Jim says:
Many times I feel like I’m a hack, a fraud. It scares me. It paralyzes me sometimes. I do everything...
Sonja says:
Wow! That was great. So true, so true.
Basilis says:
The All is lost moment hunts me exactly at the finishing part of the book (last two or three chapters)....
Jerry Ellis says:
Thanks for responding to my post, Steven. You’re doing a magnificent service for writers. I...
Solid gold creativity says:
Very useful! Thank you.
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Wars—and the ways they are remembered and shared—are unique. There is no one experience—from the child watching it on the news to the service member fighting within it.
“The war is what A.D. is elsewhere: they date from it.” (more…)
My wife and I need a new car. The one we have now has served our family well, but it’s starting to have quirky issues and occasional breakdowns.
"But the kids are very happy with it!"
It’s in that prime moment when the warranty has run out and we just have that sinking sensation that it’s only a matter of time before we get stuck on a highway somewhere in the middle of the night when all three of the kids have to go to the bathroom. And not the easy bathroom situation either. My gut tells me that the geniuses in Detroit have the whole “planned obsolescence” thing down to a tee and that our car is on the verge of tipping into the clunker netherworld.
So like every other Joe or Jane in the U.S. who requires personal transportation, I’m faced with an excruciating series of negotiations. I don’t think you’ll find a better example of what’s wrong with the old way of doing business than buying a car. Transparency of costs with forthright and ethical behavior? Not on your life.
I just want to buy the exact same model of car, the exact same color and interior and with the exact same options that I have now. The price of the new car with everything I want is 2X. The trade in value of my current car is X. I should expect to pay an additional X to drive the car away after I trade in the old one right? No. Not right. Instead, this is what happens. (more…)
My friend Kate tells this story:
A racing yacht elicits powerful emotions
I was visiting my friend Bob Gilbert, who among many other talents was a fabulous boat builder. This was at Harvey Swindall’s boatyard in Ventura [California], where Bob was building a 92-foot yacht based on the plans for the famous ocean racer Bloodhound, which had been built originally in the 1870s at the Fife Boat Works in Fairlie, Scotland. The new Bloodhound’s keel had been laid. The ribs were in place. Bob showed me around, pointing out all the little details of construction, which he, being a master builder, had gone to incredible lengths to get right. I was amazed—and greatly honored to be allowed in on such a monumental venture.
We finished; it was late and getting dark. As we were walking out, Bob pulled up to say good night. I said, “Aren’t you going home, Bob?”
Bob said he was staying with the boat. He pointed to an Airstream trailer that he had parked in the yard. He’d been sleeping beside the new Bloodhound for the past week and was going to keep on till she was finished and in the water. I asked, “Why?” Bob got this very sober look on his face. “Beware the saboteur,” he said.
Malicious arson, Bob went on to tell Kate, is a not uncommon phenomenon in boatyards. People get jealous. They see a colleague building something great; they’ll sneak in at night and put that baby to the torch. (more…)
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