Alexander M. Zoltai's Blog, page 43
September 28, 2017
What Music Does For Art
Sure, today’s re-blog is about kids and art; but, it still “applies” to adults and writing :-)
“Where Words Fail, Music Speaks” – Hans Christian Anderson-
Every year I am surprised when I bring to school my old record player, which looks much like a suitcase. I simply but it down on the floor in front of the children and look at it. Then, I wait for the wonder of what happens next. As children predict what they think it might be, I open the lid and start to carefull...
September 27, 2017
Writing about What You Don’t Know . . .
Some of the regular visitors to this blog know I’m a Bahá’í… [image error]
Yet, even though both my parents were Christian ministers, I’m not prone to preaching ( though, I have been known to step up on a soapbox from time to time :-)
So…
There’s a WebSite called BahaiTeachings.Org where many of the Faith’s principles are given practical explanations—applied to some of the knottiest and thorny problems of our Age…
Lo and behold, three days ago, I spotted an article on that site related directly to Writing...
September 26, 2017
The blank page – conquering your fears. And a couple of writing prompts
Which is worse: the Blank Page or the Blank Mind?
Read on………
‘So you don’t find the blank page worrying?’
Creative writing teacher Jane Jones was interviewing me as part of her women writers’ summit (watch this space). Actually, we recorded it multiple times because of tech catastrophes so a lot of our discussion never got saved. (Moral: don’t use untried software. Also, Zoom helpdesk are the embodiment of patience.)
Anyway, one of Jane’s topics was how we start writing. I sai...
September 25, 2017
This Is Not a #BookReview . . .
Five days ago, I published a post with a video featuring the author, Elif Shafak… [image error]
Shortly after I finished that post, I downloaded a copy of her book, The Forty Rules of Love : A Novel of Rumi.
I was stunned…
In a very positive way…
Have you heard of and/or read Rumi?
He lived back in the 1200s…
Coleman Barks, considered one of the best translators of Rumi, has said:
“Rumi is one of the great souls, and one of the great spiritual teachers. He shows us our glory. He wants us to be more alive,...
September 24, 2017
Top 10 Homes in Middle-Grade Fiction by Keir Graff
Today’s re-blog is something certain aspiring writers might be able to use to envision who they might want to write for…
Homes are important in kids’ books, probably because visiting other people’s houses awakens our first wonderings about how other people live—and, by inference, how we might live once we get to make decisions about such things. (Imagining others’ circumstances also has a lot to do with the development of empathy, too.) I’ve spent a lot of time lately talking...
September 23, 2017
Ten Fiercely Fabulous Female Heroines by Megan Fink
I think the title of today’s re-blog says it all………
As a middle school librarian, I see a multitude of readers both eager and reluctant every day in my library. The female heroines in this book represent a collection of independent and strong-willed characters that demonstrate resilience and persistence that we want our students to emulate.
Rook by Sharon Cameron
Sophia Bellamy is not your average debutante in the Commonwealth and the notorious Red Rook is attempting to...
September 22, 2017
Friday Story Bazaar ~ Tale Sixty-Two
“And Now, the News from Hell…”
by
Alexander M Zoltai
~~~~~~~~~
Today, in a rather small country, a rather young girl was raped.
~~~
Last Friday, fourteen mildly disenfranchised individuals were consigned to solitary confinement for being incapable of adjusting to the norm.
~~~
Twenty-four residents of a middle-eastern country visited twenty-four cities in six countries and blew themselves into history’s shadows.
~~~
An international oversight organization predicts the flow of refugees will do...
September 21, 2017
Why kids can learn more from tales of fantasy than realism
The last line of today’s re-blog:
“And hey, if it’s good for the kids …” :-)
Deena Weisberg is a senior fellow in psychology at the University of Pennsylvania. Her specialty is “imaginative cognition,” which studies how imagination boosts one’s ability to learn. Her research demonstrates that children absorb new material taught in the context of a fanciful scenario better than they do when it’s presented in more realistic terms. In a recent edition of Aeon, she challenges...
September 20, 2017
#Writers & #Movies
I wrote a post featuring Movies about Writers back in 2016—it included 12 films. [image error]
There’s a more recent post in The Independent Publishing Magazine called, Seven Films About Writers That Will Motivate You.
So…
19 movies about writers…
In one of my past posts, I said:
“…the legendary director and producer, Francis Ford Coppola, said he preferred being inspired by reading short stories rather than movie scripts.”
I’ve also said:
“As a writer, I think watching movies is an excellent way to absor...
September 19, 2017
Writers, are you showing off or sharing? A way to kill your darlings
Re-blog today by the inimitable Roz Morris…
I’ve been reading Bill Bryson’s Notes From A Small Island and he describes a moment in an Edinburgh art gallery when he saw a father talking to his son about the difference between early and later Goya. Bryson says:
The man was describing the pictures with a fondness and familiarity that were truly heartwarming and the boy was raptly attentive to his every word. He wasn’t showing off, you understand; he was sharing.’
Showing off. Sha...
