I've posted a pantoum, "Loose Threads of Memory":

http://writingwithoutpaper.blogspot.com/2013/06/loose-threads-of-memory-poem.html

I've posted a new poem, "Mother Russia", for today's photo prompt at Magpie Tales, Chagall's painting "The Promenade":

http://writingwithoutpaper.blogspot.com/2013/06/mother-russia-poem.html

Karibu Reader and Happy Father's Day!

Toronto is finally warm and I find myself inexorably pulled outside basking in the sun.

As an author trying to offer entertainment to readers, I'm often baffled by the notion of trying to get fans. If I were to approach a random person (she's a black woman like me) and ask her to purchase my book, what would I say to her? What exactly is she looking for in a story? A heroine who battles aliens? A dark handsome hero in whose arms she can…

A John Muir quote is the Thought for the Day. Interestingly, I found a number of variants and a Sierra Club post about them.

http://writingwithoutpaper.blogspot.com/2013/06/thought-for-day_16.html

Today's Saturday Short is about poet and ordained Episcopal priest Spence Reece's inspirational work in Honduras at Our Little Roses orphanage for girls.

http://writingwithoutpaper.blogspot.com/2013/06/saturday-short_15.html

I've posted writer Sherman Alexie's interesting conversation with Bill Moyers.

http://writingwithoutpaper.blogspot.com/2013/06/sherman-alexie-talks-with-bill-moyers.html

My parents are gone for a few days so it’s just me and the dogs on the “farm.” The morning clouds and coolness has cleared, and now it’s the usual hot and sunny with some wind. The back patio is actually quite nice with the umbrella unfolded, and you can’t beat the views of course. I think these few days alone…

I've posted a new poem, "Molding Something":

http://writingwithoutpaper.blogspot.com/2013/06/molding-something-poem.html

I've posted an interview with novelist Billy Coffey, who speaks candidly and insightfully about his new book "When Mockingbirds Sing".

http://writingwithoutpaper.blogspot.com/2013/06/monday-muse-interviews-novelist-billy.html

   The first ingredient for nurturing creative energy is passion. We must be passionate about what we are creating. As a reporter, I often needed to write articles on deadline that I was not passionate about. A bad day on deadline on the crime beat could often mean writing a half dozen simple accident stories: “Two cars collided at the corner of …” Or “The fire department was called to a false alarm at …” I think I can still write those articles in my sleep.

And that is the point.…

Born on the 10th day of June, it was the perfect summer day, the kind of day that lemonade stands make their biggest profits, and balloon fights are a must-have in the smaller neighborhoods and grandparent’s houses are bursting at the seams with their children and grandchildren, all catching up for lost time. This was the day that the Maker of Faces Puppeteer was born, and it was perhaps the last perfect day of her life.

Her parents named her Phoebe after some dead…

William Kenower is the author of Write Within Yourself: An Author’s Companion and Editor-in-Chief of Author magazine, an online magazine for writers and dedicated readers. He writes a popular daily blog for the magazine about the intersection of writing and our daily lives, and has interviewed hundreds of writers of every genre. He also hosts the online radio progrm Author2Author where every week he…

I've posted 'Perhaps', a pantoum:

http://writingwithoutpaper.blogspot.com/2013/06/perhaps-poem.html

This blog is about my experience writing and publishing …

Monday Muse goes down the river with Fish Quill Poetry Boat, filled with a group of contemporary Canadian poets taking their readings to small towns along the Grand River in Ontario.

http://writingwithoutpaper.blogspot.com/2013/06/monday-muse-have-poetry-gone-boating.html

Cliché. The very word strikes terror into the hearts of writers everywhere.They shudder at the image of a hackneyed character stalking their plots like Hamlet’s ghost.



This viewpoint has galvanized the writing community for decades with a rallying cry that the reign of clichés must…

Today's Thought for the Day is a quote from a Bill Bradt interview with the late poet Jane Kenyon:

http://writingwithoutpaper.blogspot.com/2013/06/thought-for-day.html

I love to write. It is a skill that comes easy to me and I find myself in the flow much of the time when the pen hits the pad or the fingers tap the keys. Though I do not have a degree in journalism or writing, I have studied the craft and art extensively on my own. This has led me down a very nonlinear yet enjoyable path. My friends know me mostly as a writer because I share my stories and poems by email. Maybe that’s why I get plenty of opportunities to try all kinds of writing and hence I…

    I wanted to share a photograph that I took yesterday.  It is in my hometown and I took it with my cell phone.  Side note: Need a good camera.  My boyfriend and I went four wheeling through the mountains.  We literally live on a mountain.  Parrott is the name of my town, with so much history behind it, though now since the coal mines were shut down before I was born, the town is much more…