EDEN

    Paul Harding roared onto the literary scene in 2010 by winning the Pulitzer for his first novel, Tinkers—a beautiful work of art marked by its rhythmic prose reflective of his musical background. Harding’s third novel, This Other Eden, certainly maintains his reputation for lyrical, complex writing that forces you past the surface plot into deeper…

  • THE CRAFT OF WRITING

    Let me start with an admission that no writing conference would dare ask me to lecture because I am far too blunt with young writers. The average conference wants every kind of budding author to come, enjoy, return; I want to share the truth about the rigors of our craft. I have this firm belief…

  • ROSSETTI’S GOBLIN MEN

    Almost 30 years ago I came upon a tiny “gift book” containing Christina Rossetti’s 567-line ballad Goblin Market, illustrated by the art of her brother Dante Gabriel Rossetti. Back then I was a businesswoman, years removed from my early college classes in English literature, so I did not tend to “analyze” my reads quite so…

  • GET BACK ON THE HORSE

    Because of my Texas beginnings, I suppose, I have this fascination with westerners who have a rural or ranching background, move out and up in the city environment, but retain their love for and lessons learned in their beginnings—and I often write about western women. When Betty Sue Morris was a young girl, she was…

  • SEBASTIAN BARRY’S SPATE OF WORDS

    It is difficult to explain why I like Sebastian Barry’s mournful Booker Prize-nominated On Canaan’s Side better than his current Booker-nominated Old God’s Time, and why all his other lauded works fall somewhere in between, but let me start by saying that Barry is masterful at the craft of writing. In the past I have…

  • IT ALL STARTED WITH GOLDIE RIPPER

    Hello everyone, and welcome to my blog, “My Writerly Life,” which pretty much encapsulates my nearly 84 years. I hope you will read along and perhaps “Follow” my weekly posts, and share your own reading habits and inspirations. I was not born knowing I was a writer, but I was an inveterate reader from a…