“The artist is nothing without the gift, but the gift is nothing without work.”― Émile Zola How frustrating it is to have a question answered with another question. But often the most provocative, insightful, and thoroughly engaging explorations come after just that kind of beginning. This one, what is talent, came from a young composer during… Continue Reading
Can you remember the last book you read cover to cover? Of course I can! What a ridiculous question. Except In our hectic lives, a lot of us lack the time or patience to finish a book. Well whose fault is that? Why not make the time and work on the patience? And after a long day at work we end up spending [wasting] time on less attention-intensive entertainment [substitute mind candy here], like binge-watching Netflix shows. True, but no one can control that addiction but the person whose appetite is out-of-control. Continue Reading
“The art of living in a small town is one of the most difficult to acquire.” ~ Doris Lessing * * * On Monday, June 10th, New York Times op-ed columnist David Leonhardt wrote about the rise of geographic inequality as “one of the major economic trends of recent decades”. He reminded us that while… Continue Reading
If you wish the profound, generous, encompassing things, New York is your natural center of gravity Walt Whitman insisted, and you’ll get no contrary argument from me. How often I’ve written of my love for New York as a stimulant for daily living and writing! The sounds and sights, to say nothing of the energies… Continue Reading
“She had no tolerance for scenes which were not of her own making.” ― Edith Wharton, The House of Mirth — I’m often asked how I get the core inspiration for my novels. There are many different ways authors feel that lightning strike, but they fall into similar categories. Some will tell you they sense… Continue Reading
“A historian must “reconstruct” history by using “historical imagination” to “re-enact” the thought processes of historical persons based on information and evidence from historical sources.” The Idea of History– R. G. Collingwood ******** If we’re referring only to the images in our brains from light hitting objects in front of us, then people from the… Continue Reading