Red
It has been a long time since I last posted, a really long time. Sometimes life just sweeps you up and whisks you away to places that aren’t really conducive to writing. In my case, it’s two places: school, and, ironically enough, my living room. School is self-explanatory: it is nearly June and I work...
Light at the End of the Tunnel
There are moments in life that require thought, and there are moments that require swift and decisive action. I have muddled through life- both writing and personally- deep in thought. There have been moments of action, yes, like the sporadic activity surrounding the writing of a story, but for every story written I have ten...
A Sense of Space
Driving south on the New York State Thruway this week, I passed by the small village of Ravena, which the highway bisects on its inevitable journey south to New York City. This is significant to me always because Ravena is my hometown,and every time I pass by it on the Thruway I’m reminded of where...
The Weekend Warrior Debuts
I’ve expanded! Moving outside of fiction was always something I thought might do, but wasn’t really sure when or where. I flirted with the idea of writing for a few political papers and magazines, but those haven’t really panned out. Last year I was made aware of a local golf website and its proprietor, Frank Ciarlo....
Post Holiday Thoughts, or the End of the World As We Know It
The Mayans were wrong. We’re still here. Well, the misreadings of a few archaeologists who looked at the end of a Mayan cycle as the end of the world were actually wrong. Go figure. So the world is still here, Christmas has come and gone, and life as we know it trudges forward. And snow...
The Principled Life
In the grand scheme of things, what is it really all about? Is it our accomplishments? The achievements we so proudly sought out, sometimes sacrificing all for, will they really be the things we hang our hats on at the end of the day? Writers long for publication- God knows I’m no different- but really,...
Apple Crush and the Candy Man
I’ve had a bad feeling lately, a feeling that, not unlike some windswept reality tv start, I’ve “driven well past the last exit to relevance and veered into something closer to irresponsible” with my last few entries. So in an effort to get back on track, and to let go of the angst ridden posts...
The Truth About Rejection
This post is deliberately two sided. Both sides have to do with rejection. There are similarities between the two, no doubt, and in the similarities hopefully some inspiration can be gleaned. The first example comes from an email I received last week. It was a rejection from Willow Springs magazine, and it went succinctly...
Social Media, Errors, and Oversights That Can Cost You
I love my blog. For years now I have been chronicling thoughts, hopes, aspirations, hurts, and writing tips right here on Sharper Thesis, the blog. But last night I was reminded in an abrupt way that there are rules to social media, and that if you forget them like I did you can miss out...
Coelho’s Abyss
Ok, so I have a bit of a writer’s crush on Paolo Coelho (once I figured out how to spell his name I was golden), I’ll admit it. The writer of The Alchemist, among other profound and lyrical novels, is a prolific tweeter, and I’m often transfixed by the nuggets he sends out as tweets...
Discipline, Coffee, and the Summer’s Hazy Draw
As a teacher, the lure of summer vacation is that it entices you into all kinds of escapist thinking. This morning, while having coffee with a friend who works from home and listening to her description of a working life spent in front of the computer in her living room, I was forced to confront...
The Inevitable Angry Post Remorse
Look, I make errors. I repeat the same errors over and over again, usually on this blog. This is one of those times. I’m writing the mea culpa for a post I wrote yesterday in anger. Im going to try to take the bee out of the honey, as it were. Here goes. My last...
