by Cynthia Newberry Martin | Dec 23, 2008 | the day |
“It came without ribbons! It came without tags! It came without packages, boxes or bags!” “And he puzzled three hours, till his puzzler was sore. Then the Grinch thought of something he hadn’t before!” “Maybe Christmas,”...
by Cynthia Newberry Martin | Dec 19, 2008 | memoir, the day |
My desk this morning, instead of being covered with books and manuscript pages, is covered with Christmas lists. I wanted to make a post. But it was hard to draw my mind away from the unanswered questions and undone errands on my list–with the clock ticking. ...
by Cynthia Newberry Martin | Dec 16, 2008 | craft of writing |
Willa Cather’s The Song of the Lark Breaking it down, as they say. Taking a closer look. Some of the similes: Ray thinking about Thea: “She was like wedding cake, a thing to dream on.” Thea thinking about an older couple she had seen together: ...
by Cynthia Newberry Martin | Dec 15, 2008 | reviews |
Reading Willa Cather’s The Song of the Lark is like breathing in art, instead of air. It’s in the words chosen by the author, in Thea’s artistic pursuit of her voice (a lark, of course, known for its beautiful songs), and in Thea’s love of the...
by Cynthia Newberry Martin | Dec 14, 2008 | reviews |
I felt like I was reading in slow motion, floating along on the words of Willa Cather. The Song of the Lark is rich. The words paint pictures and hold you. Impossible to skip any. It’s one of the best books I’ve read all year. The full text is...
by Cynthia Newberry Martin | Dec 11, 2008 | Dani Shapiro, life |
This morning, as I found myself wishing for an ordinary day without any of the extra tasks brought on by the holidays, I came across this passage from D. H. Lawrence’s Women in Love: “Ursula often wondered what else she waited for, besides the beginning...
by Cynthia Newberry Martin | Dec 9, 2008 | continuous life, Dani Shapiro |
My favorite passage in Virginia Woolf’s Mrs. Dalloway: “Do you remember the lake? she said, in an abrupt voice, under pressure of an emotion which caught her heart, made the muscles of her throat stiff, and contracted her lips in a spasm as she said...
by Cynthia Newberry Martin | Dec 6, 2008 | my writing, stories |
My story, “Into the Woods,” appears in Storyglossia’s Issue 32, December 2008. Here’s how it starts: Georgia was putting Tyler’s baseball schedule into her computer when she heard the racing of a car’s engine, followed by the squeal of tires...
by Cynthia Newberry Martin | Dec 3, 2008 | first novels, reviews |
How do you tell a story? First sentence: “The man arrived after morning prayers.” The first paragraph goes on to paint the scene of that morning. “The man waited, and the boys watched…” The second paragraph drops back to explain: ...
by Cynthia Newberry Martin | Dec 1, 2008 | poetry |
Sunny and cold. The long, December shadows of bare trees run far away from the woods. So begins Ted Kooser’s short poem, “December 1.” In the fall of 1998, as he was recovering from cancer, Ted Kooser, still six years away from being the thirteenth...
