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...
by Cynthia Newberry Martin | Jan 22, 2009 | craft of writing, Dani Shapiro, reviews, time |
Starting with the prologue, in which the narrator calls on the spirit of Vladimir Nabokov, time is everywhere present in Dani Shapiro’s Fugitive Blue. I read the novel in January of last year so time is playing with me and my memory as well. “Nabokov did...
by Cynthia Newberry Martin | Jan 20, 2009 | essays, reading, the day |
Sunrise Miami Beach. The dawning of a new day. On the front page of yesterday’s New York Times was the headline, “From Books, New President Found Voice.” In case you missed it, here are some of the highlights. Michiko Kakutani wrote that Mr....
by Cynthia Newberry Martin | Jan 18, 2009 | reading |
Well, you can only read one book at a time, right? Maybe not. There’s the book I’m reading. That for me is the one I take to bed at night. The one I read after dinner. It’s the book I want to read just because I do–for fun. Right now that...
by Cynthia Newberry Martin | Jan 14, 2009 | reviews |
One of my favorite things about William Faulkner’s Light in August is the language. His use of repetition is soft and alluring and draws the reader in. “He stepped from the dark porch, into the moonlight, and with his bloody head and his empty stomach...
