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by Marcia Moston @MarciaMoston I teach a class called Steal Like An Artist, a title I promptly stole after reading Austin Kleon�s book with the same name. We study examples of good writing, some to model, some to simply admire in hopes there�s such a thing as learning by literary osmosis. Although I know there�s a lot to learn from reading bad writing, I seldom use it as an example. It�s a philosophy I adopted a long time ago after reading a response Mark Twain gave to a question about his river piloting days. I can�t find the interview, but my paraphrased memory of it runs something like this: When Twain was asked how he knew where all the hidden reefs and rocks were, he said he didn�t need to know where all the dangers were�he just needed to know where the deep water was. (And if Twain didn�t say that, it�s still an idea that�s served me well, both in life� can�t anticipate every danger and temptation, but can know the where the good way is�and in teaching. Whether they write fic...

by Marcia Moston @MarciaMoston �I know some of you would rather haul bricks than write, but I think you�ll find these exercises valuable. Definitely not like your old 8th-grade essays.� I looked across the room at the twenty-five or so pairs of eyes fixed on me. Some were curious, others clearly doubtful. The women had gathered on this sunny Saturday in Maine for their annual church retreat. They knew the focus of the retreat was the Reality of the Presence of God, but what most didn�t know was that they would spend the day mining their pasts for the footprints of God in every woe and wrinkle, mess and miracle of their lives. I had proposed to them that, unlike Tolkien�s Sam the Hobbit who wondered what sort of a tale he�d fallen into, they�d been intentionally placed in a specific time and place for a purpose. By examining the people, places, pivotal moments and outcomes of their story so far, they�d learn to see patterns, themes and connections often overlooked...

by Marcia Moston @MarciaMoston Years ago when my husband (a polyester-clad, New York City dweller from Queens) asked me (a back-to-the-land, tepee-dwelling ex-hippie) to marry him, I asked him how he felt about dinner. After a moment of stunned silence, he said, �As in eating it?�  Clearly he was mortified by images of grazing in the garden after a day�s work and would need a properly concocted meal. Over the years, I�ve learned to make some  cd�s , as he calls them�culinary delights�although I never acquired an attachment to the kitchen. That�s why I was surprised when a friend said she�d thought of me when she came across a cookbook. Turns out her association was all in the title:  Lit A� La Carte :  Favorite Recipes of Famous Authors . Since the main reference to food I hear from authors these days is chocolate, I was curious what the likes of Stephen King, Annie Dillard and �Dear Abby� had to say about feeding their muse. They didn�t disappoint. The book is as mu...

by Marcia Moston @MarciaMoston The title did it. Compelled me to halt the project I was intent on and head straight to the library. I was familiar with  The Secret Life of Bees and  The Secret Life of Walter Mitty,  but  The Secret Life of Pronouns? What on earth could these unremarkable little words be doing behind the scenes that warranted such attention?  According to the author, social psychologist and language expert James Pennebaker, pronouns belong to a class of words identified as function or style words. Besides pronouns, function words include the short, forgettable ones we tend to skip over when proofreading�the prepositions, conjunctions and articles. But these �stealth words,� unmemorable as they may be, says Pennebaker, are �windows to the soul.� And our use of them is as revealing as our fingerprints, leaving a trail of clues about our gender, personalities, social and emotional states.  His examples and illustrations are so compelling I feel...

by Marcia Moston @MarciaMoston I like to encourage people, to inspire them by sharing examples of others who have done something of interest. But today, I�m taking the �misery loves company� approach for those of you who may have returned from a conference high in hopes but are now scraping bottom, or those of you who can�t get even your mother to buy your book. Take heart. Here�s what a few giants who have trod that road before you have to say: �The profession of book writing makes horse racing seem like a solid, stable business.� � John Steinbeck  When a book dealer returned over 700 copies of one of his books, Henry David Thoreau wrote, �I now have a library of nearly 900 volumes, over 700 of which I wrote myself.� While visiting a zoo, award-winning journalist Paul Dickson noticed saw a sign over a poisonous snake exhibit that said every year in America 1906 people were bitten by a poisonous snake. Dickson quipped that he had written a �snakebite book� because fewer people had ...