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“Preschoolers can Infer General Rules Governing Fantastical Events in Fiction,” by J.W. Van de Vondervoort and O. Friedman
This is an interesting article, by Guneet Daid, from OnFiction, about a study, “Preschoolers can Infer General Rules Governing Fantastical Events in Fiction,” by J.W. Van de Vondervoort and O. Friedman, that reveals the ability of children to easily differentiate between fantasy and reality. Continue reading . . .
In this video, German filmmaker Werner Herzog (@wernerherzog) appears in conversation with acclaimed author and essayist, Pico Iyer at UC Santa Barbara. I’m not sure how many times I’ve watched and listened to it, but I find it to be one of the finest examples of storytelling. On the back of Herzog’s engaging delivery, the story naturally unfolds and numerous peculiar surprises are revealed from one moment to the next. Who is your favorite storyteller?
Dear Friends,
I would like to extend my deep appreciation to each of you Creative Flux writers and contributors for generously sharing your visions with this community. You never failed to spark the curiosity and nourish the spirits of our readers with your infectious love of language and unique storytelling abilities, and I thank you for it!
Continue reading . . .
My sincere thanks go out to Thomas Drinkard (@ThomasDrinkard) for nominating Creative Flux for the “One Lovely Blog Award”!
Tom is a writer, editor and teacher with a strong military background whose specialty is writing about characters who command attention in suspense, mystery and action-packed novels. Recently, he was a guest on Blog Talk Radio in a dynamic and entertaining interview by Donna Cavanagh that reveals the man behind the pen.
I met Tom a few years ago on social media and and it was an honor to interview him in June, 2011 (includes audio clips). He has also contributed an excellent piece on writing—”Planner or Panster?”—on CF, and you can find his writing blog here. Thanks again, Tom!
You can view some of my favorite words and other blog nominations in the updated “Inspiring Blog Award” post.
As for nominees for the “One Lovely Blog,” each of you is special to me in a unique way:
As the guidelines go, if you so choose, you are requested to:
I look forward to learning more about you:) Have fun!
Me and “The Green Vase” that won Best in Show at Artel Gallery, Pensacola, FL.
Friends, I’ve missed you all! And back in April/May, when I mentioned on Twitter that I would be taking a break from curating Creative Flux, I hadn’t expected to be away so long. But events of the last six months redefined my time and priorities. A long story short: within four months of that time we moved twice, and this last time, in July, it was across the state. I apologize to all of you reading this, you members of the Creative Flux community, for I know I’ve been negligent and it makes me feel awful. And, because of new opportunities, the future of Creative Flux is still undecided.
On the other side of things, Life has finally given me an opportunity to reunite my deepest artistic love with action! In under two months of living in our new Pensacolian digs, I’ve met a number of amazing artists, entered my first juried art competition at the Artel Gallery (@artelPensacola) and was awarded Best of Show!
And there’s more news; please come read about it and share in my excitement–Terre Britton: Best of Show at Artel Gallery–because each of you in the Creative Flux community has been instrumental at helping me arrive at where I am today, through your stories, conversations, kindness, laughter, wisdom and insights. I’ve just loved being immersed in your generosity; so thank you!
I do hope you’ll swing by my art blog (which still needs a name), when you get a chance, to catch a glimpse of works to come or to sit and chat.
Again, friends, thank you.
“I dream my painting and I paint my dream.”
― Vincent van Gogh
Updated: September, 2012I am honored and thrilled that Creative Flux has been nominated for the “Inspiring Blog Award” by Marina Sofia (@MarinaSofia8), author of the blog “Finding Time to Write.”
The nomination goes out to all the talented contributors on CF, as well as those helping to build up the community with their insightful comments.
Also, be sure to check out the inspiring blogs by all the other nominees on Marina’s blog.
Thank you, Marina!
~~~~~~ Update ~~~~~~
Last week I discovered I’d short-changed Marina in my response to this nomination. I thought there was to be a winner who was to share information and nominations. No winner. Just nominees. We are all winners! Sorry, Marina! Live and learn. So, I’ll follow her lead and share seven of my favorite words/phrases:
And a mere hand-full of my favorite bloggers, who I nominate for the “Inspiring Blog Award,” are:
As the guidelines go, if you so choose, you are requested to:
I look forward to learning more about you!
Patrick Ross
If it’s Friday, it’s time for my latest collection of links on creativity and writing I tweeted this week. There’s a lot to be said for reliability. Tourists will be coming here to D.C. through April 27th to take in our beautiful cherry trees in the 100th anniversary of the annual Cherry Blossom Festival, but with this early spring, the trees are almost done blooming. I would suggest those tourists instead visit Traverse City, Michigan, and take in tiara-wearing beauty queens competing in a cherry-pit spitting contest.
Read more on “The Artist’s Road” . . .
Thanks, Patrick, for including Creative Flux in your Creativity Tweets!
For years, like many others, I have felt I have had a book inside me. I have enjoyed writing since I was about ten years old when I wrote plays for my maternal grandmother, Nan and all her little Italian lady friends. I can still see them gathered in the living room sipping coffee and chattering on in Italian. I never understood a word but I can still feel their fascination and loving attention as they hushed each other when I stood at the archway to announce the play would begin.
As I grew older and began facing life with all its complications, I found myself journaling my way through the heartaches of relationship failures, the searing pain of divorce, the exhaustion of being a single-parent, the terror of loving and living with an alcoholic son, the heart wrenching losses of my maternal grandmother, Nan, my best friend, Judy and the recent death of my beloved father as well as my own diagnosis of cancer. Journaling became my pathway to healing, capturing my moments of need, longing, passion, creativity, my life.
We all have our own stories to tell and we are the only ones who can tell them. But not everyone feels a need to write a memoir, which by the way is not an autobiography. A memoir is a slice of your life told as a story.
About three years ago, I decided I wanted to and here’s what I’ve learned:
As a result of the above, I have learned to:
1. Study the art and craft of memoir through the Masters:
Take courses: A Google search of memoir writing will direct you to many sites. Here are a few I recommend:
National Association of Memoir Writers (NAMW) with Linda Joy Myers
The Heart and Craft of Life writing with Sharon Lippincott
Memoir Writers’ Network with Jerry Waxler
Women’s Memoirs with Kendra Bonnett and Matilda Butler
The Memoir Project with Marion Roach Smith
The Christian Writer’s Guild Writing Essentials Course
Writer’s Digest website and courses
Attend conferences and workshops: There are many. Here are the ones I have attended:
The Writer’s Digest Editor’s Intensive
The Writer’s Digest Annual Conference
The International Women’s Writers Guild (IWWG)
The Firehearts’ Writer’s Institute with Heather Summerhayes Cariou
The Christian Writer’s Guild Writing for the Soul Annual Conference
2. Start a blog to develop an author platform. I started with a free WordPress.com blog and moved to a WordPress.org site that is self-hosted by Blue Host. I have also taken Dan Blank’s Build Your Author Platform Course and ongoing Mastermind forum.
3. Join a community of Memoir Writers:
4. Submit your writing to writing contests: There are many. Here a few I have submitted to:
Annual Writer’s Digest Competition
Story Circle Network Competition
5. Join Lifewriters’ Forums:
Yahoo Lifewriters’ Forum moderated by Jerry Waxler and Sharon Lippincott
6. Study social media options and join the ones that suit you. I belong to Facebook, Twitter, Linked In,Google+ and Goodread. I’m intrigued by Pinterest
7. Develop a regular writing schedule, preferably daily
Find ways to get organized:
I use Evernote to organize my thoughts.
8. Develop a “deep-in-my-core” belief in my own story
For me, that has happened through my writing. I have learned to listen to my muse and allow my story to unfold.
9. Define my readers and write to them. Writing with the reader in mind, even if it is just one person, can help you keep a focus. Visualize the reader.
10. My favorite quote that says it all is from Chris Baty (founder of National Novel Writing Month) in his remarks from the closing session of the recent Writer’s Digest conference:
“Have faith that someone out there has waited their whole life to read your book then give that reader the best you have to offer.”
My work-in-progress memoir is “Mazes and Miracles: One Woman’s Story of the Power of Hope through Faith.”
~~*~~
Kathy Pooler
Kathy Pooler blogs at Memoir Writer’s Journey: Sharing Hope One Story at a Time and can be found on Twitter @kathypooler, on Facebook, LinkedIn, Google+ and Goodreads.
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suddenly (cropped) | Dec 5, 2006 | All images are © John Magnet Bell. All rights reserved
John Magnet Bell | @StartYourNovel
John Magnet Bell is a writer, translator and blogger, and many of you already frequent his blog, “Start Your Novel.” This is the first writer-prompt site I ever discovered and I find his philosophy refreshing: “an adventure in open-source storytelling.” John freely gives away his ideas and encourages writers to run with them.
“Go wild,” he says. “I have tons of ideas. Why keep them all to myself?”
You will be amazed at his terrific prompts.
A few months ago, I had the pleasure of meeting John online and, carrying his generosity forward, he agreed to write a guest post for “Creative Flux”—the intriguing “You Hate to Love Them, But You Can’t Help Yourself.” Then, last month he honored me with a request to fill the opening spot in his new author interview series “5 Questions.” I extend my thanks to you, John, for your friendship and the opportunity to be a part of your community. You can check out my interview here.
Now, what some of you may not know is that John is also a published photographer. His work on Flikr demonstrates impressive talent and remarkable imagination. A number of his fine works—my favorites—are included below, along with a brief Q&A of his creative process.
Click here to view his entire portfolio.
Q & A
What are the roots of your images?
In a nutshell… Eastern Bloc and Canadian animation. I was brought up on that stuff. It was (and is) far richer, in visual terms, than most commercial western cartoons. So three cheers for NFB-funded shorts, I say.
I didn’t fully realize it back then, but those short films, many of which did without any form of spoken language, were planting multiple seeds in me, the seeds of a visual vocabulary. As an adult, I came to enjoy the visually challenging work of the brothers Quay and their own idol, Jan Svankmajer. Thanks to YouTube you can now see plenty of their work online. I recommend Svankmajer’s tma/svetlo/tma (Darkness/Light/Darkness), it’s a wonderful little piece.
No less important was my mother’s influence. She earned a degree in Art History, so I always had access to art books. I was entranced by color-plate reproductions of Max Ernst’s paintings before I even knew what “oil painting” meant. There were also these Art Nouveau prints around the house which made quite an impression on me.
Why do you create them?
I need to. Can’t always explain why. Every human being has access to a part of themselves where verbal language breaks down and only symbols will manifest themselves. Some of us have a window on that landscape, others have a door and can step through it. (Max Ernst and Dali certainly had doors; contemporary painters Judson Huss and Siegfried Zademack have doors of their own, too.)
Stepping through that door and walking out into the unknown is exciting. You find unexpected things about your inner world. The joys of exploration — they’re the reason anyone creates anything, I guess.
What are the digital/traditional processes you use in creating your work?
More often than not, it’s a simple process. I keep a sketchpad on my nightstand. Sometimes I’ll have an odd dream or an image will… assault me. I sketch it roughly just so I won’t forget the concept, and save it for later, whenever I have time to work on it.
Once I have the concept, there comes the part where I either shoot stock for it, or go through the library for material I can use in my collage. Most of my pictures are photographic manipulations, after all. When I finally have all the assets I sit at the computer, fire up Photoshop and move this bit here, that bit over there, resize a thing or two, mask a bit, darken a bob. You know. Like the cut-and-paste you do in grade school, only slightly more time-consuming.
Kherson Oblast, 8 September 1965, 2:23 AM | Aug 8, 2011
Awaken | Feb 19, 2011
box 34 | May 6, 2010
( | Jan 4, 2009
Kindred | Dec 13, 2008
one would take long walks in the morning | Sep 28, 2008
evil, evil, evil | Sep 8, 2008
Adagio | Jun 18, 2008
red vs. yellow | May 14, 2008
feast or famine | Apr 24, 2008
in the garden of gehenna | Apr 9, 2008
all things that live | Nov 1, 2007
strings attached | Aug 24, 2007
within her there are no words | Aug 11, 2007
Offering | Aug 4, 2007
essence : light | Jul 16, 2007
suddenly | Dec 5, 2006
vesica piscis | Oct 24, 2006
Haunted nine
John Magnet Bell is a translator, photographer and blogger with an MA in Comparative Literature. He intends to write 5,000 copyright-free story prompts and post them on his blog, Start Your Novel.
Connect with John Magnet Bell
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