Alexander M. Zoltai's Blog, page 37
November 23, 2017
When Chapter Reading Isn’t Enough
Delightful re-blog today…
Reminds us that reading can lead to all kinds of creativity :-)
Charlotte’s Web is a book that has a profound influence on children in the best of ways. Children listen, often silent because of all the wonder that is going into their brains. The words alone paint a picture that they relate to and understand. Yes, close listening happens. Yet, when I read-aloud The Story of Doctor Dolittle, children are actively engaged, asking question aft...
November 22, 2017
Author Interview ~ Iain Rob Wright
Did you know there’s a link to a Free Course in Self-Publishing on this blog?
Yep—it was in that last sentence, it’s over in the side-bar, and it’s at the bottom of my Monday, Wednesday, and Friday posts…
When you go there, you’ll see something about a “fee” on the first page; but, you can take a Full Course about Self-Publishing for FREE—it’s the bonus material that has a small fee…
The man doing this is Iain Rob Wright. [image error]
I’ve read his Major Crimes Unit trilogy—fast-paced stories, intriguin...
November 21, 2017
In Their Shoes
Today’s re-blog turns “Show don’t Tell” into “Be don’t Act” :-)
No seriously, get in or we’ll be late for the next scene. (Photo: Nick Brocklebank/PhotoAcacia Ltd)
In another life, I was an actor. My undergrad degree is in Theatre; my creative-writing MFA is technically in Playwriting. Now I’m a writer, an editor, and an away-from-Brevity-too-long-blogger. It’s been a battle to manage my time: in some ways, the immediacy of “Be at rehearsal at 7, we open in two week...
November 20, 2017
#Smashwords 2017 #Survey
[image error] If you’re not familiar with Smashwords, it’s a space for authors to self-publish, with no upfront fees (and, with distribution to the most important retailers); plus, of course, a space for readers to find a wealth of books…
And, comparing it with Amazon is simple—Smashwords actually goes to great effort to help authors sell books…
And, even though it was published three years ago, their Indie Author Manifesto is worth a read…
Something else worth reading are the Surveys that Founder Mark Co...
November 19, 2017
Special Surprise Supportive Post
[image error]
It’s World Toilet Day…After a rather lengthy indulgence in various Tales of the Toilet, the author finally gets to the point:
“In a bid to help break taboos around toilets and make sanitation for all a global development priority, World Toilet Day aims to inspire action by member states and stakeholders to tackle the global sanitation crisis. Today, 4.5 billion people live without a household toilet that safely dispose...
Ten Books To Introduce Kids (of any age! Adults, too!) to Shakespeare by Andi Diehn
Today’s re-blog provides gateways to Shakespeare… :-)
When I was about 12 years old, I decided to read A Midsummer Night’s Dream. My mom was impressed. We went to the library and picked it up, along with Hamlet, just because, and I carried them home with a reverence usually reserved for books by Madeleine L’Engle and Noel Streatfield, my usual favorites that year.
But…what were these words? This wasn’t even English, was it? I didn’t understand any of it. Within a page or tw...
November 18, 2017
Read What You Don’t Know: Ten Diverse Books I Read for my “Reading without Walls” Challenge by Rebecca Redinger
Yes, today’s re-blog is about a very diverse set of “middle-grade” books; but, many adults also like to read them :-)
This past June, I had the opportunity to attend the American Library Association’s annual conference. I heard a lot of different library professionals and authors speak, but one session stood among the rest. On the last full day of the conference, I joined a room full of children’s librarians for the Association for Library Service to Children (ALSC) annual awa...
November 17, 2017
Friday Story Bazaar ~ Tale Seventy
Guilt and Innocence
by
Alexander M Zoltai
~~~~~~~~~
My name’s John and I’ve got a few things on my mind…
I suppose I need to start by talking about one of my girlfriends—when I was younger. She used to fall into a bit of a trance and start punching me—hard…
She’d been sexually abused as a young child…
I think her reaction—not really about what was going on around her—was some kind of fear—maybe frozen into her muscles—then—some trigger word unlocked it all…
I suppose that experience is what m...
November 16, 2017
On Hating Writing from Prompts
Very lucid piece for today’s re-blog…
By Alice Lowe
You hate writing from prompts, because you’re no good at it, because despite the human brain’s instantaneous capacity to absorb new input and coordinate an appropriate response, you cannot put pencil to paper with any degree of intelligence or coherence. Within seconds of hearing a prompt—prompts like “write about saying goodbye” or “riding the all-night train” or “a pool of blue water”—all potentially interesting a...
November 15, 2017
Academic Studies and Writers
I seems a bit strange to me to be writing about anything “academic”—I tried “higher education” three times and couldn’t stand it… [image error]
But, I’ve always loved to study…
And, I’ve written here that writers really don’t need an MFA Creative Writing Degree.
Yet, I’ve also written about how writers can take courses of higher education to help them learn subjects they want to write about { but, not subjects about “how” to write...}.
And, I’ve also written about what folks in institutions of higher educ...
