Life, Lies and Literature

We who write love our characters and want our written dialogue to sound as natural as a conversation with our best friend. We meet on the street, in the bar, or at a coffee shop. And we talk, talk, talk. And so do my characters. Sometimes they won’t be quiet, and it drives me nuts. Other times, my characters behave like a fourteen-year-old forced to go camping with the family. She owns the…

Artist: Quentin Matsys  (1456/1466–1530) Title: The Moneylender and his Wife Date: 1514 Medium: oil on panel Dimensions: Height: 70.5 cm (27.7 in) Current location: Louvre Museum Inscriptions: Signature and date The Money Changer and His Wife is a 1514 oil on panel painting by the Flemish renaissance artist Quentin Matsys. What I love about this painting: I first featured this painting in June…

I write in several genres, and I read nearly any book I come across. It’s a habit from the years of working two jobs. It was a time when I could only fit one book purchase a month into my meager budget, but I read the books in my favorite genres faster than the library could stock them. My small bit of excess cash was reserved for a $5.99 fantasy paperback and a $2.00 grocery bag of second-hand…

Title: Children’s Games Artist: Pieter Bruegel the Elder Year: 1560 Type: Oil on panel Dimensions: 118 cm × 161 cm (46 in × 63 in) Location: Kunsthistorisches Museum, Vienna What I love about this image: I first featured this painting in 2024, and I still love it. Pieter Brugel the Elder was one of my first influences in the world of art appreciation. I love the chaos, the raucous jumble of…

This week I found myself looking at random notes I had taken when reading. Some were from trade paperbacks and others from cheap eBooks. Only one was a deal breaker. All had one issue or another, but their good points far outweighed the flaw. So, one book made the “Oooh! Gross!” list in my notebook, and it happened to be from a traditionally published author. It contained all of the fatal flaws…

Artist: Jan Steen (1625/1626–1679) Title: Beware of Luxury (“In Weelde Siet Toe”) Date: circa 1663 Medium: oil on canvas Dimensions: height: 105 cm (41.3 in); width: 145 cm (57 in) Collection: Kunsthistorisches Museum What I love about this painting: I first featured this painting in 2024. I love this hilarious pictorial story featuring a family with more coins than sense. It’s the 17th-century…

Spring has arrived here in the Pacific Northwest.  The weather alternates between too hot, with temperatures up to last week’s unseasonable 80 degrees Fahrenheit (27 Celsius), and too cold. Then the next day it drops to last Friday’s cold and rainy 48 degrees, or 9 degrees Celsius. We need the rain, as it has been an abnormally dry winter, and forest fire season always arrives with summer. My…

Artist: Zinaida Serebriakova (1884–1967) Title: Harvest 1915 Description: English: Harvest (Français: Moisson) (Русский: Жатва) Date: 1915 Collection: Odesa Fine Arts Museum What I love about this painting: I love that Zinaida Serebriakova paints women at work in the field, getting the harvest in. They are taking a midday break from raking hay. These women are barefoot, and their skirts are tied…

I often tell new and beginning writers to read widely, including genres they don’t normally gravitate toward.  I have a reason for this. The more you know about how other writers construct their work, the better you will be at expressing your own ideas. Having a large vocabulary is important. Knowing more words helps you express yourself with less repetition. You gain that knowledge from reading…

Artist: Winslow Homer (1836–1910) Title: Boys in a Dory Date: 1873 Medium: Watercolor washes and gouache over graphite underdrawing on medium rough textured white wove paper Dimensions: 9 3/4 x 13 7/8 in. (24.8 x 35.2 cm) Collection: Metropolitan Museum of Art Inscription: signed Homer 1873 What I love about this image: I first featured this painting a year ago. When I was searching Wikimedia for…

I’ve been asked many times what I see as the differences between keeping a journal and writing a memoir. First, journaling is similar to keeping a diary, but different. You start writing in a stream-of-consciousness style, detailing your observations of where you are in life at that moment. I find myself journaling when I am unable to write creatively. That is not to say that keeping a journal is…

Artist: John Singer Sargent (1856–1925) Title: Palazzo Corner Spinelli Date: circa 1902. Medium: watercolor, gouache and pencil on paper Dimensions: 10 x 14 in. (25.4 x 35.6 cm.) Inscriptions: signed and inscribed ‘to Miss Gertie/from her friend/John S. Sargent’ (upper left) What I like about this painting: John Singer Sargent’s love of Italy, and Venice in particular, is clear when you look at…

Short stories are a real training ground for authors because words must be rationed. Writing short stories and microfiction forces me to consider how the limited number of words I’m allowed can be used to their best advantage. It requires me to tell a large story using a small number of words carefully chosen for their impact. Word choice and sentence structure must convey a massive amount of…

Artist: Camille Pissarro (1830–1903) Title: French: Le Louvre, Matin, Printemps (English: The Louvre, morning, spring) Date:1902 Medium: oil on canvas Dimensions: height: 54 cm (21.2 in), width: 64.8 cm (25.5 in) References: https://www.sothebys.com/en/buy/auction/2023/modern-evening-auction-5/le-louvre-matin-printemps What I love about this picture: This is one of my favorite paintings. I first…

We humans find it easy to remember simple sayings, little proverbs, if you will. New authors are bombarded with many axioms about the craft of writing. Some will be good, and some will lead to later problems. The commonly repeated writing proverbs were originally intended to encourage writers to craft stories that readers would understand and enjoy. Writers must know the basic rules of grammar.…

Artist: Jacob van Ruisdael (1628/1629–1682) Title: Bentheim Castle Genre: landscape painting Description: Castle Bentheim. The castle located on a hilltop, seen from below by a stream with a small waterfall, rocks, and tree trunks. Date: between 1650 and 1682 Medium: oil on canvas Dimensions: height: 68 cm (26.7 in) Collection: Rijksmuseum What I like about this painting: Jacob van Ruisdael gives…

We all have moments when our creativity fails us. This happens when I have an idea, but the words won’t come. Or when they do, they feel stilted, awful. It happens to every writer at some point, and we feel alone in that experience. The words are supposed to flow from our fingers, but the well is dry and nary a drop fills our cup. Some people call this writer’s block, and when I first began…