The fires continue to burn turning the skies to ash out here leaving us all wondering if we now fire has become a season upon this earth, like spring, summer, fall and winter? Last night, the dog had to go out at 12:34 a.m. He’s a good dog for at least getting me up and … Continue reading The West Continues to Burn
Hey check out a preview of Chalk Creek Writing Outfit Founder R.D. Varnon’s latest novel, Dragons of Orion. It’s a working title. It’s set on a world where people share islands with mythical creatures and compete in a tournament every 20 years to decide the leadership of the archipelago. We join Tom Brace, an unlikely … Continue reading Preview of R.D. Varnon’s Latest
I think as readers, we’ve all come across those passages in books where we wonder, why the heck is the writer giving us all this description? How the trees looked and what varieties they are by the leaves, enumerating the colors of the flowers a character sees and a lot of other things. (I sometimes … Continue reading The Balance of Descriptions
My kid is growing so fast these days that we get him shoes about every half year. Because he’s been running more, I decided to check out the local running store for deals on last year’s shoes. So we headed over to Eclipse Running, now part of the Reno Running Co. and tried out some … Continue reading Fun Talk About New Shoes and TLD
So it’s been a while since I’ve posted. I went on a break I didn’t know I was on or needed. But it was good for me. Sorry I didn’t say anything before. But I got some running done and I did finish a manuscript and have started the edit phase this week. For some … Continue reading Words will be flowing like Chalk Creek after a storm
So in an effort to keep things fairly real in my stories, I do mention regular activities like eating and a reader recently brought to my attention that I tend to give too many details about breakfast. It is true, but after all, breakfast is the most important meal of the day and it’s really … Continue reading Too much breakfast: Or over writing about some things
Here at Chalk Creek, we spend a great deal of time thinking about our society and culture and how to get people to read more books — and run. Our answer, we talk from nature, and it’s squirrels. So I’ve been eyeing my sales figures and researching what happens to fiction during the spring and … Continue reading Rally ‘Round the Squirrel for a Book Holiday
I’m not sure if a lot of people still have this problem in this day age — you know — writer’s block. But I do have some advice on how to deal with it. First, let’s think about what it is. For me, writer’s block has generally meant that I can’t figure out how to … Continue reading Writers Block: Or tricks from the newsroom
Searching for some info for another blog post, I stumbled upon the fact that May 6 is an important day for running and writing, our two main topics here on Chalk Creek Writing Outfit & Running Club. It was on this date in 1940 that John Steinbeck’s The Grapes of Wrath won the Pulitzer Prize. … Continue reading Big Day in History of Writing and Running
It’s teacher appreciation week and while I’m going to do a little of that over on RobertVarnon.com, I thought it more appropriate here on the Creek to discuss writers we learn from. So there are some obvious ones for me. There’s John Gardner, who wrote the Art of Fiction. I especially like his discussion of … Continue reading The Authors We Learn From
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