by Cynthia Newberry Martin | May 12, 2009 | life, reading, the day |
Hey, do you remember in elementary school when there would be paper drives? You’d go around to your neighbors’ houses, maybe with your little brother’s red wagon, to collect all the newspapers they had. Well, I was thinking we’d have a comment drive. To collect all...
by Cynthia Newberry Martin | May 10, 2009 | life, the day, truth |
My husband and son just left the house to take his mother (my son’s grandmother) to church and to lunch. I declined. It is, after all, Mother’s Day. As the mother, I should get to choose what I want to do. And I still choose what I began choosing that...
by Cynthia Newberry Martin | May 7, 2009 | craft of writing, memoir, memory, reviews, time |
Frank Conroy was the director of the Iowa Writers Workshop for 18 years. He was also a writer himself, the author of 5 books, including the “classic memoir” Stop-Time. He died of colon cancer in 2005 at the age of 69. “My faith in the firmness of...
by Cynthia Newberry Martin | May 4, 2009 | poetry |
On the evening of April 14th, I attended a reading at the Sacramento Poetry Center. It was a cold night in California. Bright colorful blankets were provided–such a nice cozy touch. Perhaps all poetry readings should include blankets. Anyway, the reading was by...
by Cynthia Newberry Martin | Apr 29, 2009 | catching moments, craft of writing, memory, reviews |
“We weren’t really stealing them…But we call it stealing to make it more exciting.” Per Petterson is a writer who can stand inside a moment, turn in a circle and look up and down until there is no inch of that moment left unexplored. Mary...
by Cynthia Newberry Martin | Apr 27, 2009 | life, time |
The Russian Doll Aspect of Life: I am the same person who liked to play with Troll Dolls in third grade, tried out for cheer leading in ninth, worked as a waitress in college, lived in France, and practiced law. All of these “me’s” are difficult for...
by Cynthia Newberry Martin | Apr 26, 2009 | accumulation |
Perhaps one of the reasons I’ve been so taken with Tender is the Night is that the things Fitzgerald writes about are also the things I’m interested in. In this two-part post (a finale in the sense that I’ll be moving on to another book after part 2...
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by Cynthia Newberry Martin | Apr 23, 2009 | craft of writing |
Apparently on a little F. Scott Fitzgerald kick… The first novel he submitted to Charles Scribner’s Sons was rejected. Erika Willett writes, “Beginning a pattern of constant revising that would characterize his writing style for the rest of his...
by Cynthia Newberry Martin | Apr 20, 2009 | craft of writing, reviews |
75 years ago this month, Tender is the Night was published. In a friend’s copy of the book, Fitzgerald inscribed the following: “If you liked The Great Gatsby, for God’s sake read this. Gatsby was a tour de force but this is a confession of...
by Cynthia Newberry Martin | Apr 18, 2009 | accumulation, journeys |
I have no trouble packing in a carry-on for a weekend trip, even a 3-day weekend. But until a few weeks ago, I’d never packed in a carry-on for a week-long trip. My husband suggested I try it. Well, I knew it could be done. I’d seen other people do it. I...
