Warren Bluhm's Blog, page 10

A book by its cover

“I have something to share with you,” cries every book cover, album cover, website, blog post. “Check this out, I think it’s pretty cool.”

What draws us to pick it up may be a pretty picture, a name, a curious title, or caprice. What keeps us reading or listening or watching is … quality? the same caprice? the promise of the cover fulfilled?

The cover generates expectation. The interior must deliver, or the sample won’t be back for many a day.

How to deliver? Have fun. Don’t think. ...

To a realistic and yet ambitious November

November is National Novel Writing Month, and traditionally folks use the month to challenge themselves to write a 50,000-word novel. But there’s more than one way to celebrate the month.

I launched into the challenge in November 2019 and sailed along for about a week before the train derailed. It was glorious for a while — composing 1,667 words a day was a snap. Before Nov. 1 I’d completed the first chapter of a novel, and over those first few days I added more than 11,000 words and five...

The NaNoWriMo Lure

The heroine of his story looked over from her exile. “Now, boss? You want to hear the rest of the story now?”

“Pretty soon,” he promised. “Pretty soon.”

… or WAS it a promise? He’d been here before — trying to figure out his impulse to procrastinate, the fear of accomplishing the task, the certainty the story would not turn out as good as he wanted it to be. Why did he let that stop him every time?

When he was a child, the act of creation was the reward, the scribbles on paper telli...

dream wisdom

I remember in my dream thinking,
yes, that’s a good thought,
I need to share that —

Now I can’t remember
what the thought was.

We can be so wise in our dreams,
if only we could hold onto the wisdom.

Keep doing your best

When I was at a newspaper slated for neutering and layoffs hung over us all, I told my colleagues, “Do the best you can for as long as you can until you’re told you can’t do it anymore.” Five years after the hangman came for me, I would add, “and after they tell you, keep on doing your best.”

If you still have the knack and the passion, being told you can’t is not an edict; it’s a challenge.

When I was laid off from my dream job reporting and editing, I took a little time to reassess, ...

Day 452: You do what you gotta do

Sometimes the well just goes dry. It’s hard to know why. You have nothing to say, but you don’t want to let the streak of daily blog posts die.

So you just post a photo and let sleeping dogs lie.

Listening: Wildflowers and All the Rest and more

There was a time when it looked like the vinyl long-playing record was dead and gone. And then one spring day in 1994, I found a store that was still selling LPs. New LPs! I don’t think I realized until that day that some vinyl was still being issued, albeit in limited editions because sales were way past their prime in those days when CDs and cassettes ruled.

I think I spent more than a hundred bucks that first time, and came back for more. And Tom Petty was in the middle of it all. Wild...

W.B.’s Book Report: The Last Chance Library

I love books. And I love books about books and people who love books and libraries. One of my favorite Ray Bradbury stories is the one about writing Fahrenheit 451 — a book about people who love books — on rental typewriters in the basement of his library for 10 cents a half-hour. One of my favorite books I’ve read in recent years is The Haunted Bookshop, which revolves around a man who loves books.

And so I was a sucker for The Last Chance Library by Freya Sampson. It’s about the shy ass...

Fix You

Enough moping. Enough complaining. Enough pointing of fingers.

The answer is within you. Don’t like the way things are? Change yourself. Fix you.

You control all that you see. Work with that.

The girl in the dream

(written about 13 years ago)

She writes songs. In fact, she had the No. 1 song in the world. The words and melody struck so many people so deeply they had to own it and play it again anytime they wanted.

She lives alone on the second floor of a two-story building. Maybe it was above a storefront, I couldn’t see the details outside. All I saw was a long hallway, windows along the one side and the sun coming in. But she didn’t look out the windows. She lives alone and never comes out.

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