by Cynthia Newberry Martin | Apr 13, 2009 | Columbus GA, journeys, Pam Houston, place |
It’s writing group week at Point Reyes, California–nine of us here (several in absentia) with Pam Houston. We arrived Thursday night at the Old Point Reyes Schoolhouse Compound for a dinner of fish stew. We come from all over the country–from...
by Cynthia Newberry Martin | Apr 9, 2009 | catching moments, journeys, place, the day |
Last night around 10:15, I was driving into San Francisco and fireworks were going off across the bay. I got a little lost, but my gps saved me. Around eleven pm, I was crossing the Golden Gate Bridge. Amazing. Today, a gray day in Sausalito, I found a small,...
by Cynthia Newberry Martin | Apr 6, 2009 | journeys, place, reading |
It’s a blustery day in Seaside, Florida, a town many of you may know from the movie The Truman Show. I was taking a quick break from Tender is the Night for a fun beach read, The Sunday Wife by Cassandra King, which takes place in Seaside and the surrounding...
by Cynthia Newberry Martin | Apr 2, 2009 | Columbus GA, first novels, place |
“The first days of April were windy and warm. White clouds trailed across the blue sky. In the wind there was the smell of the river and also the fresher smell of fields beyond the town.” from The Heart is a Lonely Hunter by Carson McCullers Carson...
by Cynthia Newberry Martin | Mar 30, 2009 | Pam Houston, time |
A second works fine for me as a second. A minute works as a minute. After all, they’re so short, what should we expect. And a day works as a day. Long enough. At the end of one, I’m ready for it to be winding down. But an hour, that’s where it...
by Cynthia Newberry Martin | Mar 27, 2009 | craft of writing, novels, reviews |
Before and After by Rosellen Brown was published in 1992. I read it in August of 2006 and gave it to everyone I knew for Christmas. It’s about a marriage and a family. It’s narrated in alternating chapters primarily by the husband and wife, Ben and...
by Cynthia Newberry Martin | Mar 24, 2009 | obsession |
There’s something about the wash hanging outside a window that pulls me toward it–almost like the feeling I have for row houses. “The task of finding your key images is lifework,” Georgia Heard wrote. Oddly, though, with the wash, it’s...
by Cynthia Newberry Martin | Mar 22, 2009 | catching moments, Dani Shapiro, journeys, place |
“Travel brings out my need for order.” Picturing the Wreck by Dani Shapiro Boarding passes, passports, confirmations. Scarves, coats, coffees, carry-ons. Phones, laptops, ipods, kindles. Chargers, adapters, converters. And then there are the liquids...
by Cynthia Newberry Martin | Mar 19, 2009 | Dani Shapiro, journeys, place |
From Le Sirenuse, a hotel in Positano, Italy, that, in the dark green leather stationary folder, includes a bookmark. Imagine that. In a place as beautiful as this, that tiny nudge to pick up a book and read. Only after I take in the bookmark do I move to its quote...
by Cynthia Newberry Martin | Mar 15, 2009 | catching moments, journeys, place |
“I’m so busy scribbling and crossing out I almost miss … More and more the moments come to me: how much can the right word do?” from “The Notebook” by Mary Oliver House of...
