Category: creativity
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The Strain of the Mockingbird
for him who has ears to hear I’m a mockingbird with no new song to sing said Webb. I wanted not to mock, but to mimic the mockingbird, mimicking-mock her when I over heard her song ring through the vale: I have no meteres, fresh offrians, nothing neowe for you to sing save patches of…
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Why I Never Try to be a Dark Person
Many of the people I know, whether friends or acquaintances or neighbors, automatically give greater credibility to films, literature, plays, TV shows and the like when these things are filled with darkness. I don’t. These people, whether local or national or international, tend to say things like, “Man that was good. It was so dar-har-har-hark.…
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Sitting at the feet of : a Male Model
A decade ago in a town of eight thousand people two hours away from St. Louis lived a class clown named Logan McNeil. Logan always talked. Logan always entertained. Whether by photo bomb or family portrait, he loved getting his picture taken. “Never. I never thought those characteristics would lead to becoming a male model.”…
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Guest Post: “Cheese” by G.K. Chesterton
Today I’m happy to welcome G.K. Chesterton to speak to us on Cheese. Take it away, G.K.! Cheers, Lancelot. My forthcoming work in five volumes, The Neglect of Cheese in European Literature,’ is a work of such unprecedented and laborious detail that it is doubtful whether I shall live to finish it. Some overflowings from…
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Another Letter to the Literators: On Slowing Down and Drilling Deep
Dear Literators, I’ve got disagreeable news and wickedawesome news. The wickedawesome first: Business is picking up. I’m learning more about my craft than ever, and am even drawing up plans for massive collaboration with names bigger than my petty John Handcock. It’s a blast. Now for the disagreeable news: I’m running on fumes in my…
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Two Approaches to Art
If art’s an island, then you can get to her by two approaches. The first is the most common direction, the direction that seems most obvious, the broad way. Everyone who survived this direction once erected a lighthouse to persuade people from all over to enter by that side of the island. That house, if…
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Thanks AND A CHALLENGE to International Guests
For the record, I’ve been humbled by how many of you from outside the U.S. interact on here: Which is why I scheduled this one to post at three in the morning my time, what Ray Bradbury called “no souls hour” in Something Wicked This Way Comes. No, I’m not awake–I’m probably dreaming of being an Animorph or…
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A Near-Death Experience for Poetry
Our nation’s in crisis and doesn’t even know it. “What are you talking about, Lance, of course they–” Not like that. The moment you ruin funding for the arts, the moment music becomes an elective, the moment you have more copywriters than poets, you start down into absurdity. The poets are always the first to…
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Free Lance Friday & Discounts!
Freelance ain’t free [except when it is]. It’s that time again–time for you shy or procrastinating or wary people to send your stories, poems, articles, research papers, opening novel chapters, book proposals, etc. and I send them back to you, line-edited, critiqued or written free of charge. It’s only this Friday, and it’s first-come-first-serve. Two…
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Pigs, Poems & Paradise
I’ve Doberman (one of you Literators) to thank for the sudden outburst in poetics. Forgive me if I don’t try and publish poetry these days–the time involved pays significantly less than stories, articles and freelance editing. I like to think there’s value in the mere act of crafting poems. And occasionally sharing them. Anyways, awhile…
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Twoem: A Twitter Poem
In case you haven’t noticed, I’ve taken a week to focus on poetry, to give her the limelight and to beg you not to ignore posts (by anyone, not just me) simply because they have #poetry at the end. In order to emphasize how important it is for you to search out “poetry” in the tag clouds, category…
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Sitting at the feet of : a Fashion Photographer (2 of 2)
photo courtesy 9art Photography Continued from last week’s Ask the Experts… “Two weeks later this kid came in and it looked like she’d tried to gouge her arm out with a broken pop bottle and I said, ‘My God, did you do that to yourself?’ And she said, ‘yes, I did.’ And I said, ‘Are…