Thinking About Style

Maya Angelou with Bloomberg and Nadler in the background. This picture was taken as part of a government event, the commemoration of the African Burial Ground National Monument in New York City on October 5, 2007. Therefore it is in the public domain.

Thinking About Style

I am reading Copyediting and Proofreading for Dummies by Suzanne Gilad. I enjoy reading this kind of book. It is for my own entertainment. Writersinthesky mentioned it on Twitter. http://twitter.com/writersinthesky . Words fascinate me, especially written words.

Reading Copyediting and Proofreading For Dummies has made me think of some of the stylistic choices I make in writing this blog. I sometimes write my posts out longhand then type them up in Wordpad before posting them. I want to keep the process as simple as possible, so I don't use Wordperfect which has a grammar and spellchecker built in. This probably leads to more grammar and spelling mistakes. But, it also makes the style much more personal. There is a certain charm in not being quite perfect.

I realize that my grammar is not perfect. I try and focus on using grammar to provide clear statements about what I am writing about. I am not as much concerned about the finer technical points of grammar and structure. Like most bloggers, I don't have an assistant or editor to check what I am writing.

There are a few stylistic points which I would like to make. I don't indent paragraphs, instead, I put in a line break between paragraphs. I also break my posts into sections with headings that are bolded. I think this makes it easier for people to read my blog. I put in my own paragraph and line breaks using html.

I also write out the full url of any links which I put in. This is because of a style of web searching which called stripping. I like to see the whole url when I am going to a blog or website. This allows me to parse the url into sections; I can then use pieces of the url to go to different parts of a website. I also can use various search commands to find information about a website; the url command allows me to find all the pieces of a website, the link command allows me to find who is linking to a web site, and the document type at the end of the url allows me to search for specific types of documents attached to a specific website.

I try to include an image with each post I write. This is usually of something writing, publishing, or library related. I often use Wikimedia http://www.wikimedia.org/ ; or public domain image websites listed in Wikipedia. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Public_domain_image_resources . I try to use public domain images as much as possible.

Somtimes, I will include a Youtube video. This is usually something which is directly related to the post which I am writing about. For example if I am writing a review of a Neil Gaiman book, I might try and find a Youtube video of Neil Gaiman reading from the book which I am reviewing.

My writing is also not formal. I am not writing to have my work published in magazines. Although recently, I have submitted a book review to The Society of Midnight Wanderers, book reviews to the Book Review Blogcarnival, and to some of the Blogcatalog threads: http://www.blogcatalog.com/group/book-readers/discuss/entry/the-book-review-thread

I have also been picked up with links from several different authors for the reviews I have written. This is a link from Slow Train To Arcturus by Dave Freer and Eric Flint. http://davefreer.livejournal.com/#entry_82576

I may have to reconsider the formality of my writing style. David Henderson who wrote The Media Savvy Leader Visibility, Influence, and Results in a Competitive World sent me a copy of his book for reviewing purposes. I was very surprised and pleased with this. I also enjoyed the book a lot. http://twitter.com/davidhenderson

I am constantly trying to improve the quality of my writing. I don't mind if people criticize me for the content that I am writing. I want to improve considerably. This is one of the reasons I am reading Copyrighting & Proofreading for Dummies. I have read numerous other books on writing and reviewed a few of them here. One of my favorites was Writing Begins With The Breath by Laraine Herring. http://bookcalendar.blogspot.com/2008/10/writing-begins-with-breath-laraine.html

Style is of course a matter of personal taste.

Poetry, Afternoon Thoughts. Books to Film

A Book on a Plinth by a Rose Bush at the Ruins Simon Saint-Jean (1808-1860)

Poetry, Afternoon Thoughts

I finally finished reading Writing Begins With The Breath, Embodying Your Authentic Voice by Laraine Herring. I am not sure that I will ever be truly finished with this book. There are pieces of it that require me to do things which I haven't done yet, like write a novel. This would take me at least a year to finish. As part of the process, I of course wrote a few more poems.

I also revised the poem, The Green Dream because of this book. It still needs work. I think I'll slowly revise the poem into something unique.

Ego

Strip yourself to bones
Let your bones turn into dust
You are half way there

Flower

There is a clear plastic snowglobe
With a flower in it
A piece of flawless clear crystal
A flower painted on it
A living blooming red flower
In a small purple vase
It is a flower in my thoughts
A blooming red rose

Lost

I have lost my faith
Politicians, teachers, preachers, bigots, zealots
No longer hold me tight

I went to see the doctor this afternoon. I am finished with my bout of bronchitis. Now, I have to work on my diet and exercise. I have to lose a considerable amount of weight. I feel like one of those weight loss blogs making this statement. It is a rather bothersome idea, but I have to do it for my heart.

Books To Film

Ridley Scott plans to direct the film, The Forever War, a classic science fiction title by Joe Haldeman. http://www.guardian.co.uk/film/2008/oct/13/ridley-scott-forever-war Ridley Scott directed Blade Runner and Alien. This could possibly be the best science fiction film ever made if it is done correctly. I thought Blade Runner the directors cut was fantastic.

Tim Burton is currently directing Alice In Wonderland. It is a mix of live action and cgi animation. I am really looking forward to this. Johnny Depp is going to be the Mad Hatter.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alice_in_Wonderland_(2010_film)

Both of these are films which I definitely plan on seeing in the future.

Writing Begins With The Breath-- Laraine Herring-- Thoughts

Writing Begins With the Breath Embodying Your Authentic Voice by Laraine Herring

This afternoon, I sat drinking tea and eating almonds. I also was doing writing exercises from Writing Begins With The Breath. Each chapter is quite short and concise. In each chapter there are short easy body exercises to increase awareness; open and close your palms like a book, check your pulse, breathe in and out from your nostrils eight times on each side. They are easy things, but focused on paying attention.

At the end of the chapters are writing exercises. Maybe three or four of them. They are designed to get you to pay attention to different aspects of your writing; relationships, acceptance, empathy, body as source, ancestors as source, and many other topics. I have spent about an hour each day doing the exercises from a chapter. They dredge out emotions, feelings, and ideas many of them you didn't know you had. It has been both frustrating and enjoyable doing these exercises.

I write them out long hand on a folded in half piece of paper. This gives me four sections to write on. I don't keep a journal. I like to keep things jumbled together in a small pile. Among the responses, I include some poetry. These are not great poems. They are about my inner life. I have three more of them. Some would call them unplanned sloppy. In a way, they were written as part of a simple exercise.

Shadow

There is a shadow
It follows me everywhere I go
I think it likes me

Manure

Soft and stinky runny cheesy
Brown, gooey, full of red earth worms
It replenishes the world

Garlic

Wonderful reeking smell that
Drives away vampires and businessmen
Keeps away colds and kisses

I have finished some 15 chapters in this book and still have far to go. Sixteen days of reading is far more than I usually do on any book. I find this book fascinating because it combines psychology with creative writing with awareness exercises. I have many more chapters to go. I may renew the book so I can redo some of the exercises.

I have found many of the exercises to be quite helpful in improving the quality of my writing and self expression. I am beginning to think of my voice as my shadow which follows me everywhere and is with me all the time.


The author Laraine Herring has an MFA in Creative Writing and a MA in counseling psychology. I have not read her two novels and her counseling books, so I can't really comment on them. This is her blog: http://laraineherring.blogspot.com/ . The writing is crisp, clear, and readable.


The book is published by Shambhala which produces many quality meditation, new age, buddhist, texts on mysticism, and other esoteric titles.

Morning Thoughts

Gymnastics For Youth

Morning Thoughts

Now that I have gotten past the first few chapters, it has become much easier to read The Predator State. It is starting to give a coherent argument on why supply side economics do not work. It argues that a regime based purely on savings with little or no tax on capital gains creates an environment of unequal income distribution focused on the idea that it is a natural right to hold onto capital. At the same time it does not give any natural rights to the producers of capital, labor. The ideas are quite provocative. I personally believe that there should be more incentive for investment than saving.

I was looking at the Fantagraphics site and noticed that they had just opened their own bookstore. It looks very cool. I wish that I could go to it in Seattle. Maybe when I visit my family there I will get to see it.

Fantagraphics Bookstore & Gallery1201 South Vale Street (at Airport Way S.)Seattle, WA 98108, Mon. - Sat 11:30 - 8Sun 11:30 - 5206-658-0110

This is a link to a story about it on the web.

http://www.fantagraphics.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=55&Itemid=126

I did a little bit more reading in Writing Begins With the Breath and a few more writing exercises. This poem is about a swing in the park when I was young that swung out over a
lake filled with green algae.

Mountain Lake Park

Swing over green water
Pump your legs back and forth
Feel the cool breeze

I took a short break to drive up to my local library. Because I am just getting back on my feet, I didn't want to stress myself too much.

I picked up a copy of the book donation form. I think that it is very well designed. We need a new one for our library. We also need a new poster for requesting donations. I am going to give it to the new director. I think I might also pick up some other samples of flyers to bring back as well.

Right now, I am sitting at the computers in the library typing away. I haven't been here for several weeks. It is very quiet here today which is almost a relief.

A Day To Rest

The Sick Doctor (1892) Jehan Georges Vibert.

A Day To Rest

I am sitting here with a strong cold. I have poured various things down my throat, reddish syrupy cold medicine, red zinger tea boiled with chamomile, cranberry juice, and soon, chicken noodle soup. Most of the day has been spent lounging on my couch or flat on my back. I have even chewed a few vitamin tablets.

My head is a little fuzzy, not quite ready for writing. I hate being sick. I violently hate it. Probably more than most people. I also don't like going to doctors. This is a common trait. I probably should be resting right now, but I am not.

Being sick is the same as being in a cage. You can't go anywhere or do anything. Maybe, I just need to rest.

I have a book, Writing Begins with the Breath Embodying Your Authentic Voice by Laraine Herring in front of me. The opening line to chapter 8 is a quote. "Opportunity is missed by most people because it is dressed in overalls and looks like work."-- Thomas Edison. It is so true, but what I need to do is rest not work. Maybe work at resting.

I admit, I did a few rounds to keep my blog going. Everyday, I fuel a group of people at Fuelmyblog, check my Twitter and post a short entry, check blogcatalog for threads to comment in, then I comment on a few blogs in my link exchange, and finally check on any bids on projectwonderful.

Also, each day, I take some time for reading things like libraryjournal.com, Bookselling This Week, Locus Magazine, and maybe look at the Yahoo! News section.

So, I think I will do my daily rounds and avoid doing a review, or some special commentary. It will be too much. There was nothing too exciting today. Just the usual stuff.

Here is a really interesting article on an amazing home library built by a very wealthy internet entrepreneur.
http://www.wired.com/techbiz/people/magazine/16-10/ff_walker?currentPage=all

Good Afternoon

An old clipping from the New York Times.

Good Afternoon

Good afternoon. I was reading the New York Times Book Review this morning and I came across a very interesting title; James Galbraith The Predator State How Conservatives Abandoned The Free Market and Why Liberals Should Too. It seems to have very strong mixed reactions. We need to read something different than what is happening now. James Galbraith is John Kenneth Galbraith's son. Maybe we will get a little wind too blow away the smoke and mirrors. I put the book on hold.

Also, Too Many Curses by A. Lee Martinez came in for me to read. I cracked the book today.

A. Lee Martinez has a website for his books. http://www.aleemartinez.com/ . I am definitely a fan of his work having read Gil's All Fright Dinner, and The Automatic Detective. I find him to be a humorous but versatile writer. I would compare him to Terry Pratchett or Robert Asprin.

Life keeps on going doing the usual things. I weeded a bunch of books in social sciences again this morning. I cleared off the 9/11 display and put up a display of current computer books that are coming in right now. I am trying to include books on devices as well as computers, cell phones, ipods, blackberries, game machines, digital cameras, and all the peripherals (or tethered devices) that go with computers.

I hope I get a chance to do more of the law looseleafs as well as ordering annual reports. None of this is easy.

I did a brief time putting looseleafs in the law books. I always pace myself when I do this. I try to do a little bit every day for an hour a day so it does not overwhelm me. It is impossible to finish most of the tasks I am doing in one sitting. On that note, I also ordered more annual reports. It is a long task once it starts. I ordered one book oriented annual report today, The New York Times Company.

I also placed a short list of social science books to order.

I am going to order more computer books tomorrow. They are literally flying out the door. There is a tremendous demand for computer books. The most popular computer books are photoshop and digital photography books. After this, we get requests for web design and blogging. We could probably never order quite enough computer titles.

On a less solemn note, I did some more writing exercises from Writing Begins With the Breath by Laraine Herring. This is a short poem from one of them.

Writing

Pen moves rolls and dips

Releasing black ink on the page

Nouns verbs form stories

I like to think of writing as a metaphor of a ship sailing on a sea trying to reach a distant land. The oars write on the sea moving the ship forward towards its destination. I am not sure where this came from, but it is a recurring theme which I experience when writing short poems.

Good Morning

John Singer Sargent Boston Public Library (1895). I am not sure why I chose this image, it just stuck.

Good Morning

Yesterday, I spent some time at the laundromat doing writing exercises. What does fear mean? Risk mean? Chance mean? Change mean? from the book Writing Begins With the Breath. I wonder what it will be like attempting to do writing exercises on the subway.

I noticed that my review of Rebel Visions has been circulating among blogs, unfortunately, it has been attached to another group I belong to, Society of Midnight Wanderers, not my blog Book Calendar. I am wondering what it will mean. It is a rather interesting mix up. I kind of like it in a way. It seems like serendipity.

I am going to visit the Museum of Comic and Cartoon Art in Manhattan, New York today. I intend to buy a membership so I can sort through their library and find some interesting things for our library to purchase. I will be a cartooning scholar. :)

I got on the train to the museum and found out that one of my neighbors works for http://www.royalflushmagazine.com/ Royal Flush Magazine. It looks like a cross between an indie rock and roll magazine and Mad magazine or Cracked. The style is very interesteing. It clearly seems to draw a little bit from Ed Roth.

I also did some writing exercises on the train from Writing Begins With The Breath Embodying Your Authentic Voice. I wrote two short poems as part of the exercises.

Fascism

I march in lock step
Holding the blazing flag high
Goosestepping brown hate

Trillionaire

To own the whole world
Clenched fistfuls of dollars
You are my bondsman

When I got to New York, I found the museum was closed. I went next door to Housing Works Used Book Cafe. I bought two books which I found quite interesting. Then I sat down and had a chicken gyro.

The first book I got was an old Daw paperback, Gordon R. Dickson, Naked to the Stars. I had never seen it before. It was about the conflict between diplomacy and military expansionism when people contact alien cultures. Gordon R. Dickson is a very interesting writer.

The other book I found was a book by a radical political artist who focused on the issue of labor. Lynd Ward is famous for his novels composed completely of wordless woodcuts. Wild Pilgrimage a novel in woodcuts combines art deco style and german expressionism.
http://paganpressbooks.com/jpl/LYNDWARD.HTM This is a link to some of his illustrations for the novel Frankenstein.

Wild Pilgrimage is a very stark novel with strongly drawn lines. A working man leaves hellish factories to work in the fields. He watches the hanging of a black man. Then he gets a job working on a farm. The color changes from black to orange as he imagines seducing the farmers wife. He travels from farm to farm. The drawings are very stark. Then he sees guards breaking a strike. His thoughts turn violent orange and he thinks of exploitation. He attacks a guard and gets killed.

Even though there are very few words, the emotional impact is strong enough to explain what is happening. It reminds me slightly of Charles Burns' work, Black Hole.

On Saturday September 27, 2008, Housing Works Used Book Cafe, in Manhattan, New York, is hosting an open air bookfare where they are selling used books, dvds, and cds for $1. This is the fourth year they are doing this. It is listed on their events page. I won't be able to go, but I thought it might be interesting.
http://www.livefromhome.org/events/

Morning Thoughts, Writing Begins With The Breath, The Sound on the Page

Morning Thoughts

I was very tired yesterday. More than I usually am. I found myself a little upset about Saturday because there has been a change in who I am working with. I much preferred working with my old colleague who is leaving. Even though we had some differences, she was easy and pleasant to work with the majority of the time. I hope she has good luck wherever she is going. There is a box with cake in the basement, but she is not here to eat it right now.

I sometimes think I try to get along with people too much.

Writing Begins With The Breath

A book on developing your voice came in today, Writing Begins With The Breath, Embodying Your Authentic Voice by Laraine Herring. It is very hard to write exact what I feel sometimes. I have a certain sense of discretion which limits what I say. This book has a lot of meditation exercises around writing. It appears to focus on spiritual aspects of the written word. It is c2007, Shambhala Publications.

The book opens with an interesting quote from Abraham Maslow:

A musician must make music, an artist must paint, a poet must write, if he is ultimately to be at peace with himself. What one can be, one must be.

The Sound on the Page Style and Voice In Writing

The Sound on the Page Style and Voice In Writing is by Ben Yagoda. It is a book on how to develop a personal style or voice. The author writes about a number of different authors style and voice.

I think that style and voice are a critical piece in the success of an author. Often this is overlooked to the authors detriment. Some authors can make a piece of lint interesting, simply because of the way they write.

Because I have been criticized for being boring, I am going to take a break from my usual books and write a review on what I learn from these two books. I think it may be useful for you as an audience.