Laura Benedict's Blog, page 25
March 11, 2017
Sunday, 12 March 2017 (Daylight Savings Time edition)
The same way that you are the main character of your story, you are only a secondary character in everybody else’s story. —Don Miguel Ruiz
We have a saying in our house that everyone is the star of his/her own show. I like this Ruiz saying because it’s a reminder that it’s often our egos that set our priorities. Egos take up a hell of a lot of room in the world, and they’re always bumping into one another, bruising and breaking. Let’s be careful out there this week…
March 11th Words
(Spring...
March 10, 2017
Saturday, 11 March 2017
I’ve been doing a lot of listening this week–books and podcasts, mostly. And I’m searching for a dress to wear to the Edgar awards at the end of April. I’ll post links each Saturday until I find one. Let me know what you think…
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Give it a listen:
Meet Me in Atlantis, by Mark Adams, came out in 2015, but I only heard an interview this week. The story of his personal search for the whereabouts of the mysterious city/state is full of interesting tales and facts.
My husband and daughter...
March 9, 2017
Baseless Fears? The Kid in Me Says Otherwise.
One of the reasons I write stories with crimes in them is that I have, in my life, been afraid of many things. Fears evolve: the things that frighten us when we are children often turn out to not have been a big deal at all. Children are a small presence in a big, alarming world.
I was thinking about things that used to worry me. Some of them aren’t out and out scary, but they still kept me up at night…
These are the real things. Well, real glass eyeballs.
Glass eyeballs. My dad used to d...
March 8, 2017
Write With Me at Tinker Mountain, aka The Awesomest Grownup Writing Camp–I Mean Workshop–Ever
Were you a camper as a child? I went to a few day camps when I was little: I remember Brownie camp, where we made Sit Upons. Back in the day, ours weren’t nearly so colorful.
Duct tape? Seriously? No fun in that. Punching holes with dangerous awls + sewing were the best parts!
I also remember being dropped off at a “nature camp” for a few days in a row at some point. We did crafts and I got a lot of bug bites.
Googly eyes weren’t all that available in the dark ages when I was crafting...
March 7, 2017
STONER by John Williams
(Grim-looking Mr. Stoner.)
The writer John Edward Williams has been dead since 1994, but I am apologizing to him anyway. Months ago, I began hearing many amazing things about his 1965 novel, Stoner, which details the life of a midwestern English professor of little fame and consequence. Curious, I...
March 6, 2017
Art and Soul (and the St. Louis Art Museum)
What do you do with a free hour or two? Doesn’t it feel delicious to realize that you don’t have to be anywhere for a while, and no one is waiting for you to do something? Back in January, when I finished my St. Louis writing retreat, I had a couple of hours before I needed to leave on the two-hour drive home. St. Louis is a big city, and I don’t do well with too many choices. I often just end up at one of the big malls to shop at stores like Papyrus and L’Occitane, and, of course, Godiva–sto...
March 5, 2017
Taxing Taxes, Round 1
See that look on Miss Nina’s face? Her face could be a reflection of mine right now. It seems that our government overlords decided that LLC businesses–our Gallowstree Press LLC is one–must file their company taxes by March 15th, rather than April 15th. The good news is that I won’t be trying to get both business and personal taxes to the accountant at the same time. The bad news is that I’ve had to spend much of the weekend sorting receipts and playing catch-up with online financial softw...
March 4, 2017
Sunday, 5 March 2017
Patience is not simply the ability to wait – it’s how we behave while we’re waiting. –Joyce Meyer
Today begins another week. Wishing you a week full of goodness, and rest in the moments that test your patience.
March 4th Words
(Restful day off 
March 3, 2017
Saturday Serendipity, 4 March 2017
Fake food and weird news abound this week:
Want to fight obesity? Experts say, cook at home, and don’t watch television while you eat.
A Canadian study found that Subway’s chicken is 50% soy. No wonder the texture is weird.
What you always suspected about swimming pools is true. And it’s not just kids who don’t bother to get out of the pool to pee. Ewwwww.
An alligator trots around the golf course with a trophy fish. Only in Florida.
Paris model casting calls get sketchy.
I have a stack o...
March 2, 2017
Poetry Out Loud
Last week my teenage son participated in a regional poetry recitation competition called Poetry Out Loud. He didn’t want me to attend, him being a teenager and all, but I went anyway. I’m stubborn.
It was heartening to hear the poems, and to see teenagers reciting them. There’s no better way to inhabit a writer’s work than to speak their words out loud, and poetry is an art form that seems meant to be a shared experience. I confess that I was disappointed to see there were but six partic...
