by Cynthia Newberry Martin | Feb 27, 2012 | catching moments, place, provincetown |
This post is made possible by two friends: Jodi Paloni took these photos of the Days’ Cottages this winter, and Darrelyn Saloom recently taught me how to insert a slideshow into a blog post. Many thanks. This slideshow requires JavaScript. shuttered windows and...
by Cynthia Newberry Martin | Feb 24, 2012 | accumulation, reading |
I count how many books I read in a year, but I think I forgot to do that for 2010. So I just did: 50 books. About average for me. Then I counted the number for 2011–34 books. Way down. I was afraid of this. Since starting to work for The Writing Life section...
by Cynthia Newberry Martin | Feb 22, 2012 | craft of writing, details, novels |
Really? you might be thinking. More on The Forgotten Waltz? Yes, there’s more. Consider the following: …there was no doubt that we felt easier about the world, for the fact that our father was no longer in it. We loved him, of course, but we both knew that...
by Cynthia Newberry Martin | Feb 18, 2012 | craft of writing, novels |
Anne Enright The Forgotten Waltz Norton hardback 2011 On chronology: Still, I can’t be too bothered here, with chronology. The idea that if you tell it, one thing after another, then everything will make sense. (55) On how to write it so you see it: Aileen set...
by Cynthia Newberry Martin | Feb 17, 2012 | craft of writing, journeys, novels |
If you were to ask me to recommend a novel written in the first person, I would say Anne Enright’s The Gathering. I’ve read it twice and I’m thinking about reading it again. But I just finished her most recent novel, The Forgotten Waltz, and although...
by Cynthia Newberry Martin | Feb 8, 2012 | accumulation, catching moments |
I have a basket where I pile things that need to be done–bills, invitations, bank statements, receipts, hotel and airline confirmations, soccer schedules. Generally, the plan is that I go through it once a week. Well, there was Christmas, then Vermont, then a...
by Cynthia Newberry Martin | Feb 1, 2012 | How We Spend Our Days |
Annie Dillard wrote, “How we spend our days is, of course, how we spend our lives.” On the first of each month, Catching Days hosts a guest writer in the series, “How We Spend Our Days.” Today, please welcome writer Alan Heathcock: My day starts off by wrangling my...
by Cynthia Newberry Martin | Jan 31, 2012 | craft of writing, essays, Pam Houston, truth |
New essay by Pam Houston–now up at Hunger Mountain. Here’s the first paragraph: When I was four years old my father lost his job. We were living in Trenton, New Jersey at the time, where he had lived most of his life. With no college education, he had...
by Cynthia Newberry Martin | Jan 26, 2012 | catching moments, craft of writing, details, stories |
I want to slow things down. I was planning on writing a post on several stories in Alan Heathcock’s debut collection, Volt, but I think I’ll just look at the first story. “The Staying Freight”–I love the title–was first published in...
by Cynthia Newberry Martin | Jan 16, 2012 | journeys, mfa |
