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March 1, 2023 By Cheryl Wilder

Who made it? Issue #25

Who made it?

March 2023 | Issue #25

With “Old Men Love Me” by Caroline Simpson

engraving/etching of two Passenger pigeons, one--with brown and light teal feathers--on a top branch bending down to feed the other--with blue wings and head, a rust red belly and throat--on a lower branch
Passenger Pigeon, 1838, print: etching and/or engraving, 41.25 x 29.12 mm, by John James Audubon.
oil painting with large brush strokes of stone bench between two brown tree trunks, in front of a stone fountain with shades of brown grass
The Stone Bench in the Garden of Saint-Paul Hospital, 1889, oil on canvas, 51 x 24 cm, by Vincent Van Gogh.

With “How Simple Steps Become a Dance” by Sara Ries Dziekonski

“It Only Takes a Taste” by Sara Bareilles and Jason Mraz.
50s diner with green chairs, blue tables, red barstools, and miscellaneous brick-brack on the walls and shelves
Diner Nostalgia Retro by Michelle Maria.

With “Ars Antoinettica” by Elizabeth Sylvia

Prince & The Pauper clip via Andreas Deja.
Marie Antoinette, a white upper-crust English woman with blue eyes and pink rosy cheeks, wearing a white Muslin dress with ruffles around the collar, a large gold bow tied at the waist, a large sunhat with a gray plume and bow, holding a pink rose
Marie Antoinette in a Muslin dress, 1783, oil on canvas, by Élisabeth Louise Vigée Le Brun.
digital art of a silhouette of a person standing and looking up with a background of red, orange, green, blue blending together with what looks like start and a milky way
Untitled by Greg Rakozy.

Acknowledgments

Background photo of elder men via Italy Magazine.

Background photo of red hearts on black background by RODNAE via Pexels.

Filed Under: Who made it?

February 28, 2023 By Claire Guyton

Editor’s Notebook: Don’t be so greedy! Maybe.

Editor’s Notebook: Don’t be so greedy! Maybe.

March 2023

shiny gold wrinkle texture

I’ll say it again: Life is short and getting shorter.

Last month, I mentioned that I’ve been gorging on post-pandemic PLANS. What I didn’t say is that all this activity is in the service of my current writing project, which, lately, I’m daring to call a book. I’m still in overdrive, both with regard to my calendar and writing. Every new experience and crowded page is deeply satisfying but I’m hungry for the next and the next after that and the next again. And I’m starting to wonder if Greed is driving me. At least in part. Greed for validation? Readers? Recognition?

Well, I hope so. Because as Suzanne points out in her essay on writerly Greed, the latest in our 7 Sins of the Writing Life series, it’s a sin that can breed success. I’ll let her say more about how that might work. Here, I’ll share thoughts on writerly Greed from my friend Lisa Mayer, who answered the questions Suzanne posed to a few writer friends in preparation for her essay.

What, if anything, do you feel most Greedy for? Name recognition? Earnings? Contest wins? Ongoing book deals? Solicitation of your work (i.e., lack of need to submit)?

OK, I’ll be nakedly greedy: I want to be David Sedaris. There. I said it. 

I want to write my funny little memoirs and POOF! My team—agent, publisher, publicist, and personal snack maker—sends me on the road for six months every year to perform them. Across the country, and then around the world. No hustle, no mustle.

Even five months. Four. Three.

I am SO ready.

Then I call my mother, and read her my latest. And she laughs and laughs until she cries. She forgets her troubles. And that’s enough for me.

Maybe that’s my problem.

Does Greed ebb and flow as writers move through different life stages?

Oh yes. When I was 22, I started in the Advertising Biz in New York City, and there was crazy greed among the writers to be the one to come up with THE BIG IDEA. To be poached by a cool boutique agency and become Creative Director and make THE BIG BUCKS. We still reminisce on Facebook about the good old Madison Avenue days.

I can’t believe I was ever 22.  

Now my greed is pitted against TIME, the scythe, dementia. I’m desperate to get it all down, get it all out. Stories, plays, songs, operas lately and a million-zillion memories. I wake up every morning, and lay awake every night, bulging with ideas. 

It’s a curse.

Do you think you could ever be satisfied as a writer?

Well, that’s a hard no.

Thank you, Lisa, for sharing your Greed with us! I’m sorry you feel cursed but it’s a sorry-not-sorry, because I’m glad for whatever drives you to write and share more of your stories.

Next stop: Wrath.

May you indulge and enjoy all writing sins forevermore. And may you write well today.

—Claire Guyton

Filed Under: Editor's Notebook

February 1, 2023 By Cheryl Wilder

From the Editors | Issue #24

February 2023

From the Editors

That’s all we have, finally. The words, and they had better be the right ones. —Raymond Carver

editors Cheryl Wilder, Suzanne Farrell Smith, and Claire Guyton sit in beach chairs on a cold sunny day on a sandy beach

How many people live inside stories / that never come true asks Richard Jackson in the final of his three “Understories,” a word that could serve as a title for Issue 24. Kalani Padilla’s “Translator’s Note” hints at the stories we might find if we dig into the layers built into words. In “Sight-Paths,” Hoyt Rogers reminds us that in truth there is just one story containing everything, and in that grand narrative, the pilot of a helicopter is much the same as a frigate bird or a buzzard hunched in a tree. To make artful sense of it all, we have to get the words just right. And we do.

—Claire, Suzanne, Cheryl 


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Filed Under: From the Editors

February 1, 2023 By Cheryl Wilder

Who made it? Issue #24

Who made it?

February 2023 | Issue #24

With “Translator’s Note” by Kadini Padilla

Shadow Figures of a Lantern and a Hawk, ca. 1842
Shadow Figures of a Lantern and a Hawk, 1842, by Utagawa Hiroshige.

With “Understories” by Richard Jackson

“The Night is so Moonlit” by Vera Lytovchenko.
Spotted doe standing on grassy meadow looking over her shoulder at the camera
“Spotted doe standing on grassy meadow” by David Selbert.
A star cluster within a nebula. The center of the image contains arcs of orange and pink gas that form a boat-like shape. One end of these arcs points to the top right of the image, while the other end points toward the bottom left. Another plume of orange and pink gas expands from the center to the top left of the image. To the right of this plume is a large cluster of white stars. There are more of these white stars and galaxies of different sizes spread throughout the image.
“Star Formation in Cluster’s Dusty Ribbons” by NASA’s James Webb Telescope.

With “Sight-Paths” by Hoyt Rogers

Murmurations by Xavi Bou.
drawing of two black birds by a record player outside on the grass by a pond and a small tree
Listening for Birds by Fiona Watson.

Acknowledgments

Infographic of left and right brain found at Get Blend.

Image of Shakespeare engraved quote found at Sandpoint Wellness Council.

Filed Under: Who made it?

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