Tag Archives: Cynthia Newberry Martin

Writing Revelation

5 Mar
Cynthia's foot.

Cynthia’s summer foot.

In the spirit of my friend and former colleague Cynthia Newberry Martin’s current writing project, here’s one true thing about me: I detest baby showers.

Cynthia’s year-long writing challenge is such a terrific idea that I’m almost jealous I didn’t think of it for myself. Almost, but not quite, because I’m enjoying her work far too much to let it be tainted by anything negative. Her project is as simple as it is rich: She’s sharing one true thing about herself every day for a year at her blog Catching Days, where she also blogs about books, shares thoughts about the (mostly novel-) writing process, and posts an in-depth “a day in the writing life” piece about a different writer every month. Sometimes a “true things” post is just a line or two, other times she writes a mini-essay. All are good reads. Here’s the contents page for the project.

And here’s another revelation: I am incapable of telling the truth if you ask me about your new haircut and I don’t like it. You can say all you want that I should be honest and that you really want, even need, my opinion. I will nod and say of course and smile and lie my ass off. And you will believe me. I’m pretty sure I’m not alone in this.

Still Tired but More Inspired

4 Jul

Happy July 4! Very quiet plans here, mostly working, working, working on the site…. As for today’s shorty, stuck with it for quite a while to try to make something of it and I do like this one. I’m noticing a trend of a sort of quirky narrative shape, lately. Maybe because for a while now—since the last week of June—I’ve been discovering my endings only just as I get to them, rather than stumbling onto them with almost the first line, as is my usual habit.


Working Title: Mirror, Mirror
1st Sentence: To say that she fears mirrors is just unfair, it’s blowing the whole thing out of proportion.
Favorite Sentence: Does she know that it gives her smile a tiny notch, a cleft that makes him catch his breath, makes him think, what else do I know about her that she doesn’t know herself?
Word Length: 584


Photo by Jurii, May 2009.