K. Makansi's Blog, page 5

Branding For Authors: An Overview

As a writer and a winemaker, I think a lot about branding. Branding is critical for selling wine, because it’s impossible to know what’s in the bottle until you buy it and open it. Branding builds a relationship of trust between the buyer and the winemaker: when the buyer knows the brand, he knows the…

Protected: People Politics: A New Democratic Party

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Book Review: THE SNOW LEOPARD by Peter Matthiessen, and THE GLASS BEAD GAME by Herman Hesse

It must have been an act of supreme universal goodness that delivered each of these books into my hands at differently similar times when I needed them for differently similar reasons. The Snow Leopard by Peter Matthiessen I half-borrowed, half-stole from my sister almost two years ago when I was re-embarking on a journey I began almost … Continue reading Book Review: THE SNOW LEOPARD by Peter Matthiessen, and THE GLASS BEAD GAME by Herman Hesse

What To Drink With What You Read (Political Resistance Edition)

Are you a #NastyWoman who has recently joined the Resistance movement against Trump’s fascist administration? Are you a long-time political activist with a renewed call to duty? Are you an ordinary citizen trying to figure out how to turn your Facebook activism into political activism? Well, you’ve come to the right place. In this post, … Continue reading What To Drink With What You Read (Political Resistance Edition)

Four Ways to Ease the Transition from Writing Fiction to Non-Fiction And Vice Versa

So you’re a writer. You’re creative, right? You’re multitalented, right? You’ve got loads of ideas spinning around that ol’ brain of yours, and you want to bring them all to fruition. Whether as short stories, poems, novels, or creative non-fiction, you’re a writer with a lot to offer, and it’s time to turn all those … Continue reading Four Ways to Ease the Transition from Writing Fiction to Non-Fiction And Vice Versa

Writing As Political Resistance

On March 24, 1933, the Reichstag of the Weimar Republic passed the Enabling Act, which gave the German Cabinet the ability to enact laws that bypassed the Reichstag, essentially conferring dictatorial power upon Adolf Hitler. On October 27, 1917, the October Revolution by the Bolshevik party established the Soviet government in Russia, a government that … Continue reading Writing As Political Resistance

Building Up The Bones: A Poem

I am ready to build my house, now I have bones to to build my walls Feathers to put a roof over my head Stories to lay as my foundations. My windows will be made of eyes So that when I look out of my house, I will see souls The fences around my house…

Building Up The Bones

I am ready to build my house, now I have bones to to build my walls Feathers to put a roof over my head Stories to lay as my foundations. My windows will be made of eyes So that when I look out of my house, I will see souls The fences around my house … Continue reading Building Up The Bones

Book Review: “The Awakening of David Rose” by Daryl Rothman

In 2013, I met a friend. His name was Daryl. We met at a writing conference, and he told me he was (unsurprisingly) writing a book. Several, actually. He was editing one, a young adult fantasy novel, and was pitching that, along with an adult literary fiction novel, at the conference. He seemed cool. We traded […]

Book Review: “H Is For Hawk” by Helen Macdonald

“H is for Hawk” is currently causing an uproar in the British literary world, achieving mountains of acclaim from critics and fellow writers on both sides of the pond. I first found out about it through BrainPickings, a weekly digest of assembled blog posts that thematically explores famous thinkers and works through the use of quotes, relevant […]