by Cynthia Newberry Martin | Feb 24, 2009 | craft of writing, details, novels, reading |
Here is the first sentence from Richard Russo’s novel, Empire Falls, for which he won the Pulitzer Prize in 2002: “The Empire Grill was long and low-slung, with windows that ran its entire length, and since the building next door, a Rexall drugstore, had...
by Cynthia Newberry Martin | Feb 22, 2009 | craft of writing, shapes, stories |
In 1985 Russell Banks wrote “Sarah Cole: A Type of Love Story.” It was first published in The Missouri Review, then in The Best American Short Stories 1985, then in The Angel on the Roof. You can also listen to it on a podcast. The first sentence: ...
by Cynthia Newberry Martin | Feb 18, 2009 | catching moments, Columbus GA, poetry |
Don’t allow the lucid moment to dissolve Let the radiant thought last in stillness though the page is almost filled and the flame flickers –Adam Zagajewski from Without End This is one of my favorite poems, the title of which is the first line. It’s...
by Cynthia Newberry Martin | Feb 14, 2009 | continuous life |
I am fascinated, and continue to find other writers who are fascinated, with the Russian doll aspect of life. With trying to get our minds around the fact that we are the same person who climbed out of a crib in the dark, who sat on one side of a see-saw at Spring...
by Cynthia Newberry Martin | Feb 10, 2009 | memoir |
Don’t you hate when this happens to one of your books? I ordered May Sarton’s Plant Dreaming Deep online. I was excited as I was pulling the book out of the padded envelope…only to find it had made its entire journey with the bottom right corner...
by Cynthia Newberry Martin | Feb 6, 2009 | Columbus GA, essays, obsession, Pam Houston, provincetown, shapes, truth |
When Georgia Heard was asked what one image she thought represented her life, she answered “layers,” clarifying “as in the Grand Canyon.” I would have to say houses, as in rows of identical ones. Georgia Heard wrote in Writing Toward Home,...
by Cynthia Newberry Martin | Feb 3, 2009 | craft of writing, journeys |
Do you ever have that thing where for some reason you notice a word and then it’s everywhere? In each of the books you’re reading. Somebody says it on TV. It’s on the first page of The New York Times. The person reading your novel uses it. Well,...
by Cynthia Newberry Martin | Jan 31, 2009 | craft of writing, details, novels, reading |
Dirt Music by Tim Winton is a character-rich, character-driven novel, with lots of plot and an equally strong sense of place. What a read! It’s written in short little unmarked sections–little moments that patch together the characters of Georgie Jutland...
by Cynthia Newberry Martin | Jan 28, 2009 | Columbus GA, the day, truth |
Pat Conroy, a large white-haired man, stood on a stage in front of a seated crowd last night in Columbus, Georgia. He’s the author of The Prince of Tides and Beach Music (my favorites), and he was the speaker at a black-tie dinner honoring a local doctor. ...
by Cynthia Newberry Martin | Jan 26, 2009 | life, reviews, truth |
I made it. Quit my legal career when I was pregnant with child number three and sick, falling more and more behind on everything with each tick of the clock. For whatever reason, there was no voice, from inside me or from anywhere else, encouraging me not to...
